Adelaide

Monday - after a very long 14 hour flight and six hour layover in Sydney, Ron and I were very dirty and tired. We slept in our clothes on the flight over from San Francisco and were beginning to feel very nasty, but very glad to be on vacation. The rest of the group from Topcon met us at the Sydney airport and we all flew over to Adelaide together. Those guys came from all over the world and I enjoyed meeting them and hearing about where they came from. That was a nice and short hour and a half flight. Once we arrived at the Hyatt in Adelaide, I took a long and needed shower and collapsed on the clean sheets and laid horizontal and fell into a deep sleep, so I missed dinner. Evidently what I missed was mushroom soup, camel, wallaby and kangaroo. None of the North Americans in the group gave it a thumbs up. I thought it would be complicated to get on my new time zone, but sleeping at night and rising when the sun came up came very naturally.

Tuesday - I woke up around 6:00 a.m. (something I don't do in the states) and couldn’t go back to sleep and to much surprise, Good Morning America was on the news. For breakfast, I had lox and bagels with sour cream and capers, real yogurt (the thick and creamy kind) with delicious berries and grapefruit juice. The coffee may have been the best I have ever tasted. Either that or I was really needing coffee. Ron didn’t care for it, but I had two cups, which is something else I normally don't do back at home. Cassie, the assistant for one of Ron’s bosses planned a shopping trip for all the Topcon wives. We chartered a bus and spent an hour or so shopping in an older part of Adelaide, took a quick trip to Haigh’s Chocolates and had a filling lunch. This is when I discovered that Australian’s take late lunches - 2:00 in the afternoon. I had a huge portion of Pasta with sausages and ate about a third of it with a nice Tempranillo. I really enjoyed getting to sit around and visit with the other wives from around the world. Liz Haarberg whom I had already met last summer, and I were the only North American wives on the trip, so we had a good time visiting with the other ladies. The rest of the day’s plan was diverted into something that was very fun. The plan was to do more shopping. Liz and I were more interested in taking in the beautiful scenery and taking advantage of our driver who knew the area, so we loaded up on the bus while Cassie went next door to the to bottle shop (liquor store) and brought everyone back a beer as we drove up to a lookout point that overlooked the City. Liz and I were shocked that we could drink a beer in a moving vehicle. We still think it was illegal according to what some other locals told us, but we weren’t driving and the scenery from the lookout point was beautiful and very cool and windy. Tuesday night, the North American Group (Rod and Liz Haarberg from Nashville, Carol from the Denver area, Jason from Des Moines, Tom from Arkansas, Ron & I) walked to a Tai Restaurant in China Town. We each ordered an entre (what we in states call an appetizer) and a main (what we in the states call an entre) and ate it family style. The food was wonderful and the service was beyond what I’ve come to expect back at home. I opted out of alcohol and desert that night, and had still water. The plan for next day was to take the train with the other Topcon wives to Glenelg Beach. Liz & I felt a little dehydrated and stiff from our flight over, so we thought after a hard day at the beach, we could finish our day with a facial and massage, so we booked a spa afternoon for the next day at the spa next door to the hotel.

Wednesday - Woke up with an upset stomach, so I skipped the group tour to the beach. I knew I would get to see some beautiful beach at either Bondi or Manly later in the week when we went back to Sydney. However I refused to let the upset stomach ruin my facial and massage, so I hung around the area Wednesday morning to rest up for my busy afternoon at the spa. I spent the morning walking around the Torrence River. It was nice to have so much access to pedestrian trails, even along the main highways. It was a beautiful day; not too hot, not too cold. All I knew was it was 22 degrees celsius. I had no idea what that meant in ferenheight, but if I had to guess, it was a perfect 72F. At 4:00, I headed to the spa for my facial and massage. It was a little different than massages at home. The lights were all the way on. The masseur wanted to talk a lot. I am guessing the music was an aboriginal tribal CD, but any massage is great. That same morning, while I was watching the news, the Prime Minister declared Australia to officially be in an economic recession. Liz and I definitely stimulated some cash back into the economy in the two hours we were at the spa, so maybe we helped them out. We were shocked at the damage we did, but we convinced ourselves that the conversion would sound much better in U.S. dollars. For dinner, Topcon treated everyone who was there for the sales meetings to a steak dinner at The Strathmore Hotel. If you ordered steak, it arrived on a fired stone on your plate with a raw slab of meat. You cooked it to your liking. Ron ordered it and said he liked it. I had the white fish on a bed of polenta (which I’m guessing is “grits” back home) and all of that sat on a cream sauce. We all had crème brule for dessert and the serving was enough for 3 people. Again, I opted for still water even though the Shiraz smelled wonderful. At this dinner, I met Rhet and Stacy who are originally from the U.S. now but live in Australia. It was interesting to hear Stacy talk about the Australian school year and how her kids adapted to it quickly. They go to school year around. A child begins kindergarten on his or her fifth birthday, rather than waiting until the next term begins.

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