Acker Bilk is playing Stranger on the Shore, and I feel very mellow, looking down on the beach at the perpetual playground of walkers, cartwheelers, swimmers and sea gazers. It is all so very busy. Had to smile at a scene on Saturday. If I was at all in doubt as to where I was, the wedding picture confirmed it had to be Australia! The bridal pair with their lemony bridesmaids had to stop posing to let a group of surfies past. Funny.

John has been heralding me with tales from his new friend, Dean. Dean is the safety officer on this job and recently survived a heart attack, giving John all the gory details. Still he has recovered, and his hobby is kite fishing. Apparently the line is suspended from the kite and the fisherman just zips about catching barramundi…sounds very energetic and quite scary.

But what I was about to say, the safety officer’s report last Wednesday caused a minor stir in the meeting. First item was a Stanley knife used to cut through this massive cable slipped and shimmied off the steel toe cap of the worker’s boot and went straight through the leather and cut the tendon of his big toe. So the poor Korean is in hospital having micro surgery and out of action for a while. Second item involved a guy who got bitten by a spider whilst sitting on the toilet, has a very sore bum and is in hospital too. Hmmm. Makes one a little more alert in some of these makeshift wooden loos in the parks we have been visiting recently.

I had to add my story to our after dinner chit-chat…about the shark that came right into the shore, obviously chasing something, and it was so big, and the fin was circling just like in Jaws. All the school kids, who were about to start their surfing lesson, shrieked and yelled, and I and a couple of other ladies just looked on, amazed. Were we seeing things??? Later in the afternoon there were the usual swimmers and surfers, totally unaware of the drama of the morning.

Keeping on the death or near death experiences, I had to chuckle at an account I heard of a journalist who had been to see Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’ at the Kings Theatre in Edinburgh. Just for your information, when Puccini got to Mimi’s death, he drew a skull and crossbones at the side of the manuscript score. Well, in Edinburgh, just as Mimi falls back into Rodolfo’s arms, about to expire, there was the loud ‘PANG PONG PANG PONG!’ of an ambulance tearing down Leven Street outside!!! Mimi started to giggle and the poor Rodolfo was nearly choking as he tried to sing! The audience were in fits.

John and I have been the Perfect Tourists. We have basked in the beautiful autumn sunshine, admiring the Botanic Gardens, learning new names for all the gum trees: Blue, Silver, Ghost and knotted and spotted and goodness knows what else. They are quite striking.

We also drove into the hills, to Lofty Peak (!) and visited a wildlife conservation park. That was so idyllic as at last we saw and fed the kangaroos, patted the koala, and saw all the other crazy creatures.

John told Dean about our visit and he was just so disparaging about the ‘damn roos’, and he had a problem at the weekend with an echidna in  his garden, which he tried to lift it out with a box…this creature has swords for prickles. Anyway after much pushing and pulling and animal cruelty later, he discovered that the thing had its snout caught in the corner of the box, and was stuck! Oh the trials of gardening in Adelaide!

Books are so expensive here. I walked along the coast to Brighton (!) 4 kms there and 4 back, in my MBT trainers, so it was like carrying two buckets of cement at the end of my legs. (I am hoping this walking will get me as fit as my friend, Marion, who is training for her marathon in her pink bra.) Anyway I stopped for an ice cream and looked about Brighton, and was horrified to find the second hand books are $10…about £7. Everything is so expensive compared to the UK. At the moment all my retail therapy is spent in the supermarkets. The choices are wonderful, and I come home, my bag full of delights, and there just aren’t enough meals to justify them.  Television is OK, the advertising channels are a pain and of course EVERYONE is talking Royal Weddings. The poor Republicans don’t stand a chance for change at the moment! I am in my element, and like everyone else, I shall be glued on the big day! I fear I will be alone as I doubt it is John’s thing. He can go and fly a kite if he wants.

Rasta Mouse is alive and well in Adelaide!

Still feel weird and lacking in direction. Need to get out and DO something. Need to make friends, need to finish my book, finish my embroidery, do some yoga, learn Tai Chi….but I’m teetering on the early days syndrome. John is OK, as he has work. I feel like someone described some woman once… ‘She bathes and waits for his return!’