The Jet-Setting Weekend

Three states in three days... So tired.

Was in Adelaide for just over 24 hours. Quiet, peaceful Adelaide of the serial killers and Botanical Gardens rapist.

But the things that people make fun of Adelaide for aside, it's a great city. Beautiful wide streets. Trees. Only high-rise buildings are in the very heart of the city. The sluggish Torrens. Quiet shops. Saturday morning silence in the city.

Actually, quiet seems to sum up Adelaide. It's a bit country town where people are friendly and relaxed. And I keep running into people who I knew in high school. Yay! I kind of miss going places and randomly running into people I know.

Other things about Adelaide:

> The trees planted to spell JESUS LIVES on a hill on the way in to Adelaide. Never noticed that before.

> FruChocs. Foodland. Toyworld. Farmer's Union ice coffee. All that stuff that's just SA/Adelaide stuff.

> That smell in the parklands. It's like decaying foliage, but in a good way. Deeply earthy and warm and wonderful. I'd forgotten it completely until Saturday. The parklands are still pretty in spite of the drought as well, actually.

> WTF are they doing to the Adelaide Oval? Ugly!

> Peak hour traffic being like Melbourne's outter suburbs.

> The myriad of adult shops. It's like Queensland, but a little less obvious. And a bit more yellow.

> The beachfront. Mmm.

> Many Cocolat stores. Which makes up for no Starbucks and many Gloria Jeans. If we're having chain stuff, then make it nice.

> Beautiful old houses and buildings, especially those in North Adelaide. The churches are gorgeous as well - the one Kim and Steve were married in was adorable.

> That breeze. It's like the parklands smell thing - you forget completely until you're there. It's a lovely cooling breeze right off the sea.

> The bizarre Christmas display out the front of the brewery. And laughing outrageously at the fact that last year after Christmas, there was a flash flood that washed away the whale and three of the seven dwarves. And the whale apparently got chewed on by a shark. Heh.

> Friends. That's the best part, hands down.

So what else was there on the weekend? Flew to South Australia, shopping, conversing, dinner, wandering, laughing, staying up WAY too late, talking more, waking up kinda early to get ready for the wedding, going to the wedding, lunch after w/ Amy, then airport, fly to Sydney, cross Harbour Bridge, take hours to get to parent's place, rise early next morning for graduation, melt in NSW heat and humidity (within minutes of arriving in Sydney, my hair simply went *fwoink!* and refused to behave until I returned to Melbourne), be inordinately proud of my Dad graduating from his MA, lunch with family friends, relaxing briefly after, Dad's Army and much laughter, etc, etc, fly back to Melbourne.

Possibly some sleep in there somewhere. Also, country and western music on public transport really makes me feel really grumpy. Sydney didn't really endear itself to me with that whole humidity, country and western thing at all.

But seeing family made it all better.

Yay!