Adam's Birthday Week

Last week I had got chatting to a bloke called Chris at the Sevenhill pub. He had been telling me how he had been made redundant from his job of 10 years at Holden and so had decided to go travelling (a familiar story?). After chatting for a while and explaining to him how we needed 88 days to be eligible for a 2nd year visa and that work with Ackland’s was coming to an end he kindly gave me the number for another vineyard contractor. I gave them a call straightaway and was happy to hear they had work for us.
So on Tuesday 24th we started with Chandler & Kirkland. We arrived at Skillogalee (which was only 2 minutes away from where we lived) for 7am. A guy who I assumed was the supervisor, asked any new starters to put their names on a sheet and then to get picking. There was no introduction to who anyone was, what the break times were so the organisation compared to Ackland’s didn’t seem as good but it was a job at the end of the day and so with everyone else we got picking. The team didn’t seem as friendly.
Thursday was Adam’s 29th b’day. Happy Birthday sweetie, you old git! Adam had to work on his birthday too but fortunately it was only a half day, so after work we went to Clare to get our place cards and other wedding paraphernalia printed. After spending 3 hours with the owner (yes 3 hours!) we got everything done. We had seen previously that they offered a disc printing service so Adam had been busy designing a label to put onto our wedding dvd. The owner, Mike was so impressed with his handy work that he printed an extra disc and put it on display in the shop. In the evening we met up with Christophe again and went to Sevenhill pub (now our 3rd home, after the library) to enjoy a lovely meal. I was very impressed with the quality and price of the meals.



For Adam’s birthday present I had allowed (you know who wears the trousers) him to go to the Grand Prix in Melbourne. This was going to be a logistical nightmare. Having looked at flights it worked out a lot cheaper to fly on the Friday and come back on the Tuesday. However I needed the car to get to work so eventually we worked out that Adam would catch the local bus to Adelaide and stay with Alan and Maria for the night. Fly to Melbourne the next day and meet my Uncle Harry. Stay with Uncle Harry until the Tuesday. Fly back to Adelaide and then catch the bus back up to Clare.
I considered going, however the cost of it was not justifiable and so I stayed back in Clare. On the Friday I went to Bingo and won 2 lines which was a win of $4, our first win!!!!!!
On the Sunday I had dinner with the Mill family to celebrate Jake’s 14th birthday. All the vegetables we ate were home grown by Phil and so it was a very tasty dinner.

Our friendly huntsman spider who lives with us decided to come out of hiding, as you can see he is on the large side.