Moose on the Move!

For Chris' birthday last year we went to Wales. This year we decided to kill two birds with one stone; go somewhere nice for his birthday and visit our friends Mark and Sharon in Spain.

We spent three great days there. This was the first trip to Spain for either of us and we had a great time. We flew down on Friday night (3rd November) and were met at the airport by Mark and Sharon in their new car. They live about an hour north of Alicante (direct flight from Exeter).

The next day - Saturday - we headed a little further north to Valencia (think oranges) to explore the city a little. Despite stunning weather in the previous weeks the last couple of days in Spain had been rainy and we discovered that the rain in Spain falls heavily in the city and not, in fact, on the plain - although it might have been raining there too... So consistent was the downpour in fact that we were forced to cease sight-seeing activities for a time and hunt down an open shop selling umbrellas.

Valencia (Val-en-thi-ah) was a lovely city, we visited the old town and saw lots of tiles, we walked past the bullring and viewed the Arts and Science centres by night. These are a series of amazing new buildings. I have often associated Spain with interesting architecture and this row of buildings did not disappoint.
Very modern in their design and quite nautical they sit amid shallow pools of water. I'm sure on a clear blue-sky day the white looks stunning, as it was we visited on a cloudy night and they were equally impressive. The surrounding water creates the most wonderful reflections. Evidently this it the place to have your wedding photos taken in Valencia - we saw no less than nine separate couples there in the short time we were watched.

The next day we stayed closer to Javea where our friends live (It's pronounced Hav-ee-ah). It's a nice little coastal town with a pretty old-town area, a harbour area and the newer part where our friends live. Mark and Sharon suggested that we could start the day by climbing a nearby 'hill' know as Montgo. It's huge and would have been great to climb but the rain had made things a bit slippery so we walked to the base and watched the clouds scrape over the top of it and promised to come back and climb it when the sun was shining.

Instead we went to walk out to the Javea lighthouse. Then we went to have a look at the old town where we drove down some incredibly narrow streets and ended up in a pedestrian area by the church before getting ourselves locked in an underground carpark! Who knew there could be so much excitement in a little Spanish town? That night we went out to dinner with some of Sharon and Mark's new friends - after seeing how much alcohol was consumed before some of them jumped in their cars to drive home I have this advice for you should you visit Spain - walk on the shop side of the pavement.

Chris' birthday, Monday 6th, we stopped in Albir on our way back to Alicante and walked out to the lighthouse there. It was a gentle walk with some amazing views back over the town, bay and hills. I think Chris and I were both surprised at how barren this area of Spain is - the hills are sparsely covered and quite rocky. I'm not sure exactly what we had expected but it sure makes for dramatic landscape! We really enjoyed our visit and would like to go back sometime - perhaps in summer when the sun is shining. Luckily for us Mark and Sharon seem happy there and set to stay for a while.

The day after we got back into Exeter I started at Ladysmith Junior School, again. This was the same school I taught at for two weeks in September and I was back in the same Yr 5 class for another 6 weeks while the teacher was off. Scary and exciting at the same time? Definitely! I almost didn't make it though - our late night flight into Exeter was delayed leaving Alicante and was almost diverted to Manchester because of heavy fog. If this had happened we'd have been put on a bus for the five hour journey back to Devon - eeep!

A week and a half later, I went with Ben and Dayna on the annual pilgrimage into the city to see the Christmas lights get turned on. In a clever move this year they gathered the waiting hoards in the the right area - last year we all waited in the cold by the Cathedral while they switched the lights on in the High Street! It was nice to see so many smiling people out in the city - there was a fireworks display off the Debenhams building and long-legged fairies on hand to grant wishes to passers-by.


We'd had some lovely clear weather recently so Chris and I made the daring decision to get up before first light to go out to Dartmoor and take photographs of the sunrise. Luckily in winter the sun gets up quite late so we didn't have to get up too too early. It was a cold, drizzly morning - harumph! However, we did get to see some ponies feeding by the tor, they didn't hang around for us to get very close though. To our delight as the sun came up a little higher and the drizzle passed away we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow coming down over Bell Tor. I guess we know where the pot o' gold is hidden now.


Towards the end of the month we got a lot of rain in Devon and the River Exe rose quite high. It was up over the footpath in many places and the weirs were rushing. The medieval bridge at the bottom of Fore street usually spans a grassy ditch but the saturated ground meant that for a few days there was actually water below the arches. The lights at night made for a stunning picture and Chris and I took several shots. We love this city!

The last morning of the month began with a most amazing sunrise over the Cathedral in the city. The colours were bold and stunning and I just had time on my way to school to stop and grab a couple of shots. It really lifted my spirits to see it. Sometimes I'm really pleased that I always carry the small camera in my bag!!

Well...I guess it is about time I let Elke have a break and have a go at writing one of these posts myself. I tend to be a little more concise than Elke, so you can expect this to be a shorter (yet still amazingly interesting) entry ;)

With the beginning of September came the beginning of the UK school year. Elke was given a 2 week placement in a Year 5 class where the teacher was going to be off on sick leave. So for the first time in her life, she was going to be responsible for setting up a primary school classroom. She'd started lots of high school classes but it is very different in a primary school class.

Needless to say she was a little nervous the first day. As it turned out the class arrived in the classroom before her, when she walked into the room they were all talking and fussing to find their desks. Unsure what to say and feeling a little scared she just stood at the front of the room, and waited. Slowly the room settled, they found their seats, put their bags down and sat looking at her in silence. She said she just thought, "It's going to be alright".

For me, September was a little different. My focus was really two things; work and finals football. There is not really too much to mention about work. It is still going quite well and I still enjoy what I do. There is plenty more to be said about the football however!

In the Australian Football League (AFL...or just footy), September means finals time. The West Coast Eagles are the team I follow and for the second year in a row...we made it to the finals. There were some tense footy moments such as a 1 point loss to the Sydney Swans (who beat us in the Grand Final last year by 4 points), but this was made easier by the fact we had some mates down from London on this particular weekend. I was able to take my mind off the devastating loss by enjoying the company of Jess, Smithy and Sharon who had come to Exeter to escape the big smoke for a bit.

We had a really nice weekend actually. The weather was not too bad and we were able to take off to double locks (nice pic of the pub on this site) for a nice afternoon lunch. This is a fantastic pub! It is a little way away from our place, but it is a lovely walk down there as well. We walked down past the blackberry bushes and got to snack before lunch. The walk is pretty much all beside a lovely little canal where people canoe to and from the pub. They also do very nice food there and have a great selection of beers as well.

Not content with simply having quite a nice pub lunch, we decided to also have a nice dinner out. It was close to Smithy's birthday at this point and we decided it would be a good idea to go to our favourite Indian restaurant, The Ganges. This place is literally a two minute gentle stroll from our place, and the food there is AMAZING. However, there is also usually quite a lot of it. That is no big deal though as Smithy has hollow legs, an overactive thyroid gland and an appetite like no other I have ever seen.

On Sunday, Jess left us early on her way back to London, and we were discussing with Smithy and Sharon what we should do to take our mind off the previous day's horrible loss (even though I was the only distraught one)...as well as how to pass time. We discovered, that even though these guys had been in England for quite some time, they hadn't actually yet seen Stonehenge. Well, that was settled then. Stonehenge is pretty much a quarter of the way from Exeter to London, and with the weather being quite nice, we decided to take a road trip.

It was a great idea, as Smithy and Sharon had always wanted to see it but had just never got around to it. They were moving to Spain the following week, and therefore this was a fantastic opportunity to see a great English landmark before they left.

Not only did we get to see Stonehenge, but we also checked out the much older (although nowhere near as spectacular) Woodhenge, which was having an archaeological dig undertaken whilst we were there. Apparently, they had found flint pits dating back some 5000 years. Holy cow huh?

Well, we were on a roll! We drove across the Sailsbury plains with all it's military tank tracks and crossings to go and find ourselves a white horse as Smithy and Sharon hadn't seen one of those either. We managed to find one not too far away. He was a little fella, but nice all the same.

After some photos, it was off to the beautiful town of Sailsbury to check out the Cathedral (which was closed by the time we got there) and to have dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant (so Smithy didn't die of hunger). I finished my weekend with a lovely meal of Chicken and Chips reminiscent of Chicken Treat (one of my favourite fast food restaurants in WA for those who don't know). Ahhh, the simple things in life heh? We drove to the train station where Smithy and Sharon met the train that they would have caught from Exeter anyways, and we drove home. It was a great weekend...and a fantastic way to forget about the footy.

We also had some great footy moments over the next couple of weeks. We managed to defeat the Western Bulldogs comfortably, and we had a close tussle with the Adelaide crows. However, this did mean that we made it into the Grand Final this year against the Sydney Swans once again. Now we had to work out where on earth we were going to get to see this match. I could listen to it on the radio (via the internet), but it is just never the same. After several calls to the local Australian bar from both myself and another Aussie contractor from Perth who I work with, we finally heard the fantastic news that he would indeed open up at about 5:30am for us to watch the game.

We were told he would only be opening up for us to watch and that he wouldn't be serving. That was fine with us....we just wanted to watch the game. It was a mixture of people there at that time of the morning. Management, cleaners and a mad assortment of Aussies (roughly half Swans/half Eagles supporters). The guy who let us in actually gave us a couple of 6 am beers as well as some Bacon baps to help us enjoy the game. How mad is that.

It was an amazingly exciting game. The Eagles led comfortably right throughout the first half. The Swans were sloppy and the Eagles were exciting. This is just what I wanted. I was sick of all these close games...I am sure I was developing a stomach ulcer. Then something must have happened at half time cause the Swans came out fighting and for a while, the Eagles were quite shell shocked. They made a lot of ground in the 3rd quarter and the 4th was shaping up to be another close one...much to the disgust of my stomach ulcer.

The last quarter was a ripper. It was goal for goal and towards the end, the score see-sawed between 7 points the difference and 1 point the difference (always the Eagles in front). The atmosphere in the pub was very thick and very tense. We had some amazingly heroic performances from the Eagles players and I think every one of them can hold their heads high.

Late in the game and with the ball deep in the Swans attacking 50 metre zone, the ball was thrown in from the boundary when the siren sounded...with the Eagles one point up. We were...once again.....at last....premiers!!! Whooooo Hoooo. I threw my hands up and almost knocked a light off the wall. It was a fantastic feeling for the Eagles to win a grand final. We chatted with some of the other Aussies in the pub, gave our commiserations to the Swans supporters and cheered with the Aussies and then went and had a coffee and called everyone back in Oz to celebrate. It was an AWESOME end to a FANTASTIC season. For all those who want to read more about the amazing victory, you can do so here.
Here is a brief breakdown of the score for those who are interested, and I am sure you all are :) I know I am still interested!!!

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Sydney Swans	1.4	4.6	8.11	12.12	(84)
West Coast Eagles	4.2	8.7	10.10	12.13	(85)

October passed reasonably quietly, we heard from various friends at home that they are expecting babies, there will be so many new people at home when we finally get back there that it will be hard to keep track of who is who!

We helped a mate who had recently moved into a new house with cleaning and preparing the ceilings for re-plastering. It was nice to help out a friend, although we weren't to keen on the smell that attached itself to our hands once we'd finished pulling up all the old carpet squares. Jim had also roped his parents and another friend into the 'busy-bee'.

We visited Dartmoor and walked around Hound Tor. We did the same walk that Elke and Sandi did last month, it really is lovely every time we go out there. We saw sheep and the wonderful rock formations.

We carved our Halloween pumpkin again this year - Dayna came over and we gave it two faces (on opposite sides) this time - so when it was sat in the kitchen window we could make it either smile or wink at passers-by. It finally collapsed onto the kitchen bench about a week later, luckily the candle was already out so we didn't end up with wax all over the bench.

Elke has been doing lots of supply teaching in schools here in Exeter and is basically enjoying it still. My work is keeping me busy and providing me with challenges all the time.