John's Birthday!

We started the long weekend with a bang! We went out for drinks with everyone from the office after work to celebrate another secondee leaving to go back to the UK. Afterwards, John and Ellyn went home to change and go out to Gouger Street, aka Chinatown, for some yummy Chinese. We walked out the apartment door and as the door was closing, Ellyn turned to John and said, “You’ve got your keys, right?” She frequently asks this question so when John made an awful face, she thought he was kidding. Nope! Both of our keys were sitting on the dining room table on the OTHER side of the door. That key also go us into our building so we could leave the building, but would not be able to get back in. After a few minutes of freaking out, we walked downstairs and Ellyn stayed in the foyer while John went around the street to find the building “administrator”. Of course he wasn’t home. So John came back and started talking to some guys that were standing outside (one was originally from Mississippi!). They gave us the number of their landlord (which was not the number for our landlord). It should be noted that we did not have the number to the corporate housing company KPMG rents our apartment from. It was on a piece of paper INSIDE the apartment…

We decided to head to the office and hope someone was there so that we could look up the number for the housing company. After a few messages left, we decided there was nothing more we could do and headed to Rundle Street (right next to our apartment) for some Asian there (so we’d be close if they called us back). On the way there, we received a call that someone would drive back into the city to see if the company had an extra key. We went to dinner and waited for the next call. Apparently, because they are trying to sell our apartment, the company did not have an extra key to our apartment, the realty company did. So they put us up in another apartment for the night and we had to go meet the realtor the next morning to get a spare key. The benefit of all this? We got to see the other apartment that we had to choose from before we came over. The other one was newer and so everything was fresh and clean but it was very modern and smaller and right on a busy street with street lights shining in. It also had a nice gym and pool in the building! Overall though, we agreed our apartment was better and we made a great decision!

Needless to say, since we had to meet the realtor at 8am on Saturday morning, we were up and moving early! So we decided to make the most of it! We got the City Bikes and rode all through the parklands. We found 3 BMX bike tracks of varying degrees of difficulties. John tried the intermediate while Ellyn stuck with the beginner course! By the end though, John tried out a (small) portion of the experienced track. We quickly realized we were not on the appropriate bikes though as he was coming down one of the slopes and the handlebars shifted on him!

We headed over to Haigh’s Chocolate Headquarters for a tour of the factory and some history on the Company. It was quite a neat tour and we got to see the ins and outs of how the chocolate is made (not to mention get some free samples!). Then we headed to the Central Market to get some picnic items before heading to The Pavillion, a beautiful park we’d not seen before until that morning. We had a great picnic among the flowers and the ducks, sitting next to a little creek. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjZOFP9Vq78

After we lazed around the park a bit, we headed back into the heart of town as Ellyn wanted to do a bit of shopping. While she was browsing in one of the stores, John headed to get some beer as we were on our way home to watch the Grand Final Rematch on our huge tv! If you can imagine this (we figured you probably couldn’t so we took a video…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vP30YIu-Ok), we were riding through downtown Adelaide with a case of beer propped up on the basket of John’s bike back to our apartment. We decided we looked like one of those couples that people see and say, “What on earth are they doing?!”

After the footy game, we were pretty down as our team lost so we just took the bikes back and then went for a walk through Rymil Park, next to our apartment and enjoyed a cigar John had purchased. We had a low key evening that night as we wanted to save up our energy for the next day…we were celebrating John’s birthday with lawn bowls!

Sunday morning, we got up and did a few things around the house (Ellyn baked John’s birthday cake, though not as exciting when he is there watching!), went for a run and then had a picnic and stroll through the Botanical Gardens.

We headed over to the Adelaide Bowls Club early afternoon to meet everyone for an intense match of lawn bowling! With Birthday Hats, of course!

There were 12 of us…John sure became popular quickly in Adelaide!

Keith even brought John a birthday present, which he immediately went into the bowling club and changed into:

(See previous post about the screen-printed t-shirts he wanted while we were in Sydney!)

We divided up into 3 teams and had lots of fun for playing for 2 hours. John ended up winning but it is still to be decided if that was because it was his birthday party and everyone felt bad for him…

After bowls, we headed over to Keith and Sally’s place for a BBQ! The guys stayed out back and grilled the food while the girls sat inside munching on appetizers and playing trivia games. We all hung around for a bit after dinner and the guys went across the street to play some soccer and Frisbee (apparently at the same time!) while the girls watched a “girly” Australian show. We headed home full and happy after a great day of celebrating! (We had the cake at Keith and Sally’s and everyone sang happy birthday but Ellyn forgot to get someone to take pictures!)

Monday was a holiday (Australian Labour Day) and all about John – it was his birthday after all! So we got up and he opened his presents and we had breakfast before catching a bus to Penfold’s Magill Estate winery. It is the original Penfolds winery and is located right outside of the Adelaide CBD. It’s a gorgeous spot, full of history (and wine!). We took a tour of the grounds and the cellars and saw some old wine (50’s) and some REALLY expensive wine (the barrels we saw were worth millions of dollars. We then of course, did a nice wine tasting – we had the standard and then you could pay to have an “upgraded” tasting, where you got to taste glasses from a $180 and $200+ bottles of wine…VERY nice!

After all this, we were getting hungry and decided to head to The Parade in Norwood (a tree-lined avenue with cute shops and cafes) for lunch! We walked to the bus stop but saw it was going to be 25 minutes before the next bus. So we started walking…we got about 2/3^rds of the way there and decided to stop and wait for the bus as it was only a few more minutes at this point. We rode the bus for a few blocks until we saw some cafes that we thought looked good. We walked around a bit before deciding on yiros and chips (one of John’s favorites!) and enjoyed the nice weather outside on the street. After lunch, we went to the closest bus stop. The sign said the next bus to the City would be…30 minutes!! (This is the frustrating part about public transportation…the wait!) So we decided to start walking to the City and hope that the bus would catch up with us. It never did…so basically, we walked about 7 kilometers and Ellyn was wearing like flats – not the greatest walking shoes! But the weather was nice and it was great to “explore” more of Adelaide!

As it was John’s day, he wanted to get the bikes again. So, after changing shoes, we got the bikes and rode down to the Torrens River. We rode along the path there for a bit before finding a sunny spot to lie down and take a little snooze! After a while, we decided to head home and have a proper nap!

We got up and got all dressed up to go to John’s birthday dinner at The Stag, a steakhouse right near our apartment. The food and atmosphere were wonderful!! This week should be good as it is a short week and then our last weekend in Adelaide!

Furry Friends, Footy and Flowers

The weekend started off well with an afternoon run through the city and on the way home, picked up a movie and gyros from one of our favourite places, Yiro House. (Admittedly, it is more of a favourite of John’s than Ellyn but she still likes its.) We had a nice “date night” Friday night before our day at the Adelaide Zoo on Saturday! John did the zoo audit this year and had walked through verifying the “assets” but Ellyn had not been to the zoo. She felt like she had her own personal tour guide in that John knew where everything was and what time all the animals were fed! He also knew the monkeys were most active in the morning so we needed to be there early!

Although not as early as we liked, we made it to the zoo about 10 and headed straight for the monkeys. They were awesome! Swinging all over the place, talking to one another, checking everyone out, etc. We sat and watched them for quite a while before heading around to other parts of the zoo. We had a map of all the animals and we wanted to see them all! The Adelaide Zoo recently created a panda exhibit as well and we were able to see the 2 giant pandas, Funi and Wang Wang! They are the only giant pandas in Australia. You actually have to get a ticket with a certain time to see them they are so popular! We continued on through the zoo taking in all the animals (including an “American Squirrel”…yes that was an exhibit at the zoo!!). When it was lunchtime, we headed out to the neighbouring Botanical Gardens for our picnic we’d packed that morning. We found a great spot and just as we sat down and opened our bag of goodies, a family of ducks came over to see if we had anything for them! Once we’d finished our lunch, we went back to the zoo as many of the feedings occurred in the afternoon.

Pretty peacock!

One of John's favorites, mandarin ducks.

John with the malayan tapir.

After a few exciting feedings (the lions…wow!) and taking in the few areas we’d not seen that morning, we realized we still had time to make it to the pub to watch the Grand Final footy game! We headed to a local bar near our apartment but it was pretty packed and it didn’t have Vale Ale (see previous posts) which John really wanted. But we were able to see that the 3^rd quarter had just started. So John decided we needed to the Coopers Alehouse (about 2 km away) to get a Vale Ale…he thought we had plenty of time! We booked it to the Alehouse and arrived with about 10-15 minutes still left in the 3^rd quarter. Surprisingly, we found a table and ordered our drinks and wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce. Previously, John decided he was a Collingwood supporter but Ellyn had declared her support for the St. Kilda Saints….well, we were surrounded by a huge table of St. Kilda supporters and St. Kilda was making an amazing comeback – they were down by over 20 points when we poked our head in the first bar and they were up to within a few goals (6 points each) when we arrived at the Alehouse, so the atmosphere was awesome! John decided, since he really did not have any allegiance to either team and the Saints were clearly making a comeback and supporters surrounded him, he may as well change his allegiance! Yay! So we both cheered St. Kilda on!

With just a few minutes left in the game, we were debating whether to get another drink; Ellyn’s great idea was, if they end in a tie, we’ll get another one for the overtime; if one team wins, we’ll go ahead and leave. Well, the Saints came back and tied the game and John headed to the bar! As he was chatting with the bartender about the rules of the game and overtime, the bartender kind of chuckled and said, “they play next week.” WHAT?! Apparently, when a Grand Final ends in a “draw” (i.e. tie) they wait an entire week and have ANOTHER Grand Final game! In order to give you some perspective, think of the Clemson/Carolina game played in a stadium that both teams share (so they both feel like they are the home team) and they tie and have to wait another week to play and the fans that are at the first game, don’t automatically get tickets to the second! This is the first time this has happened since the 1970’s and only the 3^rd time in AFL (Australian Football League) history! Needless to say, we’d just order another drink, so we sat back and enjoyed it and planned out where we’d watch next week’s game!

We started our walk home when we decided we should pick up some City Bikes and go for a bike ride. We did a little ride around the city and went back to the apartment and grabbed the movie and took it back and then returned the bikes. We walked back home and got showered and headed to The Lion in North Adelaide for a going away dinner for a guy from work, Roger, and his wife. They’d been here for 2 years and were heading back to the UK. There was a large group of us (about 20) and we had a great time hanging out with everyone. We went to the adjoining bar after dinner for a few drinks before heading home…it had been a busy day!

On Sunday, we got up and went out for a big brekkie and walked around Adelaide looking for a going away gift for ourselves! KPMG told us they wanted to get us something as a memento from Adelaide. Since Ellyn had already been here and received the standard gift (a coffee table book of Adelaide and South Australia), they wanted to do something different. We looked at prints of Adelaide and surrounding areas, aboriginal artwork, UGG boots, etc. but could not come up with anything that grabbed us.

We headed to the car rental company in the city to pick up Ellyn’s car for the next few days. She was working out in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills and the best way to get there was via car; since she would be working by herself the first few days, she just rented a car and got a spot in the parking garage in our building…it was really starting to feel like home now! We decided since we had the car, we should make the most of it and go for an afternoon drive! We headed up to Mount Lofty, the highest peak in Adelaide which has a great view looking down over the City. We walked out to the viewing area and took in everything but it was bit chilly so high up, so we quickly headed back to the car. We stopped at the Mount Lofty Botanical Gardens for a walk around on the way back home. We’d been told you could see “tons of koalas” on a walk around Mount Lofty, so Ellyn literally was walking around with her face looking up at the trees trying to spot koalas…luckily John was there to guide her but it was still a wonder she didn’t fall and break her neck! (No koalas were spotted… apparently you see them when you are hiking up to Mount Lofty, not taking the lazy way and driving up to the top and then walking around!!) The Botanical Gardens were pretty, though not as pretty as the ones in the City, but they did provide a nice place to walk around and some great views of the mountains and valleys. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZbDtFSaU54)

We were both feeling a bit sluggish so we decided to head back to the City. We went to Rymil Park, the park across from our apartment, and walked around a bit. We’d hoped to get the City Bikes and go for a short bike ride but they were all checked out so we walked around the parklands and John showed Ellyn where he runs at night.

We thought this sign was pretty funny!

Then we decided to go back to the little pond/lake in the middle of Rymil Park and get a rowboat! We got a rowboat and some big gummy worms for a snack and were on our way! John did a great job rowing at first and we went around the lake a few times. Then Ellyn tried to row and was not quite as talented…they only went about ½ ways around the lake that time. Rowing is a lot harder than it looks!! (Plus, these boats were not in the greatest condition!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O9o59pREgs

After our time on the water, we decided we should head back to the apartment and work on some planning for our 2-week vacation at the end. We spent the rest of the evening doing some chores around the house, trying to book our flights (though the airline server was down because Virgin Blue had a system error and their computer system crashed and they had to cancel heaps of flights…let’s hope they get the glitches fixed before October 16^th, our first travel day!), looking into places to go in the various areas we were planning to visit, etc.

The week was a good one with both John and Ellyn working pretty normal hours and Ellyn at a new client in Hahndorf. It is a drilling client but they also do cattle and sheep sales (random combination for sure!). Regardless, Ellyn was working at the kitchen table in the home of the owners! Everyone would come in and out as they pleased and at lunchtime, they all crowded around the kitchen table to have lunch together. The grandchildren of the owners were also there 2 days and Ellyn and the little girl, Anna, bonded and had lots of good chats about the differences between Australia and America. (Anna is 4, so our conversations mostly revolved around the fact that American’s put syrup on their pancakes, not butter, sugar and lemon juice, and we call jelly, jello, etc….really exciting stuff!) Lyn, the owner offered Ellyn some traditional Australian food at lunch time too – fritz meat (essentially like bologna or Spam, but it wasn’t too bad) and Lyn had a fancy coffee maker so just about every day, she made Ellyn a cappuccino and brought her a slice of chocolate cake. One afternoon, when Ellyn was kicked out of the kitchen for the maid to clean the floor, Lyn took her out in the paddock (in her heels!) to see the baby lambs and all the chickens. They had 3 little lambs named Wendy, Jack and Tinkerbell! They were so cute! Surprisingly, the audit still finished up on time but Ellyn decided that may have been her favourite client since she’s been in Australia!

We’re staying in town next weekend as well and have a great weekend planned to celebrate John’s birthday!