Learn Something New Every Day

We started last weekend with Quiz Night, sponsored by the KPMG Social Club. You were to sign up in teams of 8 to 10…we were part of the “Non-Oz” group (made up of all rotationals). It was quite a fun night, with drinks flowing (we determined it is very difficult to stay sober when you have someone continually putting new pitchers of beer on your table) and a master of ceremonies that was dressed up in true German gear and obviously had enjoyed a few “steins” of beer before the game night started. Our table did fairly well (we somehow still failed to win) and challenged the answers to a few questions (in true John spirit). John was selected by our table to participate in a “challenge”. He had to go on stage and hold a full stein (small, yet heavy, glass pitcher full of beer) while keeping his arm straight in front of him and not bending his elbow. He did a great job and was fourth out of 12 tables. He actually ended up giving up because he decided he’d rather drink the beer in that pitcher than get our table points…wise man!

At the end of the evening, we all headed out to a bar near our place, The Elephant. We had a great time and stayed until kicked out because it was closing. Needless-to-say, our Saturday morning was spent in bed a bit under the weather. When we finally did get up, we headed over to get bikes as we were going to ride to the beach and have a late lunch. Right…so, after a lot of drinking, our muscles were feeling a bit dehydrated and once we got out of the City, we realized how much farther we had to go. Ellyn gave John a look and he immediately said, “Whatever you are thinking, yes!” So they headed back to the City, took the bikes back and hopped on the tram to the beach. About 25 minutes later, they arrived in Glenelg. A great lunch followed with live music at a local hotel/bar establishment right on the main square. We walked out on the beach afterwards and then strolled through downtown Glenelg. We stopped for ice cream (for John) and fresh, hot cinnamon doughnuts (for Ellyn). After a while, we headed back to the City. John was literally falling asleep on the tram, so we decided to take a quick nap before heading out on a date night to celebrate our 2^nd month anniversary (Ellyn’s idea, of course!). But when the alarm went off an hour later, it was quickly turned off and we woke up Sunday morning. Kindof reminded us of our first weekend here and trying to get on Australia time! Guess we aren’t as young as we used to be.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed to the grocery store before being picked up by Hillary and her boyfriend Mark (Americans – Colorado). We headed over to meet Natalie and Quinton (South Africans) and Johann (English/South African) to go to McLaren Vale for some wine tasting and a late lunch. As we were waiting on Johann to meet us, we were all sitting around chatting and planning our day. Once he arrived, Johann, Natalie and Quinton went to their car and Mark cranked,or attempted to crank, ours. Nothing. Dead battery. No one knows why as we weren’t there that long and the lights weren’t on, just the radio. Mark mentioned something about being on a hill and pushing the car down but we all kindof ignored him, thinking, what is this guy talking about?! We called the South Africans for a jump but they don’t have jumper cables. Quinton, Natalie and Johann all said, well, we can just put the car in second and push you and then you release the clutch and it will start. Right… Ellyn thinks she’ll sit this one out. If we can paint a picture for you: small, side street, relatively flat. At the end of this street is a large street closed off to traffic on Sunday afternoons for a market. We were facing the large street with the market. As the three guys were pushing the car (John, Johann and Mark) and Quinton was “driving” they seemed to be going quite fast toward the crowd of people. At some point, Ellyn screams, “Maybe you should move to the front of the car to stop it because this obviously isn’t working!!!” Just about that time, she sees break lights and the car cranks up! Amazing! Now, sorry if others knew about this trick, but we did not. Of course, it only works if you have either a lot of strong people or are on a hill but good to know either way!

Now that we were on our way to McLaren Vale, we could focus on the task at hand…finding great wineries! We stopped at 2 of Hillary’s favorites, only to find they were closed. We then stopped at Maxwells, which had a great view of the vineyards and of the wine processing area. The cellar door had a large fireplace and was very warm and inviting. We stayed for a while, enjoying the wine and atmosphere. We had lunch reservations at Coriole so we left Maxwells and headed there. As we got of the car at Coriole, we saw large flames coming out of a “bush”. Someone mumbled something about an “uncontained bush fire” but no one seemed concerned. Lucky for us, it eventually appeared to become contained (luckily before our lunch arrived because all Ellyn could do was look out the window for the fire coming to get us!). The restaurant at Coriole was beautiful…overlooking a garden on one side and vineyards on another. The ceiling had old grapes vines going from one side of the room to the other. Great atmosphere. We ordered wine and standard platters of food, your only choice! But these platters were amazing. All the food was local: fresh veggies, cheeses, spreads, olives, bread, salad, roasted chicken salad, kangaroo filets and pork sausages. It was delicious!

After lunch, we headed to another winery but were less impressed with it. The cellar door was small, but no fire and the girl working there wasn’t overly friendly. Hillary and Mark had to get back for a basketball game, so we all decided we’d head back too. We rode back with Natalie, Quinton and Johann and stopped in Glenelg to drop Johann. We decided to take a walk around the marina and then stopped for coffee and cake (tiramisu!). Yum!

Eventually, we headed back home – arriving just in time for John to get to watch the end of the footy game with Adelaide (we lost). Another week of work this week, nothing overly exciting. Our plans for the upcoming weekend are still undecided as we determine if any work needs to be done. John and Ellyn have generously allowed KPMG to have this weekend and next as working weekends, ONLY if need be. So trips these upcoming weekends will be last minute and close by. Hopefully, we’ll make the best of them…