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