Heaven for the weather

hello all again, its sunday so it must be blog day. I am sitting here a little tired and a little sun and wind beaten today so i think it maybe a shorter blog than usual. Although I am good at waffling so who knows? In general its been a pretty decent week in Adelaide although not the most exciting we have had so far. The classic car rally has been on all week which is pretty cool but we didnt get to see much of it apart from the odd classic porsche as it hurtled up the street.Workwise has been pretty mixed for me. My digital imaging has all gone well so far and I have managed to tame the computers but on the bad side one of my main experiments failed (the plants died) so I am back to the drawing board there. It is fortunate we have extended our trip by 10 days as this will give me time to hopefully recover from this (and it gives Emma and Dylan another 10 days of holiday so everyones a winner). For those that we havent already mentioned this to our new ETA back in the UK in Jan 22. Next week plans to be a busy one at work, new experiments to set up, a departmental seminar on thursday which i have to give plus my new PhD researcher, Saoirse, has arrived this weekend for a 2 week stay so i will be busy showing her the ropes. As she will be heading back to Nottingham in 2 weeks updating everyone of my progress I may even have to work a little harder for a bit !

Emma and Dylan have had another nice week. I think Emma's highlight was when a DVD of english tv arrived in the post - mainly documentaries i think, no soaps i am sure :) As mentioned previously Emma is still single-handedly managing to keep the southern hemisphere away from recession via our credit card. After another host of toys were acquired this week Emma mentioned the possibility of seeing if some of it could be shipped back to the UK (i kid you not).They have been fairly busy this week going to various groups (see a pic of Dylan on the right in a boat at kindergym). They got invited round to Nicole's house last week and got to see what a typical aussie house is like. Nicole tipped Emma off about some 'special' teething gel that is made and sold at the local hospital which seems to be 99% novacaine. It seems good stuff although applying it to Dylan's gums without numbing his mouth and lips is a tricky process. In general Dylan has been pretty good this week. His sleeping has been great, in fact, dare i say it, he is getting a little lazy, frequently not getting up until after 8am, yesterday he slept from 6.50pm til 9am! (a record).

On friday we hired a car for the weekend and headed to Monarto which is 50 miles south of Adelaide. Unfortunately this coincided with the two worst days of weather since we have been here (cool, below 20 degrees, cloudy and drizzly). Anyway the reason for going to Monarto was the safari park and the weather didnt spoil it too much. It was actually a little 'jurassic park' like as you got taken around various african style environments on a bus to see the animals. Dylan loved it especially the giraffes (he calls them raffs) and lions (called roars) although keeping him sat in the same place on a bus for an hour was a challenge. On saturday as I mentioned Saoirse arrived so I picked her up at the airport and felt a little guilty dropping her off at the rather basic student accommodation to sleep off the jetlag. We then spent sometime in a rather busy soft play area (wacky warehouse) as believe it or not it was a bit too cold to be outside! And onto today, the best of the weekend, the sun returned and everyone was it a great mood. We picked up Saoirse after the usual sunday morning ritual of capuccinos and banana bread at the bakery and headed to Cleland Wildlife Park for more fun with koalas and kangeroos (see pics). We must have done every animal activity going in south australia at this stage. Anyway Dylan seems to love visiting these places and Saoirse seemed to really enjoy it although she still had that spaced look after all the flying. We then headed to the beach for ice cream by the sea and the funfair for Dylan. And thats that really. The car goes back tomorrow. I am a bit anxious as I foolishly decided against paying the £15 a day extra insurance charge to reduce the excess from £1500 to £150 and I noticed a little dint on the side by the door which I dont think was there when we got the car so I hope that doesnt end up costing us a fortune!

So as I mentioned its a busy week lined up for me in work this week although I am hoping to take friday off to go and see the cricket (2nd Test between Australia V New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval). Emma and Dylan are going out with Nicole and Marcus tomorrow and then swimming. A visit to see Father Christmas in one of the department stores is also on the cards this week. There is actually quite a lot of christmas stuff around now but somehow it just doesnt feel christmassy (is that a word?). Emma is also busily planning the route for the campervan holiday after christmas which is starting to come together now. Looks like we'll be driving +1000km!

And finally moan of the week, not one from me this time but from Emma. Those who know Emma well will know that one thing she likes very much is sleep and those that come between her and her sleep had better watch out. Well this week we had not one but two visits from the roadsweepers. Why? who knows as Adelaide is by far the cleanest place I have ever lived. The roadsweeper visited this week on Tuesday and Thursday at 6am each time. They also decided that three passes of the road were required. And were also accompanied by two chaps with leaf blowing machines. This would all be ok if there was any rubbish or even a leaf to sweep but there isnt. Anyway lets just say they are fortunate that we live two floors up.

ok, told you i could waffle, time to go, hope you are all well and the artic wind doesnt last too long. We can symphaise honestly, we had to wear jumpers yesterday ! take care S,E&D x