Clare Valley

Hey all, just another quick update from me. This weekend to celebrate our anniversary Cheryl and I visited Clare Valley. It's a nice little wine area further north from Barossa, probably two hours out of Adelaide. You can see the photos here.
Clare Valley is known for it's bike trail, the Riesling trail, so in the spirit of the thing we hired a couple of bikes and went cycling. Rather than stick to the trail, which is flat and easy and boring, we went for the more exciting so-hilly-you-think-you're-going-to-die loops instead. At one point we were a bit confused as to where we were, but we found our way eventually. We probably rode about a 20km round trip, stopping for lunch at a winery along the way. We had plans to cycle to more wineries but unfortunately the weather had other plans, catching us in the start of a deluge that continued the rest of the day and most of the night. Still, we got to enjoy staying inside in front of the fire toasting the occasional marshmallow, so i'm not about to complain.
As well as the cycling we also got to Mintaro, which has a hedge maze (and giant chess!). Cheryl beat me to the centre of the maze, but I won the chess game, so we had to call it a draw.
Anyway, that was our long weekend. What about you guys?
P.S. Cows!

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to Damien and Cheryl.

Lots of love from Mum and Dad.

The card is in the mail.

Kingston

Hey all,

I thought i'd do a quick update. Last weekend Cheryl and I drove down to Kingston with Sam and Carlie. Sam's brother Josh and his girlfriend Belinda have gotten engaged, so there was a party there. Of course we couldn't visit Kingston without a stop off and standard pose at Larry the Lobster's place :)
We stayed at a really nice Beach house with five others, so it was a full house. It was only after we made two guys share a small futon that we realised there was a second double bed mattress under our bed. Whoops
The party was great fun, lots of beer (but I was designated driving, so I just got to enjoy the drunken dancing later), huge amounts of food.. Bel's mum didn't emerge from the kitchen until well into the evening :) And the next day we were invited around again to share in barbecued bacon, eggs and tomatoes. We drove home on Sunday and Sam and Carlie flew out that evening. I don't think I've recovered from all the food yet.
There's a few more photos on my flickr stream.. although most of them are of the giant lobster :) There were photos from the party as the night progressed, but I think everyone is hoping they never make it onto the internet..

I love my mobile phone

Yes, it's true. Why else would you have a mobile phone if not to take those on-the-spot photos :P
Here's a few I've taken over the last few months...
Trinity and I went to the park after dropping the car off at the mechanics. You don't take the camera out when you're going to the mechanics, right... but you do take your phone!


Here we were out shopping at the Marketplace. Why would I have a camera? But the phone was perfect for catching Trinity's enjoyment of a choc chip muffin when we stopped for a break.

And finally, a day at the pool. Adam never came with us, so it was great to be able to take a photo and send it to him so he knew what he was missing LOL

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! It's been a little while, so I thought I should fill you in on all the exciting stuff going on in Adelaide.

...

It's been very hot.

...

But seriously, the Fringe Festival has ended now, it went for about a month all up. We saw a few shows: Ross Noble; Claire Hooper; Best of the Edinburgh Fest (all comedians, and all quite entertaining). By far the best thing we saw though was La Clique. It's a little bit sideshow, a little bit circus and a little bit burlesque. There was a couple of gymnastic guys who balanced on each other's heads, and a contortionist who fit his body through two tennis racquets. The contortionist was my favourite to be honest, he was both disturbing and hilarious, plus at one point he fell off the stage - who doesn't like that? There was also a rollerskater, someone with hula hoops, a guy in a bathtub and another guy with disturbingly high pants. I can't recommend it strongly enough, it's such a fun show to see.

The Adelaide Festival of the Arts has also ended - it had a public light show on North Terrace that was so popular they extended it for a couple of weeks, which was just as well because we only got to see it the other evening. It is really impressive.. Essentially they project lights onto the great old buildings along North Terrace.. but they create spectacular work with that simple idea. We didn't take photos because you really need a good camera with a long exposure and a tripod.. but thanks to the magic of the internet you can see some photos here and here.

In about an hour we're off to pick Sam up from the airport, he's visiting over Easter which should be fun. I hope you're all having an enjoyable time and hopefully we'll catch up around Christmas (or at least eventually)

A kids Book in Parts

Once there was a little prince his name who's name is Fredric. He liked to play soccer with his friends but his parents did not.

I'm on TV

im on tv WIN news tonight 6.30 because i went to the 2020 summit a talk about the year 2020 and what we want it to be like

Our new addition-to-be

Thought I should update finally! We had our ultrasound at 20 weeks and bub is healthy and doing well. Here are some pictures from our CD.


This is bub in profile with the little chin pressed against the chest.

This is a little pair of crossed legs.

Two tiny little feet.

And the left hand... we have a picture of the right as well so we know there are 8 little fingers and 2 thumbs in total.

Bub is due around the middle of July and was measuring a week ahead at the ultrasound. I have a few weeks before more blood tests, specifically the glucose one. Hoping to avoid the gestational diabetes this time around! Will try to keep the bandwagon up to date. Sorry.

And a big thank you from Jared and Adam for the birthday wishes!

concrete grinding

We finally got the quote to get our concrete floor ground to level, $800 to $1300 plus GST. Today we went to check the hire places with the view to do it yourself. Two different machines and two different prices. We returned home then Dad decided to get the closer and cheaper option and make a start.
Five hours of grinding later, he has almost levelled the two slabs. Still to surface grind the rest of the floor. With an approaching blister for him and one in place for me, we adjourned at 5.30pm. Hopefully a good night's sleep and we'll be fresh to continue. I got my blister sweeping the concrete dust away. We filled two buckets as well as the vacuum cleaner. I used the air con to blow air into the room so the open windows carried away the rest. Dad used his compressor to blow the dust that settled on the outdoor furniture. More again tomorrow.

six posts in a row, doo dah doo dah

Helloooooo from Manchester.. again.

Actually, this is just a quick one to say that I spoke to Glenn today. He and Dee have moved and the house is good - but it's new so they don't have a phone line yet.. so they don't have internet yet.

Dee's mum will be visiting them soon, so Dee's going to have some holidays (Glenn has to work). However, because we get Good Friday and Easter Monday off, Glenn's coming up to Manchester to visit. Yay! I'll make sure I take some photos and post them afterwards.

In other news, my first trip out with the Lab is next week (I'll take photos) and in the meantime I'm trying to get schools interested enough to book in. I wouldn't have thought it would be so hard to convince high schools to book a free programme... but that's how it is at the moment.

Busy busy (so I should go to sleep now).

Somebody else better write a post next or I'll just keep up the tally. *grin*

*big hugz*

Happy birthday Adam!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM

Hope you have a splendid day and a fabulous year.

*hugz*

Happy birthday Jared!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!

Hope you have a most excellent day.

*big hugz* from Aunty dayna
(and keep your eye on the post box.. *grin*..although it might take a week or so....)

Patrick's adventures

Damien and Cheryl sent Patrick to me. He's a very cool little monster and he likes to go on adventures. His first adventure (other than his trip over here from Adelaide) was in London. He didn't leave Glenn and Dee's apartment, but he still managed to get into a few things..


His second adventure was up in Scotland. He came to Glasgow with me - I'm not sure what kind of mischief he got up to while I was working...



And then when we got home, all he wanted to do was play with the toy "Lab in a Lorry" that I'd got.. of course, he was good enough to share with Moo.


I'll try to keep track of Patrick's adventures - but sometimes he wanders off without telling me. Cheeky monster. *grin*

quick question..

i was just going back through the Bandwagon (i need to provide my addresses for the last 5 years for a CRB check so i can work with kids).. couldn't find my addresses (worked them out tho i think), but i did notice that tim still has some posts back in the archives..

..anyone care if i delete them? i know he was part of my life for a while.. but i don't need reminders of it. only thing is it will delete comments too.. ..i'm sure he's not said anything important.. and i can put any interesting comments into their own posts..

that okay?