This time last week we were
sitting in our unit in North Adelaide watching the rain pour down &
wondering if there would be any cricket. We had tea & toast together, then
drove to Port Adelaide to find the Alberton Football Ground, home of
the Port Adelaide Magpies founded in 1870. We have never been able to find this
ground, but our Tom Tom took us there very easily & to our delight the
gates were open & we could walk around it.
Each picket on the fence has a name of a supporter on it
Our next stop was the lovely
Adelaide Botanic Gardens, which is usually an easy walk from North Adelaide,
but there were still on & off showers, so we parked near the National Wine
Centre & strolled around looking at the wonderful trees, including a very fine
Monkey Puzzle tree & some Bunyas & Woolamai pines. We headed for the
water-lily pavilion only to find that it was under repair.
Above - what greeted us & below, what should have been
there!
We got to the Adelaide Oval just
as the game started 30 minutes early again. I wasn’t aware either day of the
earlier start, even though I had checked the website, which showed 2pm each
time. We had very good seats yet again, with lots of familiar faces. One of the
interesting facts about the Adelaide Test is how many interstate fans it
attracts. I suspect we outnumber the locals. We had Carlton, Geelong &
Richmond supporters near us. And were lucky enough to bump into the Fox
commentators as we caught the escalators – the stand-offish Michael Vaughan,
the affable Shane Warne, Brett Lee on the phone & Mark Howard, heavily made
up & running late!
Once again we were treated to a
fascinating day’s cricket with Babar Azam making an excellent 97, only to be
outdone by Yasir Shah, the hapless bowler, making 113 and taking Pakistan to a
respectable total of 302 after they were 6/96. We enforced the follow on &
had the visitors struggling at 3/39 when the heavens opened & play was
abandoned for the night.
We started Day 4 with tea &
toast, waited for the rain to stop & walked into North Terrace via the Uni.
We had planned to visit the Art Gallery, but couldn’t walk past the Museum with
its special Dog Exhibition. If we weren’t already missing Lewis & Morse, we
certainly were by the time we learnt the history of dogs, that they are the
animals most in tune with humans & watched videos of assistance dogs, silly
dogs & Dog Shows.
Me standing next to a salute to Snoopy!
After a cuppa, it was time to walk
back to the Adelaide Oval & probably the coldest day we have ever spent at
the cricket. The small crowd was disappointing but understandable. Our seats
were good and we had a great view of the wicket once again, but it was cold. In
their wisdom the Adelaide Oval had closed all food outlets on the 5th
level, where we were, so everyone had to scurry down to the ground floor to get
hot food & drinks. The Pakistanis tried hard, but once the natural light
was replaced by the floodlights, they succumbed & the Australians inflicted
their best ever innings defeat, having only lost 3 wickets. Nathan Lyon was
superb with 5 wickets & Pat Cummins threw truly from quite a distance to
run out the last wicket.
The next morning, after the rain
stopped, we headed out to spend a day in town. We started with breakfast again at
E
for Ethel, which never disappoints & had a good chat with the
owner.
Zucchini & corn fritters with avocado & feta, and
granola with berries
We walked to North Terrace &
headed for the Gallery, one side of which had been closed last time we were
there. Most of the good Australian artists are on display including two of our
favourites, John Brack & Fred Williams. There are also around a dozen of
Eugene von Guérard, including a very fine painting of Cape Schanck.
Our next stop was to be the
Library, but we found ourselves back at the Museum and decided to have a look
at their permanent displays. We were most impressed with their array of the
animal kingdom both from all over the world & Australia.
We had planned to see a film &
were so pleased we arrived at the Palace Nova in time for Mrs
Lowry & Son, essentially a two-hander starring Vanessa Redgrave
& Timothy Spall. We were spellbound by their acting as they played out a
true story of the artist, Lawrence S Lowry. It was originally a radio &
stage play, so if you are looking for an action film, forget it. However, if
you want to see two superb actors click together in a rivetting piece of
history, this is for you.
That night we finally went to The
British Hotel, in Finniss Street. We have walked past it about 50 times
since 2015 when the first Pink Ball Test was played in Adelaide & have
never entered its door. The wine list was excellent & our meals were good,
but we were definitely not their target market, with relentless background
noise, very young waiters & loud-voiced diners who didn’t mind everyone
hearing their conversations.
Wes enjoying a Mollydooker Sparkling Shiraz with his
barbecued spare pork ribs & my char-grilled squid
Wednesday was perfect Adelaide
weather. We walked back into town and headed for the Migration Museum, which
is apparently the first of its kind in Australia. It was very well done some
time ago, but desperately needs new technology, much more lighting & much
easier to read blurbs. Most visitors spent 5 minutes there and headed straight
out again, especially those who were migrants as there was very little written
in anything other than English.Next stop was the State Library, where we spent
ages reading every word of the story of the Heroes of the Skies, Ross
& Keith Smith. It is 100 years since they won the great air race from
England to Australia in their modified Vickers Vimy bomber with their mechanics
Wally & Jim. It is a wonderful display & worth seeing. We can’t visit
the Library without peeking into the old Mortlock Wing with its wonderful clock
and interesting displays.
These Christmas decorations appeared overnight in North
Adelaide – pretty pots of petunias
We found ourselves back at the Palace
Nova, where we saw the delightful film, Fisherman’s Friends, in a
small cinema where the woman next to Wes answered her mobile phone when it rang
shrilly; the woman behind me kept coughing & the couple in front argued
about whether they were too close to the screen. All these audience members
were old enough to know better!
That night, we went back to Lotus,
for our final meal in North Adelaide. Wendy was delighted to see us return
& we enjoyed a bottle of Pepperjack Shiraz with our meal.
Wes looking forward to squid in blackbean sauce &
prawns “strange taste”, both of which were very yummy
Next morning, we were up early
finishing off our provisions before packing & driving to the Adelaide
Oval for a “behind the scenes” tour, something we have been meaning to
do for some time. It cost us $20 each, went for 90 minutes & was thoroughly
enjoyable. The two highlights for us were getting into the 1911 manual
scoreboard to see how everything works & walking up the race onto the
ground just like the opening batsmen. The smell of freshly-mown grass was the
surprise to me – it was quite powerful.
After a quick cuppa in the café,
we headed off to Clare and enjoyed the drive much more than our first visit
when the whole area had been burnt out & we went to support the wineries
& other businesses. Our accommodation is at the Country Club
& is very like a motel, except that the bathroom is fairly new & we
look out on ducks, who wander across from the lake to have a snooze in the
shade under our balcony.
We went for a walk around Clare
& decided that we didn’t really like it! There was a second-hand bookstore
& an Indian restaurant, but everywhere else looked tired, and there were
lots of empty shopfronts. Trip Advisor suggested we go to Indii, so we did &
had probably the best Indian meal of our lives. Wes’s goat curry & my fish
curry were perfectly cooked, attractively presented with heavy cutlery, lovely
dishes & a delightful waitress. The maitre d’ was attentive, the wines were
wonderful and we immediately booked in for dinner the next night.
Goat & fish
curries with garlic roti & mint & yoghurt pickles
On Friday we decided to drive to Burra,
an historic Cornish copper mining town with a café called St Just, which got rave
reviews from Trip Advisor. What a great decision that was – only 30 minutes
away & so interesting. We enjoyed breakfast at the café, pottered around in
the store, and set off to follow the Johnny Green Heritage Trail. We saw
mines, miners’ cottages, a 50m deep lake, an old railway line with
accommodation in the porter’s quarters, and lots of wonderful old homes. We’ll
definitely be back here.
Our next stop was Crabtree
Wines, which make a lovely riesling & tempranillo and stocked up on
their rosé and cabernet as well. Finally we stopped at Claymore Winery, because
I had tasted their sauvignon blanc the night before & wanted to buy some to
take home with us.
After a rest, we headed into Clare
and watched the locals getting ready for their Christmas Pageant.
It was very similar to our Daylesford New Year’s Eve Parade,
except for Santa & heaps more children. We watched the procession down the
main street from the comfort of our booth in Indii, where we
enjoyed another wonderful meal. Here is my spiced gin & tonic, which was an
interesting, flavoursome start to the evening.
Yesterday we left Clare just
before 7am & had an excellent drive, arriving home at 5pm, with a couple of
stops for loos, petrol, tea & coffee & scones in Nhill. We couldn’t
believe how everything has grown here & I can’t wait to pick roses & fill
the house with them. Judi had left us a beautiful vase of Oriental lilies, which
we could smell when we opened the front door. We had planned to have a glass of
red with raisin bread & strawberry jam for dinner, but found a fresh
sourdough breadstick & tomatoes & cheese awaiting us, (also coutesy of
Judi), so tucked into that instead.
I’m about to go to Coles &
collect a few things we need, before visiting the Sunday Market & stocking
up on fruit & vegetables, both for us, and Lewis & Morse. Wes will
collect them at lunchtime, which gives Eureka Kennels time to give them a bath,
which we are sure they will have needed. We are very excited to be seeing them
again soon, as well as our friends at breakfast.
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