McCulloch Family Giant Leap: Tennis Anyone

What a lovely wet day to wake up to and face packing up the van and driving into the Adelaide peak hour traffic. Jason had wanted to get there early but that did not happen as we woke up late and then everything just seemed to take longer than usual. Isn’t that always the case when you want to get away fast? We were taking the van back to our friend Craig Morgan at Oz Caravans to have our solar panels installed on the roof. These new ones are lighter and not as powerful but are more convenient and Craig believes it is all we will need.

My sleepy heads.

We had to wait around there for a while for a gentleman to turn up who Jason had arranged to buy our fold up panels. Once that was taken care of we headed straight to the Marion shopping centre and watched Penguins of Madagaster. We all loved it and the kids really enjoyed the treat of going out and getting the big popcorn and frozen coke. I was waiting to exit the cinema with Kayla for fear that she would get sick of sitting there, but nope, she was good and moved around a bit but didn’t leave our little area. We did a bit of shopping for some items we needed but eventually the crowds drove us out of the shopping centre.

Filling in a bit of time.

Jason had really wanted to buy a sun shade for when we go to the beach but I wasn’t fully convinced, and on top of that we had totally different ideas of what to get. Anyway Jason had found a camping shop that apparently sold lots of different varieties so we headed there, but on walking in there really weren’t many on display at all. Actually I think there was only the one, which just happened to be the style Jason wanted. I remember friends having something like that once and it was painful to pack down and caused many arguments so I really wasn’t keen.

Yep I think we will all fit.

We asked the shop assistant to demonstrate packing it down and it did look easy. Still not convinced I got Jason to pack it down, not once, but twice. From there I was sold as it was quick and easy to put up and put down and provided shelter from the wind and sun. We did one final test to ensure that if we wanted to, all four of us could fit under it. I really think we gave the shop assistants a good laugh just watching us as we were having fun doing so. They even offered to take a photo of us all in it, but I was more than happy to hop out and take it. So in the end Jason’s choice was the better one and we walked out of the shops a little broker but with sun protection!!!

It was then straight back to the caravan as we were sure it would be ready for us to pick up. Also as it was getting late and we love talking to Craig and picking his brain for any tips, it ended up being a wise move as we were there for quite a while. We even scored a photo with Craig at the request of a fellow Coromal Owners Facebook page member. Craig is always helping us all out with solutions or tips on the Facebook page, so a lot of people liked being able to put a face to a name.

The ever so helpful Craig Morgan.

We had booked back into the Adelaide Beachfront Caravan Park again as it was by far the best value for the school holiday period with some other places wanting nearly $80 a night. We had a good laugh when we arrived as it seems to be the place for Pajero owners to stay as we counted seven others, and it is only a small park. Later we went to go out for a drive and Jason thought that the caravan two down from us (also towed by a Pajero) was a retired couple we had met up in Airlie Beach. They are from Airlie Beach and were just setting out on their adventure. Of course being the good wife I am, I told him that he was crazy and that there is no way that it could be them. I said they were heading south, so there is no way they could have gotten around the coastline to here in the same amount of time.

Well I was wrong – Jason really is on a roll at the moment. Jason said hello and they were just as shocked at us that we had met on the road again. They did go south but only as far as the Blue Mountains before cutting across the Hay plain. I really must learn to never disagree with my husband’s ability to recognise a car and caravan setup. Kind of like questioning my ability to find a shopping centre – it is just second nature to remember these things!

Wednesday started off in such a great way. I did my allocated exercise that we have started up this week where I had signed up to do the 100 day challenge with my cousin’s “Off the Track Training” business. Each week she will send me out exercises that I need to complete at my level. When I first received the email I thought it was very realistic and I could easily achieve it. I was right in the sense of making the time, that part was easy. Realising just how unfit I was and completing the exercise was the harder part. I just want to have more energy and run around with the kids more to the point they get tired, not me! I have stuck with it and completed each day so far and once I have finished I feel good for it, my next step is to try and get my diet under control.

Not a bad place to do some exercise.

Once I had caught up on some washing, as we finally had some better weather, we headed back to the Adelaide Zoo. We had to pick up our yearly passes that we had bought on our last visit. Since we had made the effort to go in there it only made logical sense to pop in for another visit. We were then going to go into a city office to do our early voting for the upcoming Queensland Election. Luckily though I called them first and found out that we couldn’t until the next week as the nominations had only just closed. Not really helpful since were leaving Adelaide on Friday and that was the only place in SA where you could do an early vote.

Feeding the sheep.

They were very interested in the Wombat

Kayla was ready to hop into this one.

They did offer us the option to do a postal vote but again we had no idea where we were going to be on Friday at that stage so said that didn’t work. I didn’t realise it but you can apparently have yourself excused from voting for a period of time, so it would have been something good to do before we left. I had to then call the Queensland Electoral Commission and have both Jason and I excused from voting. It was certainly an ordeal trying to explain our circumstance to the lady on the phone and when she read out our voting address it was interesting! At least the postal address was right, but in the end I got there.

On our return to the van it was evident that our kids still had heaps of energy that needed burning off. Trying to use this energy we decided to hire one of the caravan parks two seater bikes. Hamish could peddle around the park and Kayla got to sit as a passenger. Kayla certainly gave a few worrying glances back but then found she could control the brakes from her seat. Hamish did a great job peddling them around the park and loved it when an older child on another bike played the role of a policeman. Mind you I think Hamish deserved quite a few as sometimes he would look back rather than watch where he was going. I grabbed him just in time once before he ran up the back of a parked car. In fairness he was trying to brake but they were a bit slow.

Poor maintenance guy had to move out of the road fast.

They are off - I had to run to keep up.

It also allowed Jason the chance to get ready for his tennis that night. As part of his Christmas present I had bought Jason a ticket to the World Tennis Challenge at Memorial Drive so he was very excited. So whilst I stayed at the van and cooked the kids dinner and put them to bed, Jason was out watching, Lleyton Hewitt vs Thomas Berdych, Marco Bagdatus vs Luke Saville, John McEnroe vs Michael Chang and Chang & Bagdatus vs McEnroe & Saville. It was a late night for him but he was like a kid in a candy store and had a great night out, especially watching Lleyton play a match in his hometown of Adelaide. Apparently there were a few funny moments such as:

- Thomas Berdych trying to hit a ball into the crowd at the end of the match, but hit it on the roof of the grandstand

- John McEnroe winning a point by hitting the net chord with the ball just making it over the net and then someone in the crowd yelling out “You can’t be serious!”

- Michael Chang wearing tracksuit pants the whole match with Bagdatus supporters in the crowd urging him to get into a pair of shorts.

Action shot.

In for a big serve.

Apparently pants are optional.

As Thursday was our last day in a capital city for a while we took the opportunity to get a few jobs done. This mainly consisted of posting mail, food shopping and getting the school supplies for Hamish. My list was only short, but it still took me forever to buy. I also realised I could halve it as I really didn’t need 6 ring bind folders. Over a year maybe, but not right now surely. I also read way too much into the list and as it stated that I needed a foolscap size scrapbook I went in search of one that had that description. After a while I realised it wouldn’t be that easy so asked for help, and was told they are moving away from that size and he wasn’t really sure. In the end I just grabbed three scrapbooks and hoped my son would not be penalised because I had bought the wrong size!

I was doing this shopping on my own with the two kids in tow, as Jason had to go back to the Marion shopping centre to get a refund as they had charged us $10 too much for a pair of shorts that were clearly labelled cheaper. We had also decided to buy a tow ball scale so at least he could do all that without having to drag the kids in and out of the car. Meanwhile I was becoming harassed so decided that it was time to stop for morning tea which involved cupcakes for the kids and a coffee and cake for me. This was just what we all needed to give us the energy to face the crowds and start the food shopping, which by then Jason had joined us.

Once home and everything was unloaded, we decided to try the tow ball scale that Jason had bought, however we soon realised that we needed to be on level ground and probably a block of wood under the scale. Jason went in search of something around the park but couldn’t find anything suitable so we decided to leave it for now. After all we had planned to take the van over a weighbridge the next day to make sure we were still on track weight wise, so that would give us an indication of the tow ball weight.

That afternoon we went for a quick drive to find the nearest weighbridge that we could easily access and get into, not to mention would be able to issue us with a certificate. Once we were back from that we then knocked over our daily exercise which seemed to be easier today and it was nice to have a thirty minute walk/jog all to myself before swapping over with Jason so he could complete his. Then in true nomad fashion we joined our friends from Airlie for happy hour drinks. So totally undoing the exercise but it was nice to sit down and have a chat with them.

Gwen and Ian from Airlie Beach.

They are looking for a new place to call home and still haven’t found a place they really like either, I mean Airlie would be hard to beat. The boys compared notes on the Pajero’s towing capabilities and then of course the discussion of weight came up. Unfortunately they are a fair bit over so are looking at ways to counteract it and now travel with the water tanks empty. This news did make me nervous for our check the next day but surely we hadn’t added too much into the van, though my gut had a sinking feeling.