It’s Mad March in Adelaide and the Fringe is in full swing so it would be rude not to go along and check it out!

We had booked to see Ross Noble, a crazy comedian from Newcastle. Typical, we have come this far to see someone from home. So after a glass of vino in the sun we decided to splash out and go out for dinner before our show, though we weren’t feeling overly peckish and didn’t have much time so with dessert being the new dinner, we took a trip to St Louis instead, our new fave place (we even have a loyalty card – it’s bad)                              It was a no brainer really and we were very pleased with our choice of waffles (aka vaffles) I went for the healthy option choosing one of my five a day – strawberry, and Ryan being greedy went for a salted caramel and chocolate one. They were bloody delicious and I have no idea how someone could eat a meal and a dessert like that straight after (um yeh I do) with full bellies, we waddled out and went to see our show.

Ross was absolutely hilarious and completely unbelievably random. I cannot even explain anything that went on because it really didn’t make sense but we laughed A LOT and had an amazing time! I don’t even think he had a script, he just completely bounced off the audience which made it even more hilarious! All laughed out and giggling back to the car, went back to our lovely home and still full from dessert had a great nights sleep!

We had another few chilled days and then had planned to take another trip to the Fringe with some of the girls from work (Reanna and Mel). We were um-ing and ah-ing about what to see so instead decided to go down to the gardens and see what was available and go from there.

The gardens were buzzing with activity – mini circus shows everywhere, food stalls and the larger shows going on in the larger tents. We decided to see an acrobatics show but first we needed some food and drink. Curries, baked potatoes, lebanese food – followed by nutella toasties for the girls and ice cream (of course) for me!

The show was insane, the acrobats were so strong and creative. They were amazing and just flew around everywhere! The group were locals from Adelaide and had been on a world tour – I would definitely go and see them again!

After the show we went to the Royal Croquet Club, a venue set up on the park in the centre of town. It has a few croquet lawns, lots of food and drink tents and a big music stage in the shape of a giant radio. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there but we managed to take some photos outside and then headed back to our car and back home. We had a really good night and it was great to see some of the action in town!

We had work for the next few days before Dad was due to arrive and it was a shame we had to move out of our house (it was booked for wedding guests prior to when we moved in) It would have been perfect for Dad’s stay but ah well, we booked somewhere closer to town and we were looking forward to it.

Dad had flown out to Oz the week before for work and was popping over to Adelaide for the weekend, so he was almost over the jet lag and ready for a fun couple of days when picked up dad from the airport at 6:30pm. It was all very exciting and it was just as though we had seen him the other day! Definitely didn’t feel like we hadn’t seen him for four months! Very bizarre!

We went straight to dinner at Bar Torino, a lovely little tapas bar that had been recommended to us by the Wauchope’s – it was cosy, busy and after deciding on what to eat, we ate, drank and caught up. The food was great and the company wasn’t bad either.

Dad had informed us that he hadn’t had dessert since being in Australia and probably being the worst thing he could say, we knew how to solve that problem and went to our favourite dessert place – St Louis, and being loyalty card holders, went for our third dessert on the list. I went for the chocolate brownie crepe, Ryan had a massive sundae he had seen someone polishing off days before and Dad had the chocolate soufflé – which came with a chocolate shake and strawberry ice cream. Oh my, it did not disappoint and we (once again) waddled out of the door in need of some fresh air. Being close to the Royal Croquet Club and wanting to show dad some of the Fringe festival we wandered around, looked at some shows that we could potentially watch tomorrow and then ventured to our Airbnb where we would be staying for the next two nights.

It was like a scene from ’That 70’s Show’ and had some strange features including a bar, a peach bathroom suite and of course a water feature – all the essentials! We drank tea, opened our care package from home (thanks guys) chatted some more and all being quite tired, probably from the mass of food and excitement, went to bed.

Feeling very refreshed in the morning, we took Dad to ‘The Topiary’ a restaurant at Newman’s Nursery just down the hill from Glen Ewin. The girls at work had recommended it to us and they always suggest great places! Dad and I went for the eggs royale with beetroot hollandaise and Ryan went for chilli scrambled eggs, it was amazing, creative and just so scrummy! We were very pleased and now set up for the morning ahead.

We popped in to Glen Ewin for a coffee with the family at the Cellar Door, Dad met Bill, Wendy, Kate, Rafi and Horace and we chatted about our stay so far. Had a lovely walk around the fig orchard, showed Dad our home and picked some Figs, he loved seeing where we were working and living and it was so nice for him to meet everyone.

It was hot and humid and the short walk around the orchard had made us ready for the aircon car, so we said goodbye to Glen Ewin and drove up to Lyndoch, where we were going to see Dad’s friends from bonny Scotland. They have a lovely country house up in the hills that they use as a B&B and wedding venue. Greeted by their two lovely retrievers, we met Jane and Julian who ran the show and also her brother Neil and his wife who were visiting from Thailand.

We had a cooling glass of water, admired the views and then jumped in cars to go for lunch at ‘The Artisans of Barossa’ a gorgeous place in an amazing location surrounded by vineyards and rolling hills. We ate like Barrosan’s which meant ‘just go with it’ and the food was amazing – flatbreads, dips, falafel, salads, meats, etc. – there was a lot but we just couldn’t stop! We all grazed and drank gorgeous wine whilst chatting. Dad caught up with Jane and Neil, we chatted to Julian about wine and just had a really great lunch. It was nice to venture out and see some more of the Adelaide Hills.

On the way back to Jane’s the boys and I went to a pub and me being the designated driver, had a water, whilst the men did beer tasting. Pretty cool actually and they all enjoyed it – a lot. It was a sunny day, a live band was playing and Dad was with us in Oz, a very good Saturday!!!

What we had thought would be a early afternoon lunch, turned out to be a full afternoon until 8pm, which was great and all of the best times are the unplanned ones. We were too full and a bit tired to go and watch a Fringe show, so we went home back to the 70’s, facetimed Mum, Grandma, Grandad, Chelsea, Stevie and the kiddies (full house) which was a nice end to the evening. They were all happy and we chatted about our weekend filled with food and drink.

The following day Dad was too soon back to the airport and off to his next stop Auckland. We dropped him off just after 9am and it had felt like he had just arrived! So nice to see him and wish Mum had been there too. The time will fly by and looking forward to seeing them both in September !!!!

We were off to work shortly after dropping Dad off and it was another very busy and hot day at the Fig Bar. Ryan was working later than I was so I headed to Willa and Mary’s house for a drink which was followed by quite a few more drinks and pizza on the lawn. The view from their garden is amazing and we had a lovely evening in the sun!

It was Mary’s birthday on Wednesday and a BBQ had been planned down at the Fig Bar after work. I baked my first cake of the travels so far and I didn’t want to let everyone down. I went for a lemon drizzle as it was easy and I only needed one tin! I was limited on supplies and didn’t have any weighing scales, so used cups instead and had to use a hand whisk – crikey, I have definitely been spoilt with a mixer (that is going on the wedding gift list) To add to this I didn’t use the correct function on the oven and it was hot enough so it didn’t look like it was going to be a success!

After two hours in the oven (meant to be 45 minutes) and a worrying wait, it seemed to be ready and I left it to cool whilst going to work for a couple of hours. I came back, iced it, cut it in half to taste and make sure it was edible – it did some ok, thankfully, so I took it down to the BBQ and it went down a treat! We trialed some cocktails for Mary’s birthday – the favourite one being Fig cordial, gin, tonic, ginger and lime. Pimms on the go and we had a great dinner and a really nice time celebrating Mary’s birthday!!

Unfortunately the fig season is coming to an end! We have had a great time working at the Fig bar and being amongst the relaxed atmosphere of the Fig pickers and people having lovely afternoon picnics in the sun.

The annual Fignic was due to take place on Sunday and it looked as though this was going to be the last day of the ‘pick your own’

Over a hundred people had booked to come down, pick some figs, have a hamper with yummy fig inspired food, maybe have a few drinks and generally just have a great time! We were both working but it didn’t really feel like work, everyone was in good spirits, enjoying the sunshine and the boys rode around on the tractor with ice cream for the customers and a box of booze to top up everyones glasses. It ran from midday to 5pm, and we held a little competition to find the golden fig. Ryan spray painted a couple of figs around the orchard and the lucky winners won a bottle of wine – not a bad prize. They were all found and the winners were very pleased!

The last customers cleared and we all grabbed blankets and toasted the ‘Fignally’ with a glass of bubbles. The boys were playing frisbee on the lawn and Rafi was in fits of giggles whilst running around like a loony with Ryan. The dogs were doing a spot of sunbathing and we were all chatting and having a lovely time. As the sun went down we grabbed jackets and blankets, moved the heaters over to warm us up and carried on with our evening on the lawn. It was a very successful day and a great end to the season!

In addition the food and drink that seems to take up the majority of my blog posts, we have been to see some of the lovely sites around Adelaide.

We ventured out to Glen Elg on the coast which was nice. It was a stormy day over the city but glorious along the beach, so we went for a stroll by the sea. It was chilly but not as cold as some of the glacial lakes in New Zealand, that’s for sure. We only spent a few hours here after our shopping spree in Adelaide – Ryan was in need of some clothes as he has been walking around in the same three t-shirts and shorts for the last 4 months, so he treated himself to a bagful of clothes and felt like a new man! I think I only bought a jumper as my shopping spree didn’t go so well, but that was fine and we had a very nice afternoon!

Easter was coming up and all I really wanted was a 99p dairy milk buttons egg from England. Dad had already bought two BIG bars of dairy milk out for me earlier in the month but I had obviously already eaten them and was in need of morreeee!!!

Ryan didn’t want an easter egg (boring) so I bought him some yummy dark chocolate and he bought me an Australian dairy milk egg which wasn’t actually that bad (he actually ate most of it)

The family had invited us to an Easter Sunday BBQ at The Gatehouse and we all took various dishes and decorated the table to make it look all summery! It was a gorgeous day and Ryan was head chef, manning the BBQ and doing a great job. Lunch was delicious and was followed by an easter egg hunt on the lawn – the kids loved it and we watched from a far whilst enjoying our wine and soaking up the sun! Rafi did a dinosaur show for us and then we took the girls to feed the horses and put them to bed.

We have been doing quite a bit of babysitting over the past few weeks for Kate and also her friend that was visiting from Hong Kong. Rafi is very in to bugs and the outdoors so he has been having a great time with Ryan over the property, finding worms, millipedes and various other insects. He knows not to touch the spiders which is a good thing!!

Gorge wildlife park is about ten minutes up the road and we took Rafi and his friends from Hong Kong there for the day. Some of them had been before but were still looking forward to seeing the Kangaroos, Koalas and many other animals. We wandered around the park feeding the greedy kangaroos and made sure we were at the ‘Koala holding station’ by 11:30am. Ozzy was the largest koala in the park and we all had a go at holding him – he was very cute and loved a cuddle! There was a lot to see at the park and the kids had a great day with the camels, birds, snakes, lambs, rabbits etc. and we finished off with frisbee in the park before heading home.

As you can see, we’ve mainly been eating, drinking, enjoying the sunshine and doing a bit of work! It really is the life and we are having so much fun!!!!

I have more to write about mad March but it reads the same as the above so I don’t feel I can really go on tooooo much.

I must do a shout out about the avocados though – they are insane here! I am addicted to them and I make a guacamole almost every day! Just can’t get enough of them!

R&E xx