More permanent residency fun - we have Medicare cards!  You don't really think about free healthcare until you don't have it anymore.  As Canadians, it's just something we're entitled to and I never had to consider otherwise.  Then we came over here.  For the first few years, the insurance we bought through the university took care of things.  Once you're no longer on a student visa, it's your own responsibility to uphold the conditions of whatever visa you're on, one of these conditions being hospital cover.  We've been paying for private health insurance now for the last couple of years and it pretty much only covers hospital admission. We've had to pay for GP visits, prescriptions, and anything else out of pocket.  This week, Jeremy and I both paid visits to the local Medicare offices with our passports, visa grant letters, and Medicare applications and left with a little printed out piece of paper with a number on it.  This will be our Medicare 'card' until the official versions arrive in the mail.  Pretty cool to have that sorted!

Much more excitingly, less than two weeks until an amazing weekend of fun with some interstate visitors!  Lisa (our most loyal visitor) will be arriving August 8th, and Claire not far behind her on August 9th.  We have decided to become Adelaide tourists and booked some tours through the CBD.  Not just any tours though...

To begin with, we have the chocolate walking tour of Adelaide.

The 3 hour tour starts at Rundle Park and finishes in Rundle Mall, from 10am on Saturday. The tour visits 6 different venues with a chocolate soup break half way through. 

All chocolate tastings and the hot chocolate break are included in the price along with discounts at a number of the venues if you decide that you need to take some home with you for further research. 

Apart from tasting all kinds of high quality chocolate, and meeting lots of interesting people, you will learn: 

The deep, dark, mysterious, and interesting history of chocolate.

How chocolate is crafted. From the cacao tree to the cocoa bean, through the hands of the chocolate maker and chocolatier.

How to tell good chocolate from bad using sight, smell, feel, and the ingredients list.

How to taste and appreciate chocolate. From the first smell, through the first bite, the taste as it melts in the mouth, and the final notes.

Lots of other practical tips such as how to store chocolate, how long you can store it, how to tell when it's past best and much more.

This tour should finish at about 1 pm, which gives us a chance for a little break before our next tour: the old and new wine bars of Adelaide tour:

The 2.5 to 3 hour tour starts at 3:30pm on Saturday from King William Street in the city. The tour visits four different venues showcasing the old and the new of the Adelaide wine bar scene.

On this tour you will:

Visit 4 different wine bars where you will learn about their historical significance and interesting stories of establishment. Plus a bonus underground and above ground tour dating back to the beginning of South Australia’s history that is normally off limits.

Learn about the history of South Australian wine and our watering holes. We might be the city of churches, but on the corner opposite you’ll find a pub.

Some fabulous nibbles are included in the tour price, along with the opportunity to taste some wine with expert commentary, however to keep the price down drinks are not included at every venue.

You will be able to purchase and sample the wine & beers at a discounted price when no tasting is offered.

We actually have a fairly large group attending these tours - as well as Lisa, Claire and myself there are quite a few other friends so that should be lots of fun!  Once the wine bar tour has concluded, we will see if we are up for dinner, or just full of chocolate and wine.  If dinner is part of our plan, I'm hoping to head to Ruby Red Flamingo in North Adelaide. Jeremy and I have gone there on two occasions, both times with visitors to Adelaide (including Jeremy's Uncle Don and Aunt Lyn) and it has been delicious and entertaining.  I love visitors - such a good excuse to explore the city :)

There have been a few new developments in Adelaide this month.  The one which has produced a huge amount of commentary, media coverage, and hype is the first Krispy Kreme in SA opening up.  It's on Port Rd, which is the road we drive down to get into the city.  This is the third week that it has been open, and it's been total chaos.  Last night after volunteering at the hockey game and having a later dinner with friends, I drove by around 11:30 pm and sure enough, there was still a massive line of people waiting to get their donut fix.  Ridiculous!  This sums it up fairly well:

Knives, brawls and traffic chaos: It could only be the opening of a DONUT shop in Adelaide

• 145 council parking fines worth $21,000 were issued to donut fans who were causing traffic chaos in order to get their sugar hit
• Long queues have caused fights between the crazed customers with police attending the shop about 20 times for both behavioural and parking issues
• Fines range from $62 for stopping in a loading zone to $245 for parking in a bicycle lane – an offence accounting for 60 fines
• Customers who are fined will receive free donuts
• The hype comes as a a man threatened two teens with a knife and took their six boxes of donuts last Wednesday.

There was also the man who waiting 56 hours outside of the store before opening day to be the first customer and win free Krispy Kreme for a year.  People are just crazy!


I have settled into the job at Modbury and I hope that my time with the team gets extended.  I know they want someone full time, but maybe it will take a long time for them to find someone suitable?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see!!

Last weekend Jeremy was off work so we drove to the town of Melrose in the Southern Flinders Ranges.  Our accommodation was rather quirky - an old truck with a house built around it.  We were staying in the red truck (first picture below).  It was an interesting experience, but the bathroom was actually located in the second truck which can be easily seen in the picture...so you had to briefly step outside in order to access the second area.  Not normally a problem, but when it's down to 1 degree can be a bit chilly!  The second picture is the inside of the green truck, which is a bit more spacious than the one we stayed in, but it's the same idea.

The aim of our road trip was to spend the night on Friday and then hike in the ranges on Saturday.  We chose the Sugar Gum Lookout hike in Mt Remarkable National Park, which was a pleasant 8 km stroll.  Strange coincidence - as we were heading back to the parking lot, a bunch of people from various trails all start to show up.  We were walking behind a group of people and they got to the bathroom first so I was sitting outside waiting.  One lady came out to wash her handsm looked over at me and said: "Speech therapist?"  I said "...yes..." and she said "Leana?" which was really strange because I was looking right at her and had absolutely no idea who she was...then she said her name, and it all made sense.  She's an occupational therapist who I share a private client with.  We had met once, months earlier at a meeting and occasionally talk on the phone.  It was just so out of context that I couldn't place her at all!  I think she had an easier time with me because of the accent :)

I can't believe I didn't mention the huge news that we got permanent residency!  It's funny - you pay all this money, fill out pages and pages of paperwork, do the medical, get the RCMP clearances...and then you just wait.  One day you check your e-mail and there it is...a bit anti-climactic really.  I was working at Modbury that day and I don't really know my co-workers there really well but I did inform them that I was a permanent resident now!  Jeremy and I got these shirts which demonstrate our position:

I wore mine to hockey yesterday and got a few comments from other Canadians.  One girl wanted to knew where I got it so she could get one for herself!

So that's about it...we've just been muddling our way through winter, trying to stay warm.  Jeremy keeps working crazy hours...after today he has 4 days off, then 4 days on, then off to Port Lincoln.  It has arrived quickly...hopefully the time he's away will pass fairly quickly as well!

Last time I posted, it was cold and rainy...I feel like I've come full circle!  Here I am on a cold and rainy night, and I actually just got back from an outdoor workout, just like in my last post.  Fancy that!

I've started my job at Modbury and I'm enjoying it.  Unfortunately with this change, my anxiety has gone up a few notches so I've been dealing with that unpleasantness, but as I settle into the role I hope it will decrease.  It's nice to have two consistent/reliable days of work per week, but still get to do the other work with Grace.  So far it has been working out alright.  I'm curious about what will happen at the end of the three month contract.  I assume they will still want a speech pathologist working with the 'Rehab in the Home' team...they might be looking for someone right now who is able to take on the role full-time.  Or maybe they will ask me to extend my time with them.  We'll have to wait and see!

Jeremy and I are ships passing in the night at the moment.  I typically start work around 8:30-9 am and come home in the afternoon.  He is on a seven day stretch of 12 hour shifts at a hospital that is a 45 minute drive from our house...we communicate by text occasionally when we can, but it's not ideal!  For some people this is the normal way of life though - would be difficult. 

Canada Day was a quiet one this year.  We went out for Peking duck with another Canadian friend - not very Canadian cuisine...oh well!  Also, a Canada Day miracle occurred with our Canada/Australia shirts which we impulsively ordered online arrived ON Canada Day!  Otherwise, I couldn't get too excited...Ottawa is really the place I like to be on my favourite day (elsewhere in Canada would probably do in a pinch).

Hope everyone in Canada is enjoying the summer!  I've been seeing some pictures that have me longing for Ontario lakes and cottages :)