Week 66 - Adelaide (Australia)

We were awoken on Christmas morning by Al, who in turn had been woken by the smell of cooking bacon wafting into his room. Slater had breakfast covered. Next up was present opening with a bottle of bubbles to wash it down. Santa had found his way in and left us all with a little pile of presents, mostly purchased from the dollar store down the road or brought in with us from the duty free shops in Malaysia. Some of the particular highlights - clip in hair for Al (I would post the picture but I don’t think he’d be too impressed), a giant cow pat Al acquired from the Ben&Jerry’s OpenAir cinema for Slater, hip flasks, cap guns, bikini girl glasses and an inflatable frog for the pool (which Al immediately blew up and put on).

Once the boys were settled with drinks in the garden I got dinner started. As always there were many things that could have been better but as an overall first attempt at cooking a full Christmas dinner I think it went pretty well despite being an hour earlier than expected, oops. We had a massive turkey that has fed us for the rest of the week and all the trimmings, including yorkshire puddings, pigs in blankets, bread sauce, bacon sprouts, honey roast parsnips and lemon meringue for dessert- all made from scratch. Dinner was followed by more drinks, calls home to the UK, movies and chocolates to round off the evening. All up a pretty good Christmas albeit stupidly hot for a full turkey dinner. 

Rhys and Al enjoying the pool on Christmas morning.

Rhys and Slater ready to start Christmas dinner.

Boxing day was a chill day, there was more food, this time a pork joint (they don’t sell raw ham anywhere here, these Aussie’s never even knew there was such a thing as raw ham and they don’t even get their bacon raw, it’s kind of half cooked, very odd), more TV, more drinking and more sleeping. We popped to the bar around the corner for a couple of Boxing Day drinks in the sun and other than that just kicked back and relaxed.

Slater had the Friday off work and decided to take it upon himself to show us some of the tourist hot spots of Adelaide. First stop was Mount Lofty, one of the tallest mountains in the area with views out over Adelaide to the sea. We sat down for a coffee while admiring the view. Next up was Hahndorf, a quaint little postcard perfect German town about 20km out of the city. We decided to take the scenic route from Mount Lofty and spent about an hour driving around the back roads, lost. The detour worked out for the best though, a toss of a coin at a junction took us into the bush and down a road that turned into a little track before passing an abandoned copper mine that has been put aside as a conservation area. We got out of the truck to stretch our legs and explore and within a minute Rhys had spotted a koala. We were so excited to see one in the wild and took a million photos before doing a short circuit of the mine ruins and spotting another two koalas, cue another million photos. Back on the road and heading in the right direction we happened across the freeway and sped out to Hahndoff. It was incredibly busy but quite homely with old school ice cream and sweet shops, antique shops and loads and loads of cafes, restaurants and pubs. We chose the pub with the biggest schnitzel menu and grabbed a table outside to watch the world go by while we stuffed down yet more food. A quick stop to watch a farrier shoeing his horse and a brief exploration of the museum/art gallery and we were back in the truck to head back to the house.

Me and Slater at the top of Mount Lofty.

Rhys and Slater, lost in the bush.

Koala at the copper mine.

A bit of history, Hahndoff.

We had a quick turn around and were out the door again to head into the city to meet Al to go to a baseball game in Norwood, a suburb a bit like London’s Kensington, the other side of Adelaide. Just as we were pulling into the city Slater got in a bit of an altercation with a bus driver who kept cutting everyone up and when his eyes were off the road we rolled into the car in front. Slaters truck was untouched, the bullbar however destroyed the back end of the car in front who in turn had shunted the car in front of him. Insurance details were swapped and we were on our way again in no time, no one was hurt and the damage was only so bad because Slaters truck is a monster. We found Al at the bar opposite his office and got a drink in just as it closed. Next we hopped over to the hostel terrace bar where there are really cheap drinks and a surprisingly local clientele. About 8pm we we headed to the truck and drove out to Norwood. The baseball was a groupon deal and tickets were a bargain £3.80 each, we found ourselves a seat and settled in to shout at the Adelaide Bites who were losing to Canbarra. Our shouting didn’t seem to help and they lost the game but I think we’ve all found a new understanding and love of baseball despite it being an extremely slow sport. The best bit though was as we were leaving, the players were signing autographs and Alan ended up down in the throng asking to get his head signed. A couple of minutes later and a sharpie was found (the biro didn’t work) and he came back to us happy until we pointed out that the player hadn’t signed his name but drawn a penis on his head. Ben Lodge, you are a champion. Back at the house and we had a night cap, before bed.

The boys at the baseball.

Us enjoying the baseball.

Slater was working Saturday and Sunday so it was just me, Rhys and Alan. We didn’t really get up to much, more eating, more drinking, more sleeping, more sitting in the pool in the garden. Rhys went for a walk to the beach while I popped to Coles and that was about it. The boys watched the Hobbit while I pottered around and we made a huge turkey pie to finish off the last of the Christmas meat.

On Monday we had an appointment at the Apple store in Rundle Mall to see if they could fix our ipods (they couldn’t). Afterwards we walked out to the botanic gardens and were amazed at the sheer size of them, we spent a couple of hours wandering between rose gardens and cactus gardens, conservatories sheltering giant lily pads and conservatories holding huge rainforests (where we got caught in a rain shower). When we left the gardens we walked along the river to the Adelaide Oval and stopped at a pretty church before heading back to meet Slater in Rundle Mall. Lunch was another cheap food court meal in China Town. Rhys jumped on the tram to head home and me and Slater went back to the mall to pop in a couple of shops before stopping off for a drink on a little terrace in the Richmond Hotel, a perfect spot for people watching. On the way back to the tram we ended up back in the hostel bar and then when we got to Glenelg we stopped for one last drink at the Jetty Bar. A bit more shopping on Jetty Road and we headed home. It turned in to a big night. We gave Al a hair cut, watched some horrid UFC matches, had a go at UFC (I even tapped Al out twice with only a few rule breaches (who knew you couldn’t bite)) and drank the rest of the goon. At one point Slater had his fancy dress genie costume on and there was a bet that Al will have kids in the next 5 years (it’s on video so we remember it).

NYE morning we weren’t feeling too fresh (who drinks the night before New Years Eve?!), we cleaned a bit, watched TV and packed for our trip to Melbourne. Our biggest excursion was a trip to the post office to collect my passport and to the dollar store to buy glow sticks for the Glo Glenelg NYE party. By the time Alan got home from work we’d left it to late to buy tickets for any of the bars in Glenelg and opted to start the party at the house. We popped next door to the Holdfast bar which was so empty it was closing early, before heading back to the house. As midnight drew close we trundled down to the beach, equipped with a wide selection of glow sticks. We were a bit disappointed to find the beach scattered with small groups of people sitting on rugs and had expected there to be more of a party atmosphere and a DJ or two. After the midnight fireworks we stopped at Subway and headed home. Despite it not being a mad New Years it was all we wanted, to spend it with Alan and Slater without spending a fortune.