Farewell Australia - July 2014

Our departure from Australia was a bit more sudden than we were expecting.  We had been talking for months about what we wanted to do, and what would happen if Oz offered Ryan a full-time contract.  We weren't sure we were ready to commit to another 2 or 3 years in Australia and the process of applying for permanent residence, but Ryan also loved his job and didn't really want to have to look for another one.  So, when the time eventually came and the offer was made, we were surprised for there to be a third option: take a summer position in Canada before ending employment with Oz.  That sounded perfect (though in retrospect it was a terrible decision...) so we took the offer and began the process of moving back to Canada.

Ediacaran fossils at the South Australian Museum.  They're what we were supposed to see in the Flinders Ranges had we made it past Slippery Dip.  They were in the museum the whole time, but it took us until the very last weeks to visit.

Packing in and of itself was quite the adventure, not to mention selling everything on Gumtree.  We were paying per kilo, so we had to assess which things were cheaper to replace than to ship, and which things we really wanted to take home with us, regardless of price.  After arriving in Australia with two bags each, we left with two bags each, plus 12 boxes.  

We also couldn't leave without throwing a killer party on June 21.  We invited everyone we knew, cooked a ton of food, and spent our life savings on a delicious gluten-free cake.  The best part was sharing what was left of our awesome wine collection (there were some seriously nice ones left), and our hard liquor.  The wine was gone surprisingly early (even though there were at least 13 bottles left), so the mixed drinks got kind of interesting after that.  Another great part of the party was the list we came up with of "Weird and Wonderful Australian Nuances" so we would never forget some of the odd parts of living down under:

-they say "ice block" instead of popsicle
-in New Zealand they call a cooler a "chilli bin"
-their shopping cart wheels go in every direction, making them much harder to push straight
-everything is smaller (sink, fridge, stove, etc.)
-people wear shoes in the house
-"fortnight" can also be said as "Monday week" (or whatever day you're talking about)
-babysitters aren't part of the main culture
-they print pictures on their toilet paper (we preferred the ones with coloured bubble pictures)
-gas=propane, car gas=petrol
-crikey, reckon, rubbish, no worries mate, trolley, lollie, heaps good
-thongs means flip flops
-the words bull, ball, and bowl all sound the same when an Aussie says them
-we never understood their phone number format.  Sometimes it would be 6 digits, but the spacing was different every time, and if two numbers in a row were the same they would say "double six" instead of "six six"
-good nic=good condition
-suss=suspicious/sketchy
-the smell of the flowers and the gum trees was amazing
-"no dramas"
-"take away" instead of "take out" for fast food
-"car park" instead of "parking lot"
-"move house" instead of just "move"
-Textas=Sharpie marker
-math class is "maths"
-autumn, not "fall"
-the telephone poles are made of cement, not wood
-"bring a plate" instead of "potluck"
-all of their power outlets have on/off switches
-sauce=ketchup
-pastie=meat pie

So after the hangover had passed and all of the boxes were packed, and we made one final trip to Henley Beach, Ryan officially flew to British Columbia to start his job on July 1, 2014.  Fittingly, on Canada Day.

Last visit to Henley Beach.  Where it all began.

Of course that meant I was left behind for an extra week, until July 11, to tie up all of the loose ends.  We hired a professional cleaner to clean the house (so we didn't get screwed like the last time we moved), but we STILL got scammed out of money because I accidentally had an extra rent payment go through that they refused to give back to me.  I also spilled water on my laptop the day before our insurance ended, so luckily I managed to get the money to buy a new one.

And while all of this was going down I got to stay with my lovely friends Janah and Luke.  Thank goodness I was around friends, because it was pretty hard to leave the amazing city we called home for almost three and a half years.

Those years changed our life like we couldn't have imagined.  The adventures were unmatched, and our friends and co-workers helped shape who we are now as adults.  As I write this, just over two years later, Ryan's parents are about to go back for a visit so we're feeling extremely nostalgic.  I'm missing the koala I used to pass in a tree on my walk to Greenhill Family Chiropractic, being woken up by parrots, sun drying tomatoes in the actual sun, and spending a lovely day at our favourite wineries in McLaren Vale.  But I also don't regret moving back.  Now we're back to living close to our family and friends, we got married in our favourite town, and we have an adorable puppy.  Everything happens as it should, and we will always remember those years in Australia with a fond smile and a twinkle.

Last view of Adelaide.

First view of Toronto.  Welcome home.

Seeing Sir. David Attenborough - July 27, 2013

Of all the awesome things we did in Australia, going to see Sir. David Attenborough speak was one of the coolest.  And it's kind of strange how it all happened.  I decided to get Ryan a ticket for his birthday, but we weren't sure if he would be home or not from work, so I only got one ticket instead of two (in case he couldn't go, then I would go in his place).  However, David ended up with some sort of heart problem, delayed the show, and it worked out that both Ryan and I were home to go see him.  Luckily there were still some tickets left, so we both ended up getting to go.  Ryan had a nearly front row seat, and I was slightly further back.

Holy cow can that man tell a good story!  The show was done interview style, so he would answer questions, tell stories, and show videos.  It was mesmerizing, funny, and educational all at the same time.

What I've Been Up To

I had originally intended for this blog to be primarily a way to share my travel stories, but for the next few months I will mostly be travelling for business so it's about time I did a post about how my career here has taken shape.  In a previous post I explained how I started working for Greenhill Family Chiropractic and was training to become a Wellness Coach, but a lot has changed since then.

When we got back from our Canada trip I really got focused on preparing myself to be a coach.  I had to start my own business and meet with Brett so he could teach me the skills I needed for coaching.  In my own time I just kept reading and researching, and I was able to take my first clients in January 2013.  For the first month Brett sat in on the sessions with me and gave me feedback, and since then I have been coaching on my own!  I do lots of sessions in person, but I also have a few clients from across Australia that I do Skype sessions with.  More recently I've been working on adding some new services to my business.  Soon I will start offering personalized home visits for people who want help cleaning out their pantry, reading food labels, meal planning, cooking demos, and even grocery store or market tours.  I have found that a lot of people are interested in nutrition but don't really want to be coached through it; some people just like to rip off the band-aid and get started!

But if that was all I was doing, I would have had a lot more time to write this blog!  I actually have a few other projects underway at the moment.

My favourite of them all is the podcast I'm co-hosting with Brett and the other chiropractor at the practice, Janah.  The three of us get along great and we decided to start a podcast called "That Paleo Show".  We're all very passionate about helping people get back to eating real, unprocessed food, and we're having a lot of fun with the podcast.  It has been extremely popular, hitting #1 health podcast in Australia on iTunes in the first week, and pretty much staying there ever since.  We have doubled our listeners each week, and this week we're up to the #26 ranked health podcast in the US, which is AMAZING considering how many podcasts there are there!  It's so cool to get emails and messages from friends and family, and even people I've never met, saying that they're enjoying the podcast and it's helping them stay motivated.  If for no other reason, then that makes it a success to me.  Check it out:  http://thewellnesscouch.com/that-paleo-show

My other major project is the workshop I'm planning with Brett called The Business of Wellness Coaching.  We found that once I started advertizing my services as a coach, people were actually more interested in becoming a coach themselves.  The industry is not regulated at all so actually anyone who has passion and knowledge can do it, so we decided to put together a workshop detailing exactly how to take the steps to start a Wellness Coaching business from scratch.  Brett has been writing a coaches guide for awhile, and I'm doing all of the worksheets, extra resources, and appendices, along with designing the flow of the workshop and of course the logistics.  Some people may see this as essentially training my competition, but I see it as the more people doing Wellness Coaching, the more people there are marketing it, and the more it will gain popularity with clients and help the world get well.  It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.  You can check out our website here:  http://www.thewellnesscoach.biz/

And of course, that's not all I'm doing!  On top of all of that I'm also taking more courses!  The major one that I'm taking is a year long at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.  It's a Health Coach training program, covering topics in nutrition, how to start a business, and coaching skills.  The network of students is amazing, and many of the students are even in Australia.  The course is all done online but I'm hoping to meet up with some of the local students eventually.  Everyone taking the course is incredibly inspiring, and the graduates have all taken really unique paths in wellness.  In fact, that's where I got the idea to do home visits in addition to coaching!  I think this course is just what I need to help me focus my efforts and really make a difference.

I've also found an awesome website called Coursera where anyone can take select university courses for free!  You don’t get a credit of course, but the courses are all from credible universities taught by actual professors with university quality material.  I've already taken a course called "Growth to Greatness: Growing your small business" and I'm currently taking "Introduction to Human Physiology".  The physiology course is really hard for me since I don't have a science background, but even if I take away 25% of the information, that's more than I knew when I started!  I've also signed up for a Biology course, a Chemistry course, and an Epigenetics course, but they don't start for a few months yet.  For anyone who just loves to learn, you should definitely check out the website:  http://www.coursera.org 

Well, I think that's about it from a business perspective.  I've got a few trips lined up to go to seminars and training, but I'll post about them when they happen.

On the home front, summer is just coming to an end here and my garden has been amazingly productive!  I had more basil, red chilies, tomatoes, and lemongrass then I knew what to do with, and the chili plants just started flowering again so I'm sure I'm in for another massive batch.  I'll bet  I've harvested about 800 so far already!  I just planted a ton of spinach and salad greens, and I'm about to plant some garlic.  I hope it's hot enough for garlic this time of year, but we'll see.  I never considered myself to be a gardener, but I now understand the satisfaction of eating right out of your own garden.  And I know they're not covered in chemicals!  The neighbours majorly pruned the lemon tree, but I can see a few more growing so all hope is not lost.  Maybe in a few more months we'll have lemons again.

Ryan and I are doing our last trip for awhile in 2 weeks.  We're doing the "Great Ocean Walk" which is about a 100km hike along the Great Ocean Road outside of Melbourne.  It's famous for being the most scenic drive in Australia, so we're hoping the walk will be better!  We've hired a service to drop off our gear and food at our campsites each night, so we'll only have to carry our day packs which will make it a lot more fun.  Hopefully we're in good enough shape to do it!

Thanks for being patient and reading my long story (if anyone is still reading my blog), and I promise all of my travels will be recorded eventually!  This is my journal, after all, and I don't want to forget any part of this amazing adventure.

Visitors from Abroad

Only a few days after we got back to Australia my parents arrived in Adelaide.  That didn't give us long to settle into the new house, but at least it was for a good cause.  They had already been to Los Angeles, Fiji, New Zealand, and the North-East coast of Australia, so their jetlag was gone and they were ready for me to show them what I've been up to for the past year and a half.

I picked them up at the airport on Thursday October 18th, and their first surprise was that I met them at their gate.  In Australia you can get through security without a ticket (and you can get a ticket without ID sometimes) .  We had to rush home because I was late for work, but not unexpectedly they did yard work while I was gone!  When I got home I took them for a walk around the neighbourhood and to the grocery store where we picked up some local Yabbies (it's actually a type of crayfish, not whatever you were thinking!)  That afternoon my Mom helped me plant my herb garden and we feasted on yabbies and an Australian lamb roast while trying to find a wine in my extensive collection that my parents liked.

I had to work Friday afternoon, so we just stuck around town in the morning.  First  we went to one of my favourite places in Adelaide: the Botanic Gardens.  From the first time I went there I wanted my Mom to see the gardens, so it was amazing that it actually happened.  We joined the free guided tour at 10am, and the guide took us all over showing us the native Australian plants.  Then I took them to the Adelaide Central Markets which is always fun.  We only had a few things on our list, but as with any market I always leave with much more than I had anticipated.  When we got home we made up a platter of snacks for lunch, and then while I was at work my parents cooked and did more yard work.  Lucky me!

On Saturday we went to McLaren Vale, which is always the best part of any visit to Adelaide.  I wasn't sure what to expect since my parents have very specific wine preferences, but throughout the day they were both surprised to find multiple wines that they liked.  We did our usual tour, starting with Leconfield because they have the best platter lunches.  I think we would all agree that was the best part of the day!

Then we stopped at all of the usual places: Fox Creek, Dog Ridge, Vale Ale, Lloyd Brothers, and we tried to find the lookout and failed again.  The only new place we went to was Ekhidna Wines, and they specialize in beer and cider.  Their wine was terrible, but the cider was alright.  We didn't buy any though.

That night we had kangaroo steaks for dinner, but I think it was a little bit weird for my parents.  Roo has a really strong flavour and has to be cooked just right, and I probably haven't mastered that yet!  Overall we had an excellent day, and it was probably the highlight of the visit in my opinion.

My favourite thing to do on a Sunday morning is go to the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market, so that's exactly what we did.  Unlike the Central Market, the Farmer's Market is actually all local produce.  There's no holding me back when we go there!  As usual, I bought so much it wouldn't fit in my fridge (which isn't saying much because our fridge is really small).  After the market I took my parents to Henley Beach (where we used to live) to show them our neighbourhood, but more importantly, the beautiful beach!  Much to my disappointment, though, it was super windy and really cold.  Not at all how I remember it from living there!  Sadly our beach walk didn't last very long, so I took them up my favourite local river walk instead.  It's usually where we spot some neat birds, so they enjoyed that as well.

That afternoon we feasted on oysters, mussels, and a Thai salad.  Mom and Dad were sceptical about the oysters, but I think they both figured if I liked them then they must be alright.  I've found some amazing recipes, so they were delicious!  We ate really early because that evening we had plans in the hills.

First we went to the lookout at the top of Mt. Lofty for a beautiful view just as the sun was setting.

Then we made our way to the Warrawong Sanctuary in the hills for a nocturnal tour.  I had never been there before, so it was new for all of us this time.  We started the tour by feeding the kangaroos, and protecting them from the ravenous ducks that tried to steal all of the food.  When we eventually did leave, the ducks took over and the roos all gave up trying to get any more food.

As it got dark we made our way to two ponds where the platypus live.  They say there is only a 30% chance of seeing one  on any given day, since they're very shy animals, and it was not our lucky day.  My parents had already seen one in Queensland, though, so at least they didn't really miss out.  The park was beautiful, but it rapidly became dark and we started to look out for more nocturnal animals.  There were a few wallabies out, but mostly we saw smaller marsupials like bettongs and possums.

Bettong

Brush-tail Possum

The tour was really fun, and it gave me a new perspective on Australia since I rarely go out at night (mostly because I don't like night, but also because of the spiders…)

Monday morning I went with my dad to pick up their rental car, and then my parents left for their road trip of the Great Ocean Road, ending in Melbourne.  It was so awesome to show my parents around Adelaide, and it's only a shame that Ryan wasn't here to join us.  But luckily he came with us to Sydney the next weekend, so stay tuned!

New Job, New House, New Adventure

As some of you already know, A LOT has happened in the past few months, so I thought I'd take some time to update everyone.  For the most part this blog has been about our travels, but we have made some changes will radically affect our travel plans for the next year.  I'll start at the very beginning.

My job at the mines was fairly repetitive, so I listened to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts while I worked (for those of you who don't know, podcasts are free audio programs on iTunes).  My favourite podcast was one called "The Wellness Guys", which was all about health and dispelling the myths that are out there about living a healthy life.  If you have any interest in health at all, I highly recommend it (www.thewellnessguys.com).  The program is run by 3 Australian chiropractors/wellness experts, so after listening to a lot of episodes I decided to go see Dr. Brett Hill in Adelaide for a wellness coaching session.  At that point I had no interest in chiropractic, but I did like his message about health.

In the meantime, I was also taking some of the advice from the podcast and changing my diet.  They highly recommended cutting grains from your diet in all forms (I know, it sounds crazy) so I decided to stop having toast and cereal for breakfast at the mines, and replaced them with other things like fruit, eggs, green salads, and even the dinner food they put out for the night shift people.  Almost immediately I stopped having my usual sugar crashes during the day.  I also lost a few pounds, and l now look and feel better than I have in years.  When I got home from the mines, Ryan listened to one of the interviews about the Paleo diet on the podcast, and we decided to give it a try.  He was doubtful at first, but the main message that hooked him was to pay attention to how you feel after you eat.  Pretty much instantly we noticed that not having grains or dairy made us feel so much better than before, and we were really enjoying the increase in veggies and meat.

So fast-forward a few months.  I had started seeing Brett for chiropractic work because of my sore back from work, and I also learned that chiropractors can help with so much more than back pain (sleep, digestion, headaches, immunity, etc.).  The job at the mines was really getting to me, and I desperately needed a change.  Also, winter at the mines was pretty cold at 5am, so I started getting arthritic hands and large sore bumps on them.  When I asked Brett what he thought would help, he said "well, you could come work for me!"  He was offering about 20 hours a week of front desk/chiropractic assistant work/marketing, but also the opportunity to be mentored by him in the hopes of becoming a wellness coach in his practice,  which of course sounded better than the mines.  Despite that,  I immediately said no because of the major decrease in pay and the long commute from home.  When I told Ryan, he said "so you took it, right?"

Over the next 24 hours Ryan and I hashed out all of the pros and cons of taking the job at Greenhill Family Chiropractic, but eventually decided that I would work one more swing at Prominent Hill, then take the job.  We also decided that we had to move closer to my new work (and away from the beach).  While we were in Tasmania Brett confirmed that I could have the job, and in that moment things changed forever.

I am now typing this from our new house (we just moved in yesterday), I have completed a basic Wellness Coaching Certificate online, I absolutely love working at Greenhill Family Chiropractic, and most importantly Ryan and I are both much healthier now than we have ever been.  That story is to be continued.

Our other exciting update is that tomorrow morning we are leaving for a major vacation!  We will be in Canada for 4 weeks, then Holland for a few days, and finally Thailand for a few days.  In Canada we have two weddings to go to (my brother's and my friend's), family and friends to visit, and a heck of a lot of shopping to do!  We haven't been home in 15 months, so we're really looking forward to the trip.  Because my new job is on weekdays, we won't be doing very many large trips like we have been doing, so this will be an awesome way to start our new chapter.  Consequently, I won't be posting on this blog for probably 2 months.  I will of course post about our trips when I return to Australia.

Until then, instead of reading my blog, listen to the Wellness Guys!  Even if it doesn't change your lives as drastically as it  changed mine, I guarantee that it will change your lives in another positive way.

Thanks for reading!

Love Steph

Footy: Crows Vs. Richmond - June 30, 2012

To celebrate Canada Day weekend here in Australia, we did one of the most Australian things we could do: go see a footy game.  We went with Ryan's old boss Andy and his daughter Gabby, and we had an awesome time.  In all the time Ryan and I have been together we have never seen a professional sporting event together, so it was another new experience for us.

Footy is primarily an Australian sport, though it does have international teams.  It is not the same as American football, or soccer, or rugby, but has some aspects of all three.  I won't bore you with the rules, but they were pretty simple and we had the hang of it after the first 20 minutes or so.  The weirdest part, though, was how small all of the players were!  They don't wear padding, so it was really weird to watch compared to hockey or American football.

This guy has the most beautiful hair I've ever seen.  I think his name is Sloan.  This was during warm-up, so that's why the stands aren't full.

The stadium was only a few kilometres from our house, so the traffic was quite bad in our area.  We took the bus, but it probably would have been faster to walk.  As we approached the stadium, like in Toronto, there were people everywhere dressed in team colours, some people were having barbeques, and lots were kicking around footballs. 

Once we got comfortable with the rules, my Wasylyk personality eventually emerged into a loud, cheering fan.  Andy and Gabby were amused by my enthusiasm, but Ryan wasn't surprised at all.  We had an extremely rowdy, drunk guy next to us cheering for the other team, so naturally I had to use some of my famous smack-talk on him.  After he yelled "That's a disgrace!", I screamed back "You're mom's a disgrace!" and later, "Take that, ya hoser!"  Even after that, the old lady behind us still thought we were American…  I felt a little bad, but it was all in good fun.

The first quarter was bad because the Adelaide Crows were losing pretty bad, but we made a massive comeback and won respectably.  Overall it was a pretty exciting game of footy, and I'm so glad we went.

After the game we were allowed on the field for awhile, and out of nowhere appeared hundreds of footballs.  While posing for a picture, Ryan somehow managed to trip me and I ended up sprawling on the ground.  No pictures of that though, since the camera wasn't on (thank goodness).

We ended up walking home, and I'm pretty sure we beat most of the traffic.  Really, though, we needed some way to wear off the beer and chiko rolls!

(I swear posts about Tasmania are coming soon, but they're much harder to write since there are so many pictures to go through!  Be patient.)

Full House in Adelaide - June 2-5, 2012

The next morning in Clare was ultra-relaxed, so we slept in, had breakfast, and packed the van for the last time.  After a nice daytime drive back to Adelaide we stopped for groceries and settled back in at home for a very enjoyable day.  I usually try not to talk too much about food on this blog, but this will be an exception for two reasons.  First, now that I don't have to cook for myself every day because of work, I absolutely love cooking when I'm home.  Second, we ate like kings, and you can too if you come to visit!

For lunch we had a delicious spread of gourmet meat, cheese, fruit, crackers, bread, quince paste, and other goodies.  Then I got straight into cooking dinner, which was cold spring rolls and green curry from scratch with cauliflower "rice".  I recruited everyone to roll the cold rolls and help with the other bits, so it was a group effort.

The next day was also all about food.  Ryan cooked a delicious breakfast of grilled eggplant with a hole cut in the centre for a fried egg.  So yummy!  The weather started to turn, so we went for a short walk by the river in the morning before the rain.  I promised everyone a variety of birds, and we saw almost all of the ones I was expecting.  I was sure we would see the shy Australian Grebe, but we didn't have any luck until right at the very end, so I kept my promise.

Everyone did their own thing for the afternoon, and I enjoyed making our delicious dinner:

Appetizer:

-shrimp cocktail

-prosciutto wrapped melon balls

Main:

-citrus, rosemary, and garlic roasted chicken

-orange roasted veggies (sweet potato, squash, carrots, oranges, rosemary)

-fennel and orange salad

-parsnip purée

Dessert:

-coconut cake (made by Ryan)

Leanna and Daniel also arrived in time for dinner, so it was a full house on our tiny table but so much fun.  Due to lack of space (and good luck), Leanna and Daniel spent the night in our guest house on wheels (we had the campervan for 7 days).  Maybe not something you should expect if you come to visit…

In the morning we had an amazing breakfast spread, and got organized and out of the house by 10am.  Leanna and Daniel had to return their rental car and pick up a campervan, I had to pick up the minivan, and the others returned our campervan.  As you can imagine, it was quite the coordination effort, but we managed to be on the road to McLaren Vale by 11:30am.

We spent awhile debating over doing a walking tour, a biking tour, or just the normal car tour, but the weather made the decision for us.  After a quick stop at the visitor centre, we drove to Lechonfield Wines.  It was one of the first wineries we had ever been to in Australia and it was where I first started liking wine, so it was a good starter place for Bryce and Leanna.  After tasting from their massive wine list, we had a scrumptious gourmet lunch.

Once everyone was a bit tipsy, we all agreed that it was a good thing we weren't on bikes!  Next we stopped at Fox Creek - another one of our absolute favourites.  We had been serving Fox Creek wine all week, so it was nice to show everyone where it came from. 

Dog Ridge was our third stop, and the only new place we went to all day.  It was really neat because it had some amazing bird art on display by Jen Wright (painted with red wine and squid ink, among other things), and they sat us down together at a nice table for tasting.

By this point we were getting short on time, so we quickly drove to Lloyd Brothers (wine, olives, and olive oil tasting) before they closed.  This is always one of my favourites, and it's nice to have something other than wine at the end of the day.

Despite the bad weather and the increasing darkness, after three attempts we found a lookout over the region.  We'll definitely go back on a nicer day to get the full effect. 

Finally, we stopped at Vale Ale for some beer tasting.  It added some nice variety to the day, but unfortunately on the way home Leanna realized she left her purse there.  Because of that the evening was a bit rough, but that story has a happy ending.

After a simple dinner of lamb, salad, and leftovers (and some wine for the designated driver), Leanna and Daniel returned to their campervan (I swear the neighbours think we're nuts) and everyone prepared for their respective departures the next day.

The entire visit was hectic, but I wouldn't change a thing.  We're so lucky to have such great family and friends to share our Australian adventures with.

Family Visit - Touring around Adelaide Jan. 27-31

After 24 hours of flight delays (not to discourage anyone from coming to visit us), my Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Ben arrived in Adelaide from BC, Canada.  Despite the setbacks they had, they were in good spirits and eager to go for a swim at the beach.  That was actually only the 3rd time I have ever been in the ocean, but it was really nice and warm.  After that we headed home for an Australian meal of kangaroo burgers.

The next day we went to the Adelaide Central Market in the morning (one of my favourite places), and since it was Chinese New Year there were people walking around in costume with dragons and drums to celebrate.  We bought all of the ingredients for a gourmet picnic and headed to the Botanic Gardens for lunch.  A first for me was going into the rainforest exhibit, which I mistakenly thought was the butterfly exhibit, and we saw a cool spider but no butterflies.  While walking back to the car we ducked into the National Wine Centre of Australia for some much needed air conditioning, but it was also a nice, free museum about wine making in Australia.   That night with our purchases we made the best homemade green curry I've ever had, which is exciting since we've been trying to master it for a few years now.

Sunday January 29th we headed to Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills for a scenic drive, some wine tastings, and a wander around the quaint German village.  Turns out, though, it was the Crush Festival that weekend so it was a lot busier than we had expected.  We seem to have a knack for showing up unaware to festivals in Adelaide!  First we went to Somerled for a fun and delicious tasting, and ended up buying some wine (Alta, Sauvignon Blanc, 2011).  Our lunch at the German Cake Shop was disappointing, despite the delicious sounding name and the good reviews, but we supplemented lunch with some cheese and condiment samplings at other shops along the way.  We took the scenic route home and were lucky enough to spot a koala at one of the viewpoints.

That evening we met Ben and Jeanne's friend Fay for a drink and some dinner.  She leant us her car for the week and is very knowledgeable about the area, so it's always fun to see her.  Upon her suggestion we bought fish and chips, then ate them on the beach while watching the sunset.

The green hat Jeanne is wearing was a freebie from a drive through beer store.  We didn't buy that brand of beer, but Fay sweet talked the young clerk and somehow we ended up with a free hat!

On Monday we headed to the next major wine region in the area, McLaren Vale.  On the way we stopped at Seaford Beach to watch the surfers, but proceeded to the McLaren Vale Info Centre where the gang did their first wine tasting from 90 Mile Wines.  Next was Oxenberry Farms, which was an extensive wine tasting with a delicious lunch to follow.  The wine wasn't great, but it was good practice for the 3 tasters (I was driving and not tasting). 

Wirra Wirra was the next vineyard on the list, and one Ryan has been trying to get to since we moved here.  They have great red wines, and Ryan even joined their wine  club to get better deals!  We now have an assorted case of red wine for whoever visits us this winter (hint hint!)  After all of the wine we decided to do a beer tasting, but Vale Ale didn't excite anyone so we went to our final destination: Mables Chocolates!

On our last day of playing tour guide we went to the Barossa Valley, which is the third wine region in the area.  After a short walk through the town and into the Barossa Regional Art Gallery, we went to Maggie Beer's Farm Shop for lunch.  This was super exciting for me because Maggie Beer is a very famous Australian woman known for country cooking.  I've seen her on Masterchef and tried some of her recipes.  I knew there was a slight possibility that we would see her, but I figured it was very unlikely.  Turns out, she was actually doing a photo shoot on the property that day!  We didn't meet her or anything, but she was around the whole time we were there.  Every day they do a cooking demonstration there as well, which was quite a fun and delicious experience.

Since everyone was a bit sick of wine, we went to the Mengler Hill Lookout and Statue Park for a break.  There we had a beautiful view over the entire valley, and we also explored the abstract statues created by artists from all over the world. 

To end off the day, though, we went to Jacob's Creek.  It's a brand of wine available in Canada, so we thought it would be fun to check it out while we were in the area.  The have a bunch of wines here that aren't exported, so it was actually a better tasting than we were expecting.  We especially liked the Moscato!

Australia Day

January 26 was Australia Day, so naturally we had to do something fun to celebrate.  Originally our visitors were due to arrive at noon, but due to flight trouble unfortunately we had to quickly change our plans.  Lucky for us Justin and Kelsey were free, so we had a barbeque on the beach.  We had some chicken skewers, but cooking them on the little charcoal barbeque turned out to be problematic and quite sandy due to the wind.  We also had veggies, paté and crackers, and of course, Tim Tams (an Australian cookie covered in chocolate).  My contribution was the Australia Day party hats.

It looks like we were alone on the beach, but really as far as you could see people had brought massive tents out for the occasion.  Many people brought full patio sets, and one group even carried a massive barbeque onto the beach.  Not many people were swimming, but of course we had to go in for a short swim.  The water was warm but quite wavy and unfortunately a bit dirty.

After our sun shade blew down we decided to go back to our house where we promptly polished off an additional 4 bottles of wine (on top of the beer at the beach) then cooked 4 frozen steaks for dinner.  Luckily I had ice cream cones for dessert!

Overall, despite the travel setbacks my family had, we managed to have an excellent Australia Day.  It also means we can eat our roo burgers and kanga bangas (kangaroo sausages) for dinner tonight to keep the party going!

Creepy Crawlies

In honour of Halloween this week, I thought I would do a post on the bugs and spiders we've seen so far.  Beware of creepy pictures!

You know that we've already seen the Redback Spider and Ryan has seen the Golden Orb Spider, and we also saw a Tiger Snake.  Ryan thinks he saw a Mouse Spider at work, but there are no pictures to prove it so we're watching out for another one.

I'm going to do my best to identify the following pictures based on what I find on the internet!

Black House Spider

This spider is poisonous but not deadly.  Good thing, since one was in my shower while I was in there.  This particular one we found outside on a spider-finding mission.

Huntsman Spider

This one was on our back gate at night, maybe a bit bigger than a Toonie.  They're non-aggressive spiders and are actually good at keeping other bug populations down, but you should still avoid getting bitten since it is painful.

Daddy Long Legs

We have tons of these, but I actually don't have any pictures.  They look like they do in Canada and I think they're responsible for most of the webs in the house.  They vary in size from about a centimetre (including legs) to about three centimetres.

Unidentified Spider

For those of you who read my blog as a procrastination technique, maybe you can help me out with this one.  I've spent a good while trying to figure out what this one is but can't find anything similar online.  We found it on our wall near the ceiling and it was about 2cm long.  The colour is accurate, but I'm sorry the picture is blurry.

Black Portuguese Millipede

Spiders are pretty creepy, but this was the most disgusting bug in our house.  It was on our bathroom floor and scared the crap out of me when I first saw it.

Hairy Mary Caterpillar

Or at least that's the closest thing I can find.  It doesn't seem like anyone on the internet actually knows its name.  We saw this guy in Kings Park, Perth.

Shingleback Lizard

I don't have a picture of this either, since when I saw one I thought it was a snake and got really freaked out.  They have stubby legs, so it was really hard to tell at first.  It was scurrying around in the shrubs near our beach, and I'm pretty sure I saw a bunch of babies while I was climbing Mt. Lofty.  This website has a good picture though.
**Update** Turns out I actually did take a picture!

That's all for now!  I'll try and be more diligent about taking pictures, but to be honest my main priority is to get them out of the house or as far away from them as possible.

These days there isn't much to blog about, so I'll try to gather another list of new birds we've seen.  It just takes a really long time to ID them all (this post took over 2 hours, and it was short!) so don't expect it tomorrow.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Adelaide CheeseFest

Last Saturday, for lack of anything else to do, I decided to venture over to CheeseFest in downtown Adelaide.  It wasn't particularly exciting, but still worth a mention as part of my adventures here. 

The main attractions for me were the cooking demonstrations happening all afternoon.  I know this makes me sound like I'm some chef now, but actually it seems like Australia is really obsessed with cooking shows so chefs are a main part of the country's celebrities.  I watched 3 demonstrations while I was there.  The first was Adam Swanson who is regularly on the TV show "Ready, Steady, Cook" but who is also the spokesperson for a pasta company here called San Remo.  I'm sure he is a good cook, but his crew was super annoying and they had a camera man standing RIGHT in front of him the entire time so you couldn't really see what he was doing.

Adam Swanson

Next was Simon Bryant who also does tons of TV appearances.  He had a motorcycle vibe to him and he was absolutely hilarious.  His demonstration was partly about cheese-making, so it was pretty interesting.  That demonstration had a huge turnout unlike the other ones.  Also none of the other chefs had huge obnoxious crews which made the whole thing much better.

Simon Bryant

And finally I saw Callum Hann, who was the runner up on the second season of MasterChef (last year's season, but I'm working my way through watching it now).  His demonstration was the best because he actually made food I would eat, and he was also pretty funny.  I got to try his no-bake "cheesecake" that he made and it was delicious.  They said they would post the recipes online so I didn't write it down, but I haven't been able to find them yet unfortunately.

Callum Hann

After the cooking demonstrations I just walked around and sampled a bunch of free cheese and wine, so it was a nice end to the whole affair.  They gave me a commemorative wine tasting glass which reminded me a lot of WineFest in Germany.  I guess I'm starting a collection!  Overall, it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

SWAA: Hyden and Perth

And now finally, the last instalment from our South Western Australia Adventure.  Brace yourselves, it's a big one!

After our long drive from Denmark, we arrived in Hyden around 3:30pm and went straight to the main attraction of the area and the purpose of our massive detour: Wave Rock.  I was a bit sceptical that the rock would be impressive enough to merit the extra hundreds of kilometers, but in the end it was pretty cool.

Someone had to do the surfing stance!

Next we headed just a few seconds down the road to the far less impressive "Hippos Yawn".  I'm not really sure what made this so special other than the name, but it led us to take some silly pictures.

The obvious - us yawning

Ryan getting eaten by the hippo

For some reason because I was wearing a red shirt Ryan really wanted me to be a uvula.  Didn't really work, but it was funny to try!

And that was it!  All of the attractions in Hyden in less than an hour.  That night we stayed in the hilariously out-dated Hyden Hotel/Motel.  For dinner the hotel offered the "exotic" option of selecting your meat for dinner and then grilling and seasoning it yourself on a massive grill in the dining room.  For some reason this made me really grumpy, which was compounded by the buffet "salad bar" they had (comprised of pasta salad, potato salad, and coleslaw) along with some weird cooked sides.  Even though dinner wasn't great, they had a really nice lounge room with a massive fireplace.  It was really cold that day so instead of hanging out in our room we brought our board game and a bottle of wine and enjoyed a few hours by the fire.  It was a great way to end a disappointing evening.  To be fair to the restaurant, I think if you go to many country towns in Canada you would end up with the same country style cooking, but I think I was just spoiled by our fine dining in wine country.

The next day, September 28th, we got an early start for our drive to Perth.  The drive wasn't very exciting, but we did pass some random tourist attractions (most notably the dog cemetery) and some really beautiful orchards in bloom.  The day before we had called many hotels in Perth to try and find a room, but we were very unlucky.  We ended up with one above our budget, so we were expecting it to be really nice.  It was called the Somerset, located right downtown Perth, and it was a huge letdown. 

Since this was to be our last day of the trip, and our only time in Perth, we got right out on the town to do some exploring.  For me, Kings Park was the only thing in Perth that I had any interest in seeing.  It is one of the largest inner city parks in the world, and it had fantastic views of the city.  It's also where their botanic gardens are located, so we got to see a great show of the wildflowers in bloom.

During our walk through the park we also found this "tree top walk" which was nice.  It wasn't nearly as high as the real one we did in Walpole though!

The downtown was more modern than Adelaide, but about the same size.  Surprisingly it had a lot of designer stores, which Adelaide doesn't have.  That evening we did a short walk around downtown Perth and decided to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant.  That was the best decision all day, since the food was awesome!  We started with delicious cocktails (the winner was Ryan's "Japanese Slipper" made with equal parts Midori melon liqueur, Cointreau, and lemon juice), entrée of scallops, and our mains were an Asian shrimp salad and a pizza (brie, bacon, chicken, cranberry sauce, mozzarella, and spinach - great combo!).

The next day, September 29th, our flight didn't leave until 5:30 pm so we spent the morning shopping at some outlet stores and lounging/napping in King's Park.  We THOUGHT it was the perfect end to our trip, but then things went horribly wrong.

When we tried to do the auto check-in at the airport, the machine abruptly said "please see attendant", which has never happened to me before.  When the guy at the counter looked confused, I jokingly said "haha we probably missed our flight or something stupid" and he unfortunately said yes.  Turns out we missed it by an entire day! 

I know, I know, this doesn't seem like something I would do.  To be honest, there were so many signs pointing us to our real flight but somehow we brushed them all off.  First, and most obvious, was when Virgin emailed me a flight confirmation on the 27th.  I looked at it and said "huh, that's weird, they usually send it 24 hours ahead, I wonder why I got it 2 days ahead"!  Next, when we picked up our car rental the woman tried to confirm our return on the 28th.  I immediately corrected her and extended it to the 29th.  And finally, the trip just felt like we had loads of extra time on our hands.  Now, Ryan isn't completely blameless.  He emailed his boss saying we would be back on the 29th, but of course he meant he could start work again on the 29th.  For some reason I guess that date was stuck in my head, and he never corrected me and neither one of us looked it up.

Anyways, having seen enough episodes of The Amazing Race I knew that there were ways of getting flights at the airport.  First we decided to wait and see if the 5:30 flight back to Adelaide on Virgin (our airline) was full.  There were still 6 people who hadn't checked in at 4:55pm, but unfortunately by the 5:00pm deadline 5 had showed up.  After checking other airlines we found it was impossible to get any flights out since Qantas baggage handlers were on strike already causing flight cancellations, and the Grand Final in footy was the next day in Melbourne and people I think were being diverted through Adelaide.  Luckily the guy at Virgin got us on the morning flight out, and took pity on us so he didn't charge us a cent! 

Without going through all of the details, suffice it to say we decided not to sleep in the airport and instead got the closest, cheapest hotel we could find.  Ironically, that night was far better than the first one we had in Perth for half the price!  We stayed at the All Seasons Hotel and ended up in an "upgraded" room due to limited availability.  We asked what the difference was for the $20 more, and they told us that our room would have a window.  I kid you not, this is what it looked like:

In case you can't see, the window has glass, but then that's a wall with a picture of SYDNEY Harbour!  Seriously, that made our day.  There was actually a tiny skylight in the window so it made a difference in the morning to have some natural light, but hilarious beyond belief.

Yet again, we had a delightful night of board games, wine, and room service potato wedges, and that really was the perfect way to end a fantastic vacation.