Day 13 Friday 16th Feb

09:30
Last day today.... its another hot one... 38'c... so we are off to spend the day down on Glenelg Beach... then back to pack our things... so we can chill out Saturday morning...

Email updates:

Pete

Cheers Pro. Believe me... I would have put in that info... but it lacked consistency....

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11:00

glenelg; We talked about this suburb of adelaide on one of the first few days. We didn't spend long here as we ran out of things to do.

its a seaside resort, renowned for its beach and jetty. We took a cab here (i didn't want to bore you all again with yet another glenelg tram experience) and had the driver drop us off at jetty road. We made our way to the beach front, past all the trendy cafe's and restaurants, and hired two deck chairs and an umbrela.

Its a hot day... 38'c, 20% cloud cover with a hot north easterly wind coming from inland. In short... Its hot. We grabbed a spot on the near empty beach. With umbrella firmly set in the sand and deckchairs up, we sit back in the shade and take in the view. There are a few people swimming in the sea, but i not that they do not go out that far. The furthest out is around 30m off shore and they are still only at waist height. This is probably becuase of white pointer sharks that have been known to lurk off the shore. Sharks do live and have been seen off these shores. Kayakers are braver and paddle out quite far. I've been in for a dip.. Adding the great southern ocean to the waters i have swam in; atlantic, pacific, north sea, baltic, indian, med, and now the great southern ocean. The southern ocean is extremely cold, and it took me 15m just to get my body adjuste dso i could actually brave the cold water.... But its a very welcome cold when its this hot.

i don't last long, a mere 10mins of sitting in the water, upto my shoulders before i walk back up the beach out of the sun under the shade of our umbrella. Lee's been quietly reading her book under the shade all the time. Its quiet and peaceful, not like on hot sunny beaches like bournemouth and brighton... Saying that.. Right on que, some hoons walk by and harrass a girl lieing solitary on the beach..... They walk off down the beach leaving her alone. But.. Other than that its quiet and peaceful. Boats do motor past everynow and then breaking the silence. Glenelg is quiet near the airport so we do get to see the planes stacked out to the north as they come in to land.

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13:00

the surf remains very calm... Akin to the tidal flow of the med. I've pursuaded lee to come for a little dip. Lee, after much persuasion actually gets upto her neck in the water, although we are not the only people who find the water 'too refreshing'.

More planes land, more boats go past... And more clouds migrate across our heads. Speaking of the skies, the cloud cover seems to have bolstered and it looks like we will have some reprieve from the fierce sun that beats on down from above. The tide is fully out now, leaving the jettys lower beams fully exposed, the anglers all bunched to the furthest point down the jetty. Lee reads her book as i continue to watch the world unravel. People arriving on the beach, laying their towels and trying to erect their umbrellas... There is a nack to get it to stop blowing away in the hot dry wind. kayakers falling in.. Usually on purpose to cool the body. The juvenile surfers who surf the small swell as the small waves hit the shore.

i suppose i should also mention whats going on in the news.... Sports wise there are a few things grabing the headlines; there is a new worry for the australian cricket squad as bret lee slips over and damages ligaments in a training session for the warm up for the game on today against nz. He's still named in the oz squad for the world cup, as is symonds, a power house allrounder, and a key to their oneday game. There was a great deal of fuss when stuart clarke was left out of the world cup squad, and i believe he's travelled to nz to replace lee. Soccer; all eyes on the grand final this weekend between adelaide an melbourne. The adelaide coach has been banned from the touchline for the final following his 'harsh words' he directed at the officials when thwy won their last penalty shootout. In the replays of hos reaction u could see him clearly run past the official and mouth the usual expletives before meeting his team to celebrate.

rugby league starts in a couple of weeks. The season is opened with the world club challenge. Last years grand final winners, brisbane bronco's are in the uk, and are set to play st helens in bolton in just over a weeks time. The bronco's played a warmup game in bridgend last night, beating the celtic cursaders 30-odd points to 6. The wcc heralds the begining of the rl season over here, although adelaide doesn't have a team in the nrl... Its mainly dominated by aussie rules... A game, as far as i can tell doesn't have any rules

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15:00

i've been for another couple of dips, had some icecream (we skipped lunch) and we will soon head back to the hotel. The wind has changed with the tide,a south westerly breeze is attempting to cool us, with little success. The sun is at its fiercest.

theres more people on the beach now... Some mad people are jumping of the jetty into less than 2m of water... .

We have less than 24 hrs left in adelaide, it will be a relief to get home and sleep in our own bed and be able to cook our own meals... I think we have had enough of hotel living.

time to go back to the hotel. Lee wants the tram... I would like a taxi. The tram wasn't a bad experience... Just tedious. I've been us to trams when i lived in dusseldorf, and from my times in antwerp... Maybe to lee its a novelty.

we need to pack this evening... Always a depressing thing to do at the end of ur holiday. Then we will have to decide wher eto go for dinner. I'm tempted to go to wok in a box, a fast food noodles service... But it may be a small italien we wanted to go to in the first week. We'll see. Then i can see us having a couple of drinks in the hotel bar and then a nice sleep. The last few nights we have both been slepping right through to 8am or 9am. So i can forsee a quick breakfast and update on the night before, and then checkout and a taxi ride ot the airport around 10.30am. Our flight leaves at 13:30pm, a 7.5hr qantas flight to singapore, where we have a 4-5hr wait before our big 14hr flight to Lhr.

We should get in aroind 5am in the morning... Which reminds me i need to book a cab to pick us up from, Lhr, this evening. Right ... Time to flag a taxi here in glenelg....

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15:30

lee gets her way.... We're on a tram heading for the city.

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18:00

all packed... :-(

showered, packed and changed, we have decided to have a drink before we head out for our last meal in adelaide. We've had a pretty good day at the beach.... I'm a tad sunburnt on my forhead... But apart from the big red patch streaming arcross my brow... Its barely noticeable.

australia lost the first 'best of 3 games' in nz. Its a record loss as well. But then... No gilchrist, ponting, symonds or lee.... Does remove a big backbone from the side.
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19:40

we tried to get a table at an italien.. But ended up down rundle street in a chinese. We walked all acoss town, then back on ourselves down rundle before deciding to taste the orient at 'silko', possibly the most original name for a chinese restaurant. You will all remember rundle st from last saturdays entry... Although i can't really remember what i said. Rundle st is a hive of activity 2nite... In fact walking through town we noticed the usual amount of teenage evavescence like 'crap goths'... Collect in huge clumps outside the shopping malls and cafe's.... The type that make spence and linz proper full on 110% goths (only kidding you 2.... Love the namecheck).

we plan to pay the bill and then move on to a couple of bars... Pending if they let me in with my thongs (ozzie for flip flops).

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20:15

we find our way to austral bar/hotel. Most bars are either part of hotels/cafe'/restaurants. I don't think we have found an out and out bar....

there's a dj on some decks, a couple of pinballs.. And quite a few people drinking. Last saturday this place looked heaving, then i discovered why... Its cheap and... Its cavenous. Theres a big bar that extends through a wall into another room. It looked busy.. But thats becuase everyone vcrowds to the areas nearest the entrance. We get drinks and linger on some stools at thw back of the bar... Lee giving mr evils as i type this. Some drunk guy even asks us to look after his seat and bag (including laptop), while he has a whizz. Amazing... I don't think i need to touch on the weirdo factor anymore do i? Did i cover the weirdo thing in adelaide? Haha.

Ant and Lee's top 5 favourite things that we have done;

Lee

1). See steve and jen. It was great to see them. We hadn't seen them since the summer, and was great to see a friendly face over here.

2). Kangaroo island. It was a great tour, with some great tour guides. There was a good group on the tour and we saw some great wildlife, from the koalas and roos to the seals and glossy backs.... The scenery was stunning.

3). Dolphins. We got to see wild dolphins close up. It was a great experience seeing them in the wild.

4). Wine. Yummy wine yummy cheese.

5). The big rocking horse... No not really... Little britain. Eh eh ehhhhhhh. But... I want that one...

Ant

1). Seeing steve and jen. We wanted to see them and were ready to fly over to see them for the night... It was just a matter of fitting it in. My biggest regret is not spending enough time over ther in mel. We could have easily sacrificed a day in the sun for a few more hours over in victoria.

2). Kangaroo island. Definetly want to go back for a few days.... Have apt's number and i've been told to call paul for a couple of days fishing. Great people.. Great times... Even tho they couldn't find a deadly snake for us to see.

3). Penfolds. Pretty much a private tour and tasting session... You can't get better than that.

4). England beating the aussies twice and kiwis one over here in the cb series. It was great to watch this... And the aussies actually gave england some repect saying they deserved it.... Unbelievable.

5). The weirdos. Lets just say they have amused me and given me something to talk about.

Lee's corner.. A bit written by Lee... All by her pretty little self:

ok well on a scale of 1-10 adelaode reaches at least 9.5, apart from the weirdos already mentioned there are also the weird shops e.g. High herbs, off ya tree and the bong shop! The hotel seems 2 attract weddings of the large and slightly strange of which i am now surrounded. Other than that we have met the most geniune people on earth who are more than happy 2 buy u a drink or help u in any way they can. And my last words god blesd air conditioning!!!!
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22:00

Walked back from the restaurant and got a txt from haiko so called him back... Am so not going to be ready for the cold feb weather. Still.... We have some amusement on our last night....

what a zoo our hotel bar ended out to be. The wedding is a bit more classy than the one the week before we witnessed (i.e. Its not full of stereotypical aussie fattys getting drunk and beating the crap out of each other).....its full of..... Well.. How do i describe... Well david walliams would say... Yellow complection, smells of soy sause... Cooks alot of noodles......

Don't think i need to say anymore.

Advice advice and more advice

whoever came out with the word advice is a genius... Also, cheers to whoever first mixed vodka with coke..... Genius and cheers to you both.

Lee and i have been chatting with another bar staff member.... And have been advised about some of our findings. The bar has emptied so lee and i have one last drink before retireing to bed for our last sleep in the city of ade-aliens (see what i did there?). I'm sure i'll round the tirp off tomorrow, but i must say i do like it here.... Despite its high number of weirdo's sa is a lovely part of australia. Every part of oz has been different... From the tranaquil noosa to the bustling sydney to the metropolitan melbourne... Adelaide is exactly like what i was told it would be.... When i told people we were going to adelaide i was asked ....ADELAIDE? why adelaide? And thats what it is like here.... Adelaide is an arty town that has a big cbd. This was brought to light how small adelaide actually was when we went back to mel. I like it here.... Not in the central part.... but further out in the burbs. The fishing os great... With kgw (king george whiting) on your doorstep as a catch... And surfing and the best wines in australia.... I've loved it.

quite alot for you to read today....... get back to work.....

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