The Party Is Over

It’s official, in Australia the party is over. The Commonwealth Games finished this weekend and despite being reported as the second most obese nation, the Aussies still picked up about 700 gold medals. With such a small population, it seems that if you are not chewing on a gristly KFC you must be stood on a podium in Melbourne.

In Adelaide all the car races, comedy festivals and concerts have all packed up and autumn has arrived, a couple of leaves have fallen off the tree in the garden and the temperature has dropped to 27C, (82F). Brrrrr!

But the nights are drawing in, we don’t get dusk or dawn so much, more like lights on and lights off with no dimmer switch. When the clocks change next week, (we postponed it a week so as not to confuse the Commonwealth Games schedules), it will go dark at 6.00pm.

Anyway, all this going dark early stuff means we need to make the most of the evenings while we have them, particularly by the beaches which all face west and have the most glorious sunsets. I swear you see steam as the sun drops into the sea. And there are a few bars to help you enjoy the experience after a paddle along the front.

Despite all this, Adelaide still has something of an inferiority complex and everyone you meet has one question, which is one of the first that they ask, ‘why Adelaide?’
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Deep down they all think you are a little odd and possibly to be avoided. While they stop short of taking your temperature, they certainly keep a watchful eye on you.

I had a meeting with two people from the Chamber of Commerce today and that question was all they wanted to talk about. They soon had the look in their eyes and it turned out to be a short meeting!

There is nothing wrong with Adelaide, sure, it’s not the most glamorous place in Australia, but all it’s missing is a harbour and a harbour bridge. The opera house in Sydney looks like a public convenience when you get up close. It’s the tiles.

The thing is that all the younger locals feel it is their duty to leave the place and live somewhere more in keeping with their youth and ambition. While they all leave to sit in a traffic jam in Sydney or wait for a tram in the Melbourne rain, the city laments the loss of all this young talent while smiling quietly and congratulating themselves on living in a place where you can walk the streets without being run over by a skateboard.

At least that’s what they say about us in Melbourne. But Melbourne has quite a high opinion of itself. At least that’s what they say in Adelaide.

On the home front, Mandy has tried to get into the gardening, after ensuring I had weeded the whole place and cleared the garden of spiders. So far though, all that her green fingers have reared is a mosquito haven. She insisted the huge flowerpot full of water was a good home for the lilies and snails. So, after a crash course in which lotions, sprays and candles work and which don’t, we a have got over their initial onslaught. But at a price. Can anyone tell me what part mozzies play in Mother Nature’s big plan?

Apart from that, we trundle along. A little less like one big holiday, a little more like normal life. Electricity bills, remembering the day for the bins, car tax and weeding the garden…..it’s not so different.

‘Til next time
M&W

Yes, that is a flying tram

In Adelaide this week, an event which will please a number of you. Rain.

And just when I had begun think there were only two kinds of weather. Hot and bloody hot. Still it didn't last long.

South Australia is renowned as the driest state in the country and the raindrops are few and far between. But just to demonstrate that things are very much the same over here in so many ways, it was a bank holiday weekend when the clouds chose to burst.

This bank holiday was for a horse race and, despite 60% of Aussies supporting a republic, we will also have one for the Queen's birthday. As every state has a couple of unique public holidays, it can give an insight into regional priorities. So, in South Australia we take a day for the Adelaide Cup horse race while in the Northern Territory they celebrate both a Picnic Day and Booroola Show Day.

Although what celebrating Easter Tuesday says about Tasmania eludes me. Mind you, they say a lot about Tasmania, much of which I'd rather not repeat.

At home, as I've been practicing for a few weeks, we felt it was time to try our first public barbie this week and invited round the family who volunteered to help us get settled when we arrived.

Apart from a pleasant evening, we got a demonstration of Aussie values in action. Erin who is 14, had run up a $900 (£400) bill on her mobile. In a month! So, she wasn't flavour of the month but as a family they were joking about it. Then she mentioned that champion swimmer and national hero Ian Thorpe was gay. I will save you the details, but I can assure you she will not be mentioning that particular rumour in her father's presence again. But he's OK about the phone bill.

As for the barbie, despite looking very hungry early on, they didn't eat much.

In case it passed you by, the Commonwealth Games started this week in Melbourne. The Queen showed up to the opening ceremony but didn't look very happy about it, probably because she was sat next to John Howard. However, Philip seemed very chirpy, largely due to an African runner coming in native costume. A skirt and a hat. Those pictures made the papers and put a smile on the Duke's face.

People from Melbourne are far too cool to be excited about something like this so all we hear is 'grumble, grumble, republic, moan, moan, too easy' etc. Then the Scots beat their best girl in the pool, the English spank them in the velodrome and all of a sudden the whole nation swings 100% behind their lawn bowls team.

Meanwhile in Adelaide, all the arty type festivals are drawing to a close now, which means it's the season for closing the streets and racing huge cars around the city. So as the theatre and comedy crowd drift away for a mochachino, a new bloke is in town, clad in overtight jeans, a big belly, elaborate facial hair and a hot dog in each ham sized fist. The uniform of the Aussie petrol head.

All that aside, Mandy has just started work on the intensive care unit, something new for her and a new challenge in terms of the skills she will need.

As for me I found a book about the diary of J. McDouall Stuart, intrepid Australian adventurer of the 1850's, maybe seeking a parallel. Anyway, contrast this with my previous entries in this online diary.....

’Still no rain, horses suffering, I fear we may lose 2 tonight, mosquitos unbearable, natives scouted our camp again in the night. Shall have to leave provisions behind if the horses do not make it, our fate is with providence’.

That puts a different slant on waiting for a bus.

Keep well.
Will & Mandy

The Festival State

No big spider sightings this week, so a picture of Xmas day instead. Nice and topical.

It’s Saturday afternoon in the garden and pretty warm. I’ve had a blast in the hills on my bike and followed it up with a wander round the National Wine Centre, conveniently located 10 minutes walk from my house. There are loads of how to make wine exhibits, but more interesting is the cheap local wine tasting.

At the moment there is a festival of festivals. We have a fringe festival which lasts for 3 weeks. Lots and lots of great shows, the quality of busker has gone through the roof and one part of town seems to be drunk pretty much 24/7.

This more beer and kebab-centric scene is now rubbing shoulders with the real festival. A little more wine and canapés, as the ballet dancers and divas roll into town. To mark this, we had the most spectacular opening ceremony, choreographed by the people who did the winter Olympics. This consisted of grand pianos and ballerinas whizzing overhead on wires suspended over the river. All of which depicted an odd narrative about a man who lived in a house which didn’t exist and burned everything he found.

Adelaide is only a small city, so where they will fit the huge music festival which starts next weekend is beyond me.

While all this is going on, parts of the city are turning into race track as huge concrete blocks and huge banks of seating are put up for four days of motor racing through the streets. They used to have a Grand Prix here and are still quite bitter about losing it to Melbourne. So they push the boat out for this one.

As if this wasn’t enough, every weekend has at least two food and wine festivals going on in various suburbs. These are simple affairs. You get a glass of wine and a plate of food. Eat one, drink the other, then go and fill up again. Repeat until you can’t.

However, I am told that nothing happens here from April until Xmas. Apart from the test match here starting on 1st December. But that’s for another day.

On another note, Mandy has landed some voluntary work at a local wildlife park. This involves a lot of sweeping up, window cleaning and clearing up animal poo. On the up side she feeds echidnas and wombats, ducklings and kookaburras and has parrots stand on her head. She’s loving it and it is hard work getting her to do a shift at the hospital.

All over the news is the shattered image of Australia as a nation of bronzed hunks, they are apparently increasingly tubby. which has led to a toilet manufacturer redesigning their products take a bit more weight. This presumably explains the shame of losing to New Zealand in the sheep shearing world cup final and could easily explain the one metre lobster found in Tasmania this week.

As for me, work at Adelaide City Council is plodding along. It’s a decent place to work and very different to Salford. The city has the plan of getting a lot more companies operating in the city. My part in this master plan is to look after a few initiatives which might help this. Currently this means trying to convince Greek and Italian chaps to spend some money on their city centre office buildings.
They are somewhat reluctant, but my negotiating skills are coming on well.

Thanks for the comments that have been posted, even to Keith Mitchell for his pithy effort. It’s good to hear from you. Keep well.

Mandy & Will

Thanks Jonny

Firstly thanks to my good friend Jonny who suggested a blog as the solution for the poor correspondent. If you want to see how these things should be done, visit http://heathweek.blogspot.com/

My resolution is to make a new post every week.

To set the scene, Mandy & I landed in Adelaide on November 24th and it seems like yesterday. Since then we've both been lucky and found some work, Mandy at the hospital, me at the city council. We have paid some tax, moved house, had the hottest Xmas day ever, been bitten by the biggest ant I've ever seen and got a new housemate, (above left). She's harmless, apparently.

While Adelaide is not the most exciting city in the world, or Australia, or arguably in the state of South Australia, it is hard to be bored here.

The city is squeezed between hills full of vineyards and a sea full of great white sharks. Most of the space inbetween is made up of coffee shops, Chinese restaurants and sporting venues. This is a place with priorities.

The city is very simple, it has been the same since 1836 or so. There is a grid of streets heading north-south and east-west. No bends. It is a mile by a mile and surrounded by one huge park. Outside that anything goes. The park is full of cricket pitches, archery targets, gum trees, kookaburras, BMX parks and students getting off with eachother.

Nothing is very far from anything else and you can stand in the middle of one the east-west streets and see the mountains at one end, turn round and see the sea. Then walk 20 yards for a latte.

I have heard Australia described as an outdoor nation and this is beyond dispute. This largely because the TV is so awful. Midsommer Murders tops the rankings along with The Bill, but DI Burnside is still in it. Add that to Aussie Wheel of Fortune and even the old and infirm throw down their zimmers and reach for a tennis racquet.

Which brings me nicely on to sport. There cannot be a better time for an Englishman to be here, holding the Ashes, with that drop goal still fresh in the memory and on the cusp of showing them what a proper foot team looks like at a world cup. (Well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad). There was a noticeable hush in the office the morning after Andy Murray beat Hewitt recently too.

Always one to share my good fortune, I have offered to lend my Ashes 2005 DVD around the office more than once.

Parish notices.

Water appears to be going anti clockwise down the plughole. Can anyone confirm it goes the other way in your half?

Finally, welcome to Lucy Jane Shaftoe, born 28th February, sister of Ella, daughter of Paul and the eternally patient Helen. Nice one.

Looking forward to episode 2…..any questions or feedback, please drop us a line on will5062@hotmail.com.

Cheers, keep well.