4-1

I was tired and didn't want to stay up to watch Holland play France. I took the remote to bed with me though, just incase I would wake up during the match. And guess what? I woke up just before 5:00! So I turned on the tellie, trying not to wake up Nicole. That failed of course eventhough I had the sound down almost completely. And then I saw it was 1-0! We watched the rest of the game before we went to sleep again.

I felt pretty knackered the rest of the day...

Dutchie kicks the ball in to the nets.

Frenchie ain't happy.

Australian "after the match blah blah".

This postcard arrived this week.

Kissiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

We let Mason in our flat today. He must be getting bored outside by himself otherwise. He was sitting in front of the door this evening. Remember I put up the solar light? So mason moves, light goes on. Mason thinks somebody is coming out and stares at the door. The light turns off after 10 seconds though. So after 10 seconds Mason realises nothing's gonna happen. He moves around and the light goes on again. Because he's a dog automatically he thinks someone's coming out again and stares at the door etc. Another reason to let him in...

Dinner time for Mason. Part of his meal was bean soup. Everybody who ever owned a dog and knows their farts must understand that we are now kinda nervous when he's inside ;-)

More furniture and Thai food

Driving to work. Office people are marching in from all directions afar.

Lunch time was Thai time today. Good stuff. Their chicken sateh (made of FILLET instead of thigh meat (ergh)) looked quite nice. Might give that a shot next week.

After lunch I went down to the basement to look for a desk for the printers. As a bonus I found this little table to put in our "lunch corner". By the way, we WILL get decent furniture in soon (I was told)...

I collect the bottles for recycling. Just my own really. Just because I want to recycle them. Well, Karin will actually recycle them.

The Suzanne woman

Opposite my bus stop is this building. I believe it used to be or still is a town hall. Or maybe it's a gallery. It's a nice building anyway.

View from my bus while driving home. It was 17:00 and getting dark.

We had a big fat down poor tonight that was scary. Because the last time we had one like this the flat flooded a bit. Everything was OK thankfully.

A bit later Sneezer's little helper came on Skype. It was very nice talking to her again :-)

Lunch girl

If you think Dutch busses have little leg room try the bus in Adelaide...

Bus view left.

Bus view right.

My colleague Mark and I went to cafe Fresh during lunch. Almost every time I'm there, this girl has lunch as well. She's always alone. She's always on the phone. She always smokes a cigarette. She always faces the wall. That last thing I find odd.

Looking at my building while waiting for Nicole to pick me up.

As we were driving off the fire brigade arrived with the standard three trucks. Someone must have been making toasties again in our building...

3-0

A normal busy and grey morning. This is more like winter as I know it, unfortunately. I don't like it. It's not happy weather. I prefer happy weather.

Today I had my performance review at work. It's only been 6 or 7 weeks but still. It was a nice chat. The review was good. Performing exactly as expected and at certain points I was even (already after 6 weeks) exceeding expectations. It must've been the doughnuts I bring to work sometimes.

Back home the highlights from the soccer game Holland vs Italy was on.

That was a bit of a bonus because the game is on when I'm asleep: Around 3AM...

Trainer Marco van Basten looked a little bit scary I think.

Van Bronckhorst after he made the third goal.

The team was pretty happy.

And so were the fans.

Holland kicked Italy's arse with 3-0. Suits them right coz the Italians have always been very dirty players and I don't like them one bit.

DIY and laundrette action

I started the day with mounting a sensor light above our door. This will help us find the lock when we come home in the dark and we also have light automatically when we walk into the garden to go to the loo half asleep at night.

Then it was off to the laundrette to dry clothes that we had just washed. Usually we dry everything outside but a few things needed to be dry by tomorrow and the weather is crap so...

This is the washing machine section.

Washing machine section sign.

On the other wall there are dryers.

Dryer section sign.

Most machines take one dollar coins only so a change machine is quite handy.

And also there was a machine to get a cup of washing powder.

Nicole in front of the dryers.

There were signs all over the place. I don't think I've ever seen another place with so many signs everywhere.

Most machines were of a brand called "Speed queen".

When we came home from the laundry it was actually sunny for an hour or so and I used the opportunity to take a few shots of my finished wheel barrow.

At the end of the afternoon we drove into town to have dinner at the Lemongrass thai bistro. We were crossing the lights while walking into Rundle street around 17:30 and it was already dark. Just like in The NL!

Inside the restaurant.

Nicole thinking hard about what to order.

After dinner we had ice cream at Cibo where Nicole was singing along to Aretha Franklin.

Cibo.

Red lights on our way home.

The creek

I applied another 2 layers of varnish on the other sides of the wood for the wheel barrow today. I should be able to finish this little project tomorrow.

I also needed some stuff from Bunnings again. On the way we got some petrol. Petrol has gone up by 20 cents per litre during the half year that I'm here now. That's quite a bit. That's AU$10 more for a full 50 litre tank.
Driving time Home - Bunnings: 15 minutes.

After Bunnings we drove to Semaphore to get some coffee. To get there we drove through old Port Adelaide. It's one of the oldest parts of Adelaide and some buildings are a beautiful reminder of that time.
Driving time Bunnings - Semaphore: 45 minutes.

While in Semaphore we thought a drive up to Hahndorf would be good. After the rough ride there the first time it would be good for my confidence to try it again ;-) On the way to Hahndorf (actually while driving out of Semaphore) I made Nicole photograph this train *grin*
Driving time Semaphore - Hahndorf: 60 minutes.

In Hahndorf we parked much further up the town than normal and we discovered this little creek that actually now has running water in it. After having lunch we drove back home.
Driving time Hahndorf - Home: 40 minutes.

That makes a total of 160 minutes of driving which is not bad :-)

Only 3.5 hours to go until I have my required 50 hours (3000 minutes).

Back home I played with the macro setting on our big camera to take a few shots of model trains I have but I think I really need to improve the lighting for it. I might make myself a small photo studio to be able to photograph small objects (= trains).