Toby!!!!

Today at school, Toby visited!!

Who is Toby you may ask? He made the last 5 of Australian Idol, and then pulled out to let someone else have another chance. He's a local school teacher, and eventually decided that teaching was more important than being an Idol. What a guy!

Needless to say he charmed everyone. Gemma gave him a card from all of us, and he answered questions from both Sam and Alyssa (he thinks Stan will win).

We've been following Toby's progress on Idol as he's related to someone in Gemma's class.

You've heard of 6 degrees of separation? Well, Adelaide has only 2!

Our Dad went all around the world and all we got was ...

A DALEK!

Yes, the inflatable Dalek shown in my photo of the Stamp Centre on The Strand in London somehow made it back to Adelaide! And it didn't take long to attack the kids.

A Few Spots Along the Way

Although the trip was largely business, there were a few opportunites to see the sights. While in LA, we stopped at Griffith Observatory, where there's a great view of the LA Basin, and it isn't that far from Hollywood.

In Alexandria VA, I stopped by the old neighbourhood, and drove past our old church. This year's VBS subject is AUSTRALIA!
In London, first stop was my favourite store in all of Europe, the Stamp Centre which sells all manner of SciFi paraphenalia.

Nearby is the Australian High Commission which was flying the South Australian Flag. It is a much more impressive building than the Australian Embassy in Washington.


With friends out for my last night in London, we went to a Malaysian Restaurant, then walked along the bank of the Thames past the Globe and were confronted with this view.

On my final day in London, I visited the Science Museum and Museum of Natural History, two places I hadn't been before. Here's two of my favourite exhibits from the Science Museum, Stephenson's Rocket and Thomson's cathode ray tube - I know geek, geek, geek.

And then I came across this exhibit, and I thought I had been time warped. I've used most of the stuff on display here (and still own some of them!)

Here's the main hall of the Natural History Museum, very iconic.

Around the World in 18 days

I recently had the opportunity to travel around the world in 18 days, stopping off in LA, DC and the UK. And the great thing was every spot I stopped, I had friends that I could catch up with and spend time with.

Los Angeles

Alexandria, VA

London UK

Flat Stanley in Adelaide

Gemma and I drove to Windy Point to show Flat Stanley the view of Adelaide. Windy Point (and Mt Lofty provide spectacular panoramic views of Adelaide - very few other cities in this world have these sorts of views).

As you can see we have taken good car of Stanley, to the extent of making sure he wore a seat belt on the drive.

The Return of the Red Dwarf

Those who know me well, know that one of my favourite TV shows is Red Dwarf. So when we recently bought a small red Suzuki Swift, the custom plate was an obvious choice.

All this to look forward to.

How would you like to find out what the future holds for you? Well Sam found out recently.

In unpacking our stuff, we found an old class photo of mine from when I was around Sam's age. Sam thought we had a photo of him! (you may ask what happened to me - Sam did)

More Flat Stanley

Today Flat Stanley went to school with Gemma. He was introduced to the whole class and made to feel very welcome! Gemma also read out his letter to the class.

Flat Stanley

We got a visitor from the US in the post today. Flat Stanley arrived from Virginia. Gemma was very excited. She will be taking him to a few places over the next few days, but tonight he saw the lounge room and the front yard, with the BIG tree that we have.

Rain at last

It's been 8 weeks since we landed in Adelaide and since then just 0.6mm of rain has been recorded officially. A couple of times we've had just enough to make the cars dirty but nothing to make the ground wet. Until this afternoon. Finally wet roads, wet ground, and maybe enough to put some water into the rainwater tank. Here's some video I've just shot in our front and back yards. You can hear some of the native birds that are excited too about the weather. Not a heavy downpour, but it's a start.

Marchfest

Marchfest (instead of Oktober fest - get it), is a family fair held by the kid's school each year in March as a fund raiser. It's got a German/Austrian theme so everyone dresses appropriately (I wore my Bayern Munich soccer jersey).

The school seniors do micro credit and sell their services as part of the day. The boys were into coloured hair.

These boys had some goofy animals for sale.

And Alyssa and Co. sold pens decorated (they were in high demand).

There was also some dancing and each of the kid's classes were involved in dances (think heel-toe or chicken dance). I took video, and will try and blog it eventually.

Rain

It rained today. Not enough to get the ground wet, and from this first photo you couldn't even tell.

But these close ups of the car show that it rained just enough to make a mess of the car!

Family Service

Alyssa's class was involved in a family service today, along with the kids from the school's Early Learning Center. The younger kids were more interested in just about anything else than singing, but Alyssa's class made up for it nicely.

Hot, Dry and Dusty

We've now been back in Adelaide 5 weeks. To a large extent we've plugged back into life here at school, church, Liz's work and the house (I return to work tomorrow so that will be a major change). We've got a house full of furniture and our stuff both from before and from the USA and places we visited while away. But there are a few noticeable changes.

Adelaide is brown. Like Arizona is brown. Due to the increased heat in summer and water restrictions, there are very few lawns left that are green. I'm doing my best to bring part of our front lawn back to life, but it will be a slow process. To date, Adelaide has had 1mm (that's 1/25th of an inch) of rain for the calendar year (normally it's over an inch by now). What this all means is that it is an incredibly dusty place. We recently opened the windows in the house one night during the hot spell to cool everything down and are still cleaning the dust and dirt off everything! I bought a car last week and it has taken less than a week for it to be covered in dust and dirt even though we store it undercover. And of course there are restrictions in how it can be washed!

The kids are all back into music lessons and Sam is playing B Grade cricket with his school (a separate post will appear). We're back at church as well, but we're yet to commit to anything as of yet.

Adelaide itself has changed very little in the two years we were away. The trams now block the rest of King William Street and part of North Terrace.

After regularly travelling large distances, we are yet to leave the Adelaide environs since arriving back. We may venture as far as Kangaroo Island for a holiday later this year, but our plan is for a very quiet year. We'll see how that pans out.

First Cricket Game

Today is Sam's first real cricket game for his school. Whites and all. Here you can see some of the protective gear he has to wear. Not bad for a truly non-contact sport, all to protect from a little red ball.

Here's his batting stance.

And suddenly it's time. He walks out to the crease. It's a lonely walk. Notice how green it is here. Public grounds such as the local oval are the only places with green grass any more here. We've had oly 1.6mm of rain so far this year! The oval is situated on top of a hill, and surrounded by beautiful Australian bush.

His first run off the bat, as he deflects the ball past the wicket keeper.

A few overs later, the ball bounced high and he hit it into the air.

The fielder waited.

And waited.

And held it. So Sam was out for 2. Not a bad effort first up.

Time for his team to field. And here he is bowling.

Sam was the only bowler to claim a wicket (the rest were run outs etc).

Although his team lost on the day Sam had a great day and can't wait until next Saturday morning for the next game.