Sunday 18 January 2009

Goodbyeeee

Hello, I am guessing our readership has dropped pretty considerably by now, so an extra special thank you to those who have hung on to the bitter end, and in case it is just you Mark - nice one mate!

So this is it, the final blog, actually I am toying with the idea of one final - but short - note once we are home for completeness, a kind of epiblogue (see what i did there?) so this might not quite be the last, but I guess we can pretty much say this is it. And its with a small tear in the eye as we really have had just the best three months, but thankfully we have had a great week to finish things off so here goes..

As you might expect its all been about goodbyes. We have met so many nice people here it is rather sad to say goodbye to them all but we really hope to see them again either back here in Oz or if they visit the U.K. So for me it was quite a busy week trying to finish things off in work. Things in the end have gone well and I have lots of data for analysis back in Nottingham, Rob the computer programmer I have been working with has been putting in the hours to develop some code to analyse my work and thankfully it all came through at the last minute so I can go back to Nottingham a satisfied man, which is pretty good as work was the main reason we came here in the first place although we often forgot this!

Tuesday was the real scorcher, our first day in the 40's, 42 degrees to be precise and it was very hot. So hot in fact you couldnt really be outside as you could just feel your skin burning. It was accompanied by a real strange hot wind which felt like standing in front of a hairdryer. Thankfully the temp dropped to the low 30's the next day where it has been ever since so we have been taking lots of advantage with lots of outdoor swimming etc. On my last day in work they had a little leaving party for me which was nice and I was given a red Adelaide United shirt as a leaving present. I said that just for them and Adelaide I would break my rule of wearing something red and with the word 'united' on it.

On Wednesday I had a great night out at the tennis. I mentioned this last week - it was a current players and seniors tournament which made it a bit more interesting. The current players were amazing. Seeing top players serve at full speed was really impressive. Gael Monfils looked really good so I'll be keen to see how he does in the Australian Open which starts tomorrow. In the seniors Pat Cash and Henri Leconte clowned around which was good value and kept everyone entertained. Forgot my camera though :(

So that's me, what about Em and Dylan? They started the week with (another) trip to the zoo. Emma hired Dylan a car to go round in and they had a fab day shouting 'boing boing' at kangeroos. Seriously he shouts this now which can be a little embarassing. They also had a trip out with Natalie and Claire to Littlehampton to a miniture railway and farm (see pic). This was the first of the many goodbyes and I think it has been a really sad week for Emma as she has made lots of friends, was just settling in and then she has had to say goodbye but I think they will keep in touch. The weather becoming hotter though has made things a little harder as you really need to find indoor things to do when it gets so hot. I think Dylan will actually be glad to have a few months off being coated in suncream every few hours.

We said goodbye to Annie on friday which was sad as it was down to her really that made this trip happen for us. In true aussie style she went away but left us her car to use which has been really handy. So the weekend has been about packing and goodbyes. We had our final day out at Glenelg yesterday which became one of our favourite spots for beach and amusements, plus the best thai food which Dylan seems to love. We then had a 'goodbye' with Nicole who has been one of Emma's best friends. Nicole has a little boy, Marcus, who is a similar age to Dylan and similar temprament (hyper, loud, and occasionally a bit moany) so they have had a common bond comparing notes regarding toddler behaviour. We all went round on sat evening for drinks (rather too many in a rather short time) before heading home to get on with the packing. And then today we had our final 'goodbye' with Natalie, Roger and Rhys which included a trip to Henley Beach (Shark Central but none around today) and a BBQ. It was a little strange for us as they arrived in Adelaide at a similar time to us but Roger has a four year visa so they have just moved into an amazing house near the beach and it made us feel a little bit like 'it could be us' if we were here for longer. But hey ho. We then went into town for the Tour Down Under to see Lance Armstrong. However arriving 10 minutes before it started with a crowd of 100 000 was never going to guarantee a good spot. However we did manage to get a reasonable view only to discover than road cycling isnt the worlds greatest spectator sport but boy do the go fast ! I think i saw Lance..

So that as they say is that. We have one day left now before we fly home on Tuesday. We leave around lunchtime with a 7 hr flight to Sinagpore. We have an overnight stop at the Mandarin Oriental before the 14 hr flight back to Heathrow. The plan tomorrow is to just chill in preparation for the trip which we are both dreading. Dylan has been moaning at anything more than an hour in his car seat recently so heres hoping the Calpol Night does its stuff again! So until next time, it could be a while, typically we get sabbaticals every 5-6 years, I hope you have enjoyed reading this, strangely we have actually enjoyed reading it ourselves. I am surprised I kept doing it but I think I liked it in the end although its 11pm now and seriously time for bed. Best wishes and wish us luck for the trip home below if you like. I assume its warmed up a bit now??
Love Sacha, Emma and Dylan xxx

Sunday 11 January 2009

JAWS

Hello all
Welcome to the penultimate ‘mooneysinadelaide’ blog. Very sadly we will be leaving Adelaide in 8 days and leaving the heatwave for the cold freeze. We all agreed that it would be nice to have another three months here but sadly work and money mean that it can’t happen. So, on to happier news, here’s what we have been up to over the last week or so. Summer is in full bloom now, the temperature hasn’t dropped below 28 degrees and we have been having a brilliant time. I have had a pretty productive week in work trying to finish things off where as Emma and Dylan had a great week spent mainly outdoors meeting up with friends and being active. Emma is starting the process of saying goodbye to her friends which she is a bit sad about as she has met some really nice people. I think they are also really sad that she is leaving. They have been having great fun going swimming, picnicking in the botanic gardens and of course chilling on the beach. In fact one of the highlights of the week was on Thursday when they spent the day at Henley beach with Natalie and Rhys when suddenly the beach was descended upon by several helicopters and a police car with sirens driving down the beach shouting for people to get out of the water just like in ‘Jaws’ as a shark had been spotted – a 5m white pointer as they are called here. This sort of thing has been a regular occurrence in Adelaide for the last few weeks with at least 3 or 4 shark sightings a day by the spotter helicopter. Over Christmas a man was killed by a shark whilst kayaking with his son and yesterday there were two attacks where people were bitten but survived (they each lost legs). Remarkably though Emma said within 20 mins of the sea being cleared people were back in the sea! Made of brave things these aussies (or a little mad).
So what else have we been up to? I skipped work on Wednesday afternoon and went for a game of golf which was great especially as it was nice and sunny. Golfing over here is a lot more laid back in terms of what you have to wear and equipment etc so it was pretty relaxed which was nice although as it is summer holidays here it was quite busy. Dylan has had a few successful visits to the crèche at the gym which is good as it looks like Emma could be heading back to work soon on our arrival home so its good practice for nursey. Dylan has been in great form the last few weeks and is now becoming an expert in copying words that he hears (so I am especially having to be careful). He has finally learnt to say his own name and has been entertaining people by shouting ‘Dylan’ at them, although it sounds more like ‘Dil-lin’. He is also now on to saying ‘wee wee’ and ‘poo poo’ at the appropriate time so it looks like potty training will be kicking off in earnest on our return – wish we had wooden floors..
So this weekend we hired a car and had one of the best weekends in Adelaide so far. On Saturday we drove a few hours to the Yorke Peninsula which is a little like an Italy shaped outcrop of land to the north of Adelaide. It is quite remote but has some fantastic beaches and we had a great day travelling, playing in the sea (close to the shore of course) and watching the fisherman catching blue swimming crabs. One thing that is different to back home is that most of the tourist attractions have very little infrastructure associated with them. There are very few shops so picnics are pretty essential. It is nice though that so much is unspoiled and natural. We also stopped off at a great adventure playground on the way back and all got to act like children going down the giant slides and zip wires (see pic). Then on Sunday we headed south to Moana beach for the day. Fortunately (especially for Emma) there was a surf carnival so there were lots of men in trunks competing in kayaking, rowing and swimming competitions. It was amazing to see just how good at swimming they actually were jumping over 5 ft waves as if they weren’t there. We ended the day with a little retail therapy at an out of town shopping centre which was thankfully really quiet and picked up a few presents to bring back home. That night I felt like a true aussie as I sat with a beer in my shorts and sandy flip flops watching Australia V South Africa in the 20/20 cricket. Having lived here I am actually starting to quite like cricket.
All the talk in Adelaide this week is about the weather (its due to be +40 tomorrow for the first time this year) and Lance Armstrong who has just arrived for the tour down under which starts next Sunday. We will miss most of it as we will be leaving but we’ll get to see the first day around the Adelaide city centre, apparently its on sky sports so look out for us! This week will mainly be about goodbyes though. I finish work on Friday but on Thursday Annie goes to China so i’ll be saying goodbye to her. She has been an excellent host who has been really great to us so we are thanking her by inviting them to ours for dinner on Wednesday (don’t worry, I am doing the cooking). Annie is coming to the U.K. later in the year so it will be great to see her again. We are also going out on Wednesday night to a tennis tournament which includes current and former players (Pat Cash, Mats Wilander, Jim Courier, Henri Leconte, Phillipoussis, Monfils, Johansson) so I am looking forward to that. For Emma she is taking Dylan to the zoo today and then has days out planned with Suzy, Natalie, Claire and Nicole so she’ll be busy visiting the parks and beaches. Nothing planned for next weekend yet apart from dinner at Nicole’s. I guess we’ll be starting the packing process in time for our flight on Tuesday lunchtime. Neither of us are relishing the thought of 21 hrs on a flight with Dylan. Thank god we have an overnight in Singapore to look forward to in the middle. Thankfully Annie is due to become a grandma in a few months so she has bought all our baby stuff which is handy. So I think that’s it for now. Mixed feelings this week. Having a brilliant time here but as they say all good things come to an end. We are just making sure we enjoy everyday now. So until next time – the last time – over and out, Love Sacha, Emma and Dylan x

Sunday 4 January 2009

Bumper Blog Christmas Special / Roadtrip

Happy New Year all, hope you had good ones
Seems like an age since the last blog even though its only been a few weeks. Since the last time we have had christmas and new year with our roadtrip in between followed by a few days in the sun in Adelaide. Tomorrow is back to work for me and the countdown for home has really begun (only 2 weeks now). Anyway here's what we have been up to..

So christmas in australia was predictably quite different to back home. I am not sure we were really homesick as we had a great time still. However it certainly didnt feel like christmas and we both agreed we much preferred christmas back home. The weather makes it different but in addition to that it just isnt such a big deal over here, its more like a normal public holiday. Anyway, to do this in chronological order..Christmas eve was scorching and we were invited out to Annie's house in Gawler which was really nice. Annie's house was full of decorations and Dylan had a great time trying to break as many of them as he could. We had a lovely dinner which even included xmas pudding! From there we went to our local church to the evening navity service. It was packed with families and outside the church they had a BBQ, a petting zoo full of farm animals and free donkey rides. We sang 'All come all ye faithful' with our sunglasses on and a glass of fizzy wine to try get in the spirit. On christmas day we did a whole host of skyp-ing with family while Dylan opened up his presents. I think it was probably quite slim pickings for him but he was more than happy with his Thomas the Tank Engine, Igglepiggle, Squabble and Elmo. Not sure how these will all fit on the plane. We heard that my grandma after a long illness had died on christmas eve which was sad and took a bit of the gloss off the day. Later on we took the tram to Glenelg to the beach and we werent the only ones there, in fact it was pretty busy with most of the cafes and bars open. We had a bbq in the park for lunch and even made a full(ish) christmas dinner back home that evening. Emma bought the Snowman on DVD so it did feel a little christmassy in the end.

So that was christmas, on boxing day we picked up the campervan and began the roadtrip. As it happened we got upgraded to a 6 berth van in the end which was huge but it was a good job in the end as we pretty much filled it. It was certainly luxury camping, we had A/C, microwave, TV, DVD even a playstation ! We headed off to our first stop which was Robe. One thing you certainly realise driving round Australia is just how big it is. Adelaide to Robe seemed a short distance on the map yet it took 5 hrs to get there. In fact over the week we drove over 2500 km ! Anyway we loved Robe, its a really small, nice seaside town. Our caravan park was on the beach and we were a few mins walk from parks, cafes and pretty much anything you might need. The other people on the campsites were also really friendly which is good as they do pack you in a little bit. One thing we noticed is that Aussies dont do camping as we know it, its a bit of a sport here with a competition to make it as home from home as possible. They have huge vans, trailers and tents plus every kitchen utensil you could imagine including (and I am not joking) coffee machines, beer kegs and wood fired ovens for making the perfect pizzas! Anyway we had a few great days in Robe as beach bums just chilling out before we took off on another trip, this time to Mount Gambier to meet Tina and Ben. Unfortunately being further north and elevated Mount Gambier has a reputation for not having the best weather and so it proved to be. The temp was about 20 degrees and we even had rain! Anyway it was really fab to meet up with Tina and Ben. We got a great campsite overlooking the Bluewater Lake (a volcano crater) which was close to a few good parks and wildlife spots. On the first night we had a bbq underneath several hundred of the loudest parrots and then got to see a possum in one of the floodlit gardens (we were promised several but as the temp dropped we were happy with one). The next day we explored the best tourist attractions the area had to offer although attraction was a misleading word in a few cases (we used the words 'one horse town' a few times) followed by another bbq this time in the rain (we joked the weather was probably better at home although i guess it probably wasnt). That night the heavens opened for the first time since we have been here and in a campervan it sounded like it was raining golfballs, at one point we were thinking we might get washed away. Miraclously Dylan (like every night) slept through it all oblivious. Tina and Ben had to head back to Melbourne the next day so we decided to head back the opposite direction towards Adelaide chasing the sunnier weather. It did certainly improve but wasnt quite beach weather. The remaining travels saw us drive for hours on long straight roads with us frequently the only travellers. We did a few more seaside places (Goolwa, Port Elliot and Victor Harbour) and had the best fish and chips ever, bar none (see pic). We arrived back in Adelaide just in time for New Years Eve and headed straight to the river for the family fireworks celebrations which was pretty cool although Dylan wasnt so keen. We spent midnight celebrations at home watching the Sydney fireworks on TV which were amazing.

And so the last few days we have just been making the most of being all together and in Adelaide doing all the things we have done many times the last few months and loved (beach, wildlife parks, playgrounds, outdoor swimming etc). The weather has been above 30 everyday for a few days now and its really great. Last night I went to see Adelaide play Sydney at soccer but at the Oval cricket ground which i think was the most picturesque match i have ever been to even if the skill on the pitch wasnt so good. And so now its pretty much all about coming home although with the falling pound its probably a good job as things are becoming pretty expensive now. I have 2 weeks of work left starting tomorrow and loads to do so I'll be busy. And Emma and Dylan I think are starting the process of saying goodbye to all the friends they have met. We might even try fit in one last trip away next weekend. We are all looking forward to seeing friend and family but we have had such a great time we will be really sad to leave. The stories of freezing cold weather, the credit crunch and most of the football results are not enticing us home at present but hopefully a few of those will improve over the coming weeks...maybe...

Ok, well time to sign out, hope you all had good holidays, would love to hear about them, although dont worry I wont ask for any comments :) Until next time byesbye S, E & Dx