Getting to know the local area

The weekend begins with Tea and cake with work colleagues in our local coffee shop. Mars bar cheesecake and my first ice coffee with ice cream, yummy. What a way to start the weekend. I have had a great week at work visiting old ladies in Adelaide, most of which I have found emigrated here themselves 50 or so years ago and they seem to love to talk to me about England and Europe. Today I had sight and guide training which was very interesting as I had to be guided blindfold around the streets of Adelaide. It was amazing how much you senses improve when you can’t see anything. It was strange how different open spaces, closed spaces, uneven ground and even over hanging trees made you feel. I was not too keen on the fact that I also had to rely on someone else to cross a road.

The weekend has been a jam packed couple of days. Mark is now back on his bike and went out with a mate on his bike on Saturday morning, leaving me to sort out the garden. Saturday afternoon with head to Goolwa to see the mouth of the Murry, and ended up getting caught on the beach in the rain. Sunday we head to Clare Valley with Jon and Liz to do a wine tour bike ride. It was a lovely day we did a 40 km ride and ended up stopping for lunch and wine on the way. We went to Sevenhills winery which is the oldest winery around. It’s an old monastery and the winery was started to make the monks wine for mass.



Mark, Jon and Liz taking in the wine of Sevenhills.

On the way back when I was pushing myself to get to the end, I was attacked by a magpie who thought I was too close to its nest. It came out of nowhere and tried to bite my head 3 times, thank god for me helmet is all I can say, but it did help me to get to the end, I don’t think I have ridden that fast before. After this encounter (I am ok by the way) I have taken to wearing a hat whenever I go outside.
This week has begun well I had Guides on Monday night and we took them to see the Adelaide gang show, was a late night but good fun. Tuesday night Mark and I tried out the RSB swimming pool which is open to all staff members on Tuesday and Thursday night. They have a 10 meter pool and we were the only ones there, it was fantastic.

I am sorry about the lack of photos, I will get them on here soon I promise

Nearly 3 months on

What a few months we have had. Getting married, moving to Australia, starting new jobs and losing jobs. We hope now things are settling down. We have got the house how we now like it and the bikes will be experiencing their first Australian outing this weekend.

Work is going well for both of us at the moment. Mark is being kept busy with papers and presentation giving and I am loving being back behind the Occupational Therapy wheel. I have even managed to drive an automatic car as work doesn’t have any manual cars. I can’t say I like it be it could be worse. They are keeping me busy and I am really enjoying it.

The weather has improved a little and we are now enjoying sun shine (at a temperature that we are enjoying) and longer days. With the longer evening we are enjoying some fantastic sunsets. We joined our friends Jon and Liz to watch a sunset near Brighton beach before heading back to theirs for tea on Saturday evening. We had a lovely evening with a fantastic meal and a good board game to follow. On Sunday we went out to see Georgia, Jason and their children (friends of Marks from Bangor). We head to Morialta (which is a nation park) for a gentle walk and a picnic.

It final hit me on Friday that life over here is becoming normal, when we got home on Friday we realised that the washer had gone in the outside tap which had resulted in our back garden being turned into a swop. As our water had to be turn off until the plumber could come round on Saturday to fix it. This gave us a good reason to turn out another local take away restaurant.

Monday – I began my guiding story again and visited a Guide unit in Burnside with the view to help the Guiders run the unit. I really enjoyed myself and ended up getting very involved, with making Mexican style hot chocolate. If you get the chase I would recommended any hot chocolate fan to give it a try.

Items arrived safely in Australia

30th August to 5th September

30th August 2010 had to be the busiest day yet in Australia. I started work with the Royal Society for the Blind and our items arrived in the country after a 10 week trip on the GTI boat. We are glad to say that everything has arrived in one piece expected Mark’s Castle of Britain Cow which has arrived in pieces (he, he).

My first week has gone really well. The team are welcoming and the work is very interesting. I have learnt so much already and I love it. I’m back to the business of putting smiles on old ladies faces. With work (training) and unpacking in the evening we have had a busy week.

The weather has been making us feel really at home this week. The rain has not stopped. In the last few days Adelaide has had 4 inches in rain and they say it is to continue this week. Though you would think the Adelaidains had experienced 3 weeks of snow, because they have no idea how to drive in this weather.

Has the rain has not stopped all weekend we have been getting the house in order and even managed to get Mark to go around Ikea to collect some bookcases and the all-important male armchair. It has been great fun going through all the wedding photos and presents again. Thanks again to everyone and for those of you wait to see the photos, don’t panic Mark is now onto it and will hopefully get the pictures to Chris by the end of September.