Another Night Out

Another night out with great food and great company.  A get-toghether between Christmas and the New Year. I do love Australia!

Loberthal Lights

 A little town about 45 minute drive from Adelaide has loads of Christmas lights.  They have craft markets & food stalls and all sorts of things going on.  Unfortunately the markets and stalls weren't there when we went. 

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There is even a house where you can go into the garden and look into their windows they have even more moving Christmas decorations and toys.  It was a bit weird looking at Christmas lights whilst listening to crickets.

Christmas Day - Aussie Style

 

I have to say that Christmas down under doesn't seem like Christmas at all.  We had a full roast, Christmas pudding.  The walk on the beach after lunch was beautiful - made even better by the photograph with the lovely surf lifesavers.

Everything about Christmas here is the same apart from the weather.  Laughing, eating and drinking with friends and family.  A jolly good day had by all.

Wine Tour in Barossa Valley

A Christmas themed wine tour in Barossa Valley was beautiful.   Felt very unchristmassy even though we were all dressed in something festive!  Our first stop  was at Peter Lehmans at 10:20am and as we were paying $5 for the tasting, we decided to do the full tasting.  It was a first for me to be a bit tipsy before 11am!

 

I think that many of my friends in the UK would love the idea of chocolate for wine!  What a brilliant idea - many people's 2 favouirite things made to go together!

 Maggie Beer is a famous Aussie chef - she has a place in the Barossa where you can taste some of the foods and wine.  It's set by this beautiful lake which had turtles in.  They were so cute, kept coming up to the surface to see if anyone was offering any nibbles.
 At the Whispering Wall, I was quite tickled with the people walking across the damn in Christmas gear in the bright sunshine.  The wall is really interesting, if you go over to the other side and the wall and whisper, people left at the beginning of the wall can hear you clear as day!

On the return journey there was someone else who couldn't take it again and had to have a little nap.  To be honest, I probably would have had a sleep as the bus was pretty warm - I just didn't want my picture published on the internet!

Christmas Lunch

 I was lucky enough to be invited out for a Christmas lunch at a local Chinese restaurant.  How much food did we eat? It was all delicious!

Di wasn't impressed to find the head of the lobster in her bowl.

At drinks after lunch, we went to a 'pop up' bar in the street selling wines from a local wine maker.  I was particularly taken with the make-shift ice-box in a plant pot!

Triple Rainbow

 On a walk to the shops, we saw about 4 parrots in a tree which was pretty awesome!

 Just outside the house, there was a triple rainbow - it hadn't even been raining.  Each end of the full arch had another rainbow attached and the top of the full one had another rainbow underneath.

Work's Christmas party

A Christmas party in the sunshine!  Very unusual for me but great fun!  Almost everyone who works at CLG attended the party which was held at a colleague's home around the corner from school.  There was a pool and a trampoline.  Everyone had such fun on the trampoline that I think Santa might have to buy a bulk order for everyone.  There was a special visitor at the party - he must have been pretty warm in all his fur!  Everyone received a present - all individually picked which must have taken hours!  Mine was a pair of 'thongs' which allows me to tick of 'wear a pair of thongs' on my Aussie bingo.  While I was scrolling through the pictures on the night,  I got a huge fright when I saw the picture at the bottom, I was sitting right next to the spot, my feet were straight off the floor until I realised that it was just a pair of sandals!

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Summer

Summer in Adelaide is beautiful.  The jacaranda trees are in full bloom and look stunning. The trees aren't native apparently but they certainly seem to like the climate.  It's just a shame they're only in bloom for a few weeks. There are so many vibrant flowers and plants, the colours are just beautiful.  A short walk up into the hills gives you a view of the city and the sea.  I just love it!

Koala at School!

 When I received a call from my lovely colleague telling me that there was a koala outside the music room, I dashed straight up to the room.  When I got there, I thought it was dead as he was so still!  After a few minutes, it moved his eyes and just looked at me as though he was saying 'What are you looking at you pohm?!' It was inside the school grounds and as it was such a hot day, we decided that he may be thirsty so I filled up a tray with water and put it right next to it.  It was completely uninterested in anything I was doing.  It was at this point that I discovered that koalas are constantly 'stoned'.  Apparently there is something in the eucalyptus leaves that spaces them out.  It might explain why they are so slow, however, after checking out the suggestion on the wonderful Google, opinion is divided but I like the idea so we'll go with that.  After school, I went to check on the koala to discover that it'd moved up into the tree.  It actually had one leg either side of the trunk and was just taking in its surroundings, looking at us nonchalantly!

A few days after this, I was on my way home from yet another BBQ and I spotted one on the footpath, just around the corner from where I live!  At first I thought it was a dog as there was a couple with it, but when I took a second look, I realised it was actually a koala. It was on all fours and obviously having a wander!  Awesome! 

School Concert

The end of year school concert at CLG has nothing to do with the Christmas story (a huge issue here - RE is not a subject on the curriculum!)  The show is a song sung by each class in the school who team up with another class and put together movements.  It's a military operation!  This year's theme was 'Around the World in 80 Minutes'  There were lots of great songs and the children did incredibly well, my class did 'With a Little Help 

From my Friends' because of the UK connection.  They did a fantastic job and it was great fun!  The finale is a 'special guests' performance, performed by members of staff who are happy to join in.  As I'm embracing this experience, I joined in of course!  We sang 'Dancing in the Street' by David Bowie and Mick Jagger mixed in with Gangham Style!  The crowd went wild!  The Reception children did seem a little confused to begin with but loved the Gangham Style piece. The t-shirt say 'no direction' which we thought was an apt name for a group which with no coordination in a country that are so obsessed with One Direction!  I was in the city the other day and noticed a 'One Direction' shop.  Aparantly it is open for one month only and does seem to be rather busy!  One of the children my class asked why I wasn't in it!  Another one in Reception  said 'You know Mrs S, it's actually One Direction!

BBQ

After the wine tour, we headed down south for a BBQ.  This is the view from the front verranda where the BBQ was held.  It doesn't get much better than this.  Next time I'll try to get a picture of the sunsetting over the ocean...stunning!

McLaren Vale Wine Tour

Anyone for a wine or 3?

My first wine tour since I've been here which was very restrained of me to wait more than 3 months.  The McLaren Vale was stunning and the company was awesome.  Our first stop was a cheese factory as the winery down the road wasn't open.  The blue cow above was proudly welcoming us to the place.  We then went to Victor Harbour Wines where we purchased the odd bottle. The journey was great, lots of chatting and laughing all the way down south.  The scenery was stunning around the area, the sun was blazing down.

We visited 2 other wineries after a lovely lunch at Victor Harbour. Ballast Stone had plenty of wines on the tasting list & we worked our way through the whole lot!  Currency Creek was my favourite (not sure if that's because it was the last)  I particularly loved the wine rack and would enjoy having on like that at home!

Awesome group at Currency Creek

The journey home did seem a bit much for some people - hot weather and wine is enough to make most people need a snooze!  

The watermelon hat were swapped for a lolly & we were chatted up on the train home which added to the fun of the day.  Can't wait for the next one to the Barossa Valley next month!