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