Thursday 17th April

We seem to be fated just recently to be woken up early by some workmen or other – this morning it was the refuse collectors in the alley at the back of the motel. There had to be some drawback to NOT being in a room over the main street! We don’t know what time it was but it was still dark. We did get back to sleep again afterwards, thank goodness.

I knew there were advantages to having single beds – I didn’t wake up till 20 mins to 10 – no-one to fidget about in the bed beside me! All this gallivanting around is having its effect, I can’t seem to get going so readily in the mornings, but we still manage to do plenty of sight-seeing in the remaining hours of the day.

Today we went on the tram down to Glenelg on Holdfast Bay. It takes about half an hour from here and cost £5 return each. It is a very picturesque suburb, with a short jetty where there were a few fishermen and lots of tourists, just like us. The season has just about finished now, so it was quite quiet but with plenty of atmosphere. We went into the Bay Discovery Centre in the Town Hall, to read about the beginnings of the Federation of SA, and some of the history of the area, including a great video of the Surf Rescue service – lots of very fit surfers having lots of spills on their boards and boats – not much rescuing going on that I could see, but it made a good film!

In Moseley Square, which is the tram terminus and the central area just before the jetty, there is a water feature. It consists of a central fountain only 2 feet high and numerous jets of water that spout at differing times and heights from ground level and is in the shape of an elongated “S”. The children love it and run in and out trying to dodge the jets or deliberately stand in their path. We watched a boy about 3, who loved to stand on the jet so it stopped and his sister who was fascinated by the central column of water – sheer concentration and joy in their faces – lovely to watch.

There are some lovely buildings round the sea front and down the streets and we found a very pleasant coffee shop for the daily sustenance when we felt the hunger pangs. After a slow wander up Jetty Road, the main shopping and eating street, we caught the tram back into the city in time to investigate some more of Adelaide. The tram ride has shown us some of the other areas we’d like to see in more depth and as we have another 2 full days here, there’ll be plenty of time to do that.

One of the shops we went into in Glenelg was run by an Italian who pronounced proudly that he was a Fascist and had his shirts made by the same family who used to provide Mussolini and his Black Shirts with their black shirts. I can’t quite remember how we got on to the subject, but we certainly had a quick history lesson about how the worst thing that Mussolini did was to team up with Hitler. Before that, he had been making Italy an example to the world with the free schooling and medical services for poorer families in parts of Italy that he instigated – so now you (and we) know!! I think we’d have been there still had we not made an excuse and ran! We do meet some interesting people, and some not so.

One of the guides at the Bay Discovery Centre was telling us that the Indian Pacific train, which we are booked to go on to Perth, was held up for almost 13 hours the other day, because work on the line had overrun near Broken Hill, between Sydney and Adelaide. No-one was allowed off the train for security reasons and there had been a lot of complaints, as you can imagine. I trust nothing like that will happen to us, but given our track record with trains, I won’t hold my breath! Better take another book!

On the way back in the tram, some young person (not sure if it was a male or female!) got up and offered me his/her seat – I don’t know if I was pleased or insulted that I look old and decrepit enough to need it!! And then, when I offered my seat to an even older gentleman, I was turned down!!! Have I really aged so much since coming here? I was only saying to Tom this morning that I was quite pleased that my hair wasn’t showing more sign of turning grey – maybe I’m going colourblind? Talking of hair, you remember I told you about my drastic haircut in Port Macquarie all those weeks ago? Well, my hair is still shorter than I normally allow Chris to cut it in the first place – that gives you some idea of just how short it was. I won’t need another trim until after I get back home in another 2 weeks. I have to admit that it has been easy to look after, once I got used to it.

The entertainers were out on Rundle Mall again – they obviously pay for the privilege of having a “spot”. I bought a CD of one of the groups who were playing. They told us that they’ll be doing a European tour later in the year – I don’t think it will be in Wembley though, but their sound is very pleasant. Tom said he didn’t know whether being liked by a 60 year old granny was good advertising for them – cheek!!

We’ve been enjoying some more of Maggie Beer’s pate tonight and trying to drink up some of the wine mountain we accrued during our Barossa stay – I think tomorrow morning might be another late one. Tom’s asleep now, having warned me not to let him stay asleep for too long so I shall now go and wake him up – gently of course!! He, he!!

Right, you lot, who’ve been following our travels so avidly – I hope you’re not going to expect a continuation once we get home. One of you in an e-mail has already moaned at the thought of not having the daily blog to read. So you’d better start weaning yourselves off it. Only 11 more entries from the land of Oz to go. (You’ll probably be glad when it’s all over – but don’t forget, the exam is still to come!!!)

Love to you all and goodnight for now!