That was the week that was

Evening all, sunday again so time to jot down on what we have been upto in Adelaide this week. Its been another good week although I dont think we scaled the heights of the previous weeks this week, it was more a 7/10 than 9/10 i'd say although Emma thinks I am being a bit harsh. So I'll come on to all the good stuff in a minute, what didnt make it so good? Well after dipping Dylan in the Antarctic Ocean last weekend he promptly came down with a cold (yes, we know whose fault this was), plus the four back teeth which are all coming through combined to make him a bit miserable and sleep a bit erratically for the first part of the week which wasnt so good. The other thing not quite as good was the weather, seriously !, we had a few days of 15-20 degrees and overcast skies which was a bit of a bummer, it even rained yesterday morning, well drizzled. The locals here are desperate for rain, there has been hardly any in the last three years and apparently over 50 ancient trees in the city have died as a result with a further 100 expected to go this summer. So a lack of good sleep and some grey sky took the edge off the week. However, it was still pretty good...

For me it has been quite a busy one in work, my first using Adelaide University's new $500 000 X-ray scanner. I have only done a little work but already encountered my first problem....1 sample requires 50GB of disk space (Iam hoping to do +50 samples) so I have already had to go and buy new hardware. My first day using the scanner coincided with the Melbourne Cup which I mentioned last week. This was good fun. At 1pm everyone downed tools and headed to the coffee room for champagne and chicken sandwiches (an aussie combo i guess). I was invited along and made to feel welcome which was nice. I was given a horse in the sweepstake that promptly came last. Also a bit strange was a few people had dressed up for the occasion including some ladies in dresses and hats who wouldnt look out of place at Ascot, except we were in the basement of the medical school some 1000km from where the race was taking place. My other work news is that Nottingham University have found the cash to pay for my new PhD student, Saoirse, to come out and visit to see what I am up to (I best get busy). She is coming in 2 weeks and will stay for 10 days. Apparently they are already teasing in Nottingham that I have set this up to get a babysitter, now they come to mention it though its not a bad idea!

Emma and Dylan have continued to be super busy. Emma has made yet more friends (seriously) including a few aussies. We went out for the afternoon yesterday with another family who Emma had met who are here for 18 months (Raj, Suzy, Sofia & Matthew). They are from Newcastle but lived in Leeds for a few years so we had lots in common. Raj is an angioplasty surgeon on an 18 month fellowship out here working on MRI so we had a bit to talk about. As they have already been here 3 months they gave us lots of tips of places to go etc. Other than that Emma and Dylan have been to kindergym, music class and some other baby groups. Our gym has a creche that Emma tried out on friday, she was a bit hesitant as Dylan's track record with childcare isnt good and apparently he was good for 30 mins but then cried and could only be appeased by watching Thomas the Tank Engine. Emma is keen to keep trying though just to help with the transition to nursery when we return home.

So the big event of the week was on saturday, the all singing, all dancing Christmas pageant which is in early November for some reason. Unfortunately it coincided with the worst weather since we have been here which i think dampened spirits a little bit. Still 250 000 people lined the streets of Adelaide and waved at the clowns, elves, fairies etc. See pic, unfortunately the camera batteries went before Santa came! Its a little odd but the christmas countdown is in full effect now. All the shops have tinsel in the windows, the lights are up and the queues to see Santa in the toy stores have begun. Normal service resumed weatherwise today (30 degrees and sunny) so we headed to the zoo which is 10 mins walk away. Dylan loved it, he now shouts the animal noises at the animals - well providing its a lion, monkey or cow. He has taken a real shine to the giraffes but we dont know what noise they make. Any ideas? After the zoo we took a stroll up the river (see pic) and had ice creams in the sun - the perfect sunday i think.

Not too much making the news down here, although Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross did get a mention, is it really a global story? The credit crunch gets the odd mention but they arent really experiencing it here, although that maybe due to Emma keeping their economy afloat by a record number of consecutive days shopping!

Not sure what we have lined up for this week, no big events i think. We have today booked a summer/christmas holiday. We are going to meet Tina and Ben somewhere between Melbourne and Adelaide between Christmas and New Year and so we have hired a campervan, well actually a motorhome for a week. This was actually very difficult as everywhere was booked out as this is the busiest week for holidays in Oz. We had 2 options, a cheap VW campervan style or a v expensive giant winnebago style one. I favoured the former for price, emma favoured the latter for comfort. Emma won. So that promises to be an adventure with Dylan in tow.

Ok, time to sign out, hope you are all well, please continue to email, skype, comment on the blog etc. Just time for my moan of the week (I think this is like a little bit of therapy for me). This week it is the drivers in Adelaide. The boy racer quota here is very high. As I mentioned most cars have the giant, noisy exhausts. Anyway, they drive like nutters. This was highlighted yesterday at the top of our road when one went crashing into a coffee shop (see pic). Luckily it was early and nobody was hurt...

Right then so, love to all and we'll update you some more next week. Sacha, Emma & Dylan x