PL/ADL/PL 23/12/11 till 08/01/12

23 December till 02 January

We had a lovely time in Adelaide over Christmas and New Year.  We spent lots of time with my mother which was great and managed to catch up with many of our friends as well.  Christmas was quiet and relaxing and went to the Austrian club for New Year with my mother and Erika & Arno, which was also a great night.  We managed to squeeze in some schnapps as well as lots of good food, good drink & great company.  It was also sad saying goodbye to the friends we did manage to catch up with as we really didn’t know when we would next see each other.

Flew back to PL on the 2^nd of January in the same size plane as we came up, just a bit bigger than our bus and a hell of a lot noisier.  I really don’t like these little toy planes!! We had parked Momo at the house of a relatives of Petar, just kind of stuck it into their drive way and it was still all perfect when we came back to collect it.  We had offered to help Desi with the preparations for Petars big birthday which was happening that evening.  So we got back, phoned Desi and headed straight over to the bowling club to see what was happening.  Within a few minutes we were chopping salads, cheese, fruit & decorating pavlova.  The cousins from Melbourne arrived (Alex, Peter, Helen, John, Nicki & Alex) and the girls also got stuck in helping out.  Anna (Desis mother) arrived also and Petar turned up too.  We decided that we would see if we can park Momo in the club car park and after a quick chat with the grounds keeper decided that would be the perfect solution.  Finished what we were doing, got Momo, and filled up with diesel, 3 vouchers (8c a litre off) and about $600 poorer we headed off towards the bowling club.  Got slightly lost and made C go down a few narrow and dodgy roads but eventually made it.  Set up and then it was time to head back over for more preparations.  Anna arrived with the sweets, all home-made including baklava & galactobouros (no idea how you spell the thing but it was the Greek sweet made with custard), as well as another cake made by Vera (Petars mother) that seemed to be soaked in honey juice.  As much as I don’t like sweets when I got to try them they were divine!  Fiona, Gelda & JT arrived as well as a few other people we knew.  Cousin John who we had met in Adelaide earlier also arrived and proceeded to have a good old whinge to me about tourists.  Apparently he had been to the Shell in town and there was this motor home and they indicated to go right & then turned left.  They then putted all the way down Tasman Terrace (the esplanade) and almost took out the roundabouts and then still hadn’t worked out how to use the indicator correctly.  Then he arrives at the bowling club to see the damn thing parked there, what is it…….and then the penny dropped.  His face was priceless, I was almost in tears laughing, I couldn’t wait to tell Colman… he would be suitably mortified!  There was a bit of todo with the collection of the pig (all 45kgs of it) as well as 15 chickens.  In the end C & P got the pig and C would go out at 6 to collect the chickens.  The pig arrived and Josel & 1 started to carve it up.  I noticed that crackling was being eaten and I wasn’t getting any.  I thought I had some privileges here so accosted the stranger and told him that I really was entitled to some crackling…he wasn’t quite sure how to take all this but turned out that we had the same sense of humour in the end.  Which resulted in Rick giving me the pigs tail and making sure I ate it,  I gnawed a bit but then had to give it to JT… not really my thing!  Meanwhile C headed off to get the chickens from Woolies, unfortunately the supervisor had forgotten to put them aside…no chickens.  Poor C was left roaming PL trying to find some chickens, which he did but it did cause quite a bit of consternation.  All up the night was great, heaps of beautiful food, great company with many new and interesting people met, as well a brilliant entertainment from Theo and his one man band.  Helped every now and then by an impromptu singer including Valentina who could actually sing and does so in some of the pubs down in Adelaide.  There were many more stories, including the one where Petar got down on his knees and proposed to Desi – who finally accepted!!! but this was the gist.  Headed off to bed in the car park and heard Desi call out if we wanted some left over sweets.  So climbed back out of bed and collected our plate of delicious greek sweets at 2am!!

Tuesday 3 January

Up early, it was hot… C went over to help with the tidy up and then we headed off to Kirton Point CP to check in.  Before that we washed Momo and while we were there got a phone call from Desi – come over for lunch with the family.  After some toing and froing we agreed to visit. Set up Momo, got organised & dressed and headed over to Petar’s place. It was Vera, D & P and us to start with then the cousins from Melbourne arrived also.  Sat around, chatted & ate & drank and then headed off home.  JT, Fiona & Gella came around for a drink and a chat and then Desi & Petar turned up also.  Sat around and chatted until they left then off to bed for a lot of sleep!

Wednesday 4 Jan

Had been invited over to Josel & Yolandas place for lunch.  The best oysters, calamari & tuna I have ever had.  Cooked by Josel on the BBQ.  Met a few interesting people & had lots of interesting chats.  J&Y are from the Philippines so the mandatory karaoke kicked in early in the afternoon.  Relaxing & fun, said goodbye to Desi, Anna & the OS visitors who were heading off for a road trip to Brisbane.

Thursday 5 Jan

Josie & kids called past for coffee in the morning, Theo had had to go back to Adelaide for work earlier and they were flying out that evening.  The 2 boys Mackinley & Lachlan were just about the best behave & most interesting boys of that age we had come across in a while.  The daughter Zoe was cute also.  Very easy going visitors and fun to have around.  Then off to Coffin Bay for BBQ lunch with Melbourne crowd.  Went to Pure Oysters and Petar bought about 20 dozen oysters.  The dear ones were $14 a dozen and the cheaper (non spawning ones) were $6 a dozen, we ended up with two dozen. Toured around Coffin Bay National Park, lovely place, decided we would take Momo there for a week when we have finished .

Friday 6 Jan

Went for walk along Parkala trail and walked up as far as the marina and then came back via the beach.  Dropped stuff off with Ros & Stephan, called around Petars place to pick up card to get to trailer.  Did some trailer & Momo organising/shuffling. Had our oysters for dinner, divine!

Saturday 7 Jan

Into town for breakfast at Del Giournos (lucky to get table!), shopping.  Washed car, went down to pier and C caught his first squid. Dinner at Lincoln Hotel after Desi recommended the best sea food platter about, we were celebrating  18 years.  The place was nice, the waitress very friendly and the seafood platter was indeed brilliant. Had a little walk and back to Momo.

Sunday 8 Jan

Cleaned, had a visit from Ann’s sister in law, then went and fished unsuccessfully. Dinner was the squid caught yesterdat & lots of salad!!