Day 1 #weekinthelife

I started this project a couple days earlier than the start date because my sister in law , Julie and her daughter,  Chloe were visiting from Townsville. Today, together with my father in law, we took Chloe for a ride on Popeye, one of the iconic boats that cruise up and down the Torrens River. Departing from Elder Park, the boat traveled up to the Adelaide Zoo and back. The return trip took around 45 minutes and cost $12 per adult and $6 for kids.

After having lunch at the Elder Park Cafe, we continued our trip to Glenelg by tram. It was a beautiful sunny day, but Chloe and I still felt a bit cold. Maybe others will think we were odd, as most people wore very summery clothes while we wore our thick jackets. That's what you get when you come from a tropical climate. We walked to the jetty, took some more pictures and had a rest at the local shop where Chloe had some some Gelato (Italian ice-cream), while we enjoyed a cuppa. 

Then we visited the Bay Discovery Centre, which is located at the Glenelg Town Hall. We didn't spend too long here as Dad had to get to a Polling booth to vote. The Federal Election was today.

Tonight, the news was all about the election. The result was Australia has a new Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Abbott. A lot of people say that Tony Abbott's Liberal Party won this election not because people like him better than his opposition, but because they had lost faith in the current Labour Party. 

Victor Harbour

It was a last minute decision to spend couple days in Victor Harbour to celebrate my birthday. Victor is located 80km south of Adelaide and is one of South Australia's favourite holiday destinations only around 1.5 hours drive from the City. We left just after I finished working and arrived at the Smugglers Inn where we had booked, which turned out to be quite a cozy two bedroom apartment.

There are many tourist attractions in Victor Harbour, but since this was my second time here and we only had the weekend, we planned to do some whale watching, go on the penguin tour and generally take a look around the town. 

We had lunch at Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot. We bought a pie and a pastry from the local bakery and sat in the car looking out over the beach. I didn't want to sit outside, not only because it was a bit cold, but also because the seagulls are always looking for a free feed...like these guys. 

  

When we had a cuppa at the local coffee shop, we got some info about the best place to see the whales from the locals. There had been 3 whales sighted earlier in the day off of Brasham beach, only a 10 minutes drive away. We thought it was worth to try to have a look that evening, but didn't have any luck. So after taking some pictures, we went back as we had to be on Granite Island by 5.30pm for penguin tour.   

Usually, we can take the Horse Drawn Tram over to Granite Island, however the last tram was at 3.30pm, so we walked the 1km across the wooden bridge to the Penguin Centre. It was quite a long walk in the cold weather, but the views was amazing. 

While waiting for the penguin tour to start, we looked around the Penguin Centre that was set up to educate visitors and just as importantly, look after sick and injured penguins. Penguins on Granite Island are the smallest species known as fairy, or little penguins. They are only around 30cm high and weight about 1.2kg. The little penguins are the only penguins to breed in Australia. Since, we can't use the camera's flash, because it will harm the penguins eyes, we had to use do the best we could would the available light and make use of computer programs to enhance the shots we had taken.

During the tour, we only saw 2 of the 27 penguins that now inhabit the island. It was so sad to hear how the penguin population has fallen from around 2,400 in 2000 to the current level all because of a group of New Zealand fur seals that now inhabit a neighbouring island. The saddest thing of all is that these seals kill for fun as the penguins have too many feathers to be a food source. 

On Sunday, we woke up early to go back to Basham Beach in the hope of seeing a whale. We weren't disappointed. From the viewing platform, we saw what at first we thought was a log, or something floating just off shore.  This turned out to be a whale calf that was later joined by it parents that we'd seen breaching off of Middleton beach, just a few hundred metres away. It was too bad I didn't bring the binoculars so I didn't get a clearer view. The picture below is not my picture, but what I saw this morning was something like this, but a bit further away. (http://www.weekendnotes.com/victor-harbor-whale-watching/)

We spent the rest of morning on the scenic drive, the views were really beautiful. 

Well, it was a short holiday but it really was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday. Thanks to my darling husband...I love you. 

   

Mid-Autumn Festival

For the past 2 months, my life has been very busy. Between my Children's Services courses, volunteering and my social live, each week has been passing so fast. So here I am in October, the beginning of spring in Australia. In China and many other South Asian countries, people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival or also known as Full Moon Festival and Adelaide is no different hosting the OZ Asia festival. The final night of  festival will celebrate the rising of the full moon in the Elder Park. Titled the Moon Lantern Festival, this event has become a popular community gathering for Adelaide locals as well as many interstate and overseas visitors. The event started with performances from many diverse cultural community groups from all over Adelaide. 

  

As usual the food stalls were very crowded.  I queued for Thai food and I waited for so long that when I got to the head of the line, there was only rice and green curry remaining. And then....

there were some very unusual guests, some real head turners who really got into the spirit of the event!





As is the custom, the festival closes with the Lantern Parade with lanterns made by schools, businesses and community groups from all around Adelaide.

Even though it was a very cloudy day, the moon did manage to put in an appearance. It was a beautiful sight....

Yet another Wonderful Day

Time flies so fast. This was my second birthday in Adelaide. As I had so many things to do, we didn't plan anything special, however this day was still a wonderful day to remember. 


I started my day by visiting the dentist. It's not the best start to a Birthday, right? But as I had a painful tooth, it needed to be done. 


It was also the last day of the second term, so we had a class party. But before we celebrated, we had a small presentation about many kinds of popular diets. How ironic, having a party after talking about diets. ^_^

At home, a bunch of beautiful red carnations were waiting for me. 

All the good wishes I received made me feel so blessed and loved. No matter how old we get, we always need the support of our friends and family. Thank you so much for all your loving messages, you made my birthday special. 

Winter Trip

When we received this invitation last month, we were so excited but also a bit unsure whether we could make it. I was so busy with my assignments and in the final processes of applying work experience with The Smith Family. But then David found a good deal at the Limestone Caravan Park at Mt Gambier, so we thought it's a good sign to give it a go and it would be a nice break for us too. 

We left Adelaide on Wednesday afternoon after my class, because I don't want to miss too many classes ^_^. After stopped a couple times and stopped at Hungry Jack for Whopper. We arrived at Limestone Coast Caravan Park at around 8.30pm. The cabin was big, clean and had a separate kitchen which was so complete that made me think I could bake a cake there. 

The next day we went to Aldi in Hamilton and did some shopping. On the way back, we stopped at Coleraine and bought some delicious, home-made chocolates. Then we stopped by at David & Karyn's place in Casterton to see if there was anything we could do to help with the party preparations.

As this was not the first time we visited Mt. Gambier, we did not visit any of the local tourist attractions, instead we just looked around the City of Mt. Gambier. I got some more books and some nice clothes. 

In the afternoon, we went to The Princess Margaret Rose Cave, which located around 30 minutes from Mt. Gambier. The cave first discovered in 1936 by Keith McEachern and John Hutchesson and was named Princes Margaret, to honor the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II. Later on in 1941, the cave was opened as a tourist attraction taking 40 minutes to explore the cave 

The tour reminded me of the tour I took in China a few years ago, when we went to the Reed Flute Cave in Guilin city. The guide there, as here kept telling us to use our imagination when looking at the stalagmites and stalactites to see how they were named.

The next day was the party day. It's a beautiful day. We saw a rainbow on the way to Casterton.

It was a nice little party, with around 30 people (I say 'little'...well little by Indonesian standards). There was a lot of food and a lot of laughter. Family and friends had a great time together.

Happy 50th Birthday, David. Wish you all the best for the next 50!