Here we go, here we go, here we go again!

First day of school.
Yay!

Here's our Year One girl:



And the Year Three boy:



Two kids who were really excited about getting to school this morning and meeting up with all their friends, and their new teachers. They both had a great first day, and now the planning is on about what After-School-Activities to participate in, and how to organize our week!

Surprises!

When I got home from Adelaide, Linnea made me unpack the suitcase right away. She knew there was some presents in there somewhere! Cheeky monkey!
What I didn't know was that Nina had sneakily hidden a couple of presents for me too! Firstly this:



Chocolates...!!! Mmm!
These ones were all from another chocolate shop - Haigh's Chocolate Factory, that we visited while in the City Center. Little did I know that all those chocolates she picked out were going to end up in my suitcase! :)
She sent with a whole selection, dark-, milk-, peppermint- and liquorice chocolate etc. The kids were mostly excited about the cute 'Milk Speckles' though, yum!

And I also got this:



A super-happy pink necklace!
I had actually bought two of these very cool necklaces made out of beans (!), in white and orange - but Nina thought I looked so good in this pink one she thought I should have that too. And since she has a similar one (well, they are all slightly different since they are handmade), we now have "friendship necklaces"! Love it! :)

This is the end, my friend

And... we've come to the end of some very long summer holidays... Finally!
As much as I was impatiently waiting for them to start, I've now been waiting for a while for them to come to an end...
Eight weeks is a very long time, and I'm one of those people that - never mind how much I love my kids and to spend time with them - like to have routines and actually enjoy the daily grind.

It seems like an eternity ago already we came back from Scandinavia, but we are sure bringing a lot of lovely memories of these holidays with us into this next year.

I'm really excited about tomorrow, I love that first-day of-school-feeling, I always have - even when I was the student. For me, this time of the year has always felt more like a "start" than New Year. I love the feeling when it's all fresh and new, and the year ahead is like a blank page.

The kids are really excited too, about seeing their friends and getting into it all again. We've been preparing all weekend for tomorrow morning!

I'm curious to see what this next year will bring, in many ways. Bring it on!

Home Alone

While I was in Adelaide, Nathan luckily wasn't working much (well, which was one of the reasons I could go!), but he had two flights where we needed to find something for the kids to do.
He flew all Sunday, so they got looked after by the Turners and were taken to a birthday party for a little 1-year old that we all had been invited to. They had had a very good time, and been behaving nicely. Good to hear.

On the Wednesday, Nathan was doing a night flight. So we relied on our very good neighbours, Linnea went down the road to Gemma for a sleepover, and Lucas went across to Oliver's house. Mostly exciting for Oliver, as it was his first sleepover experience!
You can read all about it here, on Misuzu's blog! Very cute!

Thank you friends! What would we do without you!

Happy Fathers Day!

We celebrated the Dad of this house this morning, since it's 'Father's Day' in NZ today. I had bought him something in Adelaide he has been wanting for a while, proper beer drinking glasses! Linnea helped me wrap them, and had made the cards.







Now Daddy gets to choose our lunch place for the day, since it's his special day! Happy Father's Day!

Hari Raya girls

Our summer holidays were extra long this year (eight weeks instead of seven) because otherwise we would've started the term with being off for Hari Raya anyway.
It was the first day of Raya on Wednesday and these past few days most people have been busy going to all the open houses that are tradition for this time of year.

We didn't have many invites this year, only a couple, maybe because it's still holidays? We missed one on Thursday since I wasn't back and Nathan had been flying all night; but today we went to one of Lucas' school friends' house, as we've done every year (here you can see 2010, and 2009).

It was really nice, as usual. I enjoy very much being a part of the local traditions and celebrating their holidays as well.



Selamat Hari Raya to all my muslim friends!

Blackout

Just before bedtime tonight we had power cut. Luckily, the timer had just rang to tell us our 'kladdkaka'-dessert was ready! :)
We had to enjoy it by candle light though. It took me a while, but I lit most of the candles we had. The kids weren't too comfortable with the power being off and couldn't understand why they weren't allowed to open the fridge, couldn't get any ice out of the freezer, why the music wouldn't play or why the video didn't work... Plus they didn't find it cosy one bit, more a little bit scary.

You see, when the power goes off here, it goes pitch black. Especially when there aren't many stars out, which means there's absolutely no natural light at all to lead you.
Plus without the constant buzzing from the air conditioning units, it also gets very, very quiet. Spookily quiet. I was amazed the kids actually fell asleep, but they were very tired.

Luckily it was only out for about two hours so we can now go to sleep as normal. Otherwise it would have been a pretty "sticky" night.

And it's September...

I welcomed September with a whole day of traveling.
The alarm went off at 04.20 this morning, and I was in very good time for my Qantas flight across to Brisbane. Not much happening at the airport that early in the morning, but at least the coffee shops were open!

It all nearly went pear shaped when the Qantas aircraft went tech on us and couldn't be fixed. We had to disembark, but luckily they had another aircraft standing by so we could use that one instead.
I was thankful I had planned it so that I had nearly four hours transit in Brisbane, because now they were suddenly reduced to barely two. Enough though for me to make it across to the International Terminal on the bus, check in and do my little bit of shopping. Phew.

Flight was long and a bit tedious. I tried to watch a few of the new movies, but kept falling asleep and missing out on bits and pieces all the time... :/

Good to be home with the family. Bag is already unpacked, gifts handed out and I'm left with lovely memories of a superb week in Adelaide.
I'm so lucky to have such a good friend in Nina, I hope it won't be another 8 years until we catch up again.

Star of Greece

For lunch today Nina wanted to take me to a restaurant "with beautiful views", and oaw, it sure had the best views!
We drove out to the coast, to Port Willunga, and went to the restaurant 'Star of Greece'.

I don't know if it was the name of the restaurant that spurred it on, but I really got Lefkas-vibes when arriving and looking along the coast line, it looked just like the Agios Nikitas beach on the north-west tip of Lefkas. The same long-stretched beach, the same cliffs, the same different coloured sea in all blue and green hues imaginable - so beautiful...







The name of the restaurant comes from a wreck that foundered here, the Star of Greece, one of the best known wrecks in South Australia. It was wrecked in a violent storm off this beach in July 1888.






And no, they didn't serve Greek food at the restaurant (...), but they had a very appetizing menu. Nina had crispy pork belly with scallops, and potato skins...






... and I had some green salad and salt-and-pepper squid, m-hm!






Another enjoyable lunch! I was full all day after this!

Amongst the gums

I've had a fabulous last day here in South Australia, just loooovely!
We went on a little road trip this morning out to McLaren Vale, one of Australia's most highly regarded wine regions; and also with a reputation as a culinary mecca.












It was such a beautiful morning, and even though it's winter/spring here now, so not many flowers nor greenery; it was a very nice drive across the vaste wine fields.

We did an express wine-tour, that is - we stopped at only one wine cellar (we were a bit short for time), at the Wirra Wirra Vineyards. 'Wirra wirra' is an aboriginal name meaning "amongst the gum trees".












They showcases their wines in this stunning cellar door:






We tasted a little bit of everything, muscats, whites, reds and stickies:


















I didn't end up buying any though, as neither their whites or reds were quite what I was after. I liked the stickie and really liked the muscato wine, but unfortunately the latter only came in a 500ml bottle. As you know I can bring 2 bottles back in when I get back home, but I ain't wasting my allowance on anything else than full-size ones!

You could spit it out if f.e you were driving, like Nina:






But I wasn't letting any of it go to waste! :)

Seriously?!?

We are still just in August!!!
I guess the shop assistants will be well sick of Xmas by the time it actually arrives...

Balls of steel

Today all three girls were in child care, so we had the whole day to ourselves!
We decided to drive into the city center, so that I could say I've properly seen Adelaide. Although, we mostly looked through the shops, of course...






It was glorious sunny weather, but really windy and quite cold, brrrr! So walking down Rundle Mall (Australia's first pedestrian street mall) we had to take refuge in the many shops and boutiques.
We had some yummy salad for lunch and spent a few hours chatting over some nice coffee and cake. Shopping, chatting, coffee - what more can you ask for?

This is the "Mall's balls", as the locals calls them. Can you se Nina and me?





This is the best-known sculpture of the Rundle Mall, actually the proper name is 'The Spheres'. They are four meters tall and apparently a common meeting place along the pedestrian street.

The House of Fine Chocolate

This afternoon we indulged and followed the famous saying "Life is short, have dessert first" and stopped in at The House of Fine Chocolate, Bracegirdle's in Glenelg.


We had a range of amazing dessert delights... Nina had a Belgian waffle, served with ice-cream, strawberries and warm liquid chocolate... Mmm mmm...


I had a lemon meringue pie, and we both had their famous hot milk chili chocolate - seriously yum! To-die-for...





The kids enjoyed a chocolate fondue with strawberries...


... and some babyccino (with love hearts, very important!) and ginger bread men. We were all clapping our little hands in delight while we were enjoying our treats, it was so yummy! A must if you ever come to Glenegl!

The three musketeers

The Considine girls, Milla, Agnes and Elliot.

Gold Class Baby!

To finish off a perfect Sunday we decided to go to the movies. Nina, as a mother-of-three (and currently working hard on finishing her PhD plus holding down a part-time job) doesn't get out much; so we decided to go for the full-on super, fantastic, sensational, great, superb, awesome extra-everything movie experience!
Gold Class Baby!






Before the movie we placed our order in the lounge. Not only could you decide what you wanted to snack on, but also exactly when, f.e straight away or an hour into the movie etc.












We saw "Horrible Bosses", not the funniest, funniest movie ever but all in all ok and it had a few good bits in it.
We started out with a bit of pink bubbly...






Oh, and I forgot to mention the seats! Or more, the beds! Fully reclining, huge, soft armchairs, aaaaahhhh...






We also enjoyed some ice cream sundays, popcorn and some Calypso coffee during the movie! (Ha ha, I just sat there and kept waiting for our treats to arrive..!)






Yup, best movie experience in a long time!

Shake, wiggle, giggle

Yesterday I went down the road for the day, to join in some more Zumba training.

(Such a coincidence, I tell you! When I had sort of decided to come and see Nina I checked out the Zumba website just for fun, to see if there were any trainings nearby. Found one on this weekend and asked her if it would be possible for me to do it... would it be far to go? Turned out it was literally FIVE minutes down the road! Was that a sign or what? I mean, Adelaide is pretty big, what were the odds she was going to live practically next to the studio where the training was held!!)

Anyway, I'm now licensed to teach not only Zumba Fitness, but also Zumbatomic! Yay for me! (Zumbatomic is their specially designed program for kids aged 4-12)
We were about 40 geared up instructors who took this training yesterday, and we had so much fun!! It was a lot different to my training in Sweden, people here were super friendly and chatty; and we actually networked and I made some friends, just like I'd thought it would be! Some of my new Zumba friends:










I was definitely the exotic element in the group, ha ha! Sure, some people had driven over four hours from outside Adelaide to get there and one girl had flown in from Melbourne - but hey, I had flown in from another country! :) Plus, I originally came from the other side of the world! I don't know how many times I told my story yesterday..!







Such a super day - I was, and still am, on a Zumba high! Zumbaaaaaaaaaa!

The Boel

Well folks, after the initial loneliness during my trip, I quickly got over it and have had a fab, fab weekend!

My friend Nina picked me up from the airport on Saturday and told me that her hubby generously had told her to "go and catch up, and take your time"! So we drove to straight to Brighton and had a 3 hour lunch in the sun - and caught up!






A fantastic afternoon! Lovely fresh air, lovely sunshine and lovely company!

Eventually we got back to her place, and were met by her three little curly-haired princesses, oh my, her kids are so cute!
They were all very curious about me, and really keen on this friend of their Mummy! I made myself popular by bringing presents:






And they showed me all their tricks on the trampoline:






The cutest thing is, they keep calling me "The Boel"! Ha ha, makes me feel like some kind of rock star - like "The Edge" or something! Kind of cool.

(I also ate my first kangaroo steak Saturday night! It tasted sort of gamey, but rather nice actually.)

All by myself

So, I'm on a trip! All by myself!
I guess I should be enjoying it, not having to do unplanned toilet stops at the worst times, not having to think about feeding, keeping track of or occupying little people - just myself.
I do try, and I've just been circulating Melbourne airport for 3 1/2h between flights; enjoying getting to check out all the shops in peace (not just the toy shops) having nice coffee, getting some magazines, doing some people watching etc. But, now I'm bored and have no one to talk to!

It's been well over 5 years since I last left the family at home and went on a trip on my own. Back then Lucas had just turned two and Linnea was about 5-6 months, and I went from the UK to Amsterdam to meet up with some friends for the weekend.
This time I'm off to a whole other continent, to Adelaide, to catch up with a Norweigan friend I haven't seen in... about 8-9 years! Exciting!

I do enjoy only having one, very light, suitcase; and only carrying one posh little handbag with only the essentials, my essentials (and not a bunch of snacks, toys, wet wipes etc...) - but I must admit it's an odd feeling to be all alone, like I've nearly forgot how you do it... and I do miss the little munchkins!

Looking at other people traveling with tired, noisy and uncooperative kids, and tons of stuff, I start to relish a bit in being just me though. I think this will be a very relaxing trip!

Sssssss...

This afternoon we went into Kiulap to find this "snake show" I had heard some of our friends talk about. Well, it was actually an "Exotic Pets Expo", and it was rather interesting!
Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera (*duh*) so the pictures are taken with my phone, and not very good due to the low lighting.





It was cheap to get in, only $6 per adult and kids went free. We were the only ones in there so the tour guide walked around with us and told us all about the different snakes; explained all the different species, their care and do's & dont's about pet reptiles.

We thought this one was an albino snake, but found out he was actually coloured this way - ivory:



There were about 40 different snakes. Mostly pythons, with wonderfully imaginative names - like Granite Burmese Python, Genetic Stripe Ball Python, Butter Ball Python, Cinnamon Ball Python, Lemon Blast Python. There was also different kind of corn snakes and boas. (Most of the snakes came from a personal collector, you can read his blog here.)



They also had lizards in all sizes, like this big Sahara Monitor Lizard. It was rather sleepy, and liked being cuddled!



Linnea stroke it for a bit:



The Indian Star Tortoise:



The tour guide took the snakes out of their terrariums and you got to touch them if you wanted. Both kids had a (very quick) touch, to feel how smooth and cold the snake was.
Mummy was the only one brave enough to actually hold one of the snakes!



I held him quite far away from me though, didn't want him wriggling around my neck or anything... and although he was "just" a regular python, he was pretty strong and squeezed my hand so hard I could hardly get it out of his grip!



(If anyone else here is keen on getting up close and personal with some of these creatures, this Expo it's still on for a few days yet until the 29th of August. Open 10 am-10 pm, and it's located at the end of the tent behind the Kiulap HuaHo.)