G'day mates! Hehe.Sorry this blog is a bit late, I have been a bit busy - lying in the sun takes up an extraordinarily large proportion of time. I am here now though - better late than never.

This week has not been quite as productive as others, but plenty has been happening. Last weekend the girls and I set out on a mission. We caught an early train into the city, taking with us a bag full of food and water and plenty of sun cream and camped out on the street for the Adelaide Christmas Pageant.The pageant is a carnival style parade they put on through the streets of Adelaide every year. We arrived roughly 2 hours before it was due to start, plonked ourselves down on a matt and waited. The girls passed the time by drawing all over the road with chalk, and I lay down in the sun reading my book. It is quite an odd sensation, lying in the middle of a city road, but then Australia is full of surprises.The parade was amazing, full of clowns, marching bands and the most impressive floats I have ever seen! It was HOT though. The temp here is steadily increasing. It is mid-November, and the temp is already heading towards the 40C mark. It is due to be 39C on Tuesday!

With the temperature being so hot, I have made ample use of the pool in the back garden, going swimming most days. The pool is usually roughly about 30C by mid-afternoon - just perfect. By December, using the pool will be a necessity! I am looking forward to Mum, Dad, Phillip and my Uncle Nick Arriving on the 10 Dec, they will find the temp a bit of a shock having come from wet and windy Wales. I assured Mum that bringing her Christmas woolly jumper was not essential. With their arrival looming, I was given the task of finding suitable accommodation for the trip. The first four days they are here, Mum, Dad, Phillip and I are heading off together down the Great Ocean Road and we are hostelling it all the way. From what I can see, Australia's hostels are amazing - the 1st one we are staying in was built in a manor - talk about swish, it even has its own library. The main advantage of using hostels is that they are dead cheap in comparison to most accommodation so I went ahead and booked it. Uncle then gave me the task of finding a houseboat for a 4 day cruise along the Murray River.The boat I have found and booked is called Cloud 9, cheesy name but it is not far off true. It is a luxury 12 berth house boat with a 5 person heated Jacuzzi - can't be bad. I just hope it all turns out better than my cooking efforts. Though I have to say that this week, I cooked dinner without burning anything and most went back for seconds! Maybe I won't starve when I am left to survive on my own cooking.

On our trip to the circus a couple of weeks ago we met up with one of Uncle's students called Sam. She works with the RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association) and asked if I fancied volunteering.So this Tuesday I jumped in the mini and drove topless down to the stables. The mini is such a fantastic car to drive, it responds so well and looks SO good! I proved that not all women are useless map readers and managed to navigate myself (down the left hand side of the road) to the stables without any problem. I haven't had much experience with horses for a long time so was a little nervous but the other volunteers there were mostly my age and were lovely. I had no problem settling in. Once the horses had been prepped and warmed up, the children started turning up. Most of the children that come to ride have learning disabilities but a few have physical disabilities such as blindness. They were all lovely and great to work with. I would help them mount the horses and ensure their stirrups were the right length. Then I would walk or run beside the rider making sure they were secure on their horse. We would practice general riding skills and then play games. However for the last set of riders they were 1 short for the game - 'TADAA' guess who was volunteered without their knowledge until a riding hat was plonked on their head. ME. The game involved picking up a can of water and riding from one end of the arena to the other and depositing the water in the bucket at the end without spilling any - much harder than it looked. I am not natural on the back of a horse and Sam kept telling me to relax. When Buddy (my horse) began to trot, 'relaxed' was not the feeling that came to mind. It was fantastic working with everyone - I will have to learn to cope with all the flies though.

My catalogue of animal sightings is slowly increasing. Last week I saw a blue tongued lizard. Not poisonous but can give a nasty bite. I will be able to see lots of native wildlife when we visit an animal sanctuary on Kangaroo island when the family are over and I will be able to see all sorts of native animals close hand - can't wait.

Narr arrived on Wednesday. He is Aunty Josie's little brother from the Philippines and is staying with us for 3 months. He has come over to help with numerous jobs that need doing around the house that Uncle has not got time for. I have never seen a man work so hard - he puts the whole human race to shame! He is up at the crack of dawn and works nonstop all day doing serious manual labour - he's currently replacing retaining walls at the front of the house and when he finds some free time he is continuously sweeping like no man has ever swept before. He is an amazing bloke but very shy.

That's all can think of for now, missing everybody so much!

Lots of love, Kathryn xXx