We made it back to Adelaide with just enough time to return the car and run in the house and straight back out before our first AFL (Aussie Rules) game! Unfortunately, Simon had been called in to work so he couldn't come and we decided rather than battling with the traffic we would catch one of the free buses which take you to and from the stadium. The game was between Adelaide Crows and Essendon Bombers and Chantell had borrowed some Crows scarves from her friend at work so we were fully kitted out and fitted in with the crowds! We got to the stadium with plenty of time to spare which gave us the opportunity to try an Ozzie delicacy, the chicko roll! Don't be fooled by its name, they don't actually contain any chicken but are, in fact, giant crunchy spring roll type things filled with vegetables and something unidentifiable! Who knows?! Nevertheless, they were very tasty and extremely hot!! After filling up on those, we made our way through to our seats.
 
Chantell's parents have season tickets, so we took those 2 seats but there weren't any spare seats near those ones so the boys had booked seats behind one of the goals . We all had an excellent view of the game but the boys were loving their seats as they were only 4 rows from the front. No sooner had they found their seats were they were getting bombarded with balls as the teams warmed up by practising their kicks. It was all very confusing to start with as we didn't understand the rules but I had Chantell to teach me and the boys had given themselves an online crash course before we got there. As the game went on, it all became clearer and slowly the rules made more sense! Basically, as an idiot's guide if you get the ball then kick it, if you catch it you get to kick it with out being tackled, do this until you kick it through the goal, if you run with it, it has to bounce every 15 steps. Easy!!! Kind of! Unfortunately, after going 20-0 up very quickly, the Crows lost 117-82 and to our amazement they played the Essendon team's club song round the whole stadium as they were the winners! This was very good sportsmanship but I can't imagine that happening at home, there'd be riots!!! Then we had the tricky job of finding the right bus to get us home and the frustrating task of standing in line waiting to get on!! Eventually we did make it to the front of the queue and set off for home . As we approached our stop, Chantell realised it was only a few minutes before midnight and therefore almost my birthday! Very quickly threats were made that if we were still on the bus then they would get everybody on board to sing Happy Birthday to me! You can imagine my relief when we got off at 23:58!!!! Even though we were no longer on the bus, they did sing Happy Birthday every time one of their clocks turned to midnight (it's amazing how all 4 of us had phones that had such different times!!) so I was serenaded all the way home!
 
On my birthday morning, I was woken by lovely cuddles and kisses by... Westie!! Matt brought me a cup of tea in bed and I felt like a princess being showered in gifts! Chantell & Simon bought me a Nicer Dicer Slicer as I love using theirs and have been saying for ages how much I want one of my own! Gareth gave me 2 beautiful handmade cushion covers which he bought during his travels and Matt bought us matching 'Heaps Good' T-shirts and arranged for me to have a private class with Suzie Q at her pole studio in Sydney!!! Matt's mum had put some presents in the box she had sent for Matt's birthday including a T-shirt, jump suit and perfume . I'm such a lucky girl! Throughout the day I received lots of lovely messages from friends old and new, near and far as well as a lovely present from my bestie! I managed to phone home a couple of times to speak to my parents and thank them again for the camera they gave me as my birthday present before I left, I've taken thousands of beautiful photos on it during my travels so far, even if I did fall in the waterfall with it!
 
Today wasn't all about me though as there was also the small matter of Simon's cricket final! The game was against Brahma Lodge at their home ground about an hour away from Glenelg. He went on ahead of us to prepare with his team and we followed on with Chantell. Simon's team, who were now on an 8 game winning streak, were fielding first so it was a slow start to the afternoon for us spectators, especially as the Brahma team are pretty terrible at batting, so bad in fact it looked like the game was almost all over before they even got to 30 overs as they still only had about 50 runs. After a little bit of form they actually got some runs but just before the end of their innings, Simon stepped up to bowl and took down the last batsman before their 40 overs were up!! Finishing them off on 108 . We dashed out during the break to grab beers, cider and lunch and were back just in time to see Simon open the batting! Although 108 was was a pretty simple score to reach they actually had some good bowlers as in the semi final they bowled the other team out for 53, which is very impressive. Simon and the team played very well, scoring lots of runs and his team went on to win getting 109 runs, losing only 3 batsmen and in only 25 overs, this meant that after being 3rd bottom in the league, they had now won 9 games in a row and won the premiership! This was a massive turn around and definitely cause for a big celebration!! We all made our way to The Tonsley for drinks, dinner and lots more drinks before Matt, Gareth, Chantell and I slipped away to hit a few bars in the town centre! Gareth was feeling pretty tired so he headed home, leaving the 3 of us to dance the night away at The Dublin and then The Grand, where they make the biggest, most delicious cocktails! I had a really wonderful birthday thanks to my lovely family and friends! Xx
 
Despite us all feeling pretty tired and having slightly sore heads, Matt, Gareth, Chantell & I had decided that Sunday would be spent visiting a few wineries in the McLaren Vale region . Simon's cricket team had organised a celebratory lunch following their premiership win so unfortunately he couldn't come! Chantell drove us there but as Gareth isn't a fan of wine so he offered to drive us around and bring us back home! Perfect! It took us a while to get going so it was already 2pm by the time we arrived at the Visitor Information Centre and picked up a map of the area so we had to shortlist which ones we wanted to visit the most! Fortunately, the wineries in this area are quite close together so we were able to get to 4 before they closed, these being: d'Arenberg, Lloyd Brothers, Samuel's Gorge and Rosemount Estates. This region is well known for its red wines, in particular the Shiraz variety but most had a good selection of whites and a few rosés too so we enjoyed sampling quite a few! After initially struggling at the first one, with quite big tasters and feeling a bit worse for wear from last night, we soon freshened up after the wine kicked in so it was probably a good job we only had time to visit 4 wineries as the servings were bigger here than in other regions and we were all feeling quite tipsy! At the last winery, we discovered a couple of varieties we really liked so we bought a bottle of each to go with the red Chantell had bought earlier and then made our way back home . By the time we got back, Simon was home from his lunch and a few people had come back to the house for drinks so we cracked open one of the bottles we had just bought and continued our weekend of celebrations!
 
My alarm going off at 6:30am was not a welcome sound after such a hectic weekend but I didn't mind too much as, despite feeling pretty nervous, I was excited to be getting back into a classroom as I was off to spend the day at Glenelg Primary School! Matt very kindly woke up and walked me there so he could wave me off, laughing about how he felt like a proud dad waving off a child on their first day at school. We had also been joking about whether the whole class was going to say "G'day Miss Richardson!" in their cute little Ozzy accents, so I was seriously going to struggle to keep a straight face if they did! I met with the head teacher, Mrs Rae Taggart, who introduced me to her Deputy, Mr Paul Ferrors. He arranged for 3 students who are school ambassadors to give me a tour before taking me to the first class I would be visiting: a year 6/7 PE class; they were playing dodgeball and were very keen to show off their skills . The second class I observed was a Geography lesson, again with Year 6/7 pupils; they were presenting power points they had prepared about different countries around the world. After recess, I was asked to assist a supply teacher by team teaching a maths lesson to a small group of children with specific learning difficulties. I really enjoyed the opportunity of being back in a teaching role and it gave me a real insight into how children are supported. The final class I visited was an NQT teaching a year 4/5 literacy lesson focussing on spellings. I took on the role of a TA, supporting children who needed a little extra help while the teacher delivered the lesson. Everyone at the school was really friendly and helpful, giving me lots of information and advice as well as answering all of my questions! I loved being back in school!
 
Both Tuesday and Wednesday were set aside as 'getting things sorted' days and they were very productive as in that time we managed to book our flight to Sydney, found a hostel for the first few days, booked our Sydney Harbour bridge climb and Blue Mountains trip, printed our tickets for Norfolk Island and settled our finances!
 
On Tuesday night, having succeeded in watching all 4 previous films, we went to the cinema to see Die Hard 5! We drove to Marion and met up with Muddy & Rusty, Simon's friends from cricket . The film was good although a bit cheesy at times and I definitely didn't need to have seen the other films to understand the storyline in this one! I think it was more a case of it being a good excuse for the boys to watch them again! 
 
Wednesday was a busy day as we posted our souvenir boxes home then made our way into the city so I could get some documents certified and some signatures witnessed by a Justice of the Peace. He was a very nice man and, as a former teacher, was keen to find out about the education system in England! Another job on the 'to do' list was to take my phone into the Telstra shop as, since I installed a new app, I had been receiving a text message every hour thanking me for registering! After a lot of waiting on hold, the lady in store told me the problem should have been fixed and sent me on my way! Sadly, the problem hadn't been resolved and I continued to receive the message every hour!!! The other reason for our trip into the city was to meet up with Melanie, the lovely German girl who worked at Wickham Retreat in Perth! We caught up on our travels since leaving Perth over a cup of tea and toasted sandwich and then set off on a sight seeing tour of Adelaide led by Gareth and a walking tour he had found in a tour guide! It was lovely to explore some of the parts of Adelaide we hadn't previously seen, including the Botanic Gardens and even more lovely to spend time with Melanie again! 
 
On Saturday morning we had to be up and out early to take Gareth to the airport . He had booked his flight to Sydney before we had finalised our plans so we ended up on separate flights! We saw him through security and waited until we knew he was on his flight before heading back to Glenelg where we went for a little shopping spree along Jetty Road! We spent the rest of the afternoon organising our things and packing our bags before heading out for dinner and drinks with Shillo and Carol. Chantell was able to come but Simon was at a wedding reception so the 3 of us walked down to The Grand bar to meet Shillo & Carol. Chantell & I quickly ordered another one of the huge cocktails we had discovered on my birthday while Matt stuck with beer! By the time the others arrived we had almost finished our drinks and Chantell & I didn't need convincing to have another, so we caught up over another round of drinks before moving on to the Hog's Breath restaurant for dinner. Hoggie's, as it is known to locals, is renowned for it's delicious steaks and we weren't disappointed! The food was cooked perfectly, we were all very full by the end, and the cocktails were so lovely we had to order lots!!! It was really lovely to see and catch up with Shillo and Carol again and we look forward to another get together next time we are back!
 
Our flight was booked for 13:05 on Sunday so we were able to enjoy a lovely Easter breakfast with Chantell's family before we had to head to the airport. Her house was full as her nana, poppa, mum, dad, brother, his girlfriend, their 3 children and dog all came over for a full English fry up! Delicious!!! At about 11:30, Simon gave us a lift to the airport, we felt very posh as he dropped us at the valet entrance, and then we were off again! Next stop... Sydney!