Adelaide

My first entry for 2011 and it started on a bright note. We
set off from Victor Harbour and headed towards Adelaide under the
careful guidance of Our Lady of the GPS. She was doing very well
until she kept trying to direct us onto the South freeway but we
kept seeing signs warning that the entry ramps were closed between
certain times of the day and weekend. Shannon later informed us
that the freeway was designed to operate in one direction only
during peak times and then bizarrely changes to the other direction
after lunch! However, our limited experience of SA drivers would
suggest that being so polite and law abiding, this would not seem
so strange, Sydney drivers on the other hand would just drive
through the barriers! The thing we have come to really like about
SA and more particularly Adelaide, is that everything within the
city is 20mins away and the weekend escapes such as Victor Harbour,
McClaren Vale, The Barossa and Clare are no more than 1.5 hrs
outside of the city with no traffic! No wonder they are such a calm
mob. However, Chris does remind me that SA has a higher rate of
violent and bizarre murders (Truro and Snowtown to name a few
examples) than any other state in Australia. Shannon is now working
with some of these murderers in her new job in forensic nursing.
But I digress… We called through Klemzig (about 15mins from the
city) to collect the keys to Mark’s apartment and to see Aidan at
their lovely new home. Aidan has settled into his new civilian life
quite well, in fact, he has become quite the domestic goddess
telling us about his attempts to recreate recipes by Jamie and
Nigella; quite a contrast to the messy teenager or the gun toting
soldier and veteran of two tours of duty overseas that I remember!
We then made our way back into Adelaide and after following Mark’s
detailed instructions (not counting the additional two laps of the
area we did) we finally found the swish apartment in the heart of
the city. We spent the afternoon washing and lazing about until we
headed out to the airport ( 20mins away and both terminals on the
one site with parking at only $4 an hour) to collect Liam. We
returned to Klemzig (20 mins away) for a lovely dinner and catch up
with Aidan and Shannon and returned to the apartment to crash. Mass
at the Cathedral where Mary Mackillop was excommunicated ( another
day to claim on the tax) shopping in Rundle Mall, a tram trip to
Glenelg and dinner at the pub await us tomorrow. Good
times.