Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the lovely mums out there, most notably my mum, my mother-in-law, and my two lovely grandmothers :) It sounds like the weather back home has dramatically improved and I hope people are out enjoying it with their loved ones.

Being so far away from our own mums, I must admit that the fact that it was Mother's Day today kind of escaped us. We waltzed into Seed Kitchen in Clare without a reservation and had no luck in getting some lunch. We were rather baffled until they said that they were doing a set Mother's Day menu. Oooooh...right. We ended up going home and having leftovers, which were quite tasty. I seem to have a thing about befriending people born in 1985 and 1986. This means that there has been a flurry of 30th birthdays already this year, a trend which will continue on into next year. This weekend, our friend Nicole celebrated her 30th with a wine tour in Clare - how convenient! Nicole is another Canadian GP registrar who is also working in Clare, at the other (rival!) GP clinic. We know Nicole from intern year as she was also at the Queen Elizabeth. Nicole rounded up a bunch of friends and rented a bus and a driver and we proceeded to tour around five wineries, stopping in at O'Leary Walker for a ploughman's lunch. After a brief rest at home, we then headed over to Nicole's for homemade pizza and birthday cake. Our friends Jane and Pam stayed with us Friday and Saturday nights and joined us for the tour. Incidentally, Monday is Jane's 30th birthday. Jeremy made her a delicious meal Friday night and I made an ice cream cake. They left early this morning since Jane had to meet a friend at the airport who was flying in from QLD to spend Jane's birthday in Adelaide. This week will be getting back into the swing of things after being away in Brisbane for a week. I'll be 'moving' to Glenelg, into a house with some delightful Irish friends of mine. This is going to be excellent - it's much closer to work and right by the beach...a bit too cold for swimming at the moment but I always like to be near the ocean. I'll be moving int with Maria who is an Occupational Therapist at my work, her husband Shane, and their housemate Sean. Their other housemate, Orla, is headed back to Ireland for a couple of months and I'll be staying in her room while she's gone. I will miss Jodi, the girl who I have been staying with since Feb, and her lovely little Jack Russell, Dexter. It's really an interesting life and lucky for me I have met some fantastic people who are willing to open their homes to me! Next weekend is the Clare Gourmet Weekend. This is a big weekend in the Clare Valley and prime tourist season. Apparently everything gets pretty quiet here from Jan-March (it's generally too hot, 40+ degrees) and starts to pick up again in April. The Gourmet weekend is one of the biggest events on the Clare calendar. Jeremy and I are looking forward to attending some of the events and maybe hosting some friends for the weekend.