Long weekend in April

We hope you have all enjoyed your Easter break.

We have been lucky here in Australia as we were given a 5th day off. This was because over here the 24th March is known as Anzac day and as it fell on the same day as Easter Monday we were given another day off. Anzac day put simply is like our Remembrances Sunday or November 11th.

We began our little holiday with a day drive to the Coorong to search out some campsites. For, when we finally get our act together and get some camping equipment. Camping out here it seems will be an experiences and a half, and I can’t wait. There will be no popping to the pub to keep warm, or running showers or toilets.





Saturday was pretty quiet. As the shops over here do shut for public holidays it was the only day to collect supplies. The rest of the day pretty much was spent in the garden, collecting wallnuts from our tree and pruning trees. That was until Liz and Jon came over for dinner. On the menu tonight is homemade fish and chips in beer batter with mushy peas and for desert homemade dark chocolate biscuit cake and truffles.

Sunday (Easter day, Mark had a bike ride planned with mates and I had an urge to go running. So on went the running shoes and in went the iPod earplugs. I managed to impress myself by running 20 minutes without stopping, which I felt was a good effect seeing as it had me my first attempt of running since last July. The rest of the day was relaxing in comparison. I had a long breakfast whilst reading the paper. Yet again my local pub The White Eagle in Rhoscolyn was discussed in relation to the Royal couple. I think I may have to send the White Eagle the cut out, the heading on the notice board could be ‘ White Eagle makes international news’, what do you think? On Marks return we headed to the park with a picnic. I felt like I was back in the grounds of Malvern College with all the trees turning colours of yellow, orange and red, beautiful.

Easter Monday, as Mark was not feeling inspired today I took control and decided it was a good day for a long walk. We headed up to the Adelaide hills near the Mclean vale area and completed a 10 km walk around a pine plantation. This was followed by a pint or two in a pub recommended as the nearest one by our built in car entertainment system (Mark calls her Samantha, I call it a Satnav system). It was called the Duck inn. Will be placed on our pub guide if you every find yourself here.

Tuesday, once again Mark is off out on his bike this morning and I for a run. On my return it was time for camp preparations and cooking a lamb and vegetable soup (or should I say time to use up the left overs in the fridge). This afternoon we once again ticked off another walk in one of our many SA walking books. And once again Samantha shined and showed us the way to a very good pub, which even severed Speckled Hen (An English beer) and had a log burner. I have to say for a car system Mark said we would never use, it is beginning to demonstrate its benefits.

Now its time to return to work and look forward to our trip to New Zealand in May.

Well April has been yet a busy month

At the beginning of the month Mark and I went to our first special wine tasting session at Mont Lofty Range, which was a lovely afternoon, with amazing Pino Noir wine, sun and a jazz band.





During the first weekend we also pick up our latest wedding present to be framed. It’s a felt picture made for us by my godmother Sheila who kindly read us a reading during our wedding.



Mark has been away for most of the month. He is back now for a few weeks before heading to New Zealand at the beginning of May.

This month I have been celebrating the Guiding centenary with a Sunday afternoon of games and cooking. Also this month I have been getting ready for my 1st Aussie style Guide camp in May. I have finally got my Aussie camp blanket ready.

This week I had a surprise when I saw my home village on Aussie News because of a story for William and Kate. It was fantastic to see my local area and local pub (The White Eagle) on Aussie TV.

http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=600936&vId=2327101

Last weekend we have been relaxing and enjoying more lovely walks in the Aussie bush. On Sundays walk we met some Kangaroos and a number of coloured lizards and a christmas coloured beatle.

Aprill 2011

I have been meaning to write this blog for over a week now, but time has got away from me. March has been a busy month both Mark and I. Mark has had a number of presentations to prepare and conferences to go to. April is no different for me. On the first Tuesday of April Mark begins a 2 week field trip. The first week he will be going to the Clare Valley in South Australia. The second week he will be flying to Victoria and spending the week driving the length of Victoria to collect soil samples.

I on the other had have been very busy with work and Girl Guides. At the end of March I went up to the Yorke Peninsula to see my clients. I spent 3 days up there and Mark came up to join me for the weekend. This part of work seems to be going really well, I am now working on advertising our service to others on the Yorke Peninsula to try and up my caseload and vision loss awareness in general.
Girl Guides is going really well, I have been in contact with the Guide units at home and we have arranged to begin pen-pals, with the hope that one day the girls will all meet each other. The letters have now arrived from Wales and I have the job of matching them up. It was really nice reading them as there were a number of girls in the collection of letters that I knew personal. Our unit has also gained another Guider too, which has been lovely as she is in her early 20’s and brings so much to the unit, also nice to have the extra support. The girls have been busy this term working on their Go Girl Challenge and as part of this I arranged to take the girls indoor climbing last week. It was great fun; I’m not sure who had more fun me or them.

This month we have also been getting the finally bits of the house sort for the winter (this sounds so wrong in April). It may be autumn here for it has not spot me from doing my spring cleaning or should I say ‘winter springing’, mum. Mark has also been busy mending things, we have finally fix my Granny’s lamp, which is proudly position on my piano and he has finally fixed his panniers to his commuter bike (so he will now fit in with Adelaide cyclists).



As I told you early Mark and I have spent a weekend up in the Yorke Peninsula. It’s the most beautiful place, and I may have found my home. It feels weird to think that nearly 12 months ago I was a community OT in Wigan and now I’m a OT in the Australian Outback (how cool). Anyway we had a fantastic weekend, very relaxing and fully recommended for a trip if you find yourself this way. We spent most of the weekend doing 4 by 4 driving around the Peninsula taking in the sights on the way.
Here are some of the pictures taken during the weekend. They will be more on flikr at some point.







Mark Left the Yorke Peninsula early on Monday morning and catched a few pictures of the sun raise on his camera. I on the other hand returned to bed and began work at 8am and return to Adeladie later in the day, after confronting my first kangaroo on the road.



A couple of weeks ago we took a day trip up to the Murray River, what an amazing place. We even found an area that looks like the Yorkshire Dales. Below is a picture of the Murray River and our new car a Land Rover Freelander.







This weekend has been a quiet one as we have both had a very busy week following our weekend away. Today (Saturday) Mark has been working and I have been spring cleaning. About five o’clock we went for a walk in Mount Osmond which is just up the road. It was lovely it was like walking on the Malvern Hills near Great Malvern (which is where I spent my gap year). On our walk we saw deer and a koala. Tomorrow we are off to a wine tasting session in the Adelaide hills, though I will be learning to spit.