TUESDAY 4th Feb
I introduced Jo to the walk that Kelly does regularly with the dogs. She had done the clifftop part last year but had never ventured down to that beach and this was a chance for Jo to do it at her/our pace. Her attention was immediately drawn to this information block:
When we did get down to the beach, Jo fancied a quick paddle:
The climb back up the cliff is fairly steep in a couple of parts and Jo needed a rest after the first one:
I'm happy to report that she was fine and made it to the top ok!
WEDNESDAY 5th Feb
Most mornings, at dawn, Kelly is out on the deck working on the weights:
Chris' 48th birthday was coming up this weekend so Jo and I took a drive to the huge indoor mall at Marion to see if we could find anything suitable. Almost as soon as we arrived I had a thought - perhaps a t-shirt from one of the local breweries would be a good idea, so we jumped back in to the car and let Google take us to, allegedly, the nearest one - Brightstar Brewing (https://brightstarbrewing.com.au/) in Thebarton. It was hot so, naturally:
Unfortunately, none of their merchandise took our eye but we did pick up a 6-pack of their products, so that was part one of Chris' present at least.
That evening all of us, bar Jo, headed to the cliffs again with the dogs. Kelly, Miller and Lily took the lead:
I followed, while Chris and Asher brought up the rear, with unseen Rufus bounding around in the wild:
Down the hill and back up again, Kelly and Miller had a seat and watched the sun go down:
THURSDAY 6th Feb
The hunt for the elusive brewery t-shirt continued. Jo and I drove to Aldinga and Kick Back Brewing (https://www.kickbackbrewing.au/) but no joy there either. Our next stop was to check out Willunga in the vain hope that the small Shifty Lizard (https://www.shiftylizard.com/) might have something - but, again, no joy. We did stop there at the nice Golden Fleece cafe for coffees and a shared muffin. We think the site must have been a garage in the past, given the prevalence of motoring mementos.
McLaren Vale is a bigger town so we thought we would make that our next stop, if only to check out again the lovely Bracegirdle's chocolate shop there:
We bought one of their small selection boxes as a top-up for Chris' present as we were beginning to despair about finding a suitable brewery t-shirt for him. A Google search revealed that there was a brewery not too far away - one that we'd never been to before - so we jumped back in the car and headed east.
Penny Red Beer Co (https://www.pennyredbeerco.com/) was due to open at 2 pm. It's a tenant of the adjacent Sew Sew winery:
We had arrived a little early so just nosied around the brewery. One of the doors was open so we popped in for a look around and waited for the official opening time. 2 pm came and went and still there was no sign of life so we asked at the winery and the girl there contacted the owner who was horrified that his staff member hadn't shown up for her shift. Jo waited in the relative cool of the winery shade for the brewery owner to drive over and serve us:
When the brewer arrived, he, apologetically, opened up and served us some very generously sized samples in our paddle. Of course, I was driving, so Jo had to do the majority of the heavy lifting.
The owner was a Londoner and had only been at this location for 18 months - and yes, he did have t-shirts, so we had finally cracked it!
The winery and brewery have an interesting approach road:
FRIDAY 7th Feb
No photos taken today. No evidence means nothing happening - just a day at "home". Friday evening is gin night, however, and it was also decision time for our next vacation week to the Whitsunday Islands. Just 2 weeks away now and the balances for the accommodation fall due tomorrow. Should we stay or should we go? Northern Queensland has been suffering from heavy floods - roads closed and all flights were cancelled today. Tomorrow's paper carried this article:
Despite all this we decided to go for it so fingers crossed.
SATURDAY 8th Feb
Chris' pre-birthday do was held at the lovely Sidewood Winery in the Adelaide Hills. Chris' Mum and Dad, brother Matt and a bunch of friends all showed up for a very sociable afternoon over wine, beer, pizzas etc:
SUNDAY 9th Feb
Today was Chris' birthday and the boys and Kelly presented him with a new pair of running shoes and we followed this up with our t-shirt, chocs and beers.
Saturday's chores - house cleaning and weekly shopping etc hadn't been able to be completed in the time available so they carried over to Sunday. This led to Jo and me getting out of the way for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We drove over to O'Sullivan Beach and parked near the boat ramp. The cafe was in the process of shutting shop early when we arrived but when he saw us he agreed to remain open a bit longer so we had ginger beer and ice creams before going on a short walk.
The walkway was a little steep in places so Jo stopped halfway for a seat and I decided to take a photo of her with the interesting rock strata behind her:
Unfortunately, as Jo pointed out, the perspective was all wrong - especially on her legs. She was looking out at these views:
Under shade we read a couple of chapters of our current books then headed back to Old Noarlunga where the boys had been promised a 4 pm projector showing of Despicable Me 4. Chris' choice of birthday meal was "takeaway" curries which we got delivered. Then there was the birthday t-shirt pose, followed by the cake and the blowing out of the candle:
MONDAY 10th Feb
The day hasn't started well - Jo didn't have a good night and is feeling poorly. She's medicated now and hopefully on the mend. It's going to be a day "in-house".
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