Adelaide Daily Diary (2)

Thursday 21st March

A quiet, routine day. The evening meal was to be at our place so Jo and I drove to Pasadena and our favourite Foodland supermarket to stock up with supplies for a spag bog meal. When we got back to Grange Road, Jo started preparing so I decided to walk round to the local secondhand bookshop and adjacent music store (also secondhand). I enjoyed the browsing but didn't buy anything.

We picked up Miller after school and Asher from Casa Bambini and took them back to our place. Our pool had been covered overnight and it was definitely a good bit warmer. Asher joined me for a while but Miller was a bit reticent.

We'd had a couple of days of abstinence from alcohol - long overdue and the first since we left Scotland - but it was time to get back on the horse. Chris had generously supplied us with some beer plus half a dozen bottles of wine from his regular source of "cleanskins".

Friday 22nd March

Another day off for Kelly and we'd agreed to look after Asher for a bit whilst she did some shopping. We took Asher for a walk in his stroller and came across a small local park - or reserve as they call them here. It had a small playpark and also a tiled informational table top, which Asher had to get up on to:

When Kelly returned we all drove back to hers and Jo and I went to pick up Miller from school. He was strangely quiet and downbeat - normally he chats away non-stop. His mood darkened further when we parked the car up at Kelly's - he didn't want to get out. We had to summon Kelly to work her magic - she did eventually coax him out of the car and in to the house, but he was still a bit downbeat. It eventually came out that he was disappointed that the planned Bunny Parade at school hadn't happened. He did get over it after a while and was back to the usual Miller.

Saturday 23rd March

It's still early morning - we've had breakfast and Jo's in the shower now. Kelly has to go in to work this morning for a few hours so Chris has the boys. We left it flexible last night - if the boys are OK, Chris is going to take them to Morialta Nature Playground and pick us up en route. Later this afternoon, I'll be attending my first ever Aussie football match - Adelaide Crows v Hawthorn. Kelly's boss has 2 season tickets but can't make it this afternoon so Chris and I are taking them.

Adelaide Daily Diary

Monday 18th March

After Kelly dropped off her car keys at ours and we had breakfasted etc, we drove up the road to Foodland Pasadena, an upmarket superstore, to stock up on groceries before heading out to Kelly's with our laundry which we had been accumulating since Auckland. This was our first day of picking the boys up from school and child care.

Miller's school - Braeview - is not far from their house. It's walkable alright, but not in the heat - especially for Miller after a hard day at school. Like every school, parking at pick-up time is an issue. We saw zig-zag lines in the middle of the road which, ordinarily, we would have avoided parking near, but it seemed that everyone else was doing it and we couldn't find anywhere else that didn't have yellow lines on it, so we became - in our eyes - law-breakers too.

Mrs Healy's class came out on time at 3:10 pm - Miller armed with various bags and leaflets - and we drove from there straight over to Casa Bambini to pick up Asher and then motored back to Grange Road. A couple of snacks for the boys then we hit the pool. Boy, was it cold! The location of the pool is pretty shaded and it's quite deep at one end. It had been left uncovered as well as there were a few house viewings over the weekend (owners Ben and Ferren are selling the property). Although we are entering the Aussie Autumn the temperature has been lovely - mid to high 20's - but none of this was enough to make the pool one you would linger in for long.

Tuesday 19th March

This is one of Kelly's days off work so she drove Jo and I - plus Asher - up to the hills to the lovely Germanic town of Hahndorf. Asher had fun in the playpark and climbed a tall tree (with Mummy anxiously on guard):

We had to get back to O'Halloran Hill as, on Tuesdays, Miller's school stops a bit earlier. Today, however, was to be the JP Assembly where tradition has it that all new pupils are given a Schultüte (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schult%C3%BCte) made by their mentor/buddy from the Seniors. It's another German tradition - it's basically a large paper cone which is filled with goodies. We had all planned to attend but Asher fell asleep at home just before we were due to leave so it was just Jo and I that witnessed the full chaos of the assembly. It may be a German tradition but the organisation was far from Teutonic. Shambolic more like. Anyway, Miller was very proud to receive his - eventually. We await the official school photos.

On the window of Miller's classroom:

When Jo and I got back to our place Ben and Ferren had left this token of thanks for accommodating another house viewing (when we were out anyway):

Wednesday 20th March

Today was Jo's birthday. We needed to get out and stretch our legs a little and try to lose some of the excess kilos we piled on in South Africa and the NZ cruise, so I did a bit of research and found some trails not too far away from Grange Road at Randell Park. It was hot and dusty but they weren't very long, although there was a bit of climbing to the top of the hill overlooking the city and out to sea:

Returning to our place, Jo showered and changed and I jumped in the pool - still cold, but I guess I was ready for it this time:

We picked up the boys again and took them back to ours briefly before heading out to Glenelg to meet Kelly and Chris after work. We know and like this seaside suburb well - it was where we first met Chris when we stayed there many years ago.

Kelly and Chris had bought Jo some flowers:

We had fish and chips on the grass beside the beach and Asher and Miller had fun with the water cannons in the playpark:

Jo arranged the flowers when we got back "home":

First few days in Australia

When we alighted from the ship in Sydney, there were hundreds of people milling around the passenger terminal so we decided just to walk to our hotel, which wasn't very far away. We stopped on the way at the museum to have a quick coffee and get some wi-fi to confirm we were on the right course - and we were.

It was still morning so our room wasn't quite ready so we sat in the reception area for an hour or so and then we could get in to our 14 floor room, shower, change and dump our bags. We planned a short walk to the Lord Nelson brewpub in The Rocks area and had a couple of beers there plus something to eat.

We didn't fancy venturing far in the evening and Happy Hour was calling so we just stayed in our hotel and ate in the dining room there.

We had a full free day on Thursday so decided to take a long walk - over to the Botanic Gardens and the Domain and to the iconic viewpoint where I remember us taking a photo the first time we arrived in Australia a number of years ago:

We decided to walk right round the point and follow the shore round to Darling Harbour, past the fast-developing Barangaroo area. We were pretty hot and sweaty by now and as soon as we arrived at the restaurant area we stopped for a bite and some beers at the first brewpub we spotted - All Hands Brewing House.

A storm was forecast and, sure enough, thunder and lightning arrived in the evening. We ventured out - it wasn't very wet and the temperature was still in the mid-20's - and had a meal at the Belgian Beer Cafe.

Friday was the day we flew over to Adelaide with Virgin Australia. Kelly, Miller and Asher met us at the airport and took us over to our Air B'n'B in Westbourne Park, where Chris joined us after work and then we all headed over to their house for something to eat. One late slight complication was that the owners had decided to put the property on the market and there were a couple of viewings planned for Saturday and Sunday so we couldn't fully unpack as we needed to keep the place looking spruce. We occupied what is, effectively, the pool room, whilst the owners live in the main house:

Kelly and Chris are still house-hunting and Chris had viewed a property in Old Noarlunga so Kelly, Jo and I headed over there on Saturday to have a look at it. It's a lovely old converted cottage in a beautiful location but it probably needs some alterations to suit a young family. We'll see what they decide.

After a couple of beers at yet another local brewpub (Victor's Place) we headed back to O'Halloran Hill where Chris fired up the BBQ and we were joined by brother Matt and his daughter Abi, who'd just taken part in a charity sponsored head shave - brave girl.

On Sunday, Kelly had bought two tickets for Jo and I to attend a wine blending course at the d'Aranberg vineyard. We'd been there before when they were just constructing their modernist CUBE building, which is pretty unusual - a bit left field and funky, even more so just now as they have a Salvador Dali exhibition going on:

You'll never guess where we went for lunch - yes an adjacent brewery - Swell, which turned out to be ideal for the kids who could run around in a safe grassed area. Miller was all excited about going back to our place and jumping in the pool but this proved to be a very short-lived experience as the water was pretty cold.

This morning (Monday) it's back to school and work for most. The plan is that we'll be picking the boys up from playgroup and school - Kelly drove over here this morning and left us her car whilst she biked off to work:

That's me up to date again. It's 9:30 am now and I've been up for 4 hours already. Best go and do something now.