And now, we wait.

We didn't want to break the habit of visiting the Volkswagen dealer early Saturday morning so we drove down around 10AM. We ordered the car but we would let them know the colour later today or on Monday. We wanted to see a red one too so we could decide between black or red better.

The dealer has a red demo model on show in a few shopping malls that they will raffle off (tickets are $50 each and only 9000 tickets are available). This weekend it's in the mall next to the Central Market so we drove by to check it out. It's actually a very nice red and I like it better than black. Nicole likes black better still though. I dislike black less than Nicole dislikes red. I know, it's very complicated. We thought about it while doing some shopping at the Central market.

We went to the deli to get some Dutch stuff.

Our friend Danny seems to have issues finding a certain bean that's called 'kapucijners' in Dutch. We got plenty overhere... Should we send some down? (Or is that up?)

There is a stand that specialises in roo-meat. We got Karin some roo.

By then we had decided on the car; black. We called the decision through, paid a $1000 deposit and now we wait 4-5 months for the factory in Mexico to produce one and ship it over...

This is my loot from the deli: Chocolate flakes for on bread, crisp-bakes to make meatballs with and 'kruidnoten' which I can't be arsed to translate.

We received word from Richard that he had 'heaps of meat' to get rid of and he needed help. He really is the BBQ master. My steaks are always perfectly well done.

Max the beagle kept a close watch on all ongoing activities.

The Beetle experience

In the morning we went car hunting again. It had been disappointing so far but that turned around today! The first dealer we went to was the Volkswagen dealer. We looked at the Golf and the new Beetle. I could drive the Golf but it was still not too big. And then I entered the Beetle. It was a sensational experience. I can actual stretch my legs almost completely in the passenger seat. In the driver seat I have no real problems either. The sales rep. told us we could take it for a test drive immediately since it wasn't booked for that time. So we took it for a spin and the drive was just really, REALLY good. It's a diesel and it took us up in to the hills in fifth gear (the Hyundai can't use 5th gear when going up in the hill, it would die) and still had enough power left to take over slower cars. It also stuck to the road like glue which made handling very enjoyable.

The inside only has the most common features, which results in a uncluttered design (see above photo). I do like it a lot. I can only say that this car was very enjoyable. And if a Mercedes A180 CDi would not exist I would have already made the choice.

Hence we also went to the Mercedes dealer. We forgot to take pictures there unfortunately. I did sit in the A180 and the driver's position felt even better than in the Beetle as I can totally stretch my legs in it. I was almost perplexed. Also the seat is higher up so getting in, even with its smaller four-door was super easy. Actually it's the only car I know so far that allows me to sit down first and then swing in my legs. In all other cars (including the Beetle) I have to actually step inside with one leg first, sit down and then pull in the other leg.

Today I will make a comparison chart and look up car insurance prices for the Beetle and the A180. One difference is that the Mercedes is $10,000 more expensive. But you can see where that goes.

When we drove home we passed parliament house where protesters were protesting against plans of the Australian Federal Government to install mandatory internet filters to be able to filter 'bad' content. It makes me feel I immigrated to China. I will write letters to members of parliament today and send them out soon. They have currently budgeted $44,000,000 for this and it's a total waste of money to spend it on something that people do not want and need.

When we came home I took Mason for a walk. For one third of the walk I also took Mason's shit for a walk until the first bin.

Some amazing plants are flowering at the moment. Stuff you don't see in Europe really.

Bottle brush flowers.

In the evening we went over to Deb and Richard for a BBQ. Here we see (left to right) Debbie, Greg, Debbie's mom, Gianna and Nicole.

The BBQ master: Richard.

Nicole and Gianna.

We played 8-ball and later on a 'small' version of snooker. Here we see Greg doing complicated things at which he is quite good ;-)

Richard also knows how to handle a que quite well. We had a most enjoyable time and had a lot of laughs.

Jack High

The fountain was working again!

This is my late grandpa's watch. It's a nice watch. It works on movement of my arm, it doesn't require a battery. Good stuff.

During lunch, the people around me were very focussed on their mobile phones. Maybe they were sending each other sms's.

Today was lawn bowl day again. The street where the club is is called Jack High Lane. "Jack High" is a bowls term used for bowls that are further from the mat than the jack. For more lawn bowl terms look here.

Our team, the "Bowls squad". We look like such dick heads in this photo.

Lets play Bowls!

Today was the kind of official opening of the bowls season for my team. Finally we could enter the green again, have a beer and bowl some ends. Karin seems to anxiously await what's coming ;-)

Gav doing a practise bowl. We were well on time so we bowled for almost 30 minutes before the real start.

My orange bowls stood out a fair bit between all the black and brown ones. The blue ones belong to Darryl and they're the only other coloured bowls I saw tonight.

Darryl (centre) with his female colleagues actually named the team "Dazza and his daisies". Hilarious. Richard(left), myself (less left), Tony (kinda middle) and Gavin (right) are the "Bowls squad".

We had a very good time and the bowling wasn't bad at all.

The BBQ

We went to Richard and Debbie's place today for a BBQ and some trivial pursuit.

Since everybody brought something to be cooked we ended up with a large variety of meat. This is about a quarter of what we had...

Max the dog was keeping an eye out...

Max and Greg having a smoke.

From left to right: Mel, Debbie, Alex, Nicole and Gianna.

Richard taking his shot during a game of pool.

Alex, Richard and Debbie.

Gianna, Greg, Toni and Alex.

Mel and Jules.

We had a fun afternoon until we had to leave to feed the birds. When we left it was pissing down with rain but we made it home safe and sound, and also half frozen by the way...

Winter cake

In the morning I worked on my wheelbarrow a little bit. I shaved an edge off the small panel so it would fit better. I think it starts to look nice.

Yes, my friends. Today winter has started in Australia. Not quite like the winter in The NL!

Nicole made 3 cakes for our cake-date with friends today. This is the torta Barozzi on the right and a baked ricotta cheese cake with raspberries and lavender petals on the left.

The third cake is a poppy-seed cake.

We had a lovely afternoon with (clock-wise) Richard, Debby, Gianna, Nicole and Anna (Gianna's mum). The cakes were fantastic.

The Uleybury winery

We were advised to visit the Uleybury winery by our friends Gianna and Greg so we gave it a go today. It's nicely located in the Adelaide hills.

It's a boutique winery that apart from their wine cellar also do lunches only on the weekends. It's run by an Italian family with which really you can't go wrong!

They have mainly pizza's on their menu with 3 non-pizza specials. The specials differ every weekend and depend on what amazing produce they can get. The pizza's get properly baked in a wood-oven.

The view from this place was beautiful.

You can see all the way to the sea.

We walked around a bit and found this pile of old barrels.

The sun shining through the trees was amazing. It was a pretty good day weather-wise.

We could see a bit of the vineyard too.

While driving home Richard called with some information on lawn bowls. He was playing himself, I couldn't because of my knee, I can't stand up very long. As it was on our way home we dropped by to say hi and have a look what was going on.

Well, Saturday bowls is 99% old people. So this little piece of nifty equipment is seen rather frequently. It's used to lift up a ball so they have to use their back even less ;-)


PS: These pictures were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 8800 camera instead of my phone.