OK. So now I know it’s spring…. As i got off the train this afternoon look who greeted me ….

I also spotted these guys… I LOVE these little birdies. As I have said in previous posts I actually have no idea what their official name is but I have dubbed them ‘Sea Chickens’ because they kind of move like a super model like chicken and live in the water… (Makes perfect sense really when you think about it.. .honestly!) Anyhoo, when I got off the train I noticed 5 little mini, fluffy babies and a sea chicken mummy!  Yay! I’ve never seen baby ‘sea chickens’ before and they are ultra cute! I went and grabbed some bread and look what happened! Isn’t cool the way mum holds the bread in her claw to feed the little ones?

The last animal related story I have to offer involves my classroom at my new job. The classroom I’m teaching in is on the top floor (as usual!) and has an older Promethean Activ board with a projector in the middle of the ceiling (as usual) none of these Ferrari type short throw projectors for me

I usually like being on the top floor because it means the projector doesn’t wobble around when people move about above me.  Instead, it usually sits, steady and controlled and I don’t have to keep orientating the board all the time… That is unless you have a possum in your roof.  Now, that’s something new!  Yep… I have a possum living in the roof! Yay!

So, it would seem that things have gone a little crazy here in the ol’ southern hemisphere. By now, no doubt, you have seen the news stories about how New Zealand’s Christchurch has been hit by an earthquake. Quite rightly, probably, you didn’t hear about what was happening here in SA.  To us ‘poms’ to be honest, it was just a sever October storm (think that one what happened when I was a kid in the 80s).  The only difference is, we’re not really supposed to get such weather types down here in SA – or at least that’s the impression I’ve been given.  At the very least, it was very obvious that the infrastructure wasn’t up to dealing with it!

42,000 of us were left without power last night as the winds raged outside.  What’s really strange is that Friday, in my opinion, seemed to be a much more dramatic weather day. The storm started at about 9am – thunder, lightning – the works and didn’t end until tea time.  When I got off the train after work I was watching the lightning strike over the sea.  It was awesome – if a little scary.  It also worked very well during a lesson I was teaching about murder mysteries (tee hee)

Yesterday’s weather was grey and windy. We lost power at about 4pm – Half way though “The Prince of Persia -Sands of Time” (worth watchin’ that!) – and it didn’t come back on until way after dark.  Matt and I busied ourselves with our won little candle-lit jamborie.  I called Mum and Dad to let them know that I wouldn’t be on line and that I was safe.  I was convinced that Mum would see the news about New Zealand and think “oh my god are they alright!!”. Amusingly she did warn me not to go to the beach – for fear of tsunamis…. LMAO!!

Anyhoo.  Last night was fun!   BLACK OUT! ooooh

Today it’s quite sunny – a few rain clouds about.  Nothing too interesting to report… Oh unless you count Matt’s discovery of  Thebarton  FOODLAND’s Butcher:

Champion of the Beefy World!

Last weekend we were invited to a BBQ at a friends house.  Very cool Whilst we were there Matt was introduced to the idea of the fabled Thebarton Foodland.  Now, those of you who know my lovely husband, will know that large portions of cheap meat (that tastes good) is a very important part of his spiritual being.  I believe his religious denomination on face book actually reads “The Church of Beer and Steak”.

We were actually in Coles (think Sainsbury’s) when we began to hunt for some bacon. At this point I remembered the meat from the BBQ last weekend and suggested a change of store. Everything in the trolley was promptly returned to the shelves as Matt’s eye’s lit up.

Proud to be Beefy

And… boy… look what he found.  That’s nearly 5 Kg  (just over 11 pounds)

/ 176 ounces) of porter house steak for $24.00 (£14.25).  I’ve never seen him happier. It’s taken him nearly 30 mins to cut it up into 21 steaks. He also found a large bag of Chicken breasts and chicken drumsticks (about $7s each)

I just hope he likes Beef that much!

On the way home we were joking about how the scenario might be  a little different in the UK. How, if we owned one, we could chuck the whole slab of meat on the BBQ and invite Adi, Jack, John, Adam and all the other greedy meat eating beastly men around to just sit with steak knives and gobble the whole thing up.  Alas, he’ll just have to do it all by himself.  Poor thing!

I hope there’s not another black out… Otherwise that’s a whole lot of meat to eat in one go if it were to defrost!

First of all, an apology.  I haven’t posted for a while.  I’ve been having such a busy, busy time of things recently and I haven’t had the time / energy to post! lol  BUT I have soo much to catch up on.. So… get comfy my pals and read along

The last, rather brief, mostly video, post I wrote was an announcement that Mini and Ad were in Australia and were engaged!  All jolly good news Since then I have been busy entertaining them.  They left me on Monday morning to go on an adventure down the Ocean Road; they should be flying somewhere over Pakistan by now as they are going to land Friday evening (UK time).

The funniest thing about having people to stay is you’re never quite sure what kind of activities they’ll want to take part in or at what pace they will want to do them.  Whilst they were here I learnt that it is best not to expect to do very much at all until about 11:30 at which point they will have managed to get up and dressed and will be ready to step out and do something interesting.  Nothing wrong with that at all – after all they’re on their holidays.  It gave me the morning to check emails and do work related things  anyway

Koala spotting at Morialta

So, what did we get up to in those afternoons? Well on the Saturday after their arrival we all trundled off to Morialta conservation park to do a bit of koala spotting.  We saw at least 5 before we made it to the waterfall at the centre of the park.  There was some debate over which walk we would endeavour to complete.  You see Adam and Matt had consumed a little bit too much beer the night before and I had a cold… then it started to pour down… proper, torrential CAPITAL R Rain!

Rain at the Waterfall - Morialta

So that was that!  5 Koalas and a short sprint back to the safety and shelter of  the car!  Adam, upon feeling the rain falling down the back of his neck,  immediately recovered from his hangover – Miracle cure!

Sand Whale Building

During the week, whilst Matt was at work, Mini had to visit the beach. It was sunny and lovely and after a cuppa at the Jetty Cafe she set to work on collecting “special shells” (still not sure what that means) and then making a sand castle.  When Adam put his foot in the middle of it, it turned into a whale.. Not sure how… Not sure why a whale has a large hole in it either but it kept Mini entertained enough.. She even dragged Matt back that evening to have his picture taken with it.  I think she was concerned that the sea, a dog, or a happy child may come along and get rid of him.  Rather over protective of that “soap dish” style whale she was!

Whale Watching at Sunset

Garden Time

In the afternoon, whilst waiting for Mr W to return home from work I put Adam to work on the garden… MOAH HA HA!  No really, I was going to do it and he insisted. Possibly because it was an excuse to just put his Ipod headphones in and get some Me time!! Lol.  He did a very nice job too, whilst Mini found one of those fluffy caterpillars from previous posts and made it  a house out of a leaf……. lol I’m sure it was very comfortable and very happy when it realized it could eat it’s house…

During the next day we stayed in.  Adam wasn’t feeling very well so we just ended up chilling in the house.  When Matt got home we headed off to Glenelg though and visited the chocolate cafe and the pier. I think Adam was particularly impressed with Glenelg and all it’s cafes and bars

Aboriginal art Adam

The following day meant a visit to Adelaide’s city center in search of a large koala pencil case for Mum, amongst other things.  We also visited the SA museum.  Do you think Adam chose his “life” circle T-shirt on purpose?

Cleelands park was the order of the next day.  That place where you can cuddle a koala and feed the kangaroos.  Unfortunately, that was all we managed to do.  It began pelting it down with rain and we had to retreat to the cafe and home again!

Koala group shot!

Adam and his new Kangaroo mate

Wii boys

Several evenings were taken up playing games on the Wii. I attempted to convince Matt that we NEED Wii Guitar Hero but it’s not happening yet.  Need Pete to work on him a bit more! lol He and Adam played a lot of the real thing (as in actual guitars) all week anyway so I guess that’s ok..!

The final weekend was very busy too.  Pancakes at the port, dolphin tours, tennis, dinner at Redpoles (It was Matt and I’s 2 year wedding anniversary!) It was all going on!  Finally, we had to go and pick up the hire car for Mini and Adam’s trip down the Ocean Road.

It was a very busy, action packed week and a bit   I think they had fun.  We certainly kept them very busy I hear that they have met Carl Kennedy on the set of neighbours though.  I’m pretty sure that that would top anything else they have done the entire time they’ve been here!!

Here are some more piccies…. just in case you haven’t seen enough yet!

On the Dolphin Tour

At the Warrawong Sanctuary doing the night walk

Tennis Anyone?

Snogging on the beaches- EURGHHHH!

Beach Posers 2

Sea Side Piccies

Beach Posers 1

On a serious note.  I loved every minute of having Mini and Adam around and it was so hard when they left.  It made me remember how difficult it can be to be on the other side.  It’s not the wrong side of the world but I miss my lil’ sis when she’d not around.  I’m really glad she made it over for the “summer” … Hope she can make it again for the actual Summer one day. Then she can have her beach holiday!

They’re here and they’re running a muck!

and getting engaged!  — OOOOhhhh!

The ring!

The Location - Day Dream Island's Jetty

This is the first time in a long time where I’ve watched a Neighbours preview and been excited!
Not sure about the modern version of “Suddenly” for Ringo and Donna’s Wedding but thank the lord for Paul Robinson!

This should air here next Friday October for your guys in the UK

I kid you not!

I love this… like I’m 15 and angsty all over again!

(lyrics copyright John Butler, 2010)

So tell me family now what do you think? Watch it all go in the great big sink. Watch how the scum it rises to the top. Don’t you wonder when it’s all gonna stop? Sometimes I wonder how we do sleep, serving the dodgy companies we keep. All kicking and scrounging for the very first place – dictionary definition of a rat race. Pay off those losers we elect to lead, stealing from the mouths that we’re meant to feed. Enslaving the very clothes upon my back, I feel the sting but I hear no crack, no crack,
I’m saying +

Running through the fire, running through the flame, running through the hatred, pushing through the blame, running through the hopelessness and shame, revolution already underway ++

[B]ig Heavy [P]irates man digging those holes, messing with something that they can’t control. Trespassing lands where they don’t belong, all I hear is screaming where there once were songs. I got my brothers they’re fighting those wars, fighting over scraps and scraping their sores. Under a blanket of a fire and pride that can’t keep us warm for the cold inside, inside,
I’m saying +

So tell me when you think we’re gonna rise? Wake from this slumber wipe the tears from our eyes? Yes from this nightmare yes I must now wake, open my fist my destiny I take! Good people sick and tired of being pushed around, we call them kings but I see no crown. Tell me when you think we’ll just stand up? Saying enough is enough is enough, enough,
I’m saying

++ Take back your feet, take back your hands, take back your words, take back your land. Take back your heart, take back your pride, don’t got to run, don’t got to hide.

Revolution!

Tee hee…

There’s a message here to media advertising

This week Matt’s been off work – well he actually quit work and so didn’t really have any work to go to, as such! He starts his new job on Monday though and hopefully he’ll be much. much happier in his newer surroundings ( Cue funky annoying music).  He is, as we speak, organising and copying across his research materials onto his mobile phone – remembering how he used to like his job

As a result of this impromptu holiday and the fact that it’s the beginning of term we’ve ended up spending all week together – which is lovely He’s also spent some time in the garden making new friends (as you can see in the post below) and I got to go out for a curry (first one since we got here) and meet the friends he had made at his old job as they toasted him farewell. He has some pretty cool pals from RB who will miss him (and his matrix puppets) This can be found on Matt’s face book wall.

A eulogy for the departed employee.

We haven’t done much this week really. A lot of making decisions about NAS drives and Ethernet over power adaptors (not something I think I should be encouraged to blog about) but it has been nice to chill out (and spend a fortune on Nas drives and Power line adaptors).

We did start our College course on Monday.  We decided that in order to make new pals we should go and learn something new.  We’ve signed up for “Therapeutic Massage for couples”.  Every single person we’ve told about this (without question) and both raised an eyebrow and giggled whilst making some kind of leud comment.  Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!  Free massage every Monday – awesome!  And… it isn’t even remotley kinky.  There are 10 couples studying together.  (We only work on our own partners by the way) over half of them are over 50 and the other remaining couples are about our age.

Last Monday we worked on facial massage during which Matt almost started snoring (lol) and decided that the best way to end a relaxing facial massage was to tweak my nose and make a honking noise. It’s actually ok and not strange at all!  We’re all crammed into the room and have tables we have to dress with pillows, sheets, towels etc before we start but it was good fun and very tasteful. lol

Next Monday we’re doing back massage and how to “drape” in order to preserve dignity.  We’ve had to purchase massage oils and everything – oooh exciting!  I’m glad we’re doing it though!  We need to get out more… On that note.. I’m off to dinner with some new pals in a mo at a lovely pub called the Oxford in North Adelaide.  We seem to be actually getting a life these days   It’s all very promising!