Adelaide Daily Diary (5)

Wednesday 27th March

One of Kelly's days off so she drove Jo and I up to the Crafers Hotel (https://www.crafershotel.com.au/) for lunch. It had recently been named as Best Hotel in Australia and whilst that title may be a little subjective, it's certainly a lovely place and we were very impressed. We had, at the last minute, considered returning to the Uraidla Hotel (https://uraidlahotel.com.au/) where we had been last year - it has since opened up the adjacent microbrewery that was close to completion when we were there last year - but we definitely made the right decision to stick with Plan A - especially when we discovered that the Crafers Hotel was pouring some of the Uraidla beers.

Whilst the beers were very good, the main attraction was the food, which was both interesting and varied - and well presented:

Jo and I started with the scallops

My main meal was crab

Jo's main - a kind of filo pie

Kelly's veggie option

We picked up Miller after school and Asher after playgroup but he wasn't feeling too good and when Kelly and Jo got him back to ours he went wild. Kelly knew there was something wrong so whisked the boys home.

Meanwhile, I had headed in to town to have a few beers and a bite with Chris, brother Matt and best pal Anthony. We met in Clever Little Tailor (http://www.cleverlittletailor.com.au/) and then headed over to the newly refurbished Sparkke (https://www.sparkke.com/), which has recently undergone a major renovation/upgrade. Reputedly they spent A$1.8m. (about £1m.) on it - it's nice but how are they going to get a payback on that?

Matt, who doesn't drink now since he got the cycling bug (he recently completed the Coast to Coast and the Tour Down Under routes) drove us home and Jo and I settled down to watch another episode of My Kitchen Rules (MKR). It's kind of like Masterchef meets Big Brother - a bit naff, but we haven't found much else, apart from old British panel shows, to watch on Aussie Digital TV.

Thursday 28th March

Sure enough, Asher wasn't too bright so Chris decided to have a day off work and keep both the boys at home. Jo and I had made arrangements to drive down to Port Eliot and meet up with Lorene and David, Chris' Mum and Dad, who took us to nearby Victor Harbor, scene of the infamous boat sinking a few years ago which could have seen the end of David, brother-in-law Harry and Kelly and Chris.

We walked over the causeway to Granite Island and round to the cafe at the far side. The last time we were there it was pretty standard fare, run by the local council, but it's since been franchised out and what a transformation! Jo had Barramundi, Lorene a Tuna Salad and I had salt and Pepper Squid Rings and they were all delicious. (David stuck to a simple Ham and Cheese Croissant.)

After lunch, I went for a stroll around the other side of the island and Jo and Lorene did a slightly shorter version, whilst David headed back to the car. I took some photos on my walk, including some of the sculptures dotted around the island:

We got slightly lost on the way home - I took a wrong turning which added about half an hour to our journey but we got back to ours before 5 pm. It had been a pretty warm day - 30C - so we both took a short dip in our pool before Kelly arrived from work on her bike to pick up her car.

No MKR tonight so we had to settle for shuttling between the news, documentaries and Spicks and Specks, a Never Mind the Buzzcocks look-a-like, hosted by the well-known face of Adam Hills.

Friday 29th March

There was a bit of rain pattering away on our tin roof early this morning and some more is forecast in the next hour or so before being cleared away by the wind. The weather forecast on TV last night was amusing for us Brits - quote "a cold, wintery front will hit Adelaide on Friday - the temperature will drop to 20C"!

It's Miller's Sports Day at school today and we'll be heading over there later on. Kelly and Asher have just arrived so we'll be looking after the wee fella for the next couple of hours. Best go and shower now.

Adelaide Daily Diary (4)

Monday 25th March

Back to school/nursery/work for the Steeles so Jo and I planned to take our first trip in to Adelaide city centre. Overnight the weather had changed - high winds rattled our corrugated roof and the blinds banged away most of the night. We awoke to some rain as well, so I immediately texted Kelly to say that I would run her to work as it didn't look like ideal cycling conditions.

Kelly duly arrived about 7:40 am and loaded her bike (which is left overnight at ours for convenience) in to the back of her car and I took the wheel and drove in to the city and dropped her off at her work. Heading back to our place, I took a a wrong turning and it took me some time to re-orientate myself - I didn't get back until about 9:20 am. The thought of immediately turning round and doing the same journey all over again didn't appeal to me initially but after a quick breakfast I thought, why not?

We got in to the city centre just after 10 am and parked up in a Wilson multi-storey on Pulteney Street which gave us only a short walk to Rundle Mall - the city's main pedestrianised shopping centre. We tried out a couple of the books shops (no joy) and wandered along the mall, dodging the showers, some of which were pretty heavy.

Eventually it was time for a coffee and a bite. By now, the sun was shining again but our initial attempts to find a suitable outdoor spot in Leigh St and Peel St were unsuccessful, so we headed back to Rundle Mall where we did find a nice little coffee shop up a lane (or should that be the Aussie "laneway"?)

Our last mission in the city was to do some food shopping for the evening meal - Woolworth's obliged - and then we were off to pick up the boys and take them back to ours for sausages and pasta. Once all the Steeles had been fed and watered, Jo and I decided to treat ourselves to one of our very own blended gins from yesterday's session at Settler's (https://www.settlersspirits.com.au/) - so nice, we did it twice!

Tuesday 26th March

One of Kelly's days off and she wanted to go for a gym session - she hasn't had much chance recently - in fact, both she and Chris have given up their Crossfit memberships they were using them so infrequently - so Jo and I took Asher for a short while. We walked round to the little playpark we found last week and Asher tried out the various pieces of equipment:

I don't know if this picture fully display's Asher's mischievous, all-knowing look - at times he can run wild - almost feral. Unfortunately, he's not yet fully house-trained either and we had to perform an emergency nappy change - it took two of us to hold him down as he wriggled and giggled as we tried to clean him up. I think he senses our recent inexperience in all matters toddler. We got there in the end - as we always do - and headed back to the ranch where he devoured some of last night's leftover pasta.

Kelly and Jo have now gone back to O'Halloran Hill to pick up Miller from school - they'll be back here soon. I stayed behind - it gave Jo a chance of a more comfortable ride in the front of Kelly's car, rather than being wedged in between Miller's and Asher's child seats in the back.

This evening it's swimming time again - Miller has weekly lessons at the huge aquatic complex at Marion. It's hard to believe a week has passed already since we were last there. So we'll be dining out tonight - at the cafeteria at the swimming pool.

Adelaide Daily Diary (3)

Saturday 23rd March (cont'd)

In the end, Chris ran out of time on Saturday morning so we were left to our own devices - which was just fine. We took the opportunity to relax and have a dip in the pool:

Kelly dropped Chris off at ours just before 3 pm and he and I caught the bus in to the city and the footy match at the Oval between Adelaide Crows and Hawthorn, who are, I am reliably informed, perennial champions of the AFL. Kelly, Jo and the boys drove up to Port Adelaide and the Maritime Museum.

The Oval is a fantastic stadium - it was always a little gem of a cricket ground - almost like an English village ground, surrounded by greenery and the cathedral. It was a pretty controversial decision to upgrade it a few years ago and turn it in to a multi-purpose sports venue, but they have done it really well. Three quarters of the ground is modern stadium but the traditional open end of the ground has been left pretty much as it was:

Note the bodies up on the roof - they now do stadium roof walking tours - like the Sydney Harbour Bridge ones.

I really enjoyed the Aussie football - all action and plenty of scores on a huge pitch. Pity the home team got stuffed - probably because their colours are very like Partick Thistle's:

Chris and I got back to our place in time for Kelly to take them all home.

Sunday 24th March

Kelly had bought us another boozy Sunday morning - this time it was gin blending and it was great fun again. Drinking raw spirits at 10 am in the morning is a bit daunting, but, dear reader, we struggled through it. This was the sight we were greeted with at the start:

These were all the ingredients/botanicals/base spirits we had to blend to make our own gin. It looks like it was a bit of a puzzler for Jo:

We got 4 attempts to tweak our blends to come up with our perfect gin - this was my formulae:

(Our host took a few photos and has posted them on Facebook)

Meeting up with Kelly after the event, we headed over to Old Noarlunga again so that she and Chris could have another look at the house they viewed a week ago. We picnic'd in the park first of all and Miller climbed up a tree with his Dad:

Back at O'Halloran Hill, we had a blind tasting of our 3 gins. Naturally, I won. Chris cooked chicken for tea and the boys had fun dressing up in various costumes: