Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Trouble in Paradise?

The title for this blog entry isn’t really relevant until let’s say, 3am on Sunday morning… Up until that point we had a glorious weekend! Get prepared for a long read… it’s a long story!

A couple of months ago were delighted to receive an invitation to Taryn and Marks wedding in Venus Bay. Venus Bay is on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula – an 8 hour drive from Adelaide – so of course we jumped at the opportunity of a road trip to see some great people tie the knot!

On the run up to the big trip Charlene, our dearly beloved 1984 Toyota Corona prepared for the 16 hours of driving planned for the weekend by visiting the mechanic for a full service and TLC. Being 24 years old of course meant that Charlene had more requirements than a simple service! She had a couple of trips to the garage but just before the big weekend she started overheating and it was at that point we decided to hire a car!

We picked up the hire car on Thursday and I loaded it up at home before going to meet Dan from work. We left Charlene parked on the road by Dan’s work and set off on our adventure.

Leaving Adelaide was chaotic as it was the long Anzac Day weekend. We arrived at our stop over destination, Port Augusta, at about 10pm and checked into our motel.

The motel was exactly as I’d imagined – like something out of an American movie where people get shot! The room was unintentionally retro but it was a good enough base to rest our heads for the night. We treated ourselves to a chicken wrap from KFC and chuckled at the following moment:

At the drive through window –

Dan: Hi, could I have one chicken honey wrap, and one chicken chilli wrap please?
KFC staff: I’m sorry, we don’t have any chill wraps available.
Dan: Ok, no worries. Make that two chicken honey wraps then.
KFC staff: That’s $9.95 please. And thanks for being so polite… I’m going to give you a discount as you’re the first person who has been polite this evening. And a free drink… oh, there’s two of you… here’s two free drinks!

We didn’t think that Dan had been that polite but the standards are obviously easy to meet in Port Augusta! We went back to the motel and enjoyed our wraps!

Unfortunately a couple of hours into sleep I discovered the motel had very thin walls and the couple next door kept me awake for a good hour. They were obviously enjoying the retro surroundings as they continued to yelp quite loudly and jump up and down on the bed with excitement…

We set off on the second half of our trip at 7am on Friday morning and really enjoyed the drive across the top of the Eyre Peninsula. The sun was shining and the open road ahead of us made it an extremely pleasant journey and it was hard to imagine covering the same sort of distance in the UK with such ease. We passed through some comical places – Iron Knob and the giant Galah at Kimba being our favourites.

We arrived at Venus Bay for about 11am and checked in at the Caravan Park. We had the best tent site EVER, right on the water front with lovely views of the jetty, pelicans and fishing boats.



We soon saw people we knew. I think there were almost 200 people going to the wedding and Venus Bay is a tiny place so most of the holiday shacks were filled with Taryn & Mark’s family and friends. It turned out their friends Jen, Tom and Matt were in the neighbouring tents and we all set off to the jetty to do the Venus Bay thing… fishing!

Everyone had told us that we were sure to catch some good fish in Venus Bay and this concerned us a little as we’ve never caught one before and are a little apprehensive about the killing part… As it turns out, we had no need to worry as all we managed to catch was a crab, a starfish and lots of seaweed! A good arvo never the less!



Later that afternoon Dan enjoyed a game of cricket - first in the marquee, then on the beach...



Friday evening was great fun. We cooked ourselves some pasta on our little camping stove and were pleased to have brought a tin of tuna in substitute for the fresh fish we never caught. We then met up with Taryn and Marks big group of friends who were all congregated at a shack just 200 metres from our tent. We then embarked on a “mothing” expedition – according to the locals it is a relatively simple Venus Bay concept - ‘if the light is on, go in’. There were about 15 of us going from house to house – a great giggle and good way to get to know the fellow wedding goers!

Saturday saw a day of rain showers and grey skies and I spent most of it saying the Lords Prayer in the hope that someone ‘up there’ would sort out some sunshine for the 4pm ceremony. It was a funny experience getting ready for a wedding in a caravan site toilet block – the warm shower felt luxurious, but dodgy the spiders and moths whilst getting dry didn’t!

I think it was a matter of luck that at 4pm the rain stopped and the wedding went ahead by the jetty without a glitch. Taryn looked absolutely stunning in a really lovely 40’s inspired dress that I think her Auntie had made. I knew Taryn wouldn’t go for a conventional wedding dress but still got choked when I saw her appear looking soooo fab!

The ceremony was brilliant and I couldn’t help but notice how relaxed they both looked and how well they said their vows – either a lot of rehearsing, or true professionals given both their careers in communication type roles!



The rest of the celebrations took place in a big marquee by the jetty and was great. Yummy food was served up – my favourite of which was copious amounts of fresh oysters. The kiddies had their own fun tables and were even provided with buckets and spades which made for hours of fun digging the sand floor of the marquee! The beer drinkers were provided with stubby holders and we were delighted to drink wine from the winemaker we’d spent time with just a couple of weeks ago. An awesome event!



Leaving the marquee was probably the point that our luck changed…

As soon as we got back to the tent the heavens reopened (the Lords Prayer from earlier had obviously expired) and we settled in under the mountains of duvet to keep warm. Unfortunately it was at this point the wind picked up too and didn’t stop. Our little $40 two-man tent was blown and blown and blown. At one point during the night the roof of the tent was right in front of our faces and I held on to the door zip so that if it collapsed fully I’d be able to escape! The cold rain started seeping in so we had to curl up so not to get wet! By 4am I resorted to the passenger seat of the car and Dan stayed in the tent to weigh it down!

I woke up at about 7am on Sunday morning to see Dan out of the tent packing it up. We had a 3 hour drive to catch the ferry back and Dan had seen huge black clouds coming so was speedily getting everything into the car before we got drenched! We got it all in and set off, noticing that Jen and Tom in the next door tent had obviously abandoned ship in the night and gone to sleep in a friends cabin!

Sunday morning turned out sunny and we had a lovely drive to the ferry, stopping for bacon and egg rolls in a tiny town en-route. Dan drove and practically ordered a kangaroo to dart out in front of the car by saying ‘I haven’t seen any Kangaroos yet’ (never fails) and only managed to kill one bird as a whole flock of them went on a suicide mission in front of us.

We decided to treat ourselves to the ferry on the return trip as whilst it doesn’t save any time it means a couple of hours driving are saved meaning we could just relax and enjoy the experience. Of course, the way the day was going that just wasn’t going to happen. We set sail and with the wind and rain I reckon we were amongst 30% of the passengers who didn’t get sea sick. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much sick and green faces.



We finally got home on Sunday evening and unpacked the wet things from the car, hoping our landlord wouldn’t pop round and see all the duvets hanging from the doors and banisters!

On Monday morning we drove into the city with the hire car to drop it off. The heavens opened yet again and I treated myself to a taxi to work whilst Dan walked to the office. We hoped Charlene would start ok after such a wet weekend of just sitting there…

9am phone call from Dan to Becky:

Dan: I think Charlene has been stolen.
Becky: Call the police.

It turned out that Charlene had been having a little adventure of her own whilst we were away. I can’t help but blame myself for opting to take a hire car – she must have felt so lonely and rejected and obviously got caught up in something she shouldn’t have…

The police told us that she had been reported as abandoned and after realising it wasn’t us who had abandoned her outside Dan’s work, but that she had been abandoned in Fellixstow (a suburb to the North East of Adelaide) that we reported her as stolen. After a couple of calls back and forth to the police we were given the location and told we needed to collect her.

Dan managed to borrow a car from work and picked me up. I felt surprisingly calm and we were taking everything in our stride but as we turned the corner and saw her abandoned on a random street it was really sad. She looked like she had been raped and pillaged – parked at an angle, two flat front tyres, smashed back indicator light, wouldn’t start, stereo and surrounding dashboard ripped out…






So we’ve now called a tow truck and she is being picked up as I type and taken to car hospital to get looked at. We’re really hoping that we don’t get a huge bill (time for the Lords Prayer again?) as she is only insured as Third Party, without the fire and theft bit. Our words at the time of buying insurance was ‘who would want to steal a 24 year old heap of junk?’ – they obviously don’t have high standards in Adelaide! Something that Dan’s mum said has stuck in my mind – they have gained so little where as we have lost such a lot – very true!

So… that was our weekend! Awesome, great, fabulous, windy, wet and a little sad just at the end! Well done if you’ve got this far!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Improved features!

You might have noticed some new features to the blog! I've been having a play around to keep up with the times...

I've added a 'twitter' feature (at the top of the right hand column) that is like a mini-on-the-move blog. The great thing is that I can update it either by logging into the blog, via my google homepage, via facebook or even from my mobile! Just a bit of fun that will add some up to the minute news between the longer blog posts.

You'll also see that I am running a poll! Make sure you have your vote - it has turned into a bit of a competition in our household!

And finally I've added a 'search our blog' facility for those of you who like to use our blog as a bit of a local knowledge guide when they need to find links to websites or other info... (you know who you are)

Enjoy!

Ps. I think I'm turning into a professional blogger! ;-)

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Happy Hen's Weekend!

It's been a lovely weekend and relatively laid back - great to recover from a busy few weeks and get some energy together for the busy weeks planned for the coming month!

I had the honour of being invited along to Taryn's 'civilised' hens afternoon yesterday and had a great time.

Enjoy your last couple of weeks as a single gal, Taryn! See you at the wedding!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Where's Wally?


Greetings Becks & Dan fans, well what a fun weekend we had. It involved a wallaby, a dolphin, a rugby ball and 112 rugby players (something for the ladies!).

Adelaide became a rugby mecca at the weekend when 16 teams from across the world came together for the international rugby 7's. Myself and Rebecca had been specially selected to attend the event as I had enthusiasically agreed to be the Australian mascot for the tournament, Wally the Wallaby. Now, some of you may say that this is treason, but I would call it iniative, as we basically got in for free with access all areas passes and lots of food.

My role was to say hello to the kids (by waving, not allowed to speak, rule 1), run in a prop relay (they are the fat boys of rugby) and generally entertain everyone dressed as a 6ft 5 Wallaby. I performed 8 times over the weekend in 30 minute stints (rule 2, the mascot uniform must not be worn for more than 30 minutes) and managed to loose about 10kg through sweat..nice. It was also a great chance for myself and Becks to discover the trust we have in our relationship as basically when the suit goes on you can't see a thing (rule 3, the mascot must not be left on their own at any time!) So Becks did a great job and guiding me into doors and tripping over pavements (only joking, she was great).

In between my moments of fame we watched the rugby, we soon became very bored as England carried on their six nations run by loosing to everyone, even Kenya! since when did they start palying rugby... aparently in the 90's. Has England still not learn't that we should not teach other countries how to play our sports as generally they end up beating us at them. We should learn the lessons of America and basically only play against ourselves, but call the games World Series.

The funniest thing was that our english friends Andy & Carla also attended the 7's and were interviewed after England had lost their last game. To say Carla let the boys have it was an understatement. As the England team left the field on the big screen, Carla told them basically they were an embaresement and made our lives living here in SA even harder, they should pull there fingers out and do better next time. You could actually see some the England boys looking at the screen and wanting to run and hide, all very amusing.

To put being a mascot into perspective, we met Dolly the Dolphin. Dolly was a 110kg man dressed in a dolphin outfit and making flipper noises, a little disterbing. We got chatting and basically it turns out he does this as a profession! he gets paid, has a union and spends a lot of his time being a female dolphin, quite bizzare. I think we may have annoyed him a bit as we were basically laughing around and not taking it very seriously. Naughty Wally and Becky.

So all in all a fun and different weekend. A lot of Aussies have been most put out that a 'Bloody Pom' would wear their national mascot (I didn't want to point that they can't complain to much as they basically eat their two national emblems anyway), and I can't help wonder if I hadn't worn it would England have played better?

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Count down to the weekend...

The count down to our 'I'm not going to tell you what it is' weekend has begun!

In fact, we even stumbled across the launch of the particular event last night at none other than Colonial Lights look out in North Adelaide - pyrotechics and Mike Rann (Premier of South Australia) none the less.

So... can you guess what we're doing yet?

The Dan & Becks Vintage 2008

Ok, well maybe not quite a Dan and Becks vintage just yet but we had a great day on Sunday when our friends Taryn and Mark invited us to spend the day with an old mate of Marks at his place in the Barossa Valley. The old mate happened to be Dave Lehmann, wine maker extraordinare! Awesome - count us in!

Anyway, other than a few photos I'm going to keep this blog to a minimum and refer you to fellow blogger Dave who tells the story on his own site and in his own words! And whilst you're there, order some vino and enjoy!

http://www.david-franz.com/scraps/

Quick stop at a view point in the Barossa













Morning tea at Illaparra cellar door - underground!













Dan does his thing



















Wine glorious wine!














Becks, it's not ready for drinking yet!