I am sitting here looking down at a very stormy sea. The surf is crashing and still the intrepid ‘keep fitters’ walk along with their heads down, marching with a mission. I had toyed with buying a cheap fishing rod to cast off the jetty, but seeing the weather today, I think I might have missed the halcyon days of casting a line out to a calm sea. John’s colleague Dean was very excited to hear I liked fishing, and offered to take us out on his boat, from which he has been known to land whoppers. Hmmm. I am very excited, but now with this stormy weather I think the trip will have to be postponed.

We have been gallivanting. Toured up to the Barossa Valley to view the vineyards and have a little taste. It was all so beautiful. The trees were so gorgeous, avenues of autumn splendour and the vines red and gold. We came across Jacob’s Creek, a huge concern, and we duly snapped the original creek, before going up to see the manicured lawns, the neat and tidy vines. I’m glad they are still producing the nice white I used to buy from the Co-op! We bought a pink and a fizzy!

The Barossa valley still has a German flavour from its early days, where people came, fleeing from religious persecution in Prussia and set up their Lutheran Churches and learnt the wine trade. John and I meandered round the old settler cemetery near Bethany, with the German inscribed stones, and I reflected how people like to be buried in amongst what supported them in life. I remember the graves in Vietnam, stones and mounds appearing amongst the rice paddies. Here stones are surrounded by grapes. How nice.

Have joined a yoga class and really enjoyed it, not as much as ballet of course, but it was good to have a stretch and get back to downward facing dogs and warrior poses, things I haven’t done since Doha. Nice ladies, and no one talked about funeral arrangements. This is positive.

Had a quiet giggle at my new hairdresser. His name is Steven, and he has NO interest in travel and cannot see the point of going anywhere. This is OK, but then after snipping away, he thought he would maybe like to go on a safari in Africa, as that would be quite special. I nodded and watched him snip.  He suddenly got really excited and had to stop as he launched into a fantasy about going to Las Vegas, to the gambling machines, the poker machines, and be part of all the glitz. I was quite amazed at his transformation from a homely gentleman who was telling me what oil he uses to rub on his elbows to this closet wild man. He said he blows his pay check every week on ‘scratchies’, lotto, horses and pokies! These poker machines are huge here in Australia, and John tells me that even in the office they have a ‘book’ on whether the job will be finished on time!

But much much worse is the terrible accident at the races on Friday. Oh my. I snapped this picture from the paper. It shows a group of people happily watching a race, when suddenly a riderless horse leaps over the fence into the unsuspecting crowd. Seven people were hurt, though none too serious. Look at the faces if you can….totally unaware! Magic photo.

Apart from that, I am frustrated with the stupid commercial channels on TV. I have been watching Australian Masterchef, and last night, there was a run off between two contestants…we got the scores for one fellow, and the tension was rising, when suddenly the screen went blank and we were on to the budget. They had wasted so much time on adverts, they had run out of time. Aaaargh. On a more positive note, I have ‘met’ Maggie Beer, a sort of Delia or cooking icon of the Barossa Valley on the above programme. She has introduced me to Verjuice…something I had never heard of. Wonderful stuff, I cooked a chicken with it last night…(it’s made from the juice of unfermented grapes) and was apparently huge in the middle ages and this Maggie Beer has brought it back to attention. Good to learn of new things.

We visited Adelaide’s china town, and I had the best Pho since leaving Vietnam.

John  is very tense this week, the big boss from Korea is arriving today, and yesterday John had meetings with the Irish sub contractors…the job is a nightmare, and causing a lot of sleepless nights to all concerned.

The sea is still wild, and the balcony is getting spattered with rain, and I have to go out now…which is not very appealing.  So different from when we walked back on Saturday night and saw a bride having her picture taken on the sea wall.