I spent the weekend in a hotel with my wife and another woman for my birthday.
acerbicmuffin and pluto_pup were planning one of their cricket outings to Adelaide on my birthday weekend, so I decided I'd join them!
Knocked off from work at midday Thursday, and then piled into pluto_pup 's car that evening for the first stage of the trip - Melbourne to Nhill, where Pluto grew up. SHe had prepared for the trip by putting a screen over her grates to protect from locusts, which were currently in plague proportions in the Wimmera
Wow, the countryside is green! There's growth everywhere, and the dams are full. It's remarkable, after ten years of solid drought.
We overnighted with Pluto's folks, and called in to see expoduck 's mum at her shop while we were in town. I drove this leg. We'd seen a few locusts already, but we hit a larger swarm outside Kaniva. It's quite an interesting thing. The locusts hopping up into the undercarriage of the car sounds like a reverse hailstorm. Their guts are orange. We didn't have to pull over though, and the screen worked as advertised in keeping them out of the engine.
Our hotel in Adelaide was on South Terrace. None of us were hungry when we arrived, so we decided to go out for dinner at about nine.
Bad move.
Adelaide isn't like a proper city. Pretty much everything was closed by then! We eventually found a late night pancake joint.
Saturday morning - my birthday! We wandered the deserted streets in quiet bewilderment, until we stumbled on to a lively strip near the markets, where we had brunch at a great cafe called Zuma.
Wandering past the Rundle mall, we called in to Pulp Fiction Comics, where the Muffin bought me Grandville Mon Amour and Hopeless Savages Greatest Hits for my birthday. Awesomeness!
Then we went to the South Australian Museum. it was great! Quite old school, especially next to our museum. They had, like - cabinets, with things in them. And labels. And taxidermied animals. Highlights were the giant squid (natch), suspended vertically over three storeys in a stairwell, the opalised plesiosaur skeleton, and the Egyptian room that felt like it had been preserved in time itself.
And so to the cricket! it was fun. I'd never been before. It was only a T20 match, so it was over in about three and a half hours, which I've been informed barely counts as a cricket match. ;) It moved quickly, with some big hits and exciting catches. The evening was slightly marred by the Bushrangers having their arses handed to them, and the revolting bogans sitting a few rows in front of us who apparently had nothing better to do than randomly abuse the players and get drunk. There were also dancing girls, and a person dressed as a FruChoc.
Many lovely birthday wishes, in person, on facebook, and even by phone (thank you!)
Sunday was consumed with the drive back. Australia is really big, people! Really, really big.
And let me tell you, getting up for work this morning was -- not easy.
Knocked off from work at midday Thursday, and then piled into pluto_pup 's car that evening for the first stage of the trip - Melbourne to Nhill, where Pluto grew up. SHe had prepared for the trip by putting a screen over her grates to protect from locusts, which were currently in plague proportions in the Wimmera
Wow, the countryside is green! There's growth everywhere, and the dams are full. It's remarkable, after ten years of solid drought.
We overnighted with Pluto's folks, and called in to see expoduck 's mum at her shop while we were in town. I drove this leg. We'd seen a few locusts already, but we hit a larger swarm outside Kaniva. It's quite an interesting thing. The locusts hopping up into the undercarriage of the car sounds like a reverse hailstorm. Their guts are orange. We didn't have to pull over though, and the screen worked as advertised in keeping them out of the engine.
Our hotel in Adelaide was on South Terrace. None of us were hungry when we arrived, so we decided to go out for dinner at about nine.
Bad move.
Adelaide isn't like a proper city. Pretty much everything was closed by then! We eventually found a late night pancake joint.
Saturday morning - my birthday! We wandered the deserted streets in quiet bewilderment, until we stumbled on to a lively strip near the markets, where we had brunch at a great cafe called Zuma.
Wandering past the Rundle mall, we called in to Pulp Fiction Comics, where the Muffin bought me Grandville Mon Amour and Hopeless Savages Greatest Hits for my birthday. Awesomeness!
Then we went to the South Australian Museum. it was great! Quite old school, especially next to our museum. They had, like - cabinets, with things in them. And labels. And taxidermied animals. Highlights were the giant squid (natch), suspended vertically over three storeys in a stairwell, the opalised plesiosaur skeleton, and the Egyptian room that felt like it had been preserved in time itself.
And so to the cricket! it was fun. I'd never been before. It was only a T20 match, so it was over in about three and a half hours, which I've been informed barely counts as a cricket match. ;) It moved quickly, with some big hits and exciting catches. The evening was slightly marred by the Bushrangers having their arses handed to them, and the revolting bogans sitting a few rows in front of us who apparently had nothing better to do than randomly abuse the players and get drunk. There were also dancing girls, and a person dressed as a FruChoc.
Many lovely birthday wishes, in person, on facebook, and even by phone (thank you!)
Sunday was consumed with the drive back. Australia is really big, people! Really, really big.
And let me tell you, getting up for work this morning was -- not easy.