Well I've been a little bit busy since the turn of the year!
January
We had a fortnight of tempatures in the high thirties vearing to early to high forties on a couple of days- this was okay to begin with as there is no humidity but after a few days and nights (oh yes, it doesn't drop much at night!) I was over it. Thankfully most of the time was spent at work and therefore not our air conditioner that was worked to full capacity. The dog coped reasonably well with the help of a very kind neighbour who kept an eye on her. It was way too hot to stay outdoors for any length of time - thank goodness for shopping malls.
February
Mum came to visit, landing on the last day of the heatwave, for us that was not her! When she wondered why I wasn't going outside with my cuppa to sit in the lovely sun, I suggested that she could sit out if she wanted but I didn't advise it - didn't take her long to go out and come back in to the air conditioning!!!! We spent alot of time in the car travelling all over South Australia to all the local tourist spots and at the weekend to dog shows! She'd never been to a dog show at midnight before, in a sundress! When I showed her where we were going to be building our house, we were pleasantly surprised to see that they had actually started to do the foundations - we were to return every few days to see the progress. The Gold Coast was our next destination. As seems to be the norm when we go to there, it was torrential rain for the duration of our stay, but it made everything appear very green compared to that brown of South Australia. Onwards we travelled to Melbourne by air and then by car via the Ocean Road back to Adelaide. The Ocean Road changes scenery with the seasons, as this was the 2nd time but in a different season it was interesting again. Adelaide was to be our last day of sightseeing but we never made it - on the Sunday night, luckily, we were checking the flight times for the Tuesday only to find out that mum actually flew home the next day!!!! It was rush and an early start but she saw the pigs and bought her opals before catching her flight home.
March
The weather turned colder. Never thought that I would find 15 deg cent cold but now, it may as well be 2 deg. The job I'd being doing for the past 5 months took me on permanently.
April
Dog agility shows and travelling all over the state seemed to take off this month. The temp didn't improve and the rains came dwn and forgot to stop - made everything green again though and they really need it here in SA.
May
Our rental agreement was due to run out, but our house (new build) wasn't ready. We renewed the lease for three more months in the hope this would be all we would need. The weeds were growing like triffids but the rain was still coming down at the rental and the grass was no sooner cut when it needed cut again.
June
We get word that our house will be ready early July and we start to prepare for the move. I also have to prepare for the first of my Insurance exams - not studied anything for over 20 years - help.
July
My husband is diagnosed as having a hernia. Within 2 weeks he has had the operation and 3 days later we got the keys to our new house - talk about timimg!!!!! It turns out that the tiler can't lay the tiles because the floor's not flat enough, they deliver the wrong tiles and can't get the ones we want, find new tiles but can't get a new tiler for several weeks,there is no electricity supply to the house yet either - can anything else go wrong??
August
With most of the problems fixed to some degree and the tiles and carpets now down, moving day approaches. It was almost cheaper to move half way round the world than thirty kilometers! They did start at 7am on a Sunday though. It was an interesting few weeks with no curtains and living in a fish bowl but atleast the rest of the street was empty. We eventually got rid of the rental and retrieved our bond money in full.
September
We have a pool - not an inground/above ground pool but a natural, courtesy of the torrential rain one night. Several trenches have been dug and most of it has gone on it's merry way to next door.... We now have fences all round and a driveway and front lawn. New furniture has been bought and the rooms are full, garage has been emptied and the cars and bike now reside there. We also have a new addition to the family in the form of a ragdoll cat. We nolonger have one wild child but 3. The cat and dog are the very best of friends, although the dog threatened to kill the cat on the first sighting - now I wish they would leave each other alone to sleep peacefully rather than play on two levels - cat round the furniture, dog on the floor - child never far behind either.
Back to dog shows soon.....
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
New Year's Day 2009
Happy New Year!!!
We were to have a BBQ on the beach New Year's Day.
A time for meeting had been arranged and a BBQ fit for beach use had been purchased. All necessary goodies were packed in ice and cool bags etc, the required permit for driving on the beach had also been obtained, we were all set.........
Our son was all excited about going to the beach and would wear nothing bar his swim top and trunks and he yattered away in the car telling us what he was going to do -we had about a 30min drive to get to the beach- all went quiet after 10 mins and I turned round - he was out for the count!!!
We arrived and met our friends on the beach and also a force 10 gale!! However we were determined that the BBQ was going ahead. As the BBQ was new a pair of pliers were required to attach the gas bottle - no probs there, next light the gas..............as we were all non smokers nobody had any matches! Shops open? Not likely, this was a public holiday - again thank goodness for petrol stations.
Whilst we were waiting for them to come back with the matches we had used our car as a wind break - but the wind seemed to disregard this attempt and blew a gale around us - it was freezing!! - well about 19 degrees (felt cold though!!)
Eventually they returned with the matches but by that time we were frozen and all had our jumpers on - it was decided that we would just go back to their house and we would have the BBQ there The little one had slept through all of this!! and thankfully was still asleep.
The BBQ was set up and we all enjoyed a good meal and the wind had dropped or least wasn't hitting us because of the fences. The wee one had woken up and was not impressed that he was not at the beach but soon forgot as everyone was playing with him.
Several hours later about 6.30pm we decided to leave - from having been absolutely frozen on the beach because of the wind we were now well and truly burnt because of the breeze and the sun!
But as we got into the car a little voice could be heard saying "I want to go to the beach" over and over and over.
The wind was again blowing like mad but the sun was still shining so we decided to keep him quiet and take him back down to the beach. He got out of the car shot off down to the water straight in up to about his knees turned round about and went running back to the car saying "Let's just sit in car and watch!". We were doubled up laughing!!
A couple of pictures of Aldinga Beach's beach.......................
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Christmas in Australia
Apparently we have just had Xmas!
I say apparently because it is nothing like we have ever experienced before. At work there was home baking and morning teas (not a lot of work was done!!) and although there were cards around the place and a tree with lights it still all felt a bit surreal. Added to the fact it was so light you never noticed the lights on the tree were actually switched on!
However Christmas eve came and all were wished a merry Christmas but to me it felt as though everyone was just going on their summer holidays! The temperature outside was around 30 degrees and the sun was shinning and Xmas day itself was forecasted to be even higher.
As the shops were to be closed for the next couple of days I attempted to get the usual stock of milk etc.... forget that the car parks were full and the shelves were empty - thank goodness for petrol stations!!
We were invited to an Aussie friends house for Xmas - it wasn't until she phoned and confirmed details that we realised we were going to be up at the crack of dawn and on the road - it was for Xmas breakfast at 8am!!!
We wrapped our son's presents and decided to let him open just a couple before heading off for breakfast and the rest would be left for later in the day when we returned. He opened his present to reveal a digital camera (Fisher Price Kid's tough) and was absolutely delighted and photographed everything in sight - didn't really need to get him anything else but we had!
Off we set for the breakfast in two cars - my husband was on call and was determined he would get a call out - the roads at 7.45am were reasonably quite with just the odd car going about so we were quite surprised to go through a speed trap - think we were okay but will have to wait til the new year to find out.... When we arrived at our friends house we could actually see the trap and he never moved for about 4hrs.
We had a lovely breakfast and then went for a walk through a working orchard which had miles and miles of netting over it at a cost of thousands and thousands of dollars but we were warned to watch for snakes and at this point I started to freak a little when said son kept disappearing into the distance and out of sight - couldn't get out because of all the netting though but 400 hectares is a lot of area to go searching for him!!
The new camera was well used and lots of quite interesting photos were taken - I would download them when I got home.
As I sat down at the computer to download the photos from the new camera all I could find were pictures of my son's feet and the back of the front seats in my husbands car - he had deleted all the photographs of the morning some of which were actually really good for a three year old.............sorry none survived you will just have to imagine blue skies and hot weather and views up valleys (not green but brown as the grass is all burnt!!) and a lone car trapping all the speeders.
The afternoon was spent cooking the turkey roast on the BBQ.
On Boxing day the shopping centres had all had the Xmas decorations down but the sales were in full force.
The TV was even worse than that in the UK.
I say apparently because it is nothing like we have ever experienced before. At work there was home baking and morning teas (not a lot of work was done!!) and although there were cards around the place and a tree with lights it still all felt a bit surreal. Added to the fact it was so light you never noticed the lights on the tree were actually switched on!
However Christmas eve came and all were wished a merry Christmas but to me it felt as though everyone was just going on their summer holidays! The temperature outside was around 30 degrees and the sun was shinning and Xmas day itself was forecasted to be even higher.
As the shops were to be closed for the next couple of days I attempted to get the usual stock of milk etc.... forget that the car parks were full and the shelves were empty - thank goodness for petrol stations!!
We were invited to an Aussie friends house for Xmas - it wasn't until she phoned and confirmed details that we realised we were going to be up at the crack of dawn and on the road - it was for Xmas breakfast at 8am!!!
We wrapped our son's presents and decided to let him open just a couple before heading off for breakfast and the rest would be left for later in the day when we returned. He opened his present to reveal a digital camera (Fisher Price Kid's tough) and was absolutely delighted and photographed everything in sight - didn't really need to get him anything else but we had!
Off we set for the breakfast in two cars - my husband was on call and was determined he would get a call out - the roads at 7.45am were reasonably quite with just the odd car going about so we were quite surprised to go through a speed trap - think we were okay but will have to wait til the new year to find out.... When we arrived at our friends house we could actually see the trap and he never moved for about 4hrs.
We had a lovely breakfast and then went for a walk through a working orchard which had miles and miles of netting over it at a cost of thousands and thousands of dollars but we were warned to watch for snakes and at this point I started to freak a little when said son kept disappearing into the distance and out of sight - couldn't get out because of all the netting though but 400 hectares is a lot of area to go searching for him!!
The new camera was well used and lots of quite interesting photos were taken - I would download them when I got home.
As I sat down at the computer to download the photos from the new camera all I could find were pictures of my son's feet and the back of the front seats in my husbands car - he had deleted all the photographs of the morning some of which were actually really good for a three year old.............sorry none survived you will just have to imagine blue skies and hot weather and views up valleys (not green but brown as the grass is all burnt!!) and a lone car trapping all the speeders.
The afternoon was spent cooking the turkey roast on the BBQ.
On Boxing day the shopping centres had all had the Xmas decorations down but the sales were in full force.
The TV was even worse than that in the UK.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Motorbike mayhem or not!!
An annual event. - 15000 motorbikes leave from the seaside suburb of Glenelg lead by santa and travel into the Adelaide Hills town of Handorf.
It is a charity event which sees the bikers hand a toy in at the Handorf oval to St Vincent de Paul charity lorries where they are collected and redistributed along with food (at a later date). The toys are strapped to the bikes by any means and the presents range from the small to the extremley large for a motorbike!!
Whilst travelling through Adelaide the bikers pass out (throw!!) sweets etc to the many children 
that line the roads some who have gone prepared with their camp chairs and large bags for collecting their wares!
that line the roads some who have gone prepared with their camp chairs and large bags for collecting their wares!Whilst in Handorf we had never seen so many bikes parked at one time - there is everything from the modern day to the first days of motorbikes and then some! - every biker is supported - moto cross, day riders, trike, hells angels etc etc........ No trouble was to be found and none has been reported - a great day out!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
As we had competed for several years at agility in the UK we decided, that although we were now down to just the one dog, we would continue.
Our Australian Shepherd that we imported with us had just started agility back home so we were nowhere ready to compete with her but required a training club.
After several phone calls to various people we found a club local to where we were staying and more importantly would be training that night and we could go along and be assessed.
We turned up at the training venue which was about the size of a couple of football pitches (length wise) and there were about a hundred dogs there!! Alas they were not all for the agility but for the obedience side of the club - the agility was at the rear of the club house. We went round and there was about 10 dogs there!!!!!
The dog was assessed and it was decided that she was very good - by their standards - and she could join in with their competition dogs on both a Wednesday night and a Sunday morning.
To join their agility section the dogs had to be 18 months old and completed grade 5 obedience training - ours was over the 18 months but had not done any obedience other than basic training - sit, stay etc on lead! (the equivalent of their grade 1!) Handlers had to be at least 12 years old to train and to compete.
There are several clubs in the surrounding area that train agility second to obedience but there is a club closer to Adelaide itself which trains agility exclusively - we again had to be assessed and move up through their grades - again something she has done quickly! We now train 3 times a week - which sounds a lot but because of the size of the clubs, tends to only mean about 4-6 runs a night.
Another rule they have is that they don't train when the temperature is forecast to go above 32 degrees that day. It does stay this hot even at night and we are not anywhere near the summer yet!! It can also get pretty cold here - something we weren't prepared for.
Our Australian Shepherd that we imported with us had just started agility back home so we were nowhere ready to compete with her but required a training club.
After several phone calls to various people we found a club local to where we were staying and more importantly would be training that night and we could go along and be assessed.
We turned up at the training venue which was about the size of a couple of football pitches (length wise) and there were about a hundred dogs there!! Alas they were not all for the agility but for the obedience side of the club - the agility was at the rear of the club house. We went round and there was about 10 dogs there!!!!!
The dog was assessed and it was decided that she was very good - by their standards - and she could join in with their competition dogs on both a Wednesday night and a Sunday morning.
To join their agility section the dogs had to be 18 months old and completed grade 5 obedience training - ours was over the 18 months but had not done any obedience other than basic training - sit, stay etc on lead! (the equivalent of their grade 1!) Handlers had to be at least 12 years old to train and to compete.
There are several clubs in the surrounding area that train agility second to obedience but there is a club closer to Adelaide itself which trains agility exclusively - we again had to be assessed and move up through their grades - again something she has done quickly! We now train 3 times a week - which sounds a lot but because of the size of the clubs, tends to only mean about 4-6 runs a night.
Another rule they have is that they don't train when the temperature is forecast to go above 32 degrees that day. It does stay this hot even at night and we are not anywhere near the summer yet!! It can also get pretty cold here - something we weren't prepared for.
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