Palm Desert, California

The longest day of our lives - Saturday 6th April, 2019, lasting over 40 hours including crossing the International Date Line on our flight from Brisbane to L.A. - wasn't as painful as we thought it might be. The worst part for me was the wait at Brisbane airport - our Qantas flight had been rescheduled by 3 hours a month or two ago, so, having caught a 10 am Virgin Australia flight out of Adelaide - which, sod's law was extremely punctual - we were stuck in a virtually empty international terminal for over 8 hours. We couldn't even get to the Qantas lounge as it was the other side of security and we couldn't go through as we didn't have boarding passes and the check-in gate didn't open until 5 pm.

The reason we didn't have boarding passes despite having checked in online was due to new security regulations introduced by the US Government - all passengers had to be interviewed before boarding passes were issued. Anyway, we got through eventually and munched our way through the freebies in the lounge.

We discovered we were flying on the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Compared with its major long haul rival, Airbus' 380, I would say the passenger experience in the latter is better - primarily because there's more room for the passengers. The main advantage of the Dreamliner is environmental - it's lighter, made from composite materials and is 20% more fuel efficient. It is a bit quieter too, which is a bonus.

Anyway, a meal, a G & T plus a couple of glasses of wine and then down on our flat beds to catch as much sleep as we could. I just had time to watch one movie - Vice, the hatchet job on Dick Cheney. I've watched more films on this holiday than I've done for years - normally I find a lot of the films formulaic and predictable, but this year, between all the flights we've had, plus the cruise, I've seen Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, If Beale Street Could Talk, Will They Ever Forgive Me, BlacKkKclansman, A Star is Born and probably a few others I can't remember just now.

Anyway, we got to LA on schedule - well, the plane did anyway - but we still had to undergo the torture that is immigration at LAX. We were amongst the first off our plane and we managed to grab one of the machines which scans your passport, takes your fingerprints and photographs you, then prints off what you assume is a pass that will speed you through immigration ahead of the hordes standing in line who either don't have modern passports that can be scanned or just couldn't be bothered to go through the procedure. How wrong we were - we still had to join the Disney-like lines and we were now behind the rest of the people who didn't get scanned! Grrr.

Meanwhile, Scott and Lucy were waiting patiently outside the airport to take us out to our resort in the desert. Memories of a previous trip to Palm Desert driving along the 12 lane freeways jammed solid with cars, flooded back, but fortunately it wasn't quite as bad on a Saturday evening as it had been previously when we hit the Friday afternoon commuter rush - and this time it was Scott driving thankfully.

Our first full day at the Marriott Desert Springs Villas was, understandably, a quiet one, with a bit of orientation and some rest. We thought that should be enough to recover from a bit of jet-lag - after all, we are seasoned travellers now, aren't we? - so we made plans for Monday trips. Monday morning came and Scott and Lucy were ready to get out and about early on, but I had to be woken just before 10 am - by my standards a long lie-in.

We managed to get going by 11 am but Lucy's plans for us to visit Cabot's Pueblo Museum were scuppered when we discovered it was closed on a Monday, so we diverted to plan B - a visit to the "world famous" Shields Date Farm:

It was pretty interesting actually - lots of samples of the many styles of dates and a pleasant desert garden walk:

The 24 oz date shakes went down well too.

The next plan was to visit Desert Distilling but we found it was only open at weekends. OK then - when in trouble, revert to brewpubs - we did two - Coachella Valley Brewing (CVB) and La Quinta Brewing - the latter being much better and it took us in to the heart of Palm Springs, which had a nice vibe to it, including a Stars Walk on the pavement.

Back at the resort, I took a dip in the pool - a nice quiet refuge and much needed as temperatures had soared to over 100 F today.

It was not quite so hot today (Tuesday) - low 90's - and Scott and I took the opportunity to play one of the resort's courses - and delightful it was too, with some lovely views of the high, still snow-capped mountains:

 Lucy and Jo spent most of the morning at the pool then came over and joined us for lunch and drinkies - nice!

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.

Adelaide Daily Diary (5)

Wednesday 27th March

One of Kelly's days off so she drove Jo and I up to the Crafers Hotel (https://www.crafershotel.com.au/) for lunch. It had recently been named as Best Hotel in Australia and whilst that title may be a little subjective, it's certainly a lovely place and we were very impressed. We had, at the last minute, considered returning to the Uraidla Hotel (https://uraidlahotel.com.au/) where we had been last year - it has since opened up the adjacent microbrewery that was close to completion when we were there last year - but we definitely made the right decision to stick with Plan A - especially when we discovered that the Crafers Hotel was pouring some of the Uraidla beers.

Whilst the beers were very good, the main attraction was the food, which was both interesting and varied - and well presented:

Jo and I started with the scallops

My main meal was crab

Jo's main - a kind of filo pie

Kelly's veggie option

We picked up Miller after school and Asher after playgroup but he wasn't feeling too good and when Kelly and Jo got him back to ours he went wild. Kelly knew there was something wrong so whisked the boys home.

Meanwhile, I had headed in to town to have a few beers and a bite with Chris, brother Matt and best pal Anthony. We met in Clever Little Tailor (http://www.cleverlittletailor.com.au/) and then headed over to the newly refurbished Sparkke (https://www.sparkke.com/), which has recently undergone a major renovation/upgrade. Reputedly they spent A$1.8m. (about £1m.) on it - it's nice but how are they going to get a payback on that?

Matt, who doesn't drink now since he got the cycling bug (he recently completed the Coast to Coast and the Tour Down Under routes) drove us home and Jo and I settled down to watch another episode of My Kitchen Rules (MKR). It's kind of like Masterchef meets Big Brother - a bit naff, but we haven't found much else, apart from old British panel shows, to watch on Aussie Digital TV.

Thursday 28th March

Sure enough, Asher wasn't too bright so Chris decided to have a day off work and keep both the boys at home. Jo and I had made arrangements to drive down to Port Eliot and meet up with Lorene and David, Chris' Mum and Dad, who took us to nearby Victor Harbor, scene of the infamous boat sinking a few years ago which could have seen the end of David, brother-in-law Harry and Kelly and Chris.

We walked over the causeway to Granite Island and round to the cafe at the far side. The last time we were there it was pretty standard fare, run by the local council, but it's since been franchised out and what a transformation! Jo had Barramundi, Lorene a Tuna Salad and I had salt and Pepper Squid Rings and they were all delicious. (David stuck to a simple Ham and Cheese Croissant.)

After lunch, I went for a stroll around the other side of the island and Jo and Lorene did a slightly shorter version, whilst David headed back to the car. I took some photos on my walk, including some of the sculptures dotted around the island:

We got slightly lost on the way home - I took a wrong turning which added about half an hour to our journey but we got back to ours before 5 pm. It had been a pretty warm day - 30C - so we both took a short dip in our pool before Kelly arrived from work on her bike to pick up her car.

No MKR tonight so we had to settle for shuttling between the news, documentaries and Spicks and Specks, a Never Mind the Buzzcocks look-a-like, hosted by the well-known face of Adam Hills.

Friday 29th March

There was a bit of rain pattering away on our tin roof early this morning and some more is forecast in the next hour or so before being cleared away by the wind. The weather forecast on TV last night was amusing for us Brits - quote "a cold, wintery front will hit Adelaide on Friday - the temperature will drop to 20C"!

It's Miller's Sports Day at school today and we'll be heading over there later on. Kelly and Asher have just arrived so we'll be looking after the wee fella for the next couple of hours. Best go and shower now.

Adelaide Daily Diary (4)

Monday 25th March

Back to school/nursery/work for the Steeles so Jo and I planned to take our first trip in to Adelaide city centre. Overnight the weather had changed - high winds rattled our corrugated roof and the blinds banged away most of the night. We awoke to some rain as well, so I immediately texted Kelly to say that I would run her to work as it didn't look like ideal cycling conditions.

Kelly duly arrived about 7:40 am and loaded her bike (which is left overnight at ours for convenience) in to the back of her car and I took the wheel and drove in to the city and dropped her off at her work. Heading back to our place, I took a a wrong turning and it took me some time to re-orientate myself - I didn't get back until about 9:20 am. The thought of immediately turning round and doing the same journey all over again didn't appeal to me initially but after a quick breakfast I thought, why not?

We got in to the city centre just after 10 am and parked up in a Wilson multi-storey on Pulteney Street which gave us only a short walk to Rundle Mall - the city's main pedestrianised shopping centre. We tried out a couple of the books shops (no joy) and wandered along the mall, dodging the showers, some of which were pretty heavy.

Eventually it was time for a coffee and a bite. By now, the sun was shining again but our initial attempts to find a suitable outdoor spot in Leigh St and Peel St were unsuccessful, so we headed back to Rundle Mall where we did find a nice little coffee shop up a lane (or should that be the Aussie "laneway"?)

Our last mission in the city was to do some food shopping for the evening meal - Woolworth's obliged - and then we were off to pick up the boys and take them back to ours for sausages and pasta. Once all the Steeles had been fed and watered, Jo and I decided to treat ourselves to one of our very own blended gins from yesterday's session at Settler's (https://www.settlersspirits.com.au/) - so nice, we did it twice!

Tuesday 26th March

One of Kelly's days off and she wanted to go for a gym session - she hasn't had much chance recently - in fact, both she and Chris have given up their Crossfit memberships they were using them so infrequently - so Jo and I took Asher for a short while. We walked round to the little playpark we found last week and Asher tried out the various pieces of equipment:

I don't know if this picture fully display's Asher's mischievous, all-knowing look - at times he can run wild - almost feral. Unfortunately, he's not yet fully house-trained either and we had to perform an emergency nappy change - it took two of us to hold him down as he wriggled and giggled as we tried to clean him up. I think he senses our recent inexperience in all matters toddler. We got there in the end - as we always do - and headed back to the ranch where he devoured some of last night's leftover pasta.

Kelly and Jo have now gone back to O'Halloran Hill to pick up Miller from school - they'll be back here soon. I stayed behind - it gave Jo a chance of a more comfortable ride in the front of Kelly's car, rather than being wedged in between Miller's and Asher's child seats in the back.

This evening it's swimming time again - Miller has weekly lessons at the huge aquatic complex at Marion. It's hard to believe a week has passed already since we were last there. So we'll be dining out tonight - at the cafeteria at the swimming pool.

Adelaide Daily Diary (3)

Saturday 23rd March (cont'd)

In the end, Chris ran out of time on Saturday morning so we were left to our own devices - which was just fine. We took the opportunity to relax and have a dip in the pool:

Kelly dropped Chris off at ours just before 3 pm and he and I caught the bus in to the city and the footy match at the Oval between Adelaide Crows and Hawthorn, who are, I am reliably informed, perennial champions of the AFL. Kelly, Jo and the boys drove up to Port Adelaide and the Maritime Museum.

The Oval is a fantastic stadium - it was always a little gem of a cricket ground - almost like an English village ground, surrounded by greenery and the cathedral. It was a pretty controversial decision to upgrade it a few years ago and turn it in to a multi-purpose sports venue, but they have done it really well. Three quarters of the ground is modern stadium but the traditional open end of the ground has been left pretty much as it was:

Note the bodies up on the roof - they now do stadium roof walking tours - like the Sydney Harbour Bridge ones.

I really enjoyed the Aussie football - all action and plenty of scores on a huge pitch. Pity the home team got stuffed - probably because their colours are very like Partick Thistle's:

Chris and I got back to our place in time for Kelly to take them all home.

Sunday 24th March

Kelly had bought us another boozy Sunday morning - this time it was gin blending and it was great fun again. Drinking raw spirits at 10 am in the morning is a bit daunting, but, dear reader, we struggled through it. This was the sight we were greeted with at the start:

These were all the ingredients/botanicals/base spirits we had to blend to make our own gin. It looks like it was a bit of a puzzler for Jo:

We got 4 attempts to tweak our blends to come up with our perfect gin - this was my formulae:

(Our host took a few photos and has posted them on Facebook)

Meeting up with Kelly after the event, we headed over to Old Noarlunga again so that she and Chris could have another look at the house they viewed a week ago. We picnic'd in the park first of all and Miller climbed up a tree with his Dad:

Back at O'Halloran Hill, we had a blind tasting of our 3 gins. Naturally, I won. Chris cooked chicken for tea and the boys had fun dressing up in various costumes:

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":