Saturday 4th December 2004 Yesterday I went to the dentist to have two fillings. It
cost me $65 for an hour's appointment (£26). My Indian dentist has small
hands, so it is easier for her to get into my mouth! We had a conversation about
English people in Adelaide, and she says that most of her patients are English
- all trying to get their teeth fixed now that they are in a country with effective
dental care.
One thing that she diagnosed me with was Bruxism
- grinding of the teeth and over-clenching of the jaw. It has worn down my chewing
surfaces. Ann has been telling me for years that I grind
my teeth at night - apparently it is very noisy and annoying. Anyway, the dentist
is going to fit me with a night-guard that is like a gum-shield (although thinner)
so that I don't grind all my teeth away. But she can't take the mould until
she has finished all my fillings, as the shape of my teeth will change.
Also, I need a crown on a tooth that I had root-canal work on 4 years ago, but
she said that my insurance won't cover it until next year, so my dentist recommended
a wait until the insurance will pay for it - which was good of her.
It's been warm again. Almost 30°C with no clouds and virtually no wind.
We dropped in on Liam and Shirley, and my timing was perfect.
Liam had done some research to get the lowest price on a good quality VCR machine,
to replace his 8 year old VHS player. Unfortunately the manual was printed in
a dialect of double-dutch and greek, and so he was having trouble getting it
working. Being the dutiful son-in-law, I sat down to work out the video, specifically
the timer programming. Sometimes these "helpful" modes of "easy"
programming actually make it harder to understand. After an hour and a coffee
and biscuit, all was set up and working.
Shirley's hydrangea plants are growing well, with significant blooms on each
large plant. We admired her handywork and complemented the quality of each plant.
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This morning I started to bottle my latest batch of beer.
I had put off the bottling from last night, as I was too tired in the hot evening
to start washing and 
sterilising each bottle.
So, before I had my shower, I cleaned and sanitised 44 pint bottles ready for
bottling. Then whilst Ann was dressing Thomas, I had a quick shower and then
after started to bottle the beer. Unfortunately, once I started, I could not
stop, and Ann had booked us in for Sunday lunch at a restaurant that has limited
opening hours that we have been trying to go to for weeks. I was still siphoning
in the 40th bottle at 12:30 - the time that we were due to be seated. Ann was
not pleased with me.
We went to the Fox and Firkin for lunch in Tea Tree Gully.
It's not open every day, and so we wanted to book for two reasons - one was
to get a table and high-chair, and the other was to ensure that we would go.
We arrived a bit late, and found that only three tables were occupied. The menu
was short, but full of items that we wanted to order, so I think we will return
to sample all of their delights. Thomas had a tin of his favourite beef and
alphagettii, as there was nothing on the menu that he could eat. Ann decided
to have a main course and dessert (as she often does) and I decided to have
a starter and a main course (as I often do). There had been some sort of problem
with my camembert in breadcrumbs, as it had taken an hour. So, the restaurant
gave us two glasses of sparkling wine as an apology - which was good.
When the main course was delivered, it was well made and tasty. Unfortunately
my lamb was a little under-cooked for my taste, but everything else was fine.
We left at 2:45 and just went home - we had been toying with the idea of driving
around the Adelaide hills for a while, but the sparkling wine had made us tired.
When we arrived home, only 5 minutes passed before Liam and Shirley arrived on our doorstep. Ann's parents had brought up two of the Hydrangeas that we had been admiring yesterday. So, the kettle went on and we had a coffee and a chat. It's great to be close to friends and family so that people can drop in and remind you that they are around. the problem with where we were living in England is that we did not know anyone who was local and could drop in unannounced for a coffee.
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Today there was a thunderstorm for most of the day. There was a strange atmosphere of tropical mugginess as the air was still relatively warm, and the rain came down and quickly evaporated in the sunshine. There was also a smell of tropical rainforest that freshened the air. Thomas did not even seem to notice the thunder and lightning.
Today a man armed
with a shotgun was wandering around our local area, and he took a woman and
two children hostage
and all residents in our area were told to stay
inside. Ann was out with Thomas in the car, but luckily she was driving
in the opposite direction. Apparently the area was crawling with police and
there was a helicopter overhead to keep track of the gunman.
I wonder what the police response time was? There have been complaints for the
past 8 years that there is no police presence for Golden Grove, and last week
there was finally a go-ahead to build a police
patrol base here, to be ready in under 2 years. The main complaint that
local residents had was that the response times for incidents meant that the
bad guys normally got away before the police arrived.
As I start work tomorrow, I may miss a few days in the blog if I am really busy or tired, and I may miss some times when my mother is here later this week for a few months. I hope you won't get offended.
I have decided that I won't tell the agencies that I have a job just yet - I will wait until I get settled in to EDS first, just in case I get there and then really hate the job - I need to keep my options alive, and at the speed that Adelaide does things, the delay won't cause a problem.
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Today I started work at EDS. It was interesting. Neither terrible
or wonderful or adequate - lots of interesting new experiences. I was given
a laptop, which initially did not work (no operating system), but by the end
of the day I had it all up and running, with all the required access and passwords
given to me. I was lucky, two other contractors that started last week still
did not have access, and I got on-line quicker than they did. I had a detailled
induction, which gave me lots of information, but the main point of the induction
was to tell me that there was lots to learn.
I got the bus in today, as it is not only quicker, but it's considerably cheaper
too. The bus starts from the Golden Grove Village (1km away) and drives along
North Terrace in Adelaide, and my stop is almost 400m from the EDS building.
There are only a few stops as it is an 'express' and it only takes 45 minutes
from door to door, and only $2.22 each way (85p). I have now found where the
stops are, and which stop to go to so that I get a seat (the stop before the
ones I got today!). It's tiring standing on the bus, as there are lots of tight
bends which make it hard to hang on.
There has been more rain today, which must be because my mother is coming this week. We have been working out what we will do to ensure that she is comfortable and rested, and gets over her jet-lag quickly. So, on the first day we are going to get her to scrub the kitchen floor, darn my socks, polish the silver and do all the ironing, then we are going to get her on to the roof to straighten the TV aerial, and she will sleep under the stars for the first night, so that she gets used to the time difference. Alternatively, we could just give her a guided tour of the area and go for a fresh, brisk walk.
Ann and I have been wrapping all of our Christmas presents.
It's difficult to decide what to get for everyone, but luckily the adults have
been exchanging information about who is getting what for the children, to ensure
that we don't have overlaps.
We got our first Christmas card from the UK today. It was posted at the end
of November, so it's better than usual. Ann and I have been working hard on
the Christmas cards to send out this year, but it's expensive to send so many
to the UK. If you are friends or family and you don't get a card from us, then
it must have been lost somewhere over Asia.
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Today when I got un the bus, the driver greeted me with a
"Hi, how are you?" in a sincere way. I immediately answered "fine,
thanks" without even having to think about it. I am content and fine, and
it is great to think that now I am in Australia, I have been feeling content
for months.
As the bus drove off, I sat behind the driver. Then, as we stopped at each stop,
the bus driver greeted everyone, asking most how they were. To my happy amazement,
most people smiled back and said they were fine, and some asked the driver how
he was. There were a few people who looked like they had not quite woken up
yet, but everyone looked happy. Australia must do that to people - they are
all fine thanks.
Nothing much happened at work today. I read some documents and learnt how to use some new systems. That was about it.
On the way home on the bus, I noticed something that happened
yesterday too. When it happened yesterday, I thought that it was just a few
people, but today it made me realise that it must be Adelaide. People (apparently
strangers) were talking to each other on the bus. There was chatter and conversation
about the rain that suddenly came down, and other bits of small talk. In London,
and to a lesser extent the rest of England, the only time that you hear chatter
on the bus is either when there are teenagers or drunk people on the bus. People
just seem to not talk. It was the same with the train - people who you sit with
every day but never speak to. When I met Helen on the train in London and started
talking to her, normally we were the only people in the carriage who were talking
to each other.
One woman got on the bus at Tea Tree Plaza with her small child and two big
bags. She was obviously a bit flustered and once she got the child on to the
bus and collapsed the push-chair, she realised that she had lost her bus ticket.
Almost instantly, a man offered his ticket to the woman, and then two other
people got up off their seat to offer the child and the woman a seat, even though
there was barely any standing room. The flustered woman was very thankful, and
all the people who had been helpful were continuing to be generous and helpful,
like helping the child to the seat and smiling and being nice. In London, everyone
would have ignored the woman and the child, and made complaining noises that
the woman could not find her ticket. It's good to be in Oz.
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We woke at 5:30 to go down to the airport to collect my mother.
Fortunately, she was the 5th person through the door, and so we were able to
get going quite quickly. I was even able to get to work on time.
Ann entertained Eleanor all day, and one of the first things to do was go to
the supermarket to get any individual items that my mother wanted. Eleanor got
some breakfast cereal that she likes and her own spread instead of butter.
Thomas was spoilt rotten today, being given piles of toys and books and clothes. He went straight for the toy fire truck that has 8 buttons on one side that each play a different sound effect. At first, it was not switched on, and Thomas seemed a little put out that it was not working, then Ann and Eleanor worked out where the power switch was and the noises commenced.
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This morning Thomas decided that he would wake up at 6am.
It must be because of the time that we got up yesterday, but he started mumbling
and singing to himself. Ann decided that it would be best to get Thomas and
put him into bed with us. Of course once Thomas was in bed with us, he wanted
to bounce around and climb over us, so we all got up early.
Eleanor and Ann went down to
Semaphore
today to enjoy the beach and the seafront. Eleanor was amazed that there were
almost no people on the white sands, even though it is nearly school holidays
and it has been a beautiful sunny day today. When Thomas’ mother and grandmother
decided to get a coffee at the
Semaphore
Palais, Thomas was enjoying the music, bopping along in his pushchair. Eleanor
even gave Thomas some of the foam from the top of her coffee, which he enjoyed
as if it was warm ice-cream.
At work today, I again did very little. I was a part of a conversation about places in South Australia, where my manager asked me if I knew where Whyalla is. He assumed that I did not know where it was, so asked two other people if they knew where it was, which they did not – it later transpired that they had both lived in South Australia for all of their lives. It was interesting that I had more of an idea where the place was than people who one would assume would know. I guess that it is the same with me and London – many place names sound familiar to me, but I would have no idea where they are.
Ann and I had decided that we would take my mother out for
dinner tonight, because it was her 60th birthday (21 again!) last Friday, and
now she is here we can take her out. So, Ann called up the Tea Tree Gully Hotel
to book a table, where she was told that we would have to be seated by 6pm.
So, I had to leave work early to ensure that we got the table. It was not a
trouble, as I had nothing to do at work in any case.
When I got on the bus, the ticket machine was jammed, so I got a free journey,
so that put me in a good mood. Then when I got back to the car I was in a bad
mood, because I got a parking ticket for leaving the car in the wrong car park
(4 hour limit). I was then in a better mood when I found that the fine is $16
(£6.50). Then when I got home, everyone was in a good mood because I was
home early.
We all went to the Hotel for dinner, and ate our fill
of dinner and the salad bar, and of course the girls had a dessert too. Thomas
had some of the ice-cream too (cold this time…!). Thomas reacts to ice-cream
in an interesting way - he opens his mouth wide for the spoon, takes a big slurp,
then screws his face up as if it was the worst taste in the world. He looks
as if his face is going to implode, and then he smiles and opens his mouth like
a baby bird waiting for a worm, demanding the next mouthful.
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