Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen!

Boo!

Good news: I made a jack-o-lantern today! It's the first pumpkin I've carved in 2 years (The last one being in Ktown 2008 before I left) Anyways, earlier this week the pumpkin situation was looking bleak. The grocery store was selling real, North American style pumpkins for $22 each! A few days later the price was down to $15... and then today it was just $5! I didn't think it'd get that low and I was preparing for no pumpkin carving, but dang I was excited to see that $5 sign! I think Andy must've thought I'd seen a ghost the way I jumped, gasped, and stopped walking all at once, haha. Evidently carving a pumpkin is like riding a bike and now we have a spooking and scary Jack-o-lantern on the kitchen counter. I also roasted the pumpkin seeds (I'd do another pumpkin just for the seeds, ha).
Anyways, that's the extent to my Halloween festivies this year... unless I buy another pumpkin tommorrow ;)

Nothing New to Report

Welp. Nothing much has happened in the last two weeks around these parts. It's slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y getting warmer. We're supposed to have our first 30 degree celcius (86F) day on Thursday and have had a few 27s so far but it's been inconsistent and the weekends have been the coolest days of the week (E.g. Thursday and Friday were 28 and then today, Saturday, it's 19) Balls.
The most exciting thing I can tell you about is the epic thai meal I prepared on Thursday night. It smelt and tasted like Thailand (minus the background garbage/sewage smell, haha). It was coconut poached chicken thigh, sweet potato and red pepper, with jasmine rice cooked in chicken stock, and then topped with satay sauce (I cheated a bit on this cause I used thai red curry paste). Shit it was good.
This afternoon we're heading to the pub for some rugby league four nations, but that's as exciting as it gets round these parts.
Oh wait a tic, yesterday we went to part one of our two part medical for our perm res visa. It consisted of peeing in a cup, sight test, weight and height taken, chest Xray, and blood test. The blood test nurse told us not to lift anything heavy, not even a handbag, for one hour afterwards. Well I scoofed at that and then forgot... and then at the grocery store, still within the hour, I picked up a 3L jug of milk and carried it around then waiting in the checkout line realized I was doing heavy lifting and switched hands. Well..... let me tell you, the nurse's advice should've been taken more seriously. I now have a large 'track' mark in the crook of my right elbow and a tender bruise :( Oh poor baby.

McLaren Vale Half Marathon

Soooooo a week ago Andy and I got up early and drove south to McLaren Vale and I ran a half marathon- 21.1km/13.1miles!
As you may recall I ran an unofficial half marathon in June of 2008 and later that summer did the Ktown tri. After starting my travels I hurt my ankle in Hawaii and didn't run for 4 months, got back into it a little in 2009 but then landed the manual labour banana job of my dreams and couldn't be bothered. So after probably 6 to 8 month of nothing I started something. I've been back at the running thing since mid April now and had been following a half marathon training plan since August with a half marathon as my goal. When I started the new job, the one where I walk over 5 hours/day, my training plan sort of went out the window. But the walking allowed me to maintain my fitness and I still did a few short runs during the week and of couse the required long one on Sundays.
All that brought me to McLaren Vale. I chose this half marathon because I wanted to do one before the new year and this was the last one in South Australia until April. Also, McLaren Vale is a wine region and I thought I could probably squeeze in some wine tasting afterwards!
We arrived to the Information Centre, the start and finish of the race, early and I had time to have a nervous poop and stretch at little. Then we all lined up and some guy said GO through a loudspeaker.

Dynamic Stretch on a beautiful Sunday morning

GO!

At the beginning a lot of people ran past me and at the first turn on the course I took a glance behind me to discover I was near the end! This struck panic through me but I stayed with my slow and steady pace.

Eventually I started to feel pretty good and it was at about this time that I reached the turn around point at the 13km to go point. So I picked up the pace and started passing people, people that had passed me early on that were now going very slow or even walking. It felt good. I continued at my stronger pace and although it was probably a little too strong I kept going.

With less than 7km I passed Andy at the side of the course and he got a few snaps of me...

Less than 7km to go!

Believe it or not I am running in this picture, not walking haha

About 1.5km after my photoshoot the course passed the start/finish area and did another little out and back for the last 5km. It was about 10am when I got to this part and it was turning out to be the warmest day of the spring so far- about 25C and B-U-T-full! This last part of the course was through some sort of valley between big hills though and there was no breeze, just the dry heat of the sun beating down on us. It is also where I was for 10:10:10am on 10-10-10! The last 4km took forever and my legs were screaming for me to stop. But when I saw that 1km to go marker I gave it everything I had left and went hard to the finish line.

Approaching the end!

I ended up coming 143rd out of 233 21.1km runners. My time was 2 hours, 1 minute, and 2 seconds. I would've liked to go under 2 hours, but close enough I suppose!

Done! Where's my gawdamn commerative wine glass?!

After a bathroom break and lots of water and some fruit and an amazing apricot slice bar thingy, oh and a brutal ant bite that I still have a mark from, we decided to figure out where to have lunch. We asked at the info centre desk and the lady suggested (she would've recommended but they're not supposed to do that she said, haha) a winery called Ekhidna. The setting was lovely and we talked to the owner as he let us taste his wares. We started with their new beers: all preservative free and only available at the winery on tap. Too bad because they were really good! We then sampled a fee whites, including Riesling we liked so much that we took home a bottle, and then Andy tried a few of the reds (I was driving).  Then we had a lovely lunch and the effects of the mornings effort started hitting me hard. I was tried. So we called it a day and vowed to plan a full weekend in the Vale sooner than later. There are many more wineries to visit and a plethora of great restaurants to eat at!

Vineyard at Ekhidna

Andy and I waiting for our lunch

Mmmm, Mmmm.

The New Place

We're all moved in. We've cleaned the place head to toe. We have internet and a home phone! And we're well on our way to a fully stocked kitchen. Now the weather just needs to be a little more consistent (it was 25 last weekend and now today it's 15?! WTF, mate? haha)...
Anyways, here are a few pics of the new abode:

 Our building from the back/the beachfront side.

The view from our bedroom window!

Our balcony/front door

Kitchen

Living room

Back door of the building to the beach!

Our Beach!

Moved!

Welp, I’m back at MacDonald’s abusing their free wifi because we are still internet-less at the new pad. We got the keys and moved in on Friday and then took the weekend (it was a long weekend due to Labour Day Monday) to clean and put things away. It still feels surreal, I keep expecting someone to call and tell us vacation is over, get out! I’ll post some pictures once we get our internet installed (10-20 business days, woof) and you’ll understand what I mean. We got to do some fun shopping on Saturday… not only did we get essential cleaning supplies and kitchen utensils, but Andy was insistent on a better TV than the 19” box that came with the place… We ended up basically having Christmas in October: 47” LCD digital TV, PS3 +F1 game, iPOD docking station, wireless router/modem, and home phone (we’re getting a home phone with our internet), oh and an HDMI cable to hook the PS3 up to the TV!


It seems that a drastic improvement in the weather has coincided with our move; it’s been sunny and warm (21-26) all weekend, warm enough for me to wear ¾ length pants and a t-shirt! AMAZING!

Getting settled into the new place is the only thing on the agenda for the next little while… oh except for that little half marathon I’m running next weekend…!