Half way

That's us 3 weeks in to the holiday now. Next week is supposed to be our trip to Bali but the corona virus issues are causing some consternation - especially with Kelly and Chris. The implications of Government travel bans and quarantines are much more complicated for them than for Jo and I - although we - especially me - are the ones in the most vulnerable group.

It's obviously going to be a (very) late decision as to who catches the flight on Monday morning. At the time of writing, it looks like Chris will be staying at home, but watch this space in case of any late developments.

Anyway, here goes with another daily holiday diary:

SUNDAY 8th MARCH

We'd had my birthday party on Friday but today it was Amanda's slightly belated party, held at Hallett Cove:

Teacher lectures her class

MONDAY 9th MARCH

Public holiday in Adelaide - it's the Adelaide Cup, a big horse race apparently. None of us were interested in that but it did have the effect of making Monday a busier day than normal at the Fringe - Mondays are usually days of rest for those involved, but pretty much everything was open, so Chris drove us all - bar Kelly, who took the chance to stay home and paint the boys' bedroom - in to the city. The boys had a good time:

On the big wheel - Asher looks away any time you point the camera at him

Miller's not camera shy

Another of Asher looking away

A quiet beer and attempted selfie for Jo and I

TUESDAY 10th MARCH

I decided it was about time I tried a game of golf again, so, after doing our usual routine of taking Miller to school and Asher to "Kindy", Jo and I headed to Willunga. It was to be in the '30's today so I hired a buggy and Jo rode along, alternately reading her book and taking photographs. The outstanding feature of the day was the constant cacaphony made by the cockatoos squawking away, but it was a very pleasant round - and very quick too, despite the amount of time I spent in the trees.

Here we are just leaving the golf club:

WEDNESDAY 11th MARCH

Kelly's day off and Miller was reprieved school today as well. Kelly took the boys with her to the gym so Jo and I decided to go for a short walk along the river and round the village, finishing off at the local coffee shop:

We see these pelicans every day but they're usually in the water - this was the first time we'd seen these huge birds up on a branch

In the afternoon, I took the train in to Adelaide as I'd arrange to meet Chris and some friends for pizza before heading off to the cinema to watch a film about Banksy and his rise to fame in the art world. I went in a bit earlier and wandered around a bit, starting with the Torrens riverbank. It was another hot one so I lay in the shade of a tree for a while and nodded off. Once I woke up, I headed in to the lovely new James Squire brewhouse that has a magnificent spot overlooking the river, the pedestrian bridge and the Oval stadium. I did have a paddle, but it wasn't in the river.

THURSDAY 12th MARCH

Chores completed, Jo and I decided to take a walk up to Victor's Place for lunch - and it was lovely. We only had the light menu but it was delightful - and the beers were good too. We had a tasting first and then selected what we would drink with our lunch. One of Jo's favourites was the Berliner Weisse with a drop or two of sour cherry syrup:

FRIDAY 13th MARCH

Chris' day off. I went for another short bike ride on the local river trails:

2 + weeks down

So here goes again with the daily diary:

SUNDAY 1st MARCH

Can't remember what we did - and no photos to help me recall.

MONDAY 2nd MARCH

With everyone back at work/school/day care, once our chores/daily duties were done, Jo and I decided to do one of the walks across the river from Chris' and Kelly's house - the Old Noarlunga trail, which was, as we had been advised, relatively flat as it followed the river for a while, but then we met the Pipeline trail, which rose steeply. Jo was not impressed, but she made it safely in the end:

Once we got over the top, we realised some wineries were within touching distance - in fact, the whole of the McLaren Vale wine area was in view. The downside was that it would mean more ups and downs:

We managed up and down OK but the nearest winery didn't seem to have a retail outlet and the next one was closed on Mondays, so it was a bit of an abortive extra leg on our walk.

The trail back down over the hills gave us some nice overviews of Old Noarlunga as we descended the sometimes steep and gravelly trail:

TUESDAY 3rd MARCH

It's Adelaide Writer's Week - a festival we'd attended before - and I had spotted one of the shows featuring the fairly well-known former Finance Minister of Greece, who has appeared on UK TV prgrammes like Question Time:

When we had visited with the boys on Saturday, Jo had thought she had better get clued up on what he was all about, so she bought one of his books - a fairly slim volume, intending to finish it before we went to listen to him. However, she's still working at it a week later.

We arrived early for the show so we managed to take in the prior one as well:

WEDNESDAY 4th MARCH

Kelly's - and Asher's - day off, so she drove us all over to Carrick House:

It had been a cool start to the day and we all wore an extra layer, but as the day wore on it got hotter and hotter and we were soon stripping off again - and treating ourselves to ice creams.

There's a kids' storybook trail there which is very well done and Asher loved it. The first photo is from Charlotte's Web, but there were lots of other fairy stories, nursery rhymes etc and even a Harry Potter feature:

THURSDAY 5th MARCH

Back to the old routine and once Jo and I had delivered everyone to their usual haunts, we went for a walk along the riverside trail that I'd cycled the evening before:

Asher spotted me listening to River Dee Radio with my earphones and wanted to share the experience:

At 5 pm, it was Miller's school's Fun Day and we all trotted along to watch Miller take part, including the hurdles:

FRIDAY 6th MARCH

My birthday and I'd asked Chris if he wouldn't mind doing a BBQ and we could invite the family along. Friday is Chris' day off but he was going to be pretty busy getting everything organised, including a lunchtime visit to a speech psychologist in Adelaide with Asher, who also had his weekly swimming lesson to fit in. Jo and I offered to take Asher along to the latter to give Chris a bit of breathing space:

Unfortunately, that didn't go too well - Asher's not quite ready for instruction yet, even on the one to one basis we had today.

Better fun later when we had the BBQ and my beer mug cake arrived:

I had said no presents, but Chris' brother Matt brought me gifts, including these personalised socks:

SATURDAY 7th MARCH

Kelly has work admin to catch up with so offered to drive me and Jo up to Port Adelaide and drop us off at Pirate Life brewery, where they were holding a huge party to celebrate their 5th anniversary:

So that was the week that was - or at least some of it.

1 week down - 5 to go

So that's our first full week done now, so what have we been up to since my last post? Answers below, along with photos not previously published on social media:

TUESDAY 25th FEBRUARY

Having had a gentle 10K warm-up on Sunday, I decided to go for another cycle - this time along the Seaford promenade up to Port Noarlunga. As I approached it from the clifftops, I got some lovely views of the Onkaparinga river snaking its way out to sea:

Just beyond the pier, there's a rocky reef, as advertised here:

WEDNESDAY 26th FEBRUARY

Kelly's routine day off and we had promised to go and watch one of Miller's class's daily swimming lessons. As usual, we were mightily impressed by the facilities. Australia takes swimming very seriously:

Back at the ranch, Asher enjoyed playing with his stickers and my sunglasses:

THURSDAY 27th FEBRUARY

Jo and I decided to take a walk so we headed to the sea front and did a bit of the route in to Port Noarlunga that I had cycled on Tuesday. It was a little cooler and cloudier - just low 20's:

By now, we were getting in to the daily routine of taking Asher to and from day care, Kelly to and from the train station and Miller to school and from his after school club. The first two are done by car, but Miller's primary school is just a few hundred yards away and the walk alongside the Onkaparinga river is idyllic - like something Hollywood might have created.

FRIDAY 28th FEBRUARY

Chris' regular day off, so, after taking Miller to school, he and Jo took Asher to his swimming lesson and then drove over to Noarlunga to watch Miller's class have their final swimming lesson of the week. I was initially undecided as to what I might do, but eventually, I chose to jump on the bike again and this time head for the Coast to Vines trail - down to McLaren Vale to start with, then along the Shiraz trail to Willunga, where, after a fairly unhelpful enquiry at the local tourist office, I eventually managed to find the Shifty Lizard brewpub, where I had some lunch, washed down with a sampler paddle, before heading back to McLaren Vale again:

Jo and I met Kelly as she came off the train after work and the three of us drove over to another winery - Down the Rabbit Hole. It's another lovely setting although we did discuss how it was very right-on correct - woke to use the current vernacular. Expensive too. We sat on chairs on the lawn under the shade of some tall trees, which we would have been very grateful for earlier in the day or at the height of summer, but, approaching autumn after 7 pm, as the sun starts to go down, is another matter. We needed another layer - plus the use of one of the winery's blankets.

SATURDAY 29th FEBRUARY

It's the start of Adelaide's Writers' Week - one of many festivals held annually - and we all had to be in the city for a 9 am talk by Miller's favourite writer, Andy Griffiths (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Griffiths_(author)) so it was an early start, catching the 7:30 am train in to the city. He kept the kids in the large crowd well entertained for 45 minutes and even managed to amuse the parents too.

Afterwards, we strolled round the parkland setting before joining the queue at the Face Painting stand:

Asher awaits

Miller's Batman was first finished

Asher chose blue as the colour of his tiger

 Next was the writers' tent, where Miller learned how to use the strange machine called a typewriter:

Next stop was the Museum of Discovery (MoD) where there was an interactive exhibition on - https://mod.org.au/exhibitions/seven-siblings-from-the-future/. It was a little weird - and again, very politically correct. One of the rooms featured a futuristic barber shop where different hairstyles were electronically added to your screen image:

In the evening, Kelly and Chris had booked us all in at Russell's Pizza in Willunga (https://www.russellspizza.com/) - a very atmospheric setting in some old buildings. The Shabby Chic look is very popular in this part of the world. The photo I took was meant to include the boys, but they both hid under the table when I asked them to pose:

Banchory to Adelaide day 3

The journey here went pretty well - the chauffeur drive from Banchory to Glasgow Airport was easy and comfortable and we checked in to the Emirates lounge for what we thought would be 90 minutes or so before they called our flight. However, a 15 minute delay in the incoming flight was announced, but that didn't give us much concern. However a further delay of 20 minutes gave us pause for thought - we only had a scheduled 2 hour turn-round in Dubai - this was going to be tight.

They did make up some time on the flight but we still knew when we got off the plane that we would need to scurry to get to the other side of the terminal for our onward flight to Adelaide. Fortunately we were first off the plane and passing through security was remarkably quick and easy, so, in the end, we made it in good time.

Apart from the usual eating and drinking, I had passed the time on the first flight by watching the recent Oscar-winning Korean film, Parasite and also live TV coverage of Manchester United's Europa League match against Bruges.

The much longer flight to Adelaide is a bit more of a challenge. The first crisis is when the cabin crew tell you your first meal will be breakfast. We know the plane left Dubai at 2 am local time, but our body clocks were still at just 10 pm UK time and we were ready for another G & T. Before breakfast? How decadent.

I watched two more films on that flight - Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Blinded by the Light, a British film about a young man, born in Britain, but to a first generation traditional Pakistani family, growing up in Luton in the troubled late '70's/early '80's, when Thatcherism/Reaganism were at their peak and the National Front were running wild and free. His troubled relationship with his father was saved when he "discovered" Bruce Springsteen - his lyrics spoke to him.

I enjoyed all 3 films on the journey and I think I had a reasonable sleep as well, so I didn't feel too bad, all things considered, when we landed at Adelaide. There was a bit of a hold-up when the captain announced we would have to stay seated for a bit as we had to wait for paramedics to board to attend to an ill passenger. Otherwise, immigration and baggage handling were smooth and easy and our driver was waiting to take us on the fairly short drive to Old Noarlunga.

We got some sleep that night at Kelly and Chris' but, of course, our body clocks were still confused and we both woke well before the Adelaide dawn. Still, we had to just get on with it and get used to South Australian time as soon as we could. Kelly took me on a short walk across the Onkaparinga and up the hill to look over their house, the small town they live in and out to sea. This one was taken from the small bridge just outside their home:

Later in the day, after a nice walk round the trails at Onkaparinga Recreation Park, we were taken on the first of what will no doubt be many alcohol experiences to Penny's Hill winery where there was a separate Gin tasting session:

On Sunday (day 2), I decided to take a short exploratory ride on Chris' spare bike:

Kelly had some work to do, so Chris, Jo, Miller, Asher and I walked round to Miller's school and had a picnic brunch there. The boys played in the sand pit and Asher tried out some of the equipment:

In the afternoon, Kelly took over grandparenting duties and drove us over to Moana beach, and then to another winery - Ivybrook Farm - a lovely place that used to be a sheep station:

Day 3 (Monday) was back to work and school for all bar me and Jo. We walked Miller along to school and Kelly and I took Asher to his day care, then Kelly caught a train to work, leaving me with her car.

Jo and I decide to stretch our legs a little before it got too hot so we crossed the bridge in to the National Park and completed one of their trails, which involved a little bit of a climb towards the end:

After that, we drove over to Noarlunga and the Colonnades shopping centre to get some more medication for Jo, who had developed a stye which was beginning to look a little troublesome. Hopefully the antibiotic cream will now sort the problem out.

The pick-ups of Miller and Asher were completed successfully but there was a slight communication breakdown with Kelly - somehow we missed each other at the railway station, but all was sorted in the end.

Dennis the Menace

Saturday afternoon and we're back home now after a couple of days in the West of Scotland. It's definitely a day for staying in - it's wet here, although not half as bad as some of the weather we came through this morning. The roads were awash - far from ideal driving conditions and I'm delighted to be able now to put my feet up, sit back, relax and watch some sport on TV. I had originally intended to go to the CAMRA meeting in Aberdeen for the selection of our area's entries in to next year's Good Beer Guide, but the timing was awkward and the weather frankly offputting.

Why were we in Glasgow anyway? Well, first of all, I had another of my old school reunions to attend, and then Jo wanted to go and see Mary before we went to Australia, so we decided to combine the two. We spent Thursday and Friday night at Mary and Brian's. I had taken my golf clubs with me and Brian had booked us a tee time at West Kilbride on Friday, but the imminent arrival of Storm Dennis put paid to all that so Brian and I ended up just spending the day watching golf and cricket on TV, while Mary and Jo gabbed away next door.

On Friday night we went over to Houston to have a meal with the Whaleys. Take-away Indian and Chinese meals hit the spot, after which I took this team photo:

The twins are now in 5th year and will be sitting their Highers in a couple of months. Note the girlfriend addition at the table.

Brian looks worried here - and in this one:

To be fair, the poor old fellow wasn't feeling too good - he was coughing away all the time we were there (as was Mary) and knocking back Lemsips and paracetomols. Hope he gets better soon - and trust it's not the Corona virus!

Got to start getting organised over the next few days for our departure to Oz on Thursday.

E & O E

How could I? I forgot to include news of our visit to see Ross before we went to Fife. Ross made us coffee in his kitchen:

Jo waited in anticipation:

Trying to get both of them to look at the camera at the same time is pretty tricky:

Oh - and the other good news is that I finally - after a stressful week of  waiting - received my Aussie Visa. Whew.

More good news - Lucy, Scott and the boys have actually booked their flights over to Scotland at Christmas! They arrive at 4 pm on Tuesday 22nd December and leave at 6 am on Tuesday 29th December. Put the dates in your diaries now.