Countdown - one week to go

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - this time next week, we'll be on our way to Oz. Looking forward to it, especially after this morning's shock drop in temperature. We were told it was going to get warmer as it got nearer the weekend but this was the reading on my car when I got to Kirkton of Skene this morning:

Yes - that's minus 8.5 degrees C - and it's almost 8 am. Definitely the coldest this winter, but still a long way from the record lows we had a couple of years ago.

They're now saying we're going to get some snow tomorrow - hope it doesn't upset my travel plans on Saturday. We're planning to go to see the Newcastle - Man City match and our schedule is fairly tight - an early start, straight after a late(ish) night tomorrow at Banchory Lodge.

We had a lovely dinner with the Kilgours and the Masons last Saturday - Jo's first time entertaining, using our new cooker, hob etc - and it went very well.

Looking ahead, we are scheduled to get to Adelaide early on Saturday morning local time, and we head about an hour south of there on Christmas Eve, down the Fleurieu Peninsula to where Chris' parents live. We have hired a place to stay for a couple of days and we are having our Christmas meal at David & Lorene Steele's place in Port Elliott.

We'll go back to Adelaide after Christmas, past the McLaren Vale wine region (there's a brewery or two there as well - http://www.mvbeer.com/ at the historic Salopian Inn, for example).

For New Year, we're heading to Kangaroo Island for a few days, then we're all going to see one of Cirque du Soleil's shows - OVO (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ovo/default.aspx). We've only seen one of their shows before - the Beatles' Love in Vegas a few years ago - it'll be an interesting comparison.

Here's an outline map of the area:

Glenelg (middle top on map) is the beach resort where we stayed before, and Victor Harbor is the scene of the infamous seafaring incident never to be repeated/mentioned. We've also been in the Adelaide Hills before, and up Mount Lofty, and also visited brewpubs in Hahndorf and Lobethal. Looking forward to more of the same and some new experiences this time around.

Incidentally, I've now passed 25,000 readings of this blog - never ceases to amaze.