Holiday blog 2

MONDAY 13th Jan (cont'd)

I did go out on a bike ride on Monday - Chris' bike was ready to roll so I headed out gingerly through Seaford to the seafront clifftop trails. Drop handlebars, tricky gear changes and brakes plus pedals designed for clip-ons made me feel a bit vulnerable at the start but I think I eventually overcame most of my fears.

It's a lovely ride, meeting the Onkaparinga river mouth just before Port Noarlunga:

From there I cycled back along the park trails:

TUESDAY 14th Jan

We decided to go for a walk - Jo prefers beach walks so we took a car and drove down to Aldinga beach. It was another clear, sunny and hot day and we hoped we might go beyond Aldinga, past Silver Sands beach and out as far as the distant rocks, but I became aware that it was going to be a long way out and then back again and we had left the sun cream in the car accidentally.

We got close but felt it was wise to turn back, take a lunch break at Silver Sands cafe then head to the car. We made it OK but both of us suffered from a bit of sun burn.

Jo and I walked round to the local hotel for a couple of beers before dinner.

WEDNESDAY 15th Jan

We had arranged to meet up with David and Lorene at Strathalbyn, which turned out to be a beautiful little town with a strong Scots connection - including the weather - we went through a couple of fairly heavy showers but they soon subsided.

We had coffee, went for a walk then lunch before heading home:

Naturally, it was St. Andrews church

Kelly had a works dinner in the city in the evening so we took Chris, Miller and Asher round to the "Oldy" for dinner.

THURSDAY 16th Jan

Kelly and Chris both working at home today and the boys are here too - they opted not to go to OSH so we took them out to the library, shops and cafe to pass a couple of hours in the morning.

Incidentally, this is what the living room usually looks like:

It's usually UNO or Monopoly in the evenings.

2025 and Oz

Happy New Year to everyone. The season of excess has now passed. There were 5 of us at home on Christmas Day and the same 5 at Wetherspoon's, Inverurie for Luca's 18th (his choice of venue):

Same again on New Year's Day when Gary brought the cake he had baked:

The snow finally arrived in Banchory just before we left for Australia:

It was just enough for us to make an earlier than planned departure on Monday 6th. Ross drove us over to Stonehaven but we didn't risk the Slug Road, taking the AWPR instead. In the end we arrived in Stonehaven with tons of time to spare before our train to Glasgow was due - sufficent for us to have coffees and scones at a local cafe.

The train journey was fine - timely and quiet - and we jumped in a taxi to take us to Elderslie where we were staying overnight with Brian and Mary.

Tuesday morning and our Emirates courtesy car picked us up for the short journey to Glasgow airport. We spent some time in the Emirates lounge enjoying a nice brunch before boarding our plane. The journey to Dubai is "just" 7.5 hours but we had a tight turn-round of just one hour before our flight to Adelaide departed. We fretted a little but were encouraged by the fact that our plane was parking at a gate very close to our departure gate.

It wasn't quite as simple as we thought, however, as the Connections signs at Dubai directed us downstairs and through an unexpected additional security check. We ran back up the stairs rather than take the busy escalators and boarded our flight. We were a little disappointed when the captain announced that we would be waiting for a bit for other passengers from connecting flights - our rushing had been unnecessary.

The second leg is longer - over 12 hours - but we arrived in Adelaide bang on schedule just before 9 pm local time on Wednesday. We sailed through passport control but our bags - mine especially - seemed to take forever before we were free and greeted by a welcome party of Kelly, Miller and Asher.

By the time we got to Old Noarlunga, unpacked a little and had a cup of tea, it was fast approaching midnight so off we toddled to the "garden room".

Here's a brief summary of our activities since then:

THURSDAY 9th Jan

Day of acclimatisation - fully unpack and hang up clothes etc - but time for a short wander round to the local Long Shot cafe for "spiders" - ice cream floats. After that, we detoured round past the boys' school and hung out for a bit in the field there:

We went for a walk along Moana beach in the evening. Asher heads towards the water:

FRIDAY 10th Jan

2nd recovery day. The boys had friends come over while Jo and I took one of the cars over to Port Noarlunga to see the new coastal walkway that had just opened there. I had thought it went from Port Noarlunga to Christie's Beach but the end bit wasn't finished so it was just a 1 km walk then back again:

Back at Port Noarlunga we decided to walk along the pier. Lots of folk jumping in to the sea and quite a few taking the short swim from the end of the pier to the reef. This is the view back towards the walkway from halfway along the pier:

It was hot again so we drove along to Christie's Beach for a refreshment and to read a chapter or two of our books. We came across the newly relocated Sand Bar, sitting right next to the beach:

SATURDAY 11th Jan

Chris and Kelly headed off to Adelaide to look at materials for their new house. I decided to take a short dip in the pool. As I was drying myself off afterwards I bent down to do my legs, not noticing how close I was to the glass surrounds which I effectively head-butted. I managed to open a gash next to my eyebrow. It was pretty sore and the bleeding took a bit of effort to staunch. Jo patched me up and Asher tried to help, bringing me a glass of iced water and a long bandage which he suggested I tie, bandana-style, round my head.

Chris' brother Matt popped round in the afternoon to catch up with us.

SUNDAY 12th Jan

Chris' Mum and Dad were arriving after lunch but before then Chris was taking Miller and Asher round to the school for some skateboard training so I went along to watch. Asher was first to try and looked like he will get the hang of it soon. Chris took the opportunity for a bit of fun and to demonstrate:

Miller had a slightly reluctant bash too:

The gash next to my eyebrow had closed up nicely overnight:

I had initially thought that I might need a stitch or two but all seems good now - thanks to nurse Jo and her paramedic Asher.

When David and Lorene arrived we drove over to Port Noarlunga for coffees etc at Beck's Bakery. As ever, it was jam-packed - it's a proper little goldmine. Jo and I decided to have ice cream - 2 scoops was way too much as it soon began to turn liquid in the heat.

We've arranged to meet David and Lorene again on Wednesday in the pretty Scottish enclave of Strathalbyn which we had assumed there was a town of that name in Scotland, but apparently not?

MONDAY 13th Jan

The start of the working week and both Chris and Kelly are now off to work. Asher has gone to OSH (daycare equivalent at the school) and we're here with Miller, whose friend is arriving at 12:30 pm

I think I'll check out Chris' and Kelly's bikes and see what needs to be done before I can go riding today or tomorrow.

That's me up to date with the diary now.