Playing ball

Seems like my basketball efforts are yielding some results. Having used Gumtree to find a team to play with on Sundays, in the boondocks, I've been invited to join a second team - the Kings - who play on Tuesdays, just around the corner.

It turns out I need a white jersey to match their current outfit; and when I say match, I mean it needs to have a white base and whatever else you wanna put on top of that. I didn't want to go with a Serbian thing, nor a British thing, nor any down under jokes - so to speak - so I came up with this ingenious design!

The two squares actually came up by default as they could not do the special Serbian characters in any font... I plan to just write them in with permanent, waterproof ink :-)

A friendly hug

Here's a story to remind yourself of the diversity of creepy crawly flora down under :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23254178

And here's us handling one of its (much smaller) cousins in December last year!

Hallett Cove

About a week ago we checked out Hallett Cove, a somewhat posh suburb of Adelaide situated on the coast. It's packed with the 'second' houses of the rich, some situated right above the beach and most with a stunning view of the South Ocean. I wish I could say we were house hunting - more likely checking out how the other half live down under.

Motor brrm brrm

It only seems right that the South Australian government give you a brand new car when you turn up in Adelaide for the first time. It's a wonderful Australian custom of welcoming new arrivals. And the streets are paved with gold too...

Helen landed her new job within a month of arriving, and it included the use of a company car. She was given a chunky grey Holden (Ozzie equivalent of Vauxhall/Opel) to use until her new car arrived.

A week or so ago, the new set of wheels was ready - a white Honda CR-V - and yes, it's an SUV :-)

It was the first time ever that either of us picked up a brand new car straight from a dealership.

We literally drove it off the shop floor, via the forecourt and onto the road - a weird experience. The thing was too wide to fit through the double doors, we had to fold the side mirrors... I can report that the rumours are true - I could hear the value drop by 10% as the tyres touched the tarmac. Check out the total mileage, or rather, kilometrage.

Main thing is, I can finally be a kept Essex house-husband, Ozzie style. Give me a barbecue, spray-on  tan and oversized 'sunnies' and the transformation will be complete!

Walk in Morialta Gorge

As one of our first trips, on Sunday we went for a walk around the Morialta Gorge and Falls, a 20 minute drive from Adelaide. It was a cold but sunny morning and as the day progressed, the sun grew stronger and the temperature rose to around 18 degrees C.

We topped the day off with a coffee and the best muffin in the greater Adelaide area, at the Organic Market and Cafe in Stirling, a picturesque little town in the Adelaide Hills.

Enjoy the photos!