Now You're Caught Up

While what follows isn’t very captivating, it’s what we’ve been up to in the last half year.

Where did we leave off? We were just leaving the UK. It was a grey and dreary time of the year (December) and had been for... the last 4 years. Not to say that we didn’t enjoy our time in the UK. We loved it. The people moan a lot, but they’re pretty great. The roads aren’t the best, but the cycling was fantastic. The food was distinctly average (although I’ll still maintain that it’s better than what Canada gets), but we had our favourite places that never disappointed. It’s expensive to live there, but it’s cheap and easy to travel, and only hours from the rest of Europe. Would we go back there to live? Depends. We do miss certain aspects of it, but we’d rather stay where we are.

The Dastardly Duo

So, we left our dreary little country and our friends behind for sunnier climes. A couple of said friends (one of whom we’ll be seeing in November) were gracious enough to take us to the airport, and something like 39 hours later we landed in Adelaide.

Our Flat

I had no idea what to expect, but I was expecting a lot of brown and flat and dry and hot. Nice and positive as usual. Our approach into Adelaide flew over some pretty uninspiring land and the first sign of civilization I saw had a very working class/small town/Brandon/Red Deer look to it, and I’ll admit that I was worried. I can’t even think of what part of town that was, because it’s all (well, mostly) very nice. We had only a small bit of hassle through customs (the bike boxes had to be all unpacked and inspected), and were greeted by a driver arranged by the Uni, which was a nice touch. Our temporary accommodation was right downtown and fairly posh, with a view of the ocean and sunset every night, a pool, and a giant shower. Not until you have one do you appreciate a giant shower.

We had two weeks before Myra started at the Uni and while there was a lot of running around getting stuff sorted, we got out on our bikes as often as possible, made it to the beach (20 minutes from downtown), and walked mile after mile checking out the area and it’s restaurants.

Final UK ride

The ride from town to
top of Mt Lofty

The cycling here is first rate. The city has the ocean on one side and a mile after mile of wonderful hills on the other. Unlike the UK, the climbs are long (10km as opposed to 1km), and can get well above 10%. The roads are well maintained (the fact that they never freeze helps) and the traffic is very light. To top it off, the views are expansive and usually spectacular. Just like Edmonton, where the river valley was right outside our door, the hills aren’t even far enough away to be warmed up by the time we hit them.

We really like Adelaide. At first impressions it strangely felt really similar to Edmonton (which I don’t feel now), with the strong art/culture/music scene of Winnipeg. Part of the familiar feel was probably that we were back in a city built on a grid, which is so, so much easier to navigate than cities in Europe. However the best surprise for me was how green it is here. Far from being all brown, it’s probably the greenest city I’ve been in. England is green, but like a lot of Europe, it’s so built up and crammed together that there isn’t a lot of green space inside the cities. The variety of fruit bearing trees, flowers, and other plants here is staggering, not to mention the variety of birds that inhabit them. I suppose the UK is a deeper, more lush green in the countryside.

So just as our paid accommodation was running out we managed to find a place that will do the job until we buy something. It’s our first time being in a house (as opposed to a flat), and it’s fantastic. It’s a bit further from downtown than we prefer, but minutes from the hills (and literally around the corner from a Penfolds vinyard/winery, for those of you who might be jealous) and it’s so easy to get around this place that it doesn’t really matter.

What have we managed to do and see? It feels like not very much, but we’ve managed to do a few things. It’s pretty limiting not having a car. In January we (Adelaide, not Myra and I) hosted the Tour Down Under so we checked out as many stages as possible. Most of them started in town, with the entirety of the first and last stages taking place on a circuit  downtown. It was our first time witnessing a Pro level race (not true, Myra saw the Prologue in London for the Tour de France in... 2007?), and it was amazing to not only see how fast and how closely packed they ride at speed, but also just being there to take in the buzz and atmosphere of a World Tour stage race.

The following week I had an interview for a job, quite unexpectedly headed back to Canada for my Dad’s funeral and flew back two weeks later to start my new job the next day. Myra had started at the Uni during the Tour and was getting used to life as a professional again. That was a pretty crazy time and since then we’ve both been pretty busy - Myra so much more so - but enjoying it.

We attended the first Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne at the end of March and got to stay and hang out with a couple of friends who also made the move from the UK. Great to see them and the race was mental. Too loud even with earplugs. We didn’t get to go for the whole four day event (and unfortunately had to leave about five laps before the end to make our flight), but over the weekend there were tons of support races and other things to batter the senses. Our plan is to travel to one race of the season as we are able, but the rest of them we’d rather see on TV. Without watching one of the big screens (which you can’t hear anyway) it’s hard to follow what’s going on when seeing it in person. What an experience though.

Our first visitor came courtesy of Kyle, a friend from high school. I’ve been lucky enough to keep up with him probably more than anyone else since leaving Canada. His work takes him all over the world - we’ve met in Paris and just last year he stopped in to see us in Reading. The weather wasn’t fantastic so we didn’t get up to much this time, but it was good to see him again.

That about takes us up to the present. Myra has made it through her first study period as a full fledged lecturer and earned praise from her students to boot, so she deserves a well earned break - during which she gets to catch up on her research. I see at least a couple of days needing to be had away from it all in the near future. We’re fully into winter here, which is a bit wet, kind of windy, but otherwise a winter I can fully accept. An average low of 8C and high of 16C is alright with us (just past the shortest day of the year now and today was 17C and sunny). We couldn’t be happier with where we’ve ended up. The people have been absolutely fantastic, the landscape stunning, the city very enjoyable, the standard of living the best of anywhere we’ve lived, and a lifestyle that matches ours to a T. The only downside is that it’s a bit far away from everything we knew, but that can be dealt with with a little time and money thrown at it.

We’re looking forward to a string of visitors starting in November and going all the way into next year. We’ll get a car eventually and then we’ll be able to start to explore this place a bit more. We get wide eyes and slack-jawed silence from people when they find out we don’t have a car, so in a way it's kind of like coming home again.