Clare

Well that might be a blog break record!  Several excuses...moving, lack of proper internet due to moving, starting studies again...but it ends here!  Jeremy is actually going to do a guest post on this blog.  He didn't know it while he was writing it, but he CCd me in on an e-mail he was writing to his parents and I thought it was such a lovely description of Clare that I could just be lazy and use it as a blog post!  I have his permission, of course :) So without further ado, here is Jeremy!

I'm having a great time here in Clare.  It's a town the size of Athens but with a pretty big feeder region, so it has the small country town thing where everyone knows you, but it also has a lot of nice things.  The area is green and lush with the walls of the valley either forested with eucalyptus or lined with green vines (the vines contrary to the regular agriculture are grown over the summer and harvested in the fall, the other agriculture is planted in fall and harvested in spring - matching the wet season).  There are poplars and maples scattered all over as well testament to the European settlers.  The people are great, but funny - there are 2 butchers in town.  One with award winning ham and bacon and the other with award winning sausages...  they are heated rivals though, so I have to be careful!  The bacon guy has already gone out of his way and made me some north american style bacon, even cutting the rind off!  

There's a beautiful Italian restaurant that just opened with a young couple my and Leana's age and they are filled with great ideas - they want to open a cheese boutique as an adjunct and they are going to start marketing their own Italian cured meats... The wineries are all over of course and all excellent, but there is also a growing boutique beer industry between Clare Valley Brewing Co, Pikes brewing, and Paulette's winery who just started brewing a special aged bitter.  

Our house IS a rental of course, but Leana walked in the door and said "can we buy it!?" - and it is for sale.  It's extraordinarily gorgeous including a big addition that manages to incorporate the original stone.  The kitchen is massive with a six burner gas oven by this specialty Italian brand and it works perfectly from simmering to high heat.  I really can't wait to skype you to show you our place.  Oh and the yard is 1.6 acres (according to my google translation of 6500m2). It is treed in the front so you can't see the street - except for the one room that looks out at the vineyard across the road, and the back yard looks out on a horse dressage course, and the side yard is bordered by the Riesling trail.  In the evening we can sit out and listen to the kookaburras sing in the dusk and watch the lorikeets play in the giant eucalyptus with the horses whinnying.  Then the sun sets and there's no light pollution so the milky way stretches clearly across our view and we see lots of falling stars.

The practice is in an old Edwardian home converted with great big windows and lovely reddish sandstone stone walls.  Dr Steve who is my supervisor wants me to stay more than a year, and is fun to work with.  He is a lot like dad with an abundance of energy and really easily distracted - which benefits me since he will duck out of a consult to help me with a patient of my own.  He loves procedural stuff and trauma and wants to work on my education in those areas which suits me fine.  He tells dirty jokes and asks me how I am settling in almost everyday (and really seems to care).  His wife Helen is the practice manager and she loves to talk, and loves a glass of wine.  He wants me to start doing on call - but not till I'm ready which he doesn't think will be till next month.  He also is the ring leader of a not really active motorcycle gang - which is really just a bunch of old guys that go for rides on their expensive motorcycles together.  He thinks I should get my motorcycle licence and join up.

So I think that sums up our first three weeks in Clare pretty well.

As for me, yes I have gone back to school - AGAIN - and luckily since I had a hand in coming up with the research topic and it's an area that I have been interested in for awhile, I am not finding it too tedious.  I meet with my advisors in Brisbane over Skype every two weeks and have a list of things to do in the meantime.  There is a lot of self-directed learning going on...the first few weeks I think are more about learning how to do a PhD than anything else!  I have a feeling that will be ongoing.  I am working two half days a week (which inevitably turns out to be longer) and staying in Adelaide three nights a week.  I leave the city Thursday after work and get to stay in Clare until Monday late afternoon.  The drive is about two hours and not my favourite thing to do, but this weekend I will have some company in the form of Lisa, who is visiting from Hervey Bay.  

I'm staying in a suburb called 'Semaphore' with a girl I met through my training group friends.  Her name is Jodi, and she is a high school teacher by day, and works in an adult store by night.  She also is just about to launch her very own 'adult party' business.  Never a dull moment, right?  Jodi's sidekick is a Jack Russell terrier who goes by the name of Dexter.  He's a lovely boy who is curled up on my bed as I type this.

Back to Lisa's visit...she has picked a very opportune time of year (encouraged by me) as it is the beginning of the famous Adelaide Fringe Festival!  We have a schedule of shows to enjoy, and we're also going to go to an aerial yoga class tomorrow evening.  I've tried it once and it's pretty cool.  You do all the yoga moves in these light weight hammocks and flip upside down and stuff.  After that, we are going to a Fringe show called "Fear and Delight: the complete experience".  I am quite intrigued by this as I have read some reviews and watched their video advertising it and still am not quite sure what is it.  I was going to try and explain it, but here is a snippet describing the basics:

Participants begin their adventure with a Heston Blumenthal-meets-Willy Wonka style feast by internationally renowned food architects The Dutch Food Slingers and Bompas and Parr. The dining table will then transform into a stage for “The Show”, boasting performers from around the world and music by the likes of UK electro-swing duo, The Correspondents.

Fear & Delight will have its official world premiere next Wednesday night in the Garden of Unearthly Delights - at least, that’s where it starts.

“Then you are taken offsite somewhere else, and end up on an island in the middle of a lake at one stage,” said Mr Maidment, who along with his team was also behind successful shows LIMBO, Cantina and Tom Tom Crew.

“You’ve got the theme of fear and delight, black and white - the entire show is in black and white, and audience members are encouraged to wear black and white.”

So I'm looking forward to that, although I am somewhat apprehensive!  We have another show Friday night, and then Saturday morning we will head up to Clare for a wine tour (I don't even have to drive this time!)  I will try to be back on here after the weekend with some photos to better illustrate all of these things.