Heaps Good!

Morning all, slightly later blog this week as we were back late last night. Another great week in Adelaide. In fact its been 'heaps good' (this is a south australian expression). The weather was splendid throughout and in general we were all in tip top form except for Dylan on friday who has especially hacked off with the teething - these back teeth really are causing him some grief. So what have we been up to? well not much really, we have pretty much found a routine now of work (for me) and fun (for emma and dylan). I had a good week in work, experiments starting to come together and I even got a trip to the pub after work on thursday for a few pints (of Coopers Pale Ale - check it out if you can, its v nice) which was great. We went to an apparently studenty pub although it was probably nicer than most pubs back home. Emma and Dylan had a good week doing all the usual activities (kindergym, shopping, swimming, shopping, singing classes and shopping). On Tuesday, they also went to an outback animal reserve called something like Woolawoolawonga (most places are called something like this) and they got to see deadly spiders and snakes. Dylan even touched a snake (see pic). They went with Emma's friends Natalie and Clare who both have cars so its quite good for them to get out and about. So far we havent missed having a car at all really although it is handy to have one at the weekends so we might get one again next week. Wednesday was a barmy hot day - 37 degrees - although the humidity is low so it didnt feel quite that hot. The temperature didnt really drop much at night where it was 32 so we had the air con on all night. That night I went to the park by the river where they have a big screen to show the Asian Champions League final - Adelaide V Gamba Osaka. The atmosphere beforehand was great even with Adelaide 3 nil down from the first leg, unfortunately Osaka scored again after 3 minutes so that was pretty much that but at least the bbq was good!

This weekend was nice, we spent saturday chilling out around the city centre. Dylan got to see Father Christmas who rather scared him until he gave him a chocolate bar. We then went to see the Australian 3-Day eventing competition - apparently the biggest horse show in the southern hemisphere. We got to see the cross country event which was actually really good. The horses were huge and fast and Dylan loved shouting 'nayyy' everytime they flew past. This is one of the things were are really liking about living here, there seems to be something on all the time, its usually kiddy friendly and also really cheap to do. Next week there is a classic car race round the city centre and in January the 'tour of australia' starts in Adelaide so Emma is looking forward to seeing Lance Armstrong race. On sunday we took the slow train to Gawler to Annies house (the lady I am working with). They put on a traditional aussie bbq for us which was great and we all ate lobster and kangeroo! which tasted a bit like beef, Dylan seemed to like it anyway. To drink we had chilled sparkling red wine which was unusual but also nice. Then Anne's husband, Murray, took us on a tour of the deadly wildlife including the redback spiders that live in his shed. They are quite small but if they bite you need to get the hospital pretty sharpish for antidote or they can kill. Not sure seeing these helped Emma much with her phobia (she got our landlords out this week to remove some cobwebs from the wall outside the flat this week in case it was redbacks).

So thats about it for this week. We have been here a month now and so far it has been a brilliant experience. For the first time this week we mentioned the 'H' word (home) and it wasnt something we are especially looking forward to as we are having such a good time. Although we have another 2 months left so no need to get depressed yet :) I am not going to have a moan of the week this week as I cant think of anything really to moan about, well perhaps the flies but that's about it. However just in case I am painting a super glossy picture of Adelaide there was a reminder this week it has its problems like all cities. On wednesday there was a fight in the city centre between 2 gangs of Sudanese immigrants which ended up in a 14 year boy being stabbed and killed by a 17 year old. This is the first time such a thing has happened but still shocking all the same. The worst thing was that Emma and Dylan were actually on the street no more than 50 metres away when it happened. So its not all roses here.

After that I best end on a positive. Dylan (bar the teething) is in fine form. He is growing fast at the minute, finally got used to wearing a hat (yay!) and extending his vocab every day. He is now starting to say the names of characters he sees on TV - Bob the Builder is called 'bob-bob', Thomas the Tank Engine is called 'choo-choo' and Roary the Racing Car is called 'row-row'. He has also finally learnt to wave goodbye, says thanks and give a kiss (although he hasnt managed it with a closed mouth yet, be warned). Ok, time to go, hope someone is still reading this! love sacha, emma and dylan x.