30 years old, I’ve made it to the grand old age of 30.  Thank you to everyone for your Birthday wishes, I had a great day here in Adelaide, it was a bit different to previous birthdays I’ve had.

It started with opening the great presents that Helen had bought me (ferrero rochers, a San Churros mug and an ipod shuffle!!), then we went round the corner for  a pancake breakfast (is there any other way to start a birthday?).  We then rented a car from town and drove out of the city, first stop was Maslin nudist beach!

I’ve never been to a nudist beach and it was a nice day so thought there is no better time to get a tanned bottom and put on my birthday suit since it was a special occasion. The beach itself was the usual Aussie beach – quiet, crystal blue sea, lovely sand for miles.  We spent an hour or so at the beach, enough to get a bit crisp, and perhaps naively started thinking that it was a shame it’s illegal and so frowned upon to get your kit off at the beach. Unfortunately it was also long enough to see the seedier side of nudist places… there was a tent no more than 150 metres from where we were sitting, where our fellow nudists were in the act of dogging – the couple were ‘getting jiggy’ in the tent with the door open, a random bloke then walked past, paused, then also jumped in said tent, after 10 minutes or so they all piled out and went for a swim.  Well Helen says they were dogging, I like to think the husband had accidentally fell on his wife and the nice man was just helping him up.

So, after that morning excitement we headed up to Mount Lofty which sits on the Adelaide hills and overlooks the city.  We took a picnic with us and decided to do the 8km ‘Waterfall Gully Hike’.  This was hard going, 4km down then 4 km back up again, it took us about 3 hours and was very steep, but we survived and got some great photos.

It was quite late by the time we got back so we quickly freshened up and headed out for a curry, which was nice but not up to our English curry standards, it’s the spice, Aussies can’t handle the spice.  Then finally we had a quick go at the casino, a very quick go at the casino, birthdays are not always so lucky.

Other than my birthday there isn’t much to report, the weather here is getting hotter, usually around 25 degrees but reaching 38 for a couple of days.  I’ve finished that painting job now and Helen is putting shifts in at the restaurant (but not as many as we had hoped).  I’ve been struck down the past few days with (the dreaded) man flu, I think I’m now over the worst of it, but it was touch and go at one point.  Also we have booked our flight to Melbourne! We leave here on 3rd December, just in time for summer, we’ll spend a few days there but are looking at going overseas for Christmas and New Year.

Birthday breakfast

Rental car (and the lovely Helen)

Naughty beach

Nudist beach

Nudist

Water gully

Critter

Adelaide from Lofty

Curry – yum yum