Christmas & Boxing Day

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The heat of Sunday acclimatised us quickly so that when we drove down the Fleurieu Peninsula on Xmas Eve, the drop in temperature and the sea breezes made it feel almost chilly at times. We had rented a house at McCracken Country Club and it was a monster:

Chris' Mum & Dad and Uncle Colin came over to meet us and we all popped over to the clubhouse for supper.

On Christmas morning, we headed over to the Steele's house in Port Elliott for our first Aussie Christmas. David and Lorene had prepared cold seafood starters - shell-on prawns and crayfish caught by David. Colin - Lorene's brother - had stayed overnight and we were joined a bit later on by Chris' brother, Matt, his ex-wife Amanda and their daughter Abigail.

Lorene had worked so hard to get everything ready - even the tree was home made:

The wreath was home-made too:

as was the Gingerbread house:

but not the trout in pastry, which Chris had bought:

Some traditions, however, span continents - the trifle was classic - and alcoholic:

After all that and the buffet meal, most of us felt a little bit of exercise wouldn't go amiss and so we headed for the cliff and beach walk - here's some of the scenes:

So that was it - a lovely day.

Boxing Day was time to pack up and leave our rented house and head back to Adelaide, but not before Kelly and Chris took the opportunity to take us to lunch for our Ruby Wedding Anniversary at the beautiful Star of Greece restaurant, sited on a clifftop overlooking the beach.

We had a couple of pit stops on the way - firstly for coffee in the pretty little town of Willunga, where the only place open on this holiday was a rustic little organic coffee shop:

We also re-visited the Coriole winery in McLaren Vale and sat in our favourite corner again:

Chris had bought a special edition bottle - Australia's National Wine Poet, Andy Kissane had a different poem on the back of each bottle:

After lunch, we went for a stroll on the beach and paddled in the water. The sea rescue/shark helicopter had been hovering around but eventually thought it was safe enough to come in and land and do some PR with the kids:

This morning (Thursday), Chris, his brother Matt and Jo and Ross all headed off to the cinema to see the Hobbitt. Kelly and I weren't interested and so she walked me down to the park where I read my book for a while as she headed off for a hike with her pal.

Christmas Eve

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I'm now sitting outside Kelly and Chris' pad as the temperature has finally dropped as what they laughingly call a cold front has moved in over Adelaide. Yesterday's 42 C temperature meant we hibernated/slept the afternoon away. Today we're driving down to Port Elliott to stay in rooms at McCracken Country Club (http://www.mccrackengolfclub.com/).

Forecast is to be a lot cooler today - maybe even as low as the low 20's down by where we're headed, with Christmas Day in the mid to high 20's - that's perfect.

Kelly and Chris have gone to their gym and Ross is now making smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for our breakfast - attempting to match Chris' fine fritatta yesterday.

The journey was not too bad, all things considered - although I wouldn't want to have to do it cattle class. The 12 hour flight from London to Kuala Lumpur was in the huge A 380 - how those monsters get off the ground, I'll never know. The space in our cabin was fantastic and the food and service were like a 5 star hotel. We had a 3 hour stopover in KL before boarding the slightly smaller A 330 for the 7 hours on to Adelaide.

Our only travel problem was in the UK. First of all, our flight to London was delayed, but we still had plenty of time to catch our connection. The main problem was getting from T5 to T4 - nightmare. Not at all well signposted and the advice we got from the local staff was contradictory and confusing. Tube or bus - which is best? It transpired that the Heathrow Express wasn't running, so bus had to be the option - but the local staff didn't seem to know anything about it. We made it in the end, but we were sweating for a while, not knowing how long check-in and security would take. Of course, flying Business Class means shorter queues all round, including Fast Track through security, so we had no real need to worry.

Staying awake all day Saturday was a problem, however. We lasted until about 7pm, I think, although I had played the nodding donkey routine for quite a while before this. We had a brief walk up to see the waterfalls on the trail up Mount Lofty in the afternoon, which kept us awake for a while. Here we are at the viewing platform at the top of the first waterfall:

On Sunday morning we drove up to the Adelaide Hills to Lobethal where we had booked lunch at the lovely Bierhaus. We made a short stop en route and visited Melba's Chocolate Factory - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0vpYaOxhZI

The Bierhaus was great, although we arrived a little early - before they were officially open at noon. We had allowed some time to go round the Lobethal market, but it was so small and quiet it took us no time at all.

The toilets in the Bierhaus are lined with jokes, like these ones:

The place soon filled up - just as well we had pre-booked.

So that's me up to date now. Have a great Christmas everyone - and watch this space.