Adelaide 10 – 14 March 2007

Adelaide is very much alive in March. One of the comedians said it was a great joke to tell visitors who have arrived in April about how much fun they’ve just missed. In reverse we can’t imagine how quiet it might be for the other 11 months! Another big event on during the Fringe is Womadelaide, an enormous world music festival held in the botanical gardens over three days. There were five stages, so there was continuos music all day. As well as singers and dancers from around the world, we saw Australian groups including The Waifs, Deborah Conway, Emma Donovan and the Backsliders. The day was very hot and we cooled down under the water jets set up for the public. The grounds were very dry and the dust kicked up by thousands of people was so reminiscent of sheep in a paddock. As it is 50% shade everyone squeezed into the shade just like sheep in the paddocks following the shade pattern of the trees. About 50,000 people attended!
Sunday was dinner out at Liz and Wayne’s. Liz’s boys are lovely young teenagers now! It was wonderful to see her in such a lovely leafy suburb so close to the city. The meal was superb and it was fun being in a HOUSE!
Monday, a public holiday included a visit to the SA Museum. It is a very comprehensive museum of early colonial history with the most extensive Aboriginal artefact displays we have seen. It all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle as we travel!
In the evening we went out with Liz and son Max to a theatre sports comedy show that proved to be very creative and gave us some good laughs. There seems to lots of comedy on during the festival and is easy to find. .
On Tuesday we headed to the beach at Glenelg via Unley. We trailed the shops and points of interest. Glenelg has a feel of St Kilda (less waves and only one tram) with a large number of nine story apartments lining the beach, a new modern marina with a lock and lots of upmarket restaurants with masses of petunias making for a Mediterranean feel. We picnicked, walked the beach until sunset and drove home via the city in 20 minutes! That is the beauty of Adelaide! Everything is so easy to get around. It’s a very straight forward grid so when you plan a route it is basically a straight line! No rivers (other than the creek called the Torrens RIVER!), no hills, no harbour, no bridges to slow you up. It is a pretty place but maybe it is too easy!

The next day we had the final work done on the electrical system – it has been a long haul to sort it out, as there have been a number of small problems to fix, however we are now confident that everything is OK. If it’s not we will not mention it again!
Liz came for a coffee when she finished work for a girly chat, while Peter tidied up after the auto electrician! Win - win for everyone!
The weather has moved onto hot, so we had a swim and then went out to see Rod Quintock - finish of a great day.
Another hot day with a bit of shopping and browse around the local area to fill it out. Swimming in the pool was a highlight as Thursday added humidity to heat! Left over bits from WA’s Cyclone Ivan apparently! Thought it rained when drops fell from the sky but we doubt if it reached 1mm!