We pick up our blog from two months ago in April, we (I) have been very lazy and have neglected to write an April blog, so here’s a two month one to keep you updated on what we have been doing, from the start of Autumn, to our last days at Glen Ewin (for now).

For the most part, as you know, we have been getting our heads down and working as much as possible, so that we can continue to travel for a while in some means of transport that we were yet to purchase. Evie and I were separated at work mostly, being on different functions, probably they think we can’t keep our hands off each other, but we are strictly professional!! At times I have been doing maintenance work, some digging, painting, polishing etc. around the property during the week, while Evie has been babysitting and helping Wendy with some admin for her interior design business. I’ve also been spending hours on end, chipping away 150 year old plaster from the walls of the main house at Glen Ewin to reveal the salt damp that has been eating away at the property for god knows how long. But it wasn’t all work, even the work itself was great fun, the people we work with make you look forward to turning up with a smile.

At the beginning of April we had a pretty busy week, firstly we had the whole of the Wauchope family up to our little B&B to finally have our turn at cooking dinner, I made a beef stroganoff and a mushroom stroganoff for the veggies and we managed to eat out on the deck despite the nights cooling off. It was lovely having everyone up at our temporary home and I think everyone enjoyed the food. The following evening we headed down to Glenelg to watch Zoolander 2 at an open air cinema on the beach, we wrapped up warm and brought our snacks whilst watching the movie under the stars, it was a little bit chilly, but that of course didn’t stop is from having an ice cream. We had a great time and I think we both could have fallen asleep under all of the blankets.

The weekend following would be Evie’s birthday and we were unfortunately both working, so I planned a surprise day out a couple of days early. Firstly we took the O-Bahn into town and went for a coffee. The O-Bahn is amazing, its a bus route that cuts through the outskirts of the city, avoiding all traffic and is kind of on concrete rails like a train, so it couldn’t veer off, even if it wanted to. During our coffee stop I let the cat out of the bag and told Evie our plan for the day, first it was lunch at the Botanic Gardens. We both had the tasting menu, which was amaaaazing, with 5 courses and some very tasty wine.

 

We spent a couple of hours enjoying our food and obviously taking pictures of all of it (Evie). Then we walked through the gorgeous gardens to the Adelaide Zoo. By this time it was late afternoon and we didn’t have a great deal of time before the zoo shut, this however, also meant that there were hardly any other people around, it was almost as though we had the place to ourselves. We raced around, seeing the Lions and Tiger and Bears… oh my! Most of the animals seemed to be winding down and turning in for the night though, but the main event was the Panda – Wang Wang. He was having a snooze behind a bush when we saw him and a very helpful lady filled us in on the day to day life of Mr. Wang.

We managed to dash through the reptile enclosure and see all of the different apes, monkeys, chimps and other tree swinging varieties before the zoo closed and we walked back into the city. We walked along the river, watching the different rowing clubs practicing, and eventually made it to a nice bar, where we enjoyed a couple of drinks before we went to the Royal Festival Theatre to see ‘Cats’. This was very kindly gifted to Evie by Bill and Wendy and was appreciated very much by both of us. We really enjoyed the production, especially after the interval when we both established that we hadn’t a clue what the storyline was, but another glass of wine would help and it did. Watching Grizabella disappear on a spaceship at the end is still lost on us but it was entertaining nonetheless. We took the O-Bahn back towards home, but had to get a taxi the last few miles, leaving the car at the park and ride, a sign of a good day out!

We worked Friday and Saturday (Evie’s bday) but it was still fun, she had brownies and sparklers to celebrate and on the Sunday, whilst I was working, Evie celebrated Zoe’s birthday with her and some of her friends up at Mary and Willa’s house.

That week I had an interesting task of trying to insulate a tunnel under the main function room, ‘The Pulp Shed’ in an attempt to try and dull the sound of the music during the weddings. This was a muddy task with a lot of spiders to keep me company. I happened to be listening to a podcast at the time about ghosts, under the apparently very haunted shed, luckily I’m a complete sceptic on the matter, despite the numerous sightings and tales about spirits who roam the estate, probably just a few sneaky possums making funny noises.

As it was now Autumn, the weather was starting to cool down, there was however a day where it still reached 30 degrees celsius, so we jumped in the car and headed down to Semaphore beach to enjoy what would probably be our last spot of sunbathing for a while, until we come into spring or head to warmer climes. It was a beautiful beach, we had a picnic, spoke to Sue on FaceTime and had a nap. I managed to brave the sea, with Evie paddling in the shallows. We then played frisbee until we stopped because Evie was throwing it in every one direction except towards me, spoil sport!  We wound down from our fun and games with an ice cream and a walk on the pier, avoiding the areas marked off warning of snakes.

 

During the week I was asked to be part of a photoshoot for Glen Ewin, of course I obliged not really knowing what i was getting into, although I was asked to dress for winter, despite it being a pretty warm day. When the time came, I realised that I had signed up to have some pics taken with one of the other girls from work Reahna. Sorry Evie, I didn’t know!!! Anyway this made for some funny comments as we were supposed to act like a couple over lunch. It was a good laugh though and the photos came out well, even after they had to photoshop my hands because they were covered in metal polish that I couldn’t get off.

I had a day out with Rafi that week where he decided that he wanted to go on a hiking adventure, he’s only three and a half, but knew exactly where he wanted to go, and it began by scaling a huge mountain… at the bottom of the drive. We helped each other scale the twenty foot rock wall (don’t worry it wasn’t a sheer face) whilst Horace the Whippet watched on in awe of our achievement. We walked down the hill the other side and went back up two more times. When we had had enough, I untied Horace who quickly darted up the rocks to prove to us that whatever we could do, he could do better. We continued our hike around the Glen Ewin estate, stopping to look under every rock for bugs and feeding the black swan grass down at the lake. We were both pretty tired by the end of our adventure, and a cold glass of milk was well earned!

Glen Ewin was starting to turn every different shade of red and orange as Autumn crept in and the fig leaves were starting to drop form the trees. I hosted a small ‘Fignic’ in the orchard for around 30 guests, who enjoyed some wine and a fig based picnic lunch along the terraces, they all loved it, with Bill & Wendy coming up to give them all a history lesson on the estate, they all left suitably stuffed and content. No more figs until next year now, our new found love for them will have to wait.

Lots more work and wine and work and wine, sometimes with the whole Wauchope clan, sometimes with just one or two of them, often just happening to walk into the Cellar Door at the right time when a bottle was popped, I think we earned the reputation of being able to hear a cork pop or even a cap unscrew from our place at the top of the hill. April came to an end in the blink of an eye and May was here. The daunting realisation that we would be leaving in a month and that we still needed some mode of transport to get us around this huge country, or at least part of it, as well as having enough funds in the kitty so we wouldn’t have to work the whole way round.

So the first thing we did was buy……. tickets to see the final of the A League football! They call it soccer here but we invented it so its football. Adelaide United were playing Western Sydney at the Adelaide Oval, somewhere we both wanted to see, so we would later that day. It was a Sunday and we met a few of the girls from work for a coffee at the Cellar Door before heading into town with them to see Pauline at her market stall in the city. We work with Pauline at the weddings and have got to know her very well, she almost feels like family. Her place at ‘The Market Shed’ called “The Pantry of Wholefoods” is a great little shop selling a huge variety of whole foods including flours and oats with some names I hadn’t heard of before as well as rices and spices, all centred around a vegan theme, she has hundreds of cookbooks to buy as well as tasty oils and treats. The treats were of course what we were here for, dried mango (Evie’s fave), dark chocolate covered goji berries, dark chocolate almonds and loads more, that’s just what we left with that particular day. It was great seeing her so enthusiastic and happy doing what she loves and is interested in and she was on a high seeing all of us from work paying her a visit.

We said goodbye to everyone at the market and walked towards the stadium, stopping for a beer en route. We managed to make it to the stadium before the huge crowd of ‘die-hards’ took over the footbridge, chanting their Adelaide United songs, most of which I’ve heard from different teams in the English Premier league. We were up in the gods and were pleased to find that you can take beer to your seat here, so we watched the game unfold in the sunshine. It was a bit like watching Cranleigh vs Ewhurst if I’m honest, but the atmosphere was fantastic and Adelaide won 3-1, cue fireworks and fans jumping up and down in their seats at full time, including us after I bet on the correct score and that paid for our day out. Wahoo!

We met another friend from work, Patrick at the Casino and had a few more drinks with his father-in-law and brother-in-law. It was all very civilised I’m sure, but perhaps the beer got to much for us, after we fell out because Evie wouldn’t let me sing karaoke at 9pm on a Sunday, something I was very pleased about waking up the following day. We made up over ice cream though and took the O-Bahn and a taxi home.

The first week of May, Amy and Rupert went on a reckie for us to Italy to see a wedding venue, it was a surprise for Rupert’s birthday from Amy, although I kind of ruined that by asking him if he was excited about it before he knew he was going, whoops! We FaceTimed them after they had a tour of the property and asked all of the questions that Evie had written down for us. The place looks amazing ‘I Tre Baroni’ in Poppi, the place where we will be getting married in two years time. This was a very special moment, booking the venue, cue cork popping. Amy and Rupert had a nice short trip and gave us the thumbs up, both of us are very glad that this is sorted now so we can enjoy planning the rest of it, although theres no rush I suppose.

During May we went to a party for Willa’s birthday, friends and family at the Cellar Door, we had a great time, drank way too much wine and Willabrand Fig Gin and managed to clean the kitchen for the chefs coming in the following morning. We had been booted out of the B&B however, so we were staying at Kate’s and Rafi had decided that the following morning he was a going to be a karate kid and I was his opponent, cue play fighting with a very sore head before going to work at a wedding. It was a great weekend though and we had fun playing with Rafi, hearing him running towards our room both mornings to remind us that it was now morning so we had to get up and play, was a very funny alarm clock.

We finally purchased our mode of transport in the form of a Toyota Hiace van, which we had dreams of turning into a camper for our trip, but thats a whole other story which will get its own blog, mainly because we are both so impressed at how it turned out and we want to tell you all about the build in lots of boring detail.

Time quickly sped towards June, we worked as much as we were required, although the wedding season is now almost over and the work was slowing down, however it was enough to get by and we were very busy working on the van, we both even went for a run, thanks to Willa for encouraging us both to finally put on our trainers and do some exercise, yes it was only once but I’m sure thats the start of something big. We had planned to leave on Monday 30th May, so we had a few leaving parties, as you do. Rita, Pauline, Rine and her one year old Thomas had come to see us one afternoon and we took them for a walk around the estate, through the orchards and the woods, It was great to see them all out of work and it was a beautiful sunny Autumn day.

That week we had a visitor in the night. I heard something drop onto the bed, half asleep I turned my torch on and was shocked to see a scorpion walking across my shoulder, for some reason it didn’t bother me as much as if it were a spider, so I managed to take a pic, he was an aggressive little bugger though, even if he was pretty small.

Wendy had invited us for dinner at her place on the Friday before we left and when we turned up it felt like Christmas back home, the long table was set, there were nibbles and champagne, the fire was going, there were even presents to send us on our way. It was a feeling of home a long way from home. Dinner was delicious, cooked by Wendy and carved by Bill, the whole of the Wauchope clan were there and we had great time.

We worked on the Saturday, our last wedding of the season and said our first goodbyes. On the Sunday we went back down to the market to see Pauline, who stocked us up with lots of spices, rice and treats for our journey, Rita came too and we went for a glass of wine after we helped Pauline pack up the shop. They both came back to ours and we rushed around tidying up before everyone from work came round to have a leaving party with us. There were loads of people there, Brooke, Caitlyn, Mick, Reahna, Mel, Claire, Kat, Casey, Jarred, Tahlia, Steve even came up with his wife and baby. We of course drank too much and said our emotional farewells, before planning to see them all on Tuesday for a Mexican dinner in town, because we were so far behind with the van that we would now be leaving on Wednesday 1st June.

Sore heads on the Monday meant a slow start, and after underestimating how much we needed to do, Tuesday came and went, we finally said goodbye to the girls from work at our Mexican followed by St. Louis dessert as well as Tracey who drove up to say goodbye to and it was great seeing her. We weren’t ready on Wednesday, so decided that Thursday would be the day, We had all day to complete the van, tidy the house, clean the car, have another farewell drink at the office and down at Wendy’s and pack up to hit the road. Heather and Grant (our landlords) very kindly invited us out for dinner that night, they took us out for a delicious Italian meal, where we both had different seafood pastas and Grant put me through my paces at drinking red wine. We continued this when we returned home and I went to bed a little worse for ware. This made getting up at seven very difficult after we had said we would say goodbye to Louis and Zoe before they went to school, but we managed it and we will miss them both a lot.

We said another goodbye to Kate and Rafi after another hour in bed and then went to wash the car with a very sore head. With this done we dressed the van up and took it down to the office to have a naming ceremony. We named it Horace the Hiace and finally said our last goodbyes to the rest of the family and all of the office staff. We weren’t actually leaving though, it was back to the B&B to pack the van up and clean up, finally finally we hit the road at 15:30, and after buying cooking gas, groceries and petrol, we managed to hit the rush hour traffic to start our journey whilst it started to get dark, fantastic!

A big thank to everyone once again at Glen Ewin, Family and Staff, every single one of you made our time there amazing and we can’t wait to get back and see you all in a few months time.