Thursday, October 23

[Southern capital]

I thought I’d do a bit of a slapdash day by day account of my most recent Adelaide visit.

First was Wednesday’s road trip component, all 700km of it. Rural Australia flew by as we traversed the Western Highway with junk food and super CDs. Thus the week of madness was launched, beginning with a fun evening at Sonia’s. Unfortunately I had to sleep on a swag, which upset my vertebral alignment.

Sonia, doyen of everything, was involved in the launch of breast cancer awareness week (and had adroitly decorated a bra with beautiful beads and so on), so I went along to that on Thursday. It was like two birds with one stone: supporting a cause and grasping the opportunity to sip champagne (and eat Haigh’s chocolate hearts) in a mildly la-di-daa environment. Afterwards I dragged her and mum to a basement vegetarian café for an extremely healthy lunch. That afternoon I hit the suburbs to see mum and dad’s new house and spend quality family time™ with them, which was genuinely lovely. I’m so glad they live in Adelaide now.

On Friday I visited two sets of aunties and uncles and also squeezed in lunch with Filthy Ange, not to mention a near-legendary baking session with Pippa and Josh. That night I met up with a whole bunch of friends at the Bombay Bicycle Club. I’d picked this venue for two selfish reasons, the first being that I thought it would be the sort of chilled out place that we would go to by choice, and the second that it was about a minute’s walk from where I was staying. Only the second motivation proved valid, as it is little more than an Indian theme pub which draws a slightly creepy crowd (particularly in the front bar) and has a video jukebox, oh one minute it’s the Prodigy, the next it’s Darryl Braithwaite. Nonetheless, it was a great evening because we took over a significant part of the downstairs section and enjoyed overpriced refreshments.

Saturday was spent doing the family thing. At one point I ended up at West Lakes after checking out a car that Sonia has now bought, not that I had anything to contribute because I know nothing about vehicles. That night I attended Josh’s farewell party. He’s off to Canberra and put on quite a show, but I’d entertained this stupid notion of borrowing Sonia’s car (not the new one, she didn’t have that yet) because it seemed convenient and therefore I could not participate in the red wine festivities. Stupid me. Nonetheless I had a splendid time, and saw a number of uni friends who I’d all but lost touch with.

More family time on Sunday, but then I bussed back into the city to meet up with Selena and Sarina before dinner with resplendent people such as Janine, Lisa, Gossy and Sonia at the Vietnamese Palace. The flavours of South East Asia seemed to dominate my culinary excursions during the week.

Monday morning was spent with mum and dad, but then I was off to Port Elliot with Lisa, to stay with Sandra and Peter. Entertainment consisted of a bad restaurant meal followed by Monday night’s TV schedule coupled with our general hilarity. Whenever I visit that part of the world, it always proves restorative.

So on Tuesday we lolled about the South Coast for a while, then back to Adelaide and I had lunch with former workmates Chris and Beajaye before visiting Tree and Jono in their city abode and then meeting Trish and Alex for yet another dinner of South East Asian influence. Then I bussed it back to mum and dad’s.

Wednesday was devoted to aforementioned family time, which included walking in the spring heat and lunching in North Adelaide. (Speaking of the weather, I encountered all sorts from intense heat to flurrying cold, and thus made use of every single item that I packed, which might be a first.) I caught the plane home at 7:30.

I hope I haven’t forgotten anything.

posted by pete at 5:52 PM

.......