Adelaide Daily Diary (8)

Wednesday 3rd April (cont'd)

We picked up Miller after school and he was proudly sporting his bunny ears which he'd worn to the school Easter Parade the day before:

Back to ours where Jo made fajitas for tea for us all - well, all except Kelly, who is practically vegan once more and munches away on salads most of the time.

Thursday 4th April

Asher had another bad night, even although the antibiotics seemed to have pretty much cleared up the infection he had picked up. He vomited in the middle of the night and poor Kelly and Chris got little sleep, so Kelly brought a slightly brighter Asher over to ours first thing in the morning. By now he certainly seemed well enough to go to Casa Bambini but Kelly left it up to us whether to take him there or not. In the end, we decided just to keep him with us all day - and he seemed fine.

We walked to Mitcham Square Mall with Asher in his pram. It was a hot day, hitting 33C, and by the time we got there we were all in need of refreshment. Jo elected to go back to Cafe Ambra so that we could have another of their delicious Portuguese tarts - pastel de nata - and we got coffees for us and a soft drink for Asher, but he was unwilling to sit for long and soon he was off, racing round the mall with Jo in hot pursuit. Eventually we got him back under a degree of control, completed our shopping (home made burgers for tea) and walked back to Grange Road.

Asher fell asleep on the return journey and we managed to get him in to our place without awakening him. He slept for a good couple of hours - no doubt making up for last night - up until it was time to go and get Miller from school, so we decided that I should go back to O'Halloran Hill on my own while Jo stayed with Asher.

I had a dip in the pool to cool down and Asher joined me for a while - although he refused to get fully submerged - the waist was as far as he was prepared to go. Miller had his second sleepover at ours.

This was the day that Kelly and Chris discovered their bid for the house in Old Noarlunga had been accepted. Now the hard work begins - their plan is, all being well, to move in at the end of May. Good luck to them - it'll be a big change and should bring a major improvement in their lifestyle.

Friday 5th April

Chris delivered Asher to ours and I again drove him to his work. We planned to meet up with him later and all go to the first day of the Tasting Australia food festival, but, first of all, once we were all ready, we walked round to the Bond and Lane Canteen cafe for refreshments.

Now, 3 weeks had gone by and still we hadn't even been once to my favourite Adelaide pub, the Wheatsheaf Hotel - "The Wheaty". We popped in for a very quick one - we had the boys with us - and then caught the tram in to the city centre to meet Chris at his office before heading round to Victoria Square for something to eat and drink, whilst the boys had great fun playing in the water fountains - especially Asher:

Chris' brother, Matt, joined us a little later on - unfortunately just a little too late for the family end of holiday shot:

We said our farewells to Chris, Matt, Miller and Asher and then Kelly drove us back to our place where Jo and I finished off the dregs of the remaining beer and wine.

Saturday 6th April

Kelly was bright and early picking us up and we were at the airport well before 9 am for our domestic flight to Brisbane. We "donated" to Kelly and Chris the two bottles of D'Aranberg wine that Jo and I had made up at the wine blending on our first weekend in Adelaide - we hadn't managed to find an evening for the planned blind tasting to decide whose blend was best - Jo's or mine - so we've left it to them to let us know. The wine was recommended to be consumed within a couple of months - perhaps Kelly and Chris can make it their house-warming?

So here we are sitting at Brisbane Airport with way too much time on our hands - our flight to LA was originally due to leave at about 5 pm local time, but it was put back to 8:30 pm, so we've had all afternoon - and a bit - to wait, not helped by the fact that Jo got up at 4 am this morning - she couldn't sleep - so we're both struggling a bit already - and we've still got over 4 hours before our plane leaves. Crossing the international date line for the first time will be interesting - it means we arrive in USA at a local time that's before our departure time from Oz!

So my next blog posting will be from Palm Desert, California. See ya.

Adelaide Daily Diary (7)

Monday 1st April

'Twas indeed a quiet day on Monday. Kelly had some work things to attend to and some mortgage matters too (looks like they're going to buy the house in Noarlunga that we viewed a couple of weeks ago) and then picked Jo and I up and drove us over to O'Halloran Hill and we all walked round to Braeview School to pick up Miller and then have tea at theirs.

Asher was back in his Batman outfit again:

and he put the bunny ears on Jo:

Tuesday 2nd April

Kelly's normal Tuesday off and she and Asher arrived at ours in time for us all to drive over to Morialta Conservation Park (https://www.parks.sa.gov.au/find-a-park/Browse_by_region/Adelaide_Hills/morialta-conservation-park). It's a lovely deep gorge with lots of nice walking trails and viewpoints. We had Asher in his pram so it was only the low level walk to the first waterfall that we could tackle. I say waterfall but I've never seen any water falling at any falls in all the times we've been in Australia. Even though it's early Autumn here just now, the falls are still completely dry. Hardly surprising really - South Australia is the driest state in the driest continent in the world. Here's some of the photos I took that morning:

On the way back we climbed up to the cave which Asher thought was pretty cool:

 

We still had time to go to the adjacent playpark which has some magnificent constructions for kids - Asher spent a lot of time in the Snake:

It was early release day for Miller and he had requested that we walk back from school again so we had to get our skates on to get back to Braeview School.

Being Tuesday it was swim time again - Miller's lessons, but we all get in the water at the S.A. Aquatic and Leisure Centre - an enormous place used by all ages and abilities, having several different pools and lanes. The noise in the area where Miller gets his lessons is unbelievable - not just the high-pitched voices of the kids but also the microphoned coach at the water aerobics. I spend at least half the time in the peace and tranquility of the Steam Room.

Wednesday 3rd April

With Chris and Kelly back at work, Jo and I had assumed we would probably go for a walk in the morning and do the shopping for the evening meal at ours before picking up the boys from their respective schools, but the plans were blown out of the water when Asher awoke to some pain in his nether regions and, on inspection, it required a trip to the hospital to check it out and get some antibiotic. Chris did the necessary and then brought Asher over to ours where he appears to have picked up quite a bit after his first dose of the medicine - he's back to being his usual cheeky self for now at least. To save some time, I drove Chris to his work as he had an important meeting at noon.

So time to go shopping now and then pick up Miller. Let's hope that Asher has his daily nap on the journey. Got to go now.

Adelaide Daily Diary (6)

Friday 29th March

It did rain in Westbourne Park where we stay, but, fortunately, O'Halloran Hill escaped the showers and Miller's school sports day went ahead as planned, although it was pretty cool by recent standards and there was a fair breeze blowing.

Jo and I spent the morning at ours looking after Asher before heading over to the school to watch the afternoon's events. David and Lorene were already there and we all watched Miller having fun in the Reception (new pupils) race:

Miller was pretty pleased with his 2nd place and the "Super Runner" sticker he got:

Once the sports were over we headed back to ours - Miller - and Kelly - was having his long-promised sleepover, but, first of all, TV suppers:

Saturday 30th March

This weekend we were travelling to the Riverland - specifically the town of Morgan on the shores of the Murray River where one of Kelly's friends was having a big birthday party. The journey was through the Barossa Valley and our first stop for lunch was at Whistler's Winery where there was a kids' playpark and we could get some pizzas for lunch:

That was about the halfway point. Further on as we entered the Riverland, there were Quarantine notices along the side of the road - fruit fly is the concern apparently and Chris, being the good citizen he is, dumped all the fruit he'd bought just this morning at a supermarket in Adelaide:

The house Kelly had rented for us all (through Air B'n'B) sat on the banks of the Murray river:

It looks better from outside than it did inside. It was described as a "pre-reno special" and certainly it was badly in need of some maintenance, let alone TLC. Still, it was only for one night.

Just after 5:30 pm, I drove Kelly and Chris along to the party and then headed back for the challenge of putting the boys to bed - the first time we'd done this ourselves. It got a little challenging at times - well Asher did anyway - but eventually we succeeded in time for me to head back to the party to pick up Chris and Kelly.

Sunday 31st March

After breakfast and packing our belongings, we drove down to the riverside playpark where daddy Chris seemed to be having the most fun:

Our halfway stop this time was at Nuriootpa. We lunched in the park after shopping in the lovely new Co-op there. Have you ever seen a pet rabbit on a leash before? Miller and Asher seemed to enjoy stroking it:

Chris then volunteered to take the boys home to allow Kelly to take Jo and I to a couple of wineries and/or breweries somewhere local. We were very close to Penfold's Barossa winery where we'd had a lovely time a few years back, so we decided to pop in there. We were surprised to find they have since added two new outlets - Stein's Taphouse (for beers) and the Barossa Distilling Co (for gins). It would have been rude not to try these new places so it was samplers of beer (5 of them) first of all, then wine (13 in all!) followed by gin (3).

Monday 1st April

I wonder why Jo and I feel shattered this morning? Kelly's off work and the original plan was for the 3 of us to go walking at Morialta Conservation Park, but Jo's decided she needs a down day, so it'll just be Kelly and I doing the walk. Best go and get showered now.