The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good: Pretty much everything. The best is the coffee - there is a real coffee machine at work (one that makes lattes). There is a local coffeehouse called CIBO, which is some of the best I've had.

Adelaide is also called the 20 minute city (i.e. you can get anywhere is 20 minutes or less). The mayor is getting a little worried though, because last census it was turning int the 25 minute city. From our place, we can get the a really nice beach going west in about 15 and a great hiking trail driving east in about 20. But what is even better are all the bike lanes. There is one on every major street and if one doesn't exist the cars are conscientious about bikers on the road. We did buy a car, and other then our tourist outings, it doesn't get driven much during the week.

The Bad: Shopping hours...9:00 - 5:00 almost everyday for your groceries and retail stores. There is late night shopping on Thursdays in the suburbs and Friday in the city where places may stay open until 7:00 or 9:00, but I rarely plan ahead for that. With these store hours you have to be aware of what food you have or may want for dinners. We did find one small shop (IGA) that tends to stay open later, but is a bit on the pricey side. So we have become domesticated in the fact that we go food shopping on the weekend and "plan" our dinners for the week. Luckily every Saturday there is a huge market in the city that is entertaining to go to.

The Ugly: Really there is nothing ugly around here. The entire city is clean and pleasant to live in. There are far fewer homeless people on the streets like in Denver - you will see one or two every now and then, but not that often. The city is surrounded by park lands, which means lots of green grass, beautiful trees and plenty of soccer fields . No one seems to have any pickup games on the weekends, but we are hoping to find a few players to start some.

This weekend we are getting our first visitor!!! So exciting - since he is Mark's cousin I'm leaving it to Mark to determine what we do...but I have a feeling it will involve a wine valley and some good food...