Bush Mechanics

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DAY 144

The morning was wonderfully warm, and its was again a pleasure to be getting out of bed, the morning sun shone through the mozzy nets, which haven’t been open for so long as the weather in Tasmania and later on Kangaroo island had been cold, Adelaide in Autumn is just beautiful.

Do we feel like we are on holiday, or do we feel like we are on holiday? Yes, that holiday spirit is back with the warm weather and of course getting out of bed is easier. It is hard not to feel the holiday atmosphere at the Big4, Adelaide Shores, West Beach, although quiet here before the Easter rush, we are soaking up this lovely laid back atmosphere. The days are not too hot (at this time of year) and there is no humidity here like there is on the Sunshine Coast.

The ducks come and pay us a visit, hoping for some food from us, they sit with us for a while. We watch the other birds taking in water from sprinklers that had been in use and now switched off and were therefore still dribbling a little bit with water. They would then just sit on the grass and fluff their feathers out for a few minutes before flying off for their next adventure.

We did all the morning stuff as per usual so we try not to bore you with all that, and today our plans were to catch the bus in to Adelaide to have a look around. We were excited as Adelaide may be a place to make our new home.

Cliff and Sue were already off in to town and we bid them a fun day and we would catch them later, we had (I had) offered to cook dinner for them tonight as we had tempted them with a hot chilli.

When we finally made it to the bus stop Cliff and Sue where still sitting there and when the bus arrived we all jumped on.

The bus took us around to HarbourTown, which is the outlet shopping centre, and then onto Adelaide Airport. This airport is fairly new and we could see the old one being demolished near by, however the bus driver tells us that when this airport was built, the airlines refused to use it because they said the underground tanks were contaminated and therefore not conducive to safe flying. This was eventually sorted and now the airport is fully used.

Forty minutes later Caroline and myself got off in Adelaide town centre but Cliff and Sue stayed on to ride the O-Bahn, a circuit where the bus engages in to an automatic mode the driver takes his hands off the wheel (Look no hands!) and the bus follows a predestined circuit on a track, all the driver has to do is alter the speed accordingly.

We jumped off; we were all alone in this strange city, just us two from the other side of the world. The first thing I liked was the vibe of the city, that’s why I just didn’t gel with Melbourne, there was no vibe, Adelaide seemed calm, the city centre seemed bright, airy and quiet. The fist store to catch my eye Was FCUK (French Connection) I used to electrically project manage FCUK and had fitted out stores across the UK and Europe, It made me smile to myself, they were a good client and we had had a lot of fun.

The sunshine makes all the difference if it was peeing down with rain we may feel somewhat different. We are both feeling a good vibe from this city and we both feel relaxed and comfortable wandering around it.

I love pigs, in fact we both love all animals, on Vancouver Island in Canada they had a bronze statue of a huge bore that if you rubbed his nose it would bring you good luck, we are still waiting. They had bronze pigs in the centre of Adelaide, and one of them was standing on its back trotters with its front ones on the bin top, with its snout just inside the rim, it was fantastic. We stand and watch a busker, he tells the crowd this is how he makes his living and tries to make us feel sorry for him, it is not a big crowd, but he is quite good and quite funny, he continually tries to attract the attention of passers by and often embarrasses them into stopping and watching (or they run away quite quickly), I put a couple of dollars in at the end of his act, but I do notice people thrusting some paper money which could range from $5 upwards.

We mooched about for a few hours had a look at parliament house and the war memorial. At the war memorial Caroline sees a name that grabs here interest, C Hocking was a soldier in the 49th Battalion. Hocking is Caroline’s maiden name and not very common, so seeing it engraved in a war memorial sparked some interest. Caroline’s brother Steven has done the family tree maybe there is some connection to the family.

We grabbed some lunch then went and got the groceries for dinner tonight. We rode the bus back to West Beach, Adelaide Shores, and decided to have a swim. However, much to our disgust a load of school kids (Bah Humbug) had just made their way to the pool and were shrieking and doing what noisy kids do, there was no way we could get in the now packed swimming pool, so we lay on the grass grumbling to each other that we had paid nearly $40.00 bucks a night and we couldn’t get in the pool. Caroline marched over to one of the teachers and asked when they would be finished, “They will all be out in 10 minutes, then we are off to the beach”, we waited impatiently the sun was hot and we wanted to be in the water.

As soon as the little darlings were out we were in, the water was gorgeous, I was bored after ten minutes and packed up and walked back to the truck I wanted a cup of tea and look at employment agencies. Caroline eventually came back and we just sat in the sunshine drinking tea.

Cliff and Sue came back about an hour after us, so Caroline and Sue went to the beach, whilst Cliff and myself just sat and out and put the world to rights again, we have done plenty of that in the last few days.

I enjoyed my trip to the beach with Sue, she is far braver in cold water than I, however the first toe dip in the water was cold, so I just gradually paddled in deeper, Sue of course just walked out and plunged in. It took me a while but once my legs were acclimatised I knew that the water would be fine, so in I went. Chatting to Sue about life in general, shoes and shopping whilst bobbing around on the large waves that were crashing towards the shore. Every now and again the force of the waves would send me back onto the beach.

That was great fun, the water is definitely warmer than Kangaroo Island so I was much more comfortable bobbing about in the waves here. We thought we should head back, so raced back onto the beach grabbed our towels and walked back onto the caravan park. This really put me in the holiday mood and I would love to stay here for a little longer to soak up this lovely atmosphere.

Dinnertime was fast approaching and Andy had to do the dinner, Chilli was off and curry was on. It was chicken Madras with cashews, potatoes, onions and chillies, with Basmati rice, poppadoms and naan breads. I quickly showered so that I could write the blog while Andy cooked dinner. However I was easily distracted when Cliff and Sue turned up with a bottle of wine to join us for dinner, so I did not manage to finish the blog as we were having fun. Sorry folks I will get my priorities right next time.

During dinner, this was to be our last night together for a while; perhaps until at least we all arrive in Perth, unless we catch up on the Nullarbor, Cliff and Sue presented Andy with a gift.

They had been to the ABC shop today and had bought Andy a DVD called “Bush Mechanics” which is about Aboriginals in the outback driving old cars that have been repaired with ropes, sticks, stones and perhaps whatever else naturally that they can get their hands on. Andy will report back on that when we have watched it, we are both looking forward to a night when we can sit and watch on our laptop.

Time escaped us we ate the dessert that Cliff and Sue had contributed to dinner and before we knew it, it was well past 10.00 and therefore our bedtimes, Cliff and Sue went and then Andy spoke to his sister on Skype and then we went to bed.

Leaving the inner shutters open for some fresh air as the nights are warmer at the moment, this will of course change as the winter sets in, the days may still be hot but the nights will definitely be cold.

Until tomorrow.

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Photos

Bronze Pig
This little piggy went to market

Searching for Scraps
This little piggy may be lucky and get some roast beef.

Waiting
and this little piggy had none.

Fish Bones
Not just any fish bones but seem to be part of an art display in one of Adelaides parks.

Flip Flop or Thong
Another artefact.

Busy Streets
No pressure, no horns beeping or fists waving.

Bigger Picture
The park with the unusual artefacts.