So now they've gone to Mordor

They left this morning :(

I watched the sky with great interest today (I had a lot of washing to do) I waited for the 4 hour flight to end and then took a picture... (I even put the date and time on to prove it)

You will notice that as soon as the Howards were safe in their new holiday destination the sun came out - and stayed out - ALL DAY! Poor things. I don't know what the weather forcast is in NZ but I can guess!

A news reader has just told me that we have had the most rain they've had in a decade over the last 3 days!!!!!!! ROFL! Oh dear!

Yesterday we went to the Wine region of the McLaren Vale. It was lovely. Particularly the Red Poles cafe we went to .. Tasty food! I was the driver this time which meant that I was very sensible and didn't drink. We have bought some lovely red champagnes though (well red bubbles) we think we might have red bubbles at our wedding so we figured we'd check them out! I'm not a fan of white bubbles so red it definately the way to go!

After dropping them off this morning I spent time working on my Promethean course - completing this week's tasks and playing WOW. It took me over an hour and half to complete one quest! So much for water form!

The good news for Mummy Cow is that Ann is only away for another week ;) and the good news for Little e is that a certain cuddly creature will be in the U.K. soon. There are some choccie bickies there too for mum :)

It's going to be a quiet week i can tell you! Bring back the rain givers!



Whose next? May is free! Last minute deal anyone?

Add your captions for this picture via the medium of comment! keep it clean

3 days and counting...

This is the current fashion...


Three long days of non-stop rain! The aussies are jumping up and down with glee and we're just a little bit annoyed now! There was actually a weather warning last night for the Adelaide area asking people not to leave their houses because the water was beginning to flood the storm-water drains! LOL. My god it's the same effect snow has on the U.K.! lol

The amusing thing (well for us anyway) is the it's going to be sunny by Monday Lunchtime whilst it will be raining in New Zealand by tea time. Observe - A + J's flight leaves at 10:00am from Adelaide and arrives in NZ at tea time!!! I'm not kidding. The poor things.

Anyway.. we've been out and about with our kagools all over the place. We've been to the museum, the river, the town center and the First Falls at Moirialta. Where we went back to see the koalas I posted a few weeks ago. This time, of course, there was plenty of water for a waterfall and the Koalas were not looking nearly as fluffy or happy as they were when it was sunny. In fact they looked upset and miserable (and about 1/2 the size)

We're off to the Maclaren Vale now.. We're just waiting for the Police man to file a report... we got up this morning to discover that a sling shot and a marble had damaged the front porch sliding doors. It looks like the house was involved in a show-down! Not good. Ah well.

Father J and his big snake...

Well they're here. They arrived Tuesday night and have brought with them more rain than Australia has seen in many months! Continuing the tradition that V + W started a few weeks ago, A + J have brought with them at least 22mms of rain. More rain than SA has seen since Winter last year. The poor things have brought this rain from Africa to Sydney and then to Adelaide.

However, being the mad Pommies that we are, we aren't going to let a little bit of rain get in the way! (Infact, secretly, I quite enjoyed it ;) We spent the day in the city with every intention of seeing a wide array of things and visiting many of the cultural icons that adorn the North Terrace of Adelaide's city centre. We got as far as the Tandanyla center (for Aboriginal arts and culture) where we remained until LOF picked us up in the early evening/ late afternoon.

Despite that fact that it was bucketing it down, we bravely decided not to cancel our night walk around the Warrawong Park. Armed with a Kagool, a hat and a smile, we braved the rain and wandered around in the face of adversity. We saw several animals such as Bandicoots, Kangaroos, Potoroos and turtles. The Kangaroos were soggy and looked like they'd been waiting for us just so they could complain about the lack of Umbrellas and question what this stuff was that was falling from the sky all day! The Koalas, Platypus and other interesting animals had far too much sense and stayed out of site; somewhere dry. In fact, I expect they were with the bats (who also didn't appear) in a bat cave (probably under a posh new build) drinking hot chocolate and watching the idiot humans who were dripping wet outside, with big torches trying to catch an animal running from under one bush to another.

Koala's were purchased for Little E and for V who LOF owes and enormous apology to. ;) Obviously they will be wandering across the world with A + J back to the U of K.

The highlight of the evening was Bailey the snake. Feeling a little guilty about the lack of creatures willing to spend their evening with us, John, the tour guide, got his Murray Darling Python out ;) and shared it with the group. J looked most relaxed with Bailey wrapped around his neck. I, however, was a little too untrusting of a 2 metre long snake (with very strong muscles) smiling at me, and opted to back away when it tried to climb up my arm. :) He was however, very lovely and was marvelous from a minimum 10cm distance.

An update

Goodness, there will be complaints across the arid potatoe fields if I don't put something, anything soon! ;)
I guess that you should take it as a sign that life is returning to some semblance of normal when I'm not on here writing everyday :) I just wake up, go to work (downstairs on the dining room table! lol) and then cook tea and watch TV lol. Great!
I have finished what should be version 1 of my website. Take a look, make suggestions! Use it to help you teach!

Nothing too monumental has been happening recently. The residents of Number 15 are arriving tonight though so there will be lots of fun stuff to report on then. I have of course promised one little E a small and furry gift which will be winging it's way back to her via the means of A + J post. (It'll be a well travelled Koala as it'll pass through America on the way!)

I guess during the past week LOF and I have been focusing on trying to get a date and location set for the wedding. Which we have, of course, now done! So that means we can relax until December.

Most of our evening time seems to be taken up with WOW. Which I am sure is very bad for us! I have discovered the wonders of Windsor Pilates though and can be seen regularly "using my power house" to a DVD in my bedroom. I do miss the proper classes in the U.K. though!

Below, just to keep you all smiling, is a little video of Selfy. Now I recorded this using the Smart recorder so the quality is rubbish and, depsite it having not appeared on the screen during filming, my Google desktop bar is ruining the view! Anyway enjoy the flight!

Date for your diary....

Our wedding day.
At Grafton Manor Hotel

Friday 22nd August 2008



Much thanks to Mum, Dad, Sis, Sis' OH, Span and LOM for their help in choosing it whilst we're on the other side of the world. It's going to be beautiful.. We'll be having a blessing outside on the lawns and be partying the night away!

Boag lives on

Oh yes he does and now he is level 15! After long battles over not being able to use a uk credit card, or a purchased time card LOF eventually just bought a copy of the game and was able to continue his account that way. As or Sarowith? She only has 1 day of play left and is currently at level 11. For those of you who think I'm mad.. you're probably right!

Thank you also to Collette who sent LOF and I a lovely engagement card with a pressie inside. She is very naughty but we are appreciative! ;) and to Nan who sent us an Easter card which we received the other day. It's always nice to receive little missives from the U.K. so thank you both very much.

Life this week has been a little mundane, thus the lack of interesting things to blog about. I have been working on my new website to promote what I'm up to in the way of ICT in Education and going to schools on pre-liminary meetings. I've been talking to lots of lovely primary school teachers about their experiences with IWB and have met several new whiteboard companies. Smart (or electroboard as they are called here) have agreed to give me trainer qualifications for free, I have already acquired "professional user status" with Activ board and am on my way to become a qualified trainer with them too (Which my boss at school will be pleased about because as long as the other qualified ACTIV person is still there when I get back that will make Shenley a "Promethean" school. I'm also meeting with Team Board next week where they'll be giving me some training too! I've got in touch with a lovely man who brought his company over to OZ who is giving me all of his resources for free and this cool gadget to play with for a few weeks. ( It basically turns anything into an interactive whiteboard and is much cheaper than buying a board anyway...) It sounds great I think some schools I know in the U.K. would gladly buy a couple! (hint hint)

So, on the whole I am getting busier and by May I will be training people all over the shop for a tidy sum. So here's hoping I stop feeling so bored and actually feel like I'm achieving something again!

Easter Weekend

Well I've never had an Easter Weekend like it.

Easter Eggs: Loads of mini ones
Hot Cross Buns: 2 a day for 4 days
Butterflies: too many to count (all very pretty some bright yellow )
Quarley Bears: 6
Kangaroos: 0
Emus: 0
Hours spent playing WOW: at least 4 a day! (more for some ;) )



Thanks to W + V LOF has spent quite a bit of it |v|ing up! Boag is now level 12! lol.Admittedly, Sarowith (who i killed several times - and got annoyed with because i did not want to find my body for the 4th time so logged off whilst I was a ghost) is level 9. ;)
Boag also has a Wolf called Ernie, who is level 12 too! LOL. The bad news is that the trial period ends soon so we will have to get a real life!

But, we haven't quite turned into agoraphobics and we made sure that we went out and about as much as we stayed in and played in the online forests.

We spent Easter Sunday on the beach


which was lovely, we sunbathed, listened to our ipods and I splashed around in the sea playing my new game of sink the stone (stand on it, push it into the sand and then when the sea goes out it's buried! ooooh!)

Then today (Monday) we went out for a walk. We drove to a park we hadn't been too to see some water falls. We had a pleasant walk of about an hour with lots of things to see but when we got there we remembered that you need rain (and water) in order for there to be a waterfall. We haven't had any for a week now so no falls at the end of our stroll. We did (sorry V) see 6 quarley bears!!! woo hoo

(and no i didn't grow him out of my head)

It's been 30 degree here today in a month that should be the U.K. equivalent of October! what on earth is going on? Not that I'm complaining ;)

Believe it or not, I actually have to go to work tommorrow!! Shocking I no! I'm, off to do a preliminary visit to a primary school I'm doing some training for. Don't worry though, the meetings not until 1pm :)

Here's some more quarley bears to make you smile! (don't forget there's always more on the flickr account!)

another big thank you

I knew that my Potato Farming heritage would be of use some day. I didn't realise, however, that some kind farmers had given me my own potatoes.


Don't forget that you "get more out of life" with 'Selena' potatoes

A Barrossa Wine List....

Over the weekend we visited several wineries. All were lovely, beautiful places but all did slightly different wines. Here I shall endeavor to share what I discovered and then, if you like, you can see if you can discover it to by popping to your local wine shop ;)

I shall present the facts in order of my favourite! First = top prize for loveliness and a must try and get some in the U.K. factor!

1. Murray Street Vineyards - The Barrossa valley.

The wine tasting was great here. We tasted about 8 different wines and 2 fortifieds. (Not allowed to call it port as it's from Oz not port lol) The woman who gave the tasting was brilliant and provided us with a wine guide for each wine. She explained which grapes went into which wines and presented us with enough of a range that we could start to tell the difference between them! Proper 'spesh!

This vineyard is a small family owned one with a beautiful setting and the best tasting wines we had for the whole trip. See if you can find any in the U.K. I bought the "tawny" (port to you and me) it's 10 years old and delicious. The best port I have ever tasted! It's got a lovely toffee flavour in the after pallet, it's sweet and warm and perfect for a cold winters day with a book and a bar of chocolate. (Although I think Shiraz would be better with some Bournville) What out for their Shiraz/cinaut combination wine. It's lovely. The Cinaut grape softens the Shiraz so that it loses a little bit of the zing that some shirazs give you. It's really smooth and not chalky at all, a really nice drop! We also loved the sab cav. Very fruity. If you can get them taste them and let me know what you think on here. If not.. well you'll have to come visit or request some for your birthday ;)


2. Kirrihill Estates - Clare Valley

This was the first vineyard we went to and it was lovely. With our cellar door pass we got to sample some premium wines here. This was my second best favourite, but, when it comes to whites it's my first. I hate white wine, i find it dry and taste less but the whites here were delicious! Yummy. Thoroughly recommend them. In the U.K. this firm sells itself under the name of "Lizards of Oz" The person at the vineyard thought this was as ridiculous a name as you do! lol. Never mind i think you can also find odd kirrihill brands too.

We went for the 2004 Cab Sav. I renamed it the Christmas Pudding wine. It has a strong fruity flavour with a hint of plums and Christmas pudding hitting your tongue. it reminded me of Christmas so much I bought a bottle (not sure whether it'll last that long though - I'll just have to go back just before we leave!) It has a really smooth finish and a lovely red colour that not to dark and not too pale. (generally 2004 seems to have been the best year for Cab Savs from what I tasted- well for oz anyway - it was really wet spring and a really hot summer)
All the wines were lovely but the 2004 Cab Sav is the best one I tasted. :) V will have to let me know the names of the whites as I can't remember. I'll let you know or she can comment them on here if she likes ;)


3. WolfBlass - The Barrossa Valley

WolfBlass has a very grand, enormous vineyard which accepts coach loads of people. Again our pass meant that we could sample premium wines. We were nearing the end of our tour at this point and I was a little worse for wear. I had to drink Espresso to sober up before I could taste any more lol. I dunno! We sampled a few cab savs, merlots and Shira#s here and came away with another Cab Sav! lol. This one is not as good as the Kirrihill estates one but still has some of the same fruity qualities. Wolfblass does sell it's wines the u.k. so give the 2004, gold label Cab Sav a go! ;)

4. Annie's Lane - Clare Valley


The woman doing the tastings here was grumpy and didn't offer us the premium wine tastings we were entitles too, even though I hinted twice. :( Never mind. The wine wasn't all that special anyway. It's won lots of awards and the vineyard is huge but the wine seemed to be no where near as tasty as the others. It came across to me as a little thin and uninteresting. I reluctantly went for a Merlot here, 2005. Avoid this wine if you're looking for something interesting and delicious.

Overall I have discovered that there is much more to life than Hardy's and Jacobs Creek... Be adventurous!


Here's a little lesson on Rose :)

When you visit be careful!

I like to video ;)



Oh that chair in Star Bucks! lol ;)

Big Thank yous!

I had a parcel today!

MMMMmmmmmm Tasty!



Cheers Mum, Dad, Kel, Greg and Nan!

Woo hoo!

Now I have to hide it until Friday. LOF wanted it opened the minute I put the camera down!! lol Not till Friday you don't!

The Pootang Clan

(I'll let LOF explain the title.)

Over the last week we have had some visitors from the U.K. come and spend some time with us. we have just dropped them off at the airport and waved them goodbye. We've had a busy week. It involved lots of adventures as well as the obligatory trip to the Marion to sample the red back grill that still remains LOF's favourite dish! They brought Bournville chocolate and PG tips which was brilliant. Just the smell of that chocolate makes me feel like i'm at home ... mmmmm...

For some mad reason these guys seemed to have experienced more rain on their trip than most Aussies do in a year! The good news being that the clouds seemed to disappear just before the weekend so we could have some time in the sun.

Whilst it was cloudy we managed to visit the Adelaide Car show where i spent at least 10 minutes scowling at an old lady who would not get out the VW Beetle (which by the way was yellow and convertible). I just wanted to sit in it and show it some appreciation! W and LOF spent a while drooling over various cars and motorbikes (which seems to be a new thing for LOF and is steadily catching up with his love of fast cars)

We took them down to Glenelg to discover the joys of WOK IN A BOX! W was very impressed with amount of food you can cram into one small little box but made it his mission to complete the whole thing (minus the peas) We also went to my favourite haunt Star bucks where we introduced W to the Java choc chip frappichino and V to the cool James Bond evil guy style spinning chairs.

Then we decided to get up and leave the house at 6:30 am on Saturday to take the long (5 hour) drive to the Wilpena pound. It's full of kangaroos and emus and has some beautiful landscapes. It's where we went as part of our tour with Dave. This time however i didn't take a plane and LOF wasn't feeling poorly so we walked up it to check out the views. There were kangaroos everywhere much to V's delight (she took 20 pictures and 5 videos of kangaroos!) There were also some cool parrots about.

We stayed Port Augusta over night and then made our way back on Sunday. Of course you have to go through the wine regions of the Care and Barossa Valleys on the way back ;) We bought ourselves a Cellar Door pass for $99 which gets you $120 dollars of wine and exclusive wine tours (as well as a cd to listen to in the car)
We sampled wine after wine. I discovered that I am definitely a Cab sav. girl and V confirmed what she had always known she love the Vino! We visited some truly beautiful places and learnt lots about wine. I will create a separate blog entry about our recommendations and then you can pop to Tesco and see if you can find them. :)

On their last night they decided that they wanted to visit the Beach House, a large and cool place of fun. It was there that they went on the water slides whilst LOF and I spent all our credits on arcade machines. Then we decided to have a go on the bumper boats. I didn't realise at the time that I was giving LOF access to an enormous water pistol that he could point in my direction at any time whilst I was still trying to get the hang of steering the darn thing! Infact, the cruel man who ran the ride chose to uncouple my boat last which meant that all three of them were able to get themselves in a great position to soak me whilst I was still tethered to the side of the pool! UNFAIR! but great fun! Needless to say we were all soaking wet by the end of our turn!
We attempted to dry off on the electronic, land lubbing bumper cars (and this time i did get to drive a yellow beetle! Yay!)

Needless to say the last week has been fun and we were very sad to drop them off at the airport (LOF did enjoy the discovery of the Mini Baby Bell they'd left in the fridge though - well they weren't going to eat it were they!)

(I've stuck the other pictures on Flickr!)

AFL

I mentioned this as one of my strengths in an interview and the lady interviewing me nearly fell off her chair. Apparently, she was shocked to think that I would be involving the Aussie Football League into my lessons ;)

LOL.