I am so looking forward to 2012.  I have so many things to look forward to! To begin with, in April, there will be the birth of two  niece (s)/nephew (s) (One official and one unofficial).  I also hope that I can add a miniature ’woowaa’ to the list of 2012 births – we’ll just have to see.  Then of course there’s the very real chance that Matt’s business will take off meaning that he will finally be happy at work.  If it doesn’t? Well then he’ll get an equally lovely chance in another (who knows what) job to finally be happy at work

We had a lovely Christmas – as you might have been able to tell from the piccies in my last post. We were both really lucky and had so many presents! Thank you to everyone who sent something over – I know it’s not easy.  The fun part about delays in postage is that Christmas keeps on going.  Since Christmas day we’ve had more cards from relatives and friends and even an extra pressie from one (CHOCOLATE BUTTONS and SNOW! – she knows me so well! )

and i haven't drunk a drop...

We spent the New Years weekend over in a place called Marion Bay.  Its about a three hour drive from our place.  We’ve been there before with Pete and Caz and they invited us again  We definitely couldn’t’ say no to the sea, sand, sun (40 flipping degrees it’s been all weekend) and the opportunity to have no mobile signal, no internet, no Twitter, blogs, Facebook, Google plus and all the other techie things that Matt and I both fill our days with! Instead there was sitting, talking, reading, (crocheting… just a bit ) and relaxing.  We even managed to keep Matt down at the beach for four whole hours.  That must have meant that he was really relaxed!

Matt and Pete in Innis National Park

Of course I also managed to achieve my first Jelly Fish sting….  Not as bad as you’d think.  I’ve never been stung by any animal but if there’s one thing in the sea I am scared of it’s jelly fish… the sneaky, see through little critters are just so hard to spot and then avoid!  One got me right on the shoulder blade!  We managed to up the anti though when we got home.  We arrived back at the house and headed straight back to the beach (I know… terrible life it really is).  At 40 degrees the best place to be is in the sea.  We were quite happy in there too until the RSL set off the Shark alarm. We didn’t actually get to see the beastie in question (that would have been cool) but we did have to vacate the lovely cool, bath water of the sea pretty sharpish! Unfortunatly, we were forced to lie on our towels in the sunshine until we dried off….  shame.

We have had one cool change today meaning that we’ve gone from 42 to 36 over night. Another is expected this evening that will bring the temperature down to 25.  After the last few days I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t have to “rug up” a bit! lol 25 will feel chilly.  The temperature are evening out to the low 30s now though.  It’s a shame the weather wasn’t like this for ma and pa last year.  I don’t think they believe me when I tell them how HOT it gets! It’s never happened when they’re here.

Anyway, that’s enough from me about what we did – you  can see for yourself  Here are some silly pictures of our shenanigans at Marion Bay

Now, as for New Year’s resolutions: I’m going to be brave and record mine here…. where it will be in Google and archived and everything (so it will have to be done).

1) I will either join a choir or get some vocal training – It’s about time I returned to that.

2) I will carry on with my Pilates every week, even when I feel rubbish, and will try and add two more classes a week to the mix (Zumba is good fun and maybe I can work my way back up to body attack/pump.)

3) I Will  try again with my book.  This time I’ll pick a local publisher and I will have an ISBN for it by the end of 2012 – so help me!

4) I Will finish the two iPod apps I have written for lesson planning and publish them to iTunes

5) I will be happy and healthy so that I can support my family and friends to do the same

What about you?

This set starts on Christmas Eve.

I’ve been adding to it since lunchtime yesterday  Enjoy!

Thanks for all the lovely pressies  We’re having lots of fun with them all

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Here’s a little something from us to you!

This week was going along quite nicely until i went for my consultant appointment with the Oral Surgeon on Tuesday.  Wanting to avoid not being able to eat solids over the christmas period I asked if he could fit me in sooner rather than later.   I wasn’t quite expecting him to say “sure.. I’ll shove you on the end of my list for Friday.”  So, here I am less than 48 hours later minus the one wisdom tooth I owned.  Instead I have a sore throat and a chesty cough caused by the tube the put down my throat for the general atheistic and a stitched up gum (ouchy) I should be fully recovered and ready to roll for Christmas though

We’ve also put up our Christmas decorations.  After bug bombing the shed to make sure we didn’t transfer and 8 legged beasts into the house with the baubles (we’ve had quite enough of those already thanks!) the tree, tinsel and all other shin/sparkly Christmassy bits are up.  I think Matt wanted to cheer me up!  :)  I do like Christmas!  Nearly all of the present buying is done and posted.  Most of you will have had your Christmas cards already and some of you will receive yours in a parcel with presents Keep and eye out for that posty van and try not to get too confused if a nondescript parcel arrives from amazon and you don’t remember ordering anything… That’ll be Matt forgetting to let you know that you shouldn’t open that until Christmas day.. lol

Despite being invited out for Christmas dinner, Matt is determined to have his own turkey. I’m leaving it to him to order it!  He’ll be eating turkey fo r a fortnight as he’s the only one who eats meat in this house (unless you count the cats). How are your christmas preparations going?

Christmas Cake Ingredients

I used to work with a teacher who , like me, got very excited about Chrimstas.   Sometime in October, she’d start telling me that she could feel Christmas coming that you could “smell it in the air”.  We used to have fun seeing who would detect the onset of Christmas first.  It’s true though, you can tell when Christmas is coming (and not just because the Xmas trees are out in all the stores from about August!), the seasons change, it gets darker, colder and the air smells damp and cold.  Christmas is coming.

Here in Australia of course the seasons are changing the other way.  It’s getting lighter, warmer, drier and dustier… Christmas is coming!  In fact, it’s the Christmas Pageant next weekend and I’ve just sat and written out as many of the Christmas cards I can that need to be sent over to the U.K. A lot of our Christmas pressie buying is done and I’ve just shoved the Christmas cake in the oven.

How are your preparations going?

Christmas time is coming!

Both summer and Christmas are clearly on the way. The temperature this week has gone up and down from 33 to 22 and the decorations have started to appear in the stores. Of course, being over here , we’re going to have to start xmas shopping very soon and get anything tat needs posting over to the UK within the next week or two otherwise, Santa might find himself arriving little late!

The clock have already “sprung” forward so that the sun shines on well after I’ve returned from work and. So, the days when the sun is burning hot, it makes a real difference to be able to come home and head down the road to the beach for a cuppa in the warm sunshine  That, “Living in Oz, is like being on holiday” feeling is creeping back in again.  Lovely!

It’s strange to know that all of my UK teacher friends have already completed the first half term of the school year and are about to settle into half term.  It’s even stranger to receive and email from HR asking me to tell them when I WANT to book time off  and telling me I have to use all of my days before the end of this year… I’m not used to that!  Usually, the council tells me when I’m not going to come in.  I’m also not used to having to work for months and months in one go without a break.  Having said that, my current job is no where near as exhausting as my old one and I know that realistically, for most of my friends, this half term is more about working from home than holidaying!  I get to work from home too so I guess that’s ok

Stan enjoying the sunshine with Pinky (the mouse) in the "water feature"

The half term break does mean, however, that I need to get on with making a Christmas cake!  It’ll need to be slowly fed brandy until Xmas day.  It looks like it’ll just be me, Matt and the cats this year as no one has booked themselves in for a barmy Xmas ont he beach so far.    I guess there’s still time!  Matt has made it very clear that this year we’re having turkey… even if he’s the only one eating it..

After spending time in Derby and Brum with the Woodwards we embarked on the massive mission of catching up with as many people as we possibly could… whilst continuing to munch through Matt’s food wish list.

The rolling English countryside!

Saturday morning we got up and drive over to Hereford. Hereford, is where I was born and where most of my family lives.   We drove straight to my Nan and Granddad’s house and caught up with them for an hour or two.  We walked in whilst they were in the middle of decorating their living room so Matt made himself useful by taking down the blinds! They both seemed really well which is relief as Nan has had quite a few health issues this year.  The only resident of the house hold who seemed a little subdued was mad dog “Whiskey” who amusingly seems to have put on so much weight he didn’t manage to greet us in the passageway as he usually does… he can’t fit through the pet door anymore.  He also seemed far less inclined to bounce about and spin on the spot.  Other than that I’d say everyone, including Jason the cat were all good!

Uncle Nigel was also there being chief wall paper person so it was great to see him too before we headed off to catch up with other relatives.

One significant thing I had to do was visit the grave of my late Nan and Granddad.   A week after we left England my Nan passed away and I didn’t have the chance to attend her funeral and say farewell.  So, rather than grabbing chips from the college chippy and having a cup of tea with her we had to head to the cemetery to say hello.  It was very strange and sad but it was good to take some flowers to cheer up her resting place.  In fact, we ended up picking up sandwiches and eating them on the park bench a few meters away from where she rests; I reckon she’d have liked that, us having lunch with her.

After visiting Nan’s grave we headed over to my cousin’s house.  She had a little baby girl whilst we were away and we’d never met her.  It was lovely to catch up with her and her brood.  They really are awesome kids, she should be very proud of them.  We arrived at a point where he oldest son had to apologise to her because he’d managed to hit her with his toy dinosaur… His response was that “big t-rex did it” and when she replied that big T-rex better apologise then he put on a monster voice and said “sorry mummy” .  Very cute!

It was also really cute to see the traditional Lloyd style sibling personalities in evidence.  Oldest one…  noisy, confident and independent.  Youngest one… shy, clinging to mum and quiet.  Tee hee!  Even Matt said I can see you there and Kelly there!   lol  It was really cool to catch up with them all.

Now.. this is BALTI!!! YOM!

On the same day we’d booked ourselves into our favourite Brummy curry house, the  Shylhet Spice Cuisine, in Kings Heath.  I can’t tell you how amazing it was to eat a proper curry with a proper Naan! Lol  I’ve really missed an actual Balti.  Our local curry house tries hard to make them but they’re just not the same as an authentic Brummy Curry!  YOM!

The curry gang! Thanks for coming you guys! :0)

What was even more lovely was that nearly 20 people came to eat with us.  Some of them driving from North Wales just to spend a couple of hours with us!  We are really lucky to have such fabulous friends.  There was a lot of love in that room !

We graciously gave ourselves Sunday off from our mad dash and, after a very important breakfast at Beckett’s Farm (sausages)  spent most of the day at Mum’s setting up their NAS drive (NERD ALERT!) Matt, of course, made sure that he had the opportunity to drink more English Ales in the evening; I was so tired of going out that I stayed in… Unfortunately, I didn’t know that Matt had taken a house key with him and so ended up staying up until the wee hours so I could let him in…. you might have seen the Facebook status! Lol

We bounced back into the swing of things on Monday, heading to my favourite place in the whole of the UK… Stratford upon Avon. I just had to go and see the new theatre and have a yummy cream tea by the river! I know it’s a clichéd British thing but I really do love a cup of tea and a scone with proper clotted cream!  YOM!

We were joined by friends of ours so we were given another opportunity to catch up with people we hadn’t seen for a while! All good

By Tuesday lunchtime we were on the train to London so that we could spend some time with my bestieN8 and her husband – I need to invent a little name for him    It’s always awesome to catch up with her and we’d planned in a little spa day to ensure that the gossip wasn’t interrupted by smelly boys.  That meant that we left Matt to his own devices.  He ended up catching up with a friend in the pub at lunchtime… and didn’t finish drinking until late that night…  I force-fed him about 2 liters of water that night… there was no way I wanted to travel back to Adelaide with a really hung over husband!  NO no NO! I think it worked too!

On the Plane home.. Matt didn't know what I was up to

And that was that.  A plane out of Singapore down to Adelaide and we arrived home Saturday morning! A whirl wind tour of Britishness and now it’s all back to normal…. Sunshine, 20 degrees, coffee at the beach….

It’s been sunny in both places this weekend hasn’t it?  We’re enjoying a lovely 5 day long weekend.  I can’t believe that today is the last of it all – at least schools don’t go back until next week so my jet-setting doesn’t have to start until then   Doesn’t mean I haven’t’ got prep to do though!

We’ve spent the weekend roaming Morialta, watching so much Supernatural that I dream about demons and strange incidents and eating way too many hot cross buns and chocolate (of course).  We’ve caught up with most of the family this weekend over the web of cam and heard that it’s been all sunny and nice for you guys too Yay!  Hopefully it’ll be like that when we’re around in June and August

The weather is “Autumnal” here at the moment.  Which means about 22-24 degrees and lovely.  I’ve spent the morning at the beach with a coffee (yay! i can drink that now) and a melting moment (a rather yummy lemony biscuit thingy).

Hendrix's Spider Friend - we shall call him "Borris"

Hendrix has been enjoying Easter and celebrating by toying with the affections of a huntsman spider – poor thing – Matt, being Matt, took a picture of him… with a ruler.. before releasing him back into the wild somewhere near the creek.  He was also impressed with a giant Ant we found yesterday.  It could lift a whole pine cone and carry it away

They’re both sat on their tower in the sun at the moment.  Sun bathing whilst keeping one eye on the front lawn for any signs of pigeon toys…. *sigh*

Sid the Lizard - in his home up the side of Morialta

We’ve seen plenty of wildlife this weekend but, thankfully, none that we would want to eat.

All in all it’s been a very relaxing weekend and although, to be honest, we have snuck a bit of work in there (shhh!), it’s been a lot more relaxing than a standard working day or two!    Here’s to Term 2, EVHC making millions and early retirement! (lmao) We’ll be millionaires by the time we’re 40… hey dad?

Well Monday… I was on holiday and so Tuesday felt like Monday and today feels like Wednesday but it’s Thursday and tomorrow’s Friday and then it’ll be the weekend again! Yay!

Yep. It was a bank holiday public holiday last weekend and we go invited to “The Beach House” at Marion Bay. Pete’s Dad’s beach house in a lovely, sunny, beach side location. As N8girl put it “I went to the coast… well a different coast to the one I live at..” It’s nice to move away from the housework and the office with the computer and three businesses. I think we all needed to be in a location where there is no phone reception, no internet (and as of Saturday lunchtime) no TV.

The QUEEEEEEN!

Matt decided to take the relaxing quite seriously. The first beer was cracked open in the car on the way down – not a habit I’m going to be encouraging…  :p. and stopped Saturday night after Matt had drunk soo much that:

He took an out of date Panadol to stop his mosquito bites from itching….
which resulted in him sitting inside, on his own, away from the mozzies, with monopoly all set out.
When asked what he was doing he quietly murmured.. ” I’m playing Monopoly… with myself… and I’m LOSING!” (not something Charlie Sheen would be proud of.).
Later on, when new friends arrived, he decided to play poker and was convinced that 3 cards were all you needed to get a flush… anyone who told him otherwise what not only a cheat but was somehow insulting her majesty the queen.
He combated this anti-royalist attitude by screaming about the queen in full voice at unprecedented pitches. You know the voice I mean….

He wasn’t the only one drinking, of course… Even I had a glass or two of wine. But I think after that marvellous showing of drunken Matt he was quite happy to abstain from further alcohol consumption.

WINE!

We all had great fun on Saturday lilo surfing.  We were very amused when Pete managed to get ‘wiped out’ by a wave an a secret dip in the shore line. I got quite excited when I saw a Ray underneath us… no not of the postie variety … of the fishy type with a little tail.  I imformed Matt of my discovery because I didn’t want him to put his foot down and squash the poor little fella.  He didn’t share my enthusiasm for floating above the little fishy. Instead he pegged it out of the sea dragging the lilo (and consequently me) out of the sea and back on to the shore at a rate of knots!

Of course there was the obligatory sand monster building (not Egypt this time) and the board games Matt even managed to play Risk for 4 hours… with other people this time… He came second. I fell asleep! lol

Thanks for letting us share in your lovely weekend guys!

I haven’t really been doing such a stellar job of keeping my blog up to date with events from the last few weeks have I? I guess we’ve been so busy running around doing things that I haven’t really had a moment to myself to sit down, reflect and write. I did manage to shove up loads of pictures of us opening pressies and the like but so much has been going on since then I am afraid that this post may become behemoth in size.

Christmas on the beach

An antipodean Christmas and New Year is certainly different, even if you have your parents around. I’ve had interesting Christmases before but when it’s actually supposed to be the norm it is most unusual to sit on a beach, dipping your toe in the sea on Christmas day.

It’s also very strange having Summer and the Christmas holidays all at once. I don’t envy all my pals back home who have returned to work, I still have another 4 weeks of hols left, but I’m sure I’ll be desperate for a longer holiday in 6 months when I should be getting another, medium size break for either Christmas or Summer.

It is lovely though and although we had to ‘ship’ everything, including the fridge (in the form of an eski) down onto the beach, the day had a very un-chrismassy relaxed feel. Usually, Christmas is a massive job from start to finish, breakfast, present opening, cleaning up from present opening, preparing 3 course lunch, eating lunch, cleaning up after lunch and then keeping everyone entertained all afternoon before preparing a buffet style leftovers option for all the other visitors who may appear during the evening. This Christmas we ate cold meat and salad (probably what would normally be the left over bit) and then wandered off to the beach. Simple and strangely relaxing! I didn’t even have to worry about what my “Christmas outfit” would be. No posh frock.. just my

bikini….

Feeding the ducks

Pretty early on mum established a relationship with Honk and Honk .  She discovered the duck and chicken feed available at Coles and they have been spoilt every day since.  They have been chomping their way through bag after bag of the stuff!  Unfortunately for Matt and I the ‘honks’ like to come to our bedroom window and make loud noises until she goes out to feed them!  Not sure what’ll happen when she leaves on Sunday Hopefully they’ll return to their bread diet as before.  They’ve certainly been fattened up over the holidays! Matt keeps looking at them an muttering “Good life Pizza, ginger jam.. Hop on!”

Bruce Meekat says "g'day"

Mum and the fake Pandas

Of course, mum wouldn’ t be satisfied with just geese and ducks and so we’ve visited the Zoo,

Moriala and Gorge Wildlife Park.She’s spent an hour taking pictures of pandas and hogging the panda exibition spots (holding off small children who wanted to cuddle them) We found Bruce Meerkat and she’s even cuddled another Koala. We did attempt to see Dolphins at Port Adelaide but unfortunately – and unusually, they decided to swim the opposite way up the river.  We spent 2 hours on a boat and when we got off we found them under a bridge. We had some pancakes and a wander around the town too. Dad took some piccies of the lighthouse (a strange one it is) and mum found some pirates to talk to.

Light House Port Adelaide

No Dolphins - Sulk - Port Adelaide

Pirates at Port Adelaide

Relaxing in the Hammock

Despite being dragged around all of these lovely wildlife parks (he loves it really!) Dad has managed to get some rest. Whilst hanging about in the hammock or messing about on a sun lounger he has taken the opportunity to be all entrepreneurial and see if he can expand the business out here. He’s even flown to Melbourne for meetings, met with bank managers and accountants and registered websites. He probably now knows far more about Australian business and tax practices than I do (despite having had a business for 12 months).

Chim Chimeny!

I’ve kept mum busy.  She was being annoyed by grass that was not the regulation half an inch in length and really doesn’t understand the concept of a dishwasher.  As a result, she decided to the mo the lawn dust in her new dress and turn into a swamp monster.  She has also managed to get through 2 bottles of fairy liquid (I’ve had the same one for a year now… never use the stuff!) Was amusing to see her very muddy face when she realised what she looked like. Especially after she’d already marched out the front to have a chat to the locals resembling something like chimney sweep.

Windy Penguins

Apart from spending time on the river I’ve also taken them to Victor Habour so we could visit the “Little Penguins”, visit somewhere new and let Matt enjoy a bit of the “holiday” feel whilst we celebrated the New Year. Hilariously, it turned out to be a

Up the Bluff Victor Harbour

bit nippy and windy the night we chose to visit Granite Island. Well… that is if you can call 16 cold. I honestly have no idea how they’ll survive when they get back.  Mum has been describing temperatures that are well into their 30s as temperatures “like back home”… Perhaps that’s the air-con working well?… too well?

We walked up the Bluff, a very beautiful hill /hump on at the pinnacle of a lovely sweeping bay, ate fish and chips, “froze” whilst watching penguins waddle about and enjoyed the facilities at the McCracken Country Club. All very lovely.

House Hunting

Some time has also been spent looking at real estate and land. I’ve driven mum and Dad around loads of the areas that we’re thinking of buying in.  We can’t afford anything here in Grange so we’re looking further down south in Port Noarlunga / Moana or slightly further north in Largs’ Bay / Semaphore.  We’ve been approved for a mortgage (yay!) but we’re attempting to be very careful this time… Interest rates are rising, new builds aren’t going up as fast as they were (even though it all looks like it’s booming and the house prices just keep going up… surely that has to stop at some point? Probably, knowing our past history, at the point where we have just finished unpacking the boxes.  It’s fun having a look around though :0) Mum’s fancied herself as a bit of an Amanda Lamb I think!

Ipads... addictive.. apparently...

If you’ve seen my faceache or Twitter status updates then you’ll probably know that one of the gifts I got at Christmas was an Apple MacBook Pro.  I’m using now… So I’m attempting to be different and try something new and stylish.  Mum and Dad arrived with Ipads in tow.  Picked up in Singapore – because everyone had one – I don’t think they can actually go more than 4 hours without playing with it!

Dad’s got the radio, the papers, his email and the archers on his.  Mum’s got solitaire, tennis (which she plays enthusiastically whilst dad’s trying to sleep – occasionally knocking him with her tennis elbow) and soooo many more apps.  I constantly here ” can I have… it’s only 59p”.  She’s even discovered she can get mild porn Mils and Boons to read on there! She is as I speak, warming up dad for the purchase of Series 1 + 2 of Merlin for the plane home… lol  They’re worse than the flipping kids!

Botanical Gardens SA

Motor Museum SA

LOF gets Floaty