While Not Working

Six months ago, Roger was struggling to ride a bicycle.  His back hurt, all his other joints had joined in out of sympathy, and he was looking for exciting opportunities that said joints could tolerate.  At the same time I was talking excitedly about the possibilities of storing a kayak in our shed in Milang with close proximity to Lake Alexandrina and associated kayaking opportunities.  I've never paddled a kayak in my life other than a weekend in white water on the Derwent River 40 years ago, but it can't be that hard, right? What do you know, next minute Roger had ordered himself a modular, pedal powered, bright orange kayak complete with auxiliary motor, fishing rod holders, and token paddles. After four months of excruciating waiting  a whole pile of boxes turned up at our front door and Roger was tasked with turning them into a kayak. Which he did.   The kayak fitted in the car although there wasn't much space left around it which didn't bode well for our ...

 A couple of months ago we went to the Chihuly exhibition down at the Botanic Gardens.  Chihuly is a glass artist who specialises in large outdoor installations and manages a whole team of glass blowers, twirlers, and general glass-manipulators who help bring his visions to fruition.  Having seen it all in the daylight we waited until the weather was nice and went back to see it at night. So did a whole heap of other people.  We tried turning up twice, in fact, and then we gave in and bought tickets like sensible people.  Like everyone else we cracked two laps of the park: once to see everything and then a repeat to see it when it was properly dark.  I won't say too much more, I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Iceberg in the lotus garden. It wasn't glass either: some type of resin or plastic instead. This was the most recognisable piece given it was on posters everywhere in town advertising the exhibition.     As darkness fell the exhibi...

Our house lies under the approach to Adelaide airport.  Planes roar overhead with a regularity that makes me thankful that Adelaide airport is not the busiest of airports.  After the planes comes their vortex, a wake of disturbed air that roars and snaps and ruffles the tops of the trees with a promise of turbulence. Roger has never been happier, or more closely glued to Flight Radar. The planes that come in to Adelaide airport usually aren't very big in the grand scheme of aeroplane sizing.  We watch Qantas, Virgin, and Alliance shuttle back and forth to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and minor destinations such as Alice Springs and Hobart.  Roger runs outside to supervise the passing of the 'big' ones: Qatar, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, the occasional freight special like the one that brought elephants from Perth to Adelaide en route to Monarto Zoo.   A couple of nights ago Roger relaxed in the lounge room, having supervised Qatar's approach to the airp...

The Council announced, with great fanfare on social media, that the boardwalk around the headland between Port Noarlunga and Christie's Beach was complete. A teaser. I got excited.  The boardwalk had been under construction for some time and completion meant that people such as myself, cycling or walking the coastal pathway, no longer had to puff and pant up over the headland but could saunter at their leisure along the boardwalk.  The pictures on social media looked impressive.  Roger and I got to planning: ride our bikes to the train, catch the train, ride along the esplanade and the boardwalk, turn around and reverse the process.  If the cafes at Noarlunga should seduce us with tasty comestibles so much the better. Off we went on our bicycles. "My goodness I'm unfit!" said Roger, after cycling 50m. He cycled another 50m and discovered that it wasn't him at all - his front tyre was flat as a tack and quite unrideable. "I'll take your spare bike instead...

We're half way through our time in a house under the flight path in Adelaide's suburbs. We have two dogs in our care while their humans are off gallivanting and enjoying a winter Christmas/New Year with a dose of Northern Lights thrown in. One dog has short legs and the other has long legs, which causes a distinct mismatch of ability on their daily walks, and they refuse to walk alone.  Short becomes hysterical with excitement when walks are imminent: he breaks into paroxysms of delight when a person collects doggie bags and  struggles to be still long enough for application of his lead and harness. He pulls like a steam train all the way to the end of the driveway and gallops at double pace while Long takes a leisurely stroll, sniffing at this and that and gobbling up anything that is vaguely food-related.  And then, half way along the first block, Short runs out of puff and the walk finishes at glacial pace. Long is very patient. Short, I suspect, has trained his humans...