Saturday 25th February

After a day driving down from Burra we got to the Oakford Apartments about 4.15pm. Took quite a long time to get everything out of the car and organised. Had a very welcome cup of tea. Anne saw that she had a missed call from Karen and rang her - she and Robert were at Sydney Airport about to board their flight to Adelaide. They are picking up Boris and Clementine in the centre of Adelaide at noon tomorrow when they return their hire car after their drive along the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne.

We put some washing on and then purchased an hour's internet time. Just enough to let us download a week’s worth of Telegraph and read and reply to a few emails. Went to Dan Murphy’s to stock up and brought back some fish and chips from the adjacent shops by the petrol station.

Sunday 26th February

Nice to be able to sleep with air-con on at last. Bathroom light had stopped working at some stage yesterday - not too bad as you get some light from the laundry but Les reported it to Reception and bought a 5-hour internet access card.

Breakfast of fruit and toast. Karen rang and we arranged to meet at the Hostel (Kerine's nursing home) at 2.30pm. Anne ironed all the washing and did a second load. Hung a few things out on the washing line that we discovered at the back of the unit. This is extremely clever as it’s below the outlet from the aircon and thus receives a constant blast of hot air. Washing dried in no time. Caught up with emails, downloaded photos and then went to Burnside Village for coffee, lunch and cash.

On way out from apartment chatted to Pat, one of the reception staff. Thanked her for switching our room to the ground floor and then discovered that she’s leaving on Friday to go to Brixham to visit a sister. She told us (horrors!) that the apartments won’t be available to rent if we return in another two years - the owner is selling off these and his other similar block. This is awful as we’ve decided this is the perfect place to stay.

At Burnside we went to ‘the tree’ as recommended by Pat and had a drink and a sandwich from Cibo. After we’d eaten Les sat reading a newspaper while Anne looked round a few shops. As Anne returned she spotted Karen and Robert sitting down and having a drink a few tables from us. We sat with them for about half an hour but they had to leave as they needed some shopping before going to the hostel.

We returned to our unit for a short while before going to the hostel. It was lovely to meet Boris and Clementine in the car park outside. We then all went up together to see Kerine. She was better than we’d imagined - much more mobile and mentally quite alert although her hearing is poor which leads to misunderstandings! Fiona who used to work for ECH, was also visiting and it must’ve been quite confusing for Kerine with seven of us all talking.

We stayed for around an hour and then all went down to Barr Smith Avenue and started collecting all the items on the list Kerine had given us. We loaded these into both cars to take to Kerine tomorrow. We took the library books so that we could return them to the library tomorrow morning before meeting up.

Everyone came back to the apartment and we sat round chatting and drinking beer and wine for a couple of hours. We were able to show them the photos of our 2002 visit on our website. Boris was very amused at how young Karen, and particularly Benjamin, looked. They went on about 6.45pm. They all think the apartment is fabulous but it’s $40 a day more than the Jackson. We reckon that, especially as Australian restaurants are very dear now, we’re saving at least $30 per day by eating in the apartment so we think the price difference is worth it.

We went back up Portrush Road and had a Chinese take-away. To be honest it was only modest by our standards - better than Wareham but not nearly as nice as what we’d expect in London.

We watched Midsomer Murders before going to bed around 10.15. It’s been 35c all day today with a few spots of rain in the afternoon. This is supposed to be the last hot day with temperatures starting to drop tomorrow.

Monday 27th February - Boris’s 30th birthday.

Definitely cooler today. Had breakfast, looked at emails, etc. then set off for the library. Found it eventually after satnav took us down a cul-de-sac - will remember to stick to main roads in future. Unfortunately Monday is the one day the library doesn’t open in the morning, so we returned home via Burnside Village, where we bought more fruit, and a snack to have with salad this evening.

About 12.20 Karen phoned to say she had finished at Barr Smith Avenue and was heading for the hostel. We joined them there and took in all the bits we had in the car from Barr Smith Avenue. We then set off in two cars for Stirling. Les went with Robert and Clementine to make sure that they got there.

We had a really nice long meal at the Bistro. Afterwards we moved outside so that Kerine could sit in the open air while we had coffee. Boris phoned and got some extra tickets for us to join them to see ‘The Table’ at the Adelaide Festival Fringe tomorrow night. We all went back to the hostel for a short while, and then we came back to the apartment.

After a short rest we decided to drive up to The Eagle On The Hill. A bit disappointing, as ‘The Eagle’ is now a private house, and the view from the nearby lookout is blocked by trees. We didn’t stay long as it was cold and windy and on the way home we stopped to top up supplies at Dan Murphy’s.

At home we sat for a while before having our light meal. We watched two back-to-back episodes of Heartbeat, and then an episode of Hamish Macbeth, although Anne wasn’t feeling great and went to bed before HM had finished.

Tuesday 28th February - Kerine's 90th birthday

Anne slept badly as she wasn’t feeling well, so we didn’t get up until 8.30. After breakfast we went to the Post Office at Burnside Village and bought a box, a giant envelope, bubble wrap and parcel tape. We’re sending Kerine’s ‘Spitfire’ plates to Barry, and Karen’s portrait home. Went home and wrapped and boxed the plates (with extra cardboard from Dan Murphy’s).

Set off for the hostel about 11.45. They were all waiting, and we managed to all get in to the Territory (had to take the handles off Kerine’s walker). The drive to Henley Beach took about 30 mins. Stella’s [restaurant] wasn’t as smart as we’d been led to believe, but it was nice, and the views straight out onto the beach and pier were lovely. Brigitte and Sarah from ECH were there and it was nice to sit and talk.

Lunch lasted until nearly 4.00pm. We took Kerine back and then came back to the apartment for a short rest.

Karen and Robert got lost getting here but eventually arrived around 6.15pm. We all got into our car and drove down towards the Festival. We were really really lucky managing to find an empty parking space on North Terrace only a few yards from the Festival entrance.

We went in and found the venue for our show and sat down with a beer while we waited for it to start. The venue was a small circular tent. The Table was in the centre with the chairs in circular rows round it. After a brief introduction the four (Polish?) players came in. It’s difficult to describe what they do but it was absolutely fascinating. There are huge amounts of electronics attached to the underside of The Table. The players tap, stroke, scratch and scrape The Table mainly with their hands. At the edges there are various strings and they all had violin style bows. There were a couple of tubes to blow in and a small bowl that acted like a bell when tapped. The show consisted of about 5 or 6 pieces and lasted an hour. It was completely different to anything we’ve seen or heard before.

After the show Boris and Clementine stayed on to look at other things while we walked back to the car. It was fun getting back because the satnav didn’t seem to register all the roads that are closed for the Clipsal but eventually we got back. Karen and Robert came in for a short while and then went home. We went to bed quite soon after.

Wednesday 29th February

Today it is raining - and it’s not very warm (15c). After breakfast put some washing on. Les went to the Post Office to post parcel to Barry, and Anne rang Nancy and Robyn. Also tried to contact Elizabeth to see if we can drop in sometime today or tomorrow, but no answer - left a message.

Les came back with more bubble wrap and while Anne started wrapping the picture to post to UK, Les washed some of the locusts and dust off the car. After putting the washing on we set off for the library. They were very helpful and the lady we spoke to told us that she’d had many telephone conversations with Kerine although they’d never actually met face to face. Discovered there is a wifi hotspot at the library. On the way back from the library we passed the Arkaba and went into the shopping centre and had prints made of some of yesterday’s photos.

We went back to the apartment, put some of the washing in the drier, and set off for the Post Office again with the picture. It was A$20 by surface mail, but A$70 by air, so we opted for surface [Post holiday note - it arrived safely in mid-May]. After posting it we had a quick look at the adjacent cafe in Burnside Village. It was a French bistro and it was almost full. They only seemed to do cooked lunches so we walked into the centre to have a sandwich under The Tree again. Amazingly we met Karen & Robert again with Kerine. We sat and chatted while we had a sandwich. Robert and Les then stayed with Kerine while Karen and Anne went into Coles.

Karen and Robert then took Kerine back to the home and we came back to the apartment. Anne did the ironing while Les transferred some movie videos to the iPad.

Martin & Jenny from Wareham

Around 4pm Elizabeth returned our call and we arranged to meet her tomorrow for lunch at La Vita at 12.30. She also said she’d had coffee with Jenny & Martin this morning. She gave us Martin’s UK mobile number and said they were leaving early the following morning for Kangaroo Island. We tried the mobile number and got through on the second attempt. They were thrilled to hear from us and we agreed that we would pick them up from their hotel on North Terrace at 6pm.

We got ready and left straightaway about 5.15pm thinking we had plenty of time. In fact, the traffic was absolutely awful and it took us an hour to get there, although we did manage, by accident, to park at the closest possible place to their hotel. They were waiting in the foyer and we decided that we’d go out for a meal. More confusion with traffic, one way etc, but we finally ended up on Pulteney at the Italian where we’d taken Kerine on our last visit. This was fine by them as they like Italian (they have an Italian daughter-in-law). We had a nice meal and a couple of beers and then dropped them back at their hotel before returning to the apartment by 9pm. Tried to Skype Tracey but she did not get our email before we went to bed.

The rain had finally stopped as we left the Italian restaurant but it was still cool (14c).

Thursday 1st March

Our last full day in Australia. We got up promptly at 8am and started packing. Fortunately the rain had finally stopped, the sun was out and it was much warmer (24c).

It took us until 10am to finish packing and clear everything from the apartment. We were really sorry to leave as we probably won’t be able to stay here again if it’s sold as intended.

We filled the car on Portrush Road and then worked our way across to Kerine’s hostel getting there about 10.30. We sat and chatted until 11.45am, said what we thought would be our final goodbyes and then set off for Henley Beach.

We found the restaurant and Elizabeth arrived soon after. If you shut your eyes you would imagine you were talking to her sister, our friend Krissi. Had a simple sandwich lunch and spent ages talking about family and how she ended up in Adelaide. She told that she and Peter had tried to visit a restaurant in Semaphore to celebrate his birthday yesterday - it was somewhere they’d wanted to visit for ages - but the whole town had a power cut so they had to go somewhere else. Because Peter’s birthday falls on 29th February he was only 15 yesterday!

We left at about 2pm as Elizabeth had a meeting to go to. We drove down Grange Road to the sea and walked along Grange Pier. We phoned Karen who was in North Adelaide just finishing lunch with Kerine and Robert. We suggested they come down to Henley Beach and meet us in the car park by Stella’s.

We pottered north up the coast as far as Semaphore where we walked out on the beach. Les managed to get his feet wet in the Southern Ocean. Karen rang just as we got back to the car to say they were approaching and we set off back down the main road rather than the scenic view.

When we met up Karen and Robert were certain that Kerine wouldn’t want a drink and would just want to go home but Les asked her and she agreed to have a cup of tea. In fact when we got into the very smart cafe overlooking the beach she decided to have apple pie as well as tea.

We stayed for about 45mins before we left and said our final, final, final goodbyes in the car park before Robert set off,  driving the wrong way round the car park.

We were straight onto Sir Don Bradman Drive and back to the Airport Motel in less than 15 mins. We’re now back in our ‘usual’ room - no.11 with the spa bath. Things are all sorted for tomorrow and we’ve downloaded today’s few pictures including the video we took of Kerine in the unit. We got her to speak to the camera and say thank you to George for the flowers and card. The file is too big to email but we can reduce it when we get home.

Shared a Fisherman’s Delight in the motel restaurant together with some beer and wine and then took a drink back to our room. Made certain that we were okay for the morning and then had a fairly early night.

Friday 2nd March

Fairly leisurely start. Showered etc and then made sure that we were pretty well all packed before having a leisurely breakfast in the restaurant. Got everything into the car and decided that we would just top up the tank before taking it back to the airport. Couldn’t see a petrol station so we asked the satnav which sent us up Marion Road. We pulled in behind a small car and when the lady driver came out of the shop she warned us that there was a huge spider on the pump by the nozzle. We decided to pay the extra and use the premium pump instead - as it would only take $8 to fill the car it seemed a good move.

Made our way back to the car rental return although it’s a bit difficult with the new road layout and more work going on. The man at Hertz said that they would be relocating into the multi-storey car park that’s currently being built. This will actually mean a slightly longer walk but at least the cars will be under cover.

Checked in easily by going to the bag drop desk and thus bypassing the check-in queue. Went through domestic security and sat down to have a coffee. Anne then went off to look round the shops. Eventually the sign said ‘Go to gate’ so we went through more security to the International Departures.