31 October 2014

The final days in Adelaide

Caution: this blog post may or, may not contain slanderous comment for happenings during our stay for the last couple of days in Adelaide.
Blog being types from around 30000 ft en route to Sydney :-)
The last couple of days have been a bit of a whirl wind to be honest. We posted a very quick blog entry when we arrived back at Chez Wood/Martin but managed it appears to omit anything we did that day. To backfill the gaping holes....
Yes, there were wineries involved. Visits were made to Leconfield for a light lunch and girly wine tasting. Then followed d'Arenbrug where more wine was tasted whilst Alan and I took photos of views, farm machinery and a plastic Kangaroo. No snakes or deadly spiders were found. Next winery was Rosemount, who just happened to have cases of wine on offer. The car wasn't full enough, so Miss Wood made the effort to fill what room there was left in the boot.
Still reeling from Mr Martins giant cockup of trying to insist on taking us to Myponga brewery that was closed, we made our way to some other winery. We didnt buy anything there. Apparently they only sold red wine. Ah well.
That night, we made an effort to get the telescope out and tracking again. It worked well, until the cloud rolled in. Another plan gone, but at least I got to see the set up of a GoTo system from scratch.
This brings us to Thursday, and a visit to Ingle Farm. Not so much a place for looking at animals, as looking at mad shoppers. For Ingle Farm is an out of town shopping complex. And, a purchase was made! Much to Alis disgust, and embaressment, it was cheeky shirt purchse time. Although, I did tone it down slightly from the initial plan of lots of colour and palm trees etc, in favour of blue with white flowers. I look very good in it. Then, onto Glenelg, one of the beachside suburbs of Adelaide. And a lovely place it is too. Lots of shops, cafes, resteraunts and such like. Light lunch was consumed, and following a strole around, a visit to a chocolate shop for desert.
Once we'd had our fill, it was more walkies time to try and ease off the days excesses, and wait for our next phonecall. We were expecting a call from Alis old schoolfriend, Mark and his lovely family. 24 years after they last saw each other, Mark has made his new home in Adelaide, and it proved to be a good time to catch up on over two decades of missed gossip. We also got to watch workmen pile driving new stantions into the jetty as repairs were made. I was forced to drink beer. Alan came to meet us from work. I was forced to drink more beer.
Because I was forced to drink more beer, we missed the closing time for the butchers, having a knock on effect on the planned BBQ for that night. We had to eat out. Shame. T-bone steaks were the order of the night. The bad man tried to force me into drinking more beer. This time, i was prepared and I resisted. I managed to get my hand on a nice couple of jugs instead, containing water.
The stars were another no show for our last nigt in Adelaide, and it was time to hit the pillows one last time. We said our goodbyes to Alan. He was due to leave before we even were considering getting out of bed in the morning. We must work on an action plan for him to apply the next time we come and visit, involving better organisation of stargazing weather, and opening times of breweries. :-)
And onto this morning, our final morning in Adelaide. Bags packed, and what else is there to do in 30 + degree morning sunchsine than sit outside and eat and drink. We went to the Watershed overlooking a small lake and ate. We ate a bit more and drank. Brekkie was good this morning. The weather is very warm, and the wind isn't providing its normal cooling effect as its coming from the wrong direction. Its days like today that aircon in vehicles and buidlings is mandatory.
Ali brought us to Adelaide airport and very kindly stuck with us throughout up until we joined the queue for boarding. We've said our goodbyes and bring to a close our visit to Adelaide and our very good friends, Ali and Alan. We've got excellent memories to take back to te UK with us.
Tonight, we book into our hotel at the airport. We need an early night as we need to be up and at the airport by 3.30am local time in the, morning. This is when the fun of jetlag starts. It wasn't so bad coming out, but from our travels to NZ in 2011, I know it comes back to bite you going back home.

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