100 Days down under

May has been fun! From baby showers, anniversaries and winery tours to getting an awesome job and buying a car… over 100 days here now and feeling completely content with life right now.

I was privileged to have been invited to Nat’s baby shower at the beginning of the month. It was a first for me and I thoroughly enjoyed celebrating the soon arrival of her baby boy with games and food surrounded by her beautiful friends and family. ‘Guess how many sweets are in the baby’s bottle’ was one of the games, and although slightly embarrassed at the time, I was actually proud to have guessed the closest answer and come away with a giant bottle of jelly beans! Not that they lasted too long mind. But a lovely touch at the end of the day was a Krispy Kreme doughnut as a ‘Thanks a HOLE bunch’ gift. Australians sure know how to pull off a great celebration!

We then went into the week which pretty much impacted our whole trip here in Adelaide. A few weeks ago Andrew saw a job advertised within his Council for a 6-month Community Planner role focusing mainly on events. It was only advertised internally but luckily as I had signed up as a volunteer for the City of Salisbury Council pretty much as soon as Tom and I arrived in Adelaide back in February, I was eligible to apply. I really wanted the job but having not heard anything for a few weeks and my library job just about to start, I was completely shocked when I received the call to say I got it! Safe to say the wine was popped open that night! What made our week even better was that Tom’s employer has decided to extend his contract too! Although this is an awesome opportunity for us to save hard for more travels next year and get some amazing work experience under our belts, it now means we will need to do our three-month regional work (which is required to get a second year visa) over Christmas, as we need to do it before our visa expires in February. Potentially spending our Christmas on a farm or vineyard isn’t quite what we had envisaged, but this trip is all about the adventures and experiences right? Will keep you posted on that one…

With a job offer in hand, Tom then found us a car! – impeccable timing and a pretty awesome find. A 1998 white Hyundai Excel, cheap as chips from a university professor who didn’t need the car anymore as he inherited a better set of wheels. Getting back in the driving seat for me was slightly nerve-wracking after three months off the road and in a different country, but google maps has officially become my new best friend, and now I am loving the freedom. With Tom slightly jealous not to be driving the car often I happily agreed to let him drive us everywhere at the weekends while I have it all week to and from work.

Two weeks into my job now and I can honestly say I couldn’t of felt more welcomed. I have met some awesome people, learnt about the variety of the events I’ll be working on, taken on tours around the different Council sites, met the Major of Salisbury and attended a Reconciliation Morning Tea about aboriginal culture and the Kaurna language. I’m thoroughly looking forward to what the coming months there will entail…

Not forgetting about my last couple of weeks at Westminster School. A great experience working in the sports department organising their sports fixtures, umpires payments, bus bookings and calendars – but I was pleased it was only a very short term placement. The train journey there for one was pretty long, but luckily I had a great couple of books to keep me entertained. Lana’s mum Rita brought me ‘Unmasked’ by Turia Pitt for my birthday which I would recommend to anymore wanting to be inspired and keen for a challenge. Having been caught in a bushfire during a ultra marathon in 2011, Turia talks about her amazing recovery and achievements since her horrific burns, including completing several Iron Mans and a wedding proposal. Another one Tom and I have both been gripped to is ‘Walking the Amazon’ by Ed Stafford. We thought a 100km was tough enough, but Ed’s diary about his three year ordeal walking through the Amazon really was inspiring.

So we also had a couple of special dates this month, one being the 2nd May – Tom’s dad’s big birthday (not mentioning any numbers), but we can’t wait to celebrate with him when we get home next week. And the 6th May saw Tom and I reach 7 years together which is quite ironic as we have become slightly addicted to a TV programme over here called ‘7 year switch’ … but I can’t say I will be switching him just yet! It was a great excuse to dress up and head to the city to celebrate. Treated to a curry at New India, followed by cocktails and tequilas at one of our favourite bars Supermild, it was a perfect night for the both of us.

The following day we then headed out to a town called Mount Barker with Andrew, Lana, Halle and Paul. It had a very cool balinese shop which I could of brought so much from. But we did just come away with a couple of cute rugs which we thought would be a nice souvenir for our own home one day, but currently making use of them in our bedroom at the moment. We also went to the Prancing Pony beer brewery. Such a cool place to do some beer tastings which the boys throughly enjoyed.

Then last weekend we had one of my favourite days up at Clare Valley Wine Region for their Gourmet Weekend. Lana’s friends organised a bus for 9 of us to head to Clare early Saturday morning and take us to three different wineries. A glass of champaign at 9am with a couple of egg and bacon muffins started the day off perfectly, then we made it into Clare by 11am at our first stop, Jeanneret for some Rose and giant Jenga! The next winery was called Paulette’s which had a great selection of white wines, curries, cheeses and a very intriguing golf game. We all had a go at trying to hit the golf balls off the hill towards a barrel located down the hill but failed miserably. We will blame that on the amount of wine we had consumed by this point.

The last winery was Jim Barry’s Wines where we finished a great day with some great red wines and a beautiful setting. The relaxed atmosphere of the day did turn into dance/ party mode at this point which later continued on the bus ride home (well for most of us anyway)

The sore heads were soon fixed the following morning when Tom and I headed to the beach for some fish and chips. The weather was so lovely we found it hard to believe we were heading into winter.

It’s been another great week as we watched ‘Get Out’ at the movies, went to see Matilda at the Adelaide Festival Theatre, did some shopping at Harbour Town Outlet Centre and now here we are packing our suitcases again ready to fly back to the UK! It’s going to feel so strange leaving this place but we are so incredibly excited to catch up with our nearest and dearest, hopefully get some more sunshine as we hear the UK is having a ‘heatwave’ at the moment and of course head to Skiathos for the De Lange Wedding. <3

See you soon Australia! So happy to say we will be back again in July.

Gemma x