Daffs' Laffs

Wednesday 7th October: Very interesting guided tour of Moonta (Cornish History of Copper Mining) and Wallaroo (Welsh settlement for Copper Smelting.) Followed by a trip on the Copper Coast as you can see opposite. Close friendships developing yet again with hosts.

Daffs' Laffs

Carly Daff: Tuesday 6th October - This is me visiting Point Pearce an area of Aboriginal land for my vocational visit. Spent the morning observing a social worker and dietitions talking at the Health Centre.

Jacq Daff: I also visited Point Pearce and met the Elder Irene and her sister Anne; spent a very informative hour with both.

Kathryn Daff: I spent an enjoyable day with Paul Thomas, Mayor of the Copper Coast Council and Mary the Director of Corporate Services. Whether it's Wales or South Australia, many of the issues we face are excatly the same.

In the evening the team made another presentation to the Northern Yorke Peninsula Rotary Club who were joined by a coach load of our groupies from the Maitland club. Despite a sound failure - went down very well!

Daffs' Laffs:

Claire Daff:

Tues 6th October - This is Steve and I on our Vocational visit to the famous Clare Valley vineyard to study Year 7 - 13 education system and associated wine tasting!!

The picture proves that you can take Claire out of the Valley but you can't take the wine out of Clare!!

Daffs' Laffs

Claire Daff: Thanks for the comments - brought a tear to my eye, but am so impressed that you have managed to look at the blog and make a comment - WOW! What I'm not impressed about is the home situation with the make up and shoes - there will be an inspection when I return! District Conference was remarkably daunting but felt like a celebrity after when we attempted to grab a coffee and couldn't get further than the shop next door. A fab sense of achievement! O and I did manage to spot a Roxy bag that I fancied from the shop we stopped outside and managed to get back there the next day to make a small purchase!! Am loving every minute of this brilliant opportunity - have met fantastic people and the welcome we have received everywhere has been extremely overwhelming - may the good times continue!!!! Love to all xxx

Jacq Daff: Hello everyone! Thanks for all your comments - glad your enjoying our blog - we are enjoying the experience. Re: the District Conference - how scared was I? but as we all had each other for support we all did a fabulous job. The audience were very supportive and I actually found myself enjoying it - not that I want to do it everyday for a living!! Just want to reiterate what Claire has said about how fantastic the people are that we have met and the wonderful welcome we receive - truly tremendous! This is a trip of a life time. P.S. RIP Len I'll be toasting you later.xxx

Kathryn Daff: Wonderful to see so many comments and to know that people back home are thinking about us and following our exploits. Really enjoying spending time with fabulous people seeing marvellous scenery and drinking superb red wine!!! The District Conference was our biggest opportunity to tell people how wonderful Wales is and encourage them to come and visit us - hopefully not all at once! Got to go there is a glass (or bottle) of wine with my name on it! xxx

Carly Daff: What else is there to say? We are having such an amazing time, we are a great team doing amazing things and in such a fabulous place. District Conference was a nerve wracking experience, but I am so proud that we made it through and what a response we got! I felt like royalty for hours afterwards. Everywhere we go we are the main attraction it seems! Public speaking? No Problem - lol! Enjoying every minute we're representing Wales, Rotary and our individual professions as well as ourselves and hopefully doing everyone proud. Missing you all back home (esp Ed) keep the comments coming and see you all before you know it. Bye for now - white wine is calling! xxx

LeekSpeak Monday 5th October
Started the day with a dawn wild Kangaroo hunt. Slow start till saw one then 4, then 2 jumped into the road in front of the 4x4 requiring emergency avoidance. Those boys can bounce--reminded me of Janet's first chequebook!
Couple more pics from last night's BBQ.
More kudos at the Conference. The RI President's envoyYan-Kee Cheng in his summing up singled out the GSE presentation as "exceptional". Changeover of hosts with usual emotion. Now settling with new hosts from Northern Yorke Peninsula--no travel involved. Usual overwhelming welcome.

LeekSpeak Sunday 4th October
I am SOOOOOO PROUD of my team!! The District Conference presentation was sensational. The girls walked up to the rostrum one after the other and absolutely knocked the large audience out with slick down-to-earth presentation, humour, and oozing personality. Constant interruption for laughter or applause, and a huge ovation at the end. The technical stuff all worked fine as well and the pics and music brought a lump to the throat. Loads of people came up through the rest of the day with sincere superlatives about both vibrancy of presentation and interesting content--" You guys should be on permanent tour to promote Wales!" All the preparation worthwhile--but especally well done the girls!! On a high for the rest of the day and excellent BBQ and live band in the evening. Ratarse restriction withdrawn. We were last to leave!! Leave it to the girls to express their own emotions.

LeekSpeak,

Saturday 3rd October

The day of the tractor and the grape. Fantastic educational visit to a large farm with all the processes explained. GPS has now taken over both planting (works out right balance of seed and fertiliser per sq. m) and harvesting (controls the harvester position andc line). Apparently even women can do it now as there is no reversing or emergency stops. Then much awaited vineyard visit (Barley Bush), tasting and greatv lunch with hosts. Then to see the cropspraying plane and talk to the (suicidal?) pilot. The evening is the Conference dinner/dance. Very enjoyable. Most impressed with the pledging of 12, 000 dollars for tsunami relief around the tables. Carly won the miner's lamp raffle then Jacqui walked away with the raffle first prize--an enormous hamper. Visual inspection of the girls at end of evening confirmed reasonable adherence to my instruction--dont get ratarsed, its the big presentation tomorrow!