November 2022

Two trips to South Australia for Paulie (one work, one play), Stephen and Olivia join her for the play trip (with Stephen fitting in work as well), a work conference for Stephen in Melbourne and a quick trip to Canberra. The Oxford lads are back in the flow in England, Olivia did her thing in Adelaide and Nick spent the month in a less comfortable setting. The South Australian play trip videos show fun cycling though the Barossa, BBQing in the rain, and walking with pals David and Jane up Mt Lofty.

1 1st- Stephen heads to St Lucia Athertons to do the garden	2 Time to finish left over champagne from their stay at St Lucia	3 Meanwhile in The Barossa Valley, South Australia	4 2nd- Tanunda in the Barossawith work colleague Benoni
5 Near Krondorf	6 .	7 6th - Paulie & Stephen out for a walk and Tasmanian pal Donald McAlister gives Stpohen a call	8 and later dinner
9 7th - time to pedal to the city	10 and back again	11 8th- Paulie's nephew Toni, Kirsten and kids as well as sister Jan and Jim are in NZ for a while. So a picnic in the mountains is in order	12 9th - Rosie gets the feeling the guys are going somewhere too. And given Paulie only got back from work in Adelaide only a few days ago ....
13 10th ... back to the Barossa we go! A few nights in Angaston	14 8pm dinner.	15 11th - Morning tea	16 some work Zoom calls
17 Then it's time to explore the vineyards of the Barossa	18 .	19 Ito Nurioopta	20 The hills near Bethany
21 .	22 .	23 And we stop at Seabrook Wines	24 Where energy levels are topped up with wine tasting and some food
25 And they're good to go.	26 Another pit stop. This time Artisans of Barossa who represent small independent producers	27 Then it's off again	28 After 7 hours and 30 kms of wine tasting, a short walk from our cottage to the local Thai
29 12th - A bit wet so they drive to the Barossa Markets	30 Fortunately it's under cover.	31 Stephen selects ingredients to make a BBQ lunch	32 Back at the cottage it storms. Really storms. But it's also under cover. See video link above to experience Storm Cooking
33 After lunch it's off to the Rockford vineyard. Home of Basket Press shiraz	34 And it's wet	35 Very wet! The various tasting rooms start to flood	36 But we survive
37 And in the evening head to Harvest Kitchen near Vine Vale	38 13th - Back in Adelaide the guys specnd a night with pals David & Jane. But first a walk up Mt Lofty.	39 .	40 .
41 .	42 We spot this chap. See link to video in intro text at top of page.	43 Just so happens the guys had a Basket Press Shiraz that needed to be opened.	44 Very Nice
45 14th - the guys moved to a North Adelaide apartment but before they did, a tasting at the Wine Institute was required	46 15th - time for Stephen to attend a conference whilst the gals went to Henley Beach	47 welcome to country	48 .
49 .	50 .	51 16th - more conferencing	52 Paulie visits the collection at David Roache's house (now a gallery). A short walk from the apartment
53 Somewhat overstated for Paulie and Stephen's taste.	54 .	55 Also a short walk, and more to her taste, Paulie chats to the horses.	56 And puts her feet up for a read
57 After a few days of conferencing, Stephen joins Tony Maguire who spotted & purchased a dream guitar. Paulie is alerted and gets a few nibbles back at the aprtment	58 In exchange for a red Stephen purchased wihilst at the Barossa, Pals David and Jane gave him a wine that they literally took off the street as someone was emptying their cellar!	59 Next to the apartment was a wine store. And given there was no cork screw in the apartment, they were happy to open the 21 year old shiraz (for a taste)	60 Tony and Stephen were delighted to knock the rest off (Paulie had a rosé) before dinner at the next door pub.
61 17th - Stephen worked from the apartment whilst Paulie walked through the close by parks and walking tracks	62 .	63 Then after work Olivia joined them in the East End	64 .
65 18th - Olivia fed the guys an early dinner back at her Prospect pad	66 And the guys then jumped on an evening flight home to Brisbane.	67 21st - Stephen arrives at his hotel on St Kilda Rd; Melbourne	68 It's across the road from the gardens so on the morning of teh 22nd it's a quick jog
69 Stephen then heads to the D2L conference at the Hyatt. This cleaver mobile photo booth does clever things	70 .. Like putting horns on Jo Elliott from Deakin Uni	71 Back home Paulie does chores	72 .
73 Conference dinner with the team from NZ's Te Kura school	74 23rd- the last day of the conference starts with a wee geriatric jog again.	75 The D2L team pack up	76 .
77 But Stephen went for drinks and then dinner with two of the presenters he invited to speak- Paris and Mars Buttfield-Addison. A day of meetings the next day with D2L's CEO.	78 29th - Stephen heads to Canberra for lunch with the DVC-A at Canberra Uni, and evening drinks at his third event at Parliament House in 2022	79 Hotels were booked out so this "tiny house" did the trick. Like a tall caravan.