SA Steam Trains

What is more Australian then appearing in a South Australian Steam Train documentary????


Yeah, I couldn't think of anything either. So on Sunday (in order of appearance) Leanne, I, Natalie, and Sally all took our part in a1950's documentary.


Yeah the outfits were hideous, the place was freezing, and two takes took quite a bit of time. On the other hand, we laughed about the ridiculousness, helped out an amazing co-worker (her dad is the director) and made yet another unforgettable memory.

The documentary is for the town of Peterbrough which is attempting to increase tourism through opening a steam train museum. The documentary will end up being about 30 minutes in length and will show at the museum for the whole world to see. We are still not sure if we will be attending the grand opening as the museum is about 2 hours from Adelaide, but we have been known to do some crazy things...

City-to-Bay

The big City-To-Bay race was this past weekend. Adelaide's largest running race with participation at 29,000 (almost the population of the city center...I think). The race starts in the city and follows the Anzac highway down to the beach, for a total of 12ks. The longest race I've participated in thus far.

Sally and I have been training for this for quite awhile, and while we didn't exactly hit our target, we got pretty dang close and are happy with the results (Target = 60 min; HF time = 63.11). We did get caught up in the people doing the 6k race and 3k race who start in the middle of the road, but that is really no excuse - just have to be a bit quicker at weaving and ducking around the crowds.

All in all a very good day. We ran with the SA Autism foundation - which was the KPMG charity of choice. We were supplied an okay breakfast (not so great for the vegetarians) and a free massage (great for anyone who just ran 12k). The weather couldn't have been better and the street entertainment, well, the street entertainment was there. Can't say it's the thing that got me through the race.

Now we just have to find the next thing to motivate us to work out...I have a feeling it might be the swim suit season which is approaching.

Sad, Sad Day

Now I've never been one to follow a sports team in my spare time (except for the stint at CSU where I had to go to about every football and basketball game - rain or shine - no questions asked). But since I've been down here I have become very fond of the Mighty Adelaide Crows. The Crows are one of the city's football teams. Not football like the Americans see it and not football as Europeans see it (aka soccer to the US) but football as the Australians see it.

The game is pretty tough to describe and I must admit that I do not understand all the rules - but the ball is shaped like a rugby ball, there are no pads or helmets, there is tackling, you can hit the ball to another teammate or you can kick the ball to one of your teammates (if you catch a ball that was kicked to you then you are "safe" and no one can tackle you). The ultimate objective is to kick the ball between two posts for 6 points, but if you miss and you make it between two posts which are a bit wider you get 1 point (just because you tried).

Anyway, my point is that Mark and I went to a Crows game and I have become a fan. It was finals month and the Crows made it to the quarter finals to get a penalty called in the last few seconds to loose. It was a sad, sad day.

The Show

It is one of the biggest events in Adelaide (at least since we have been here) - and if I didn't know better I would have said I was at the Montana state fair. Although there were no Indian Tacos, there were corn dogs, fried potatoes and lots of good people watching. There were also the bulls, alpacas, goats, and all the other great show animals.

The Show originally started as an Ag fair for all the farmers and ranchers from the Hills to come into town and show off what they had been working on all year. They still do the competitions (none of which we attended), but it has expanded into your typical carnie affair. Sketchy rides and games you can never win galore (but yes we were tempted and no I still have no big stuffed animal).

One main difference to the MT fair was that there were no beer gardens (and no Bad Larry's - of which neither of them are named Larry). To substitute the beer gardens, Adelaide brought in what they do best...wine. You could (and we did) try about every type of wine that is made in the state (which is quite a bit)...and better yet, they held wine tasting classes so you could increase the number of adjectives in your vocabulary to describe wine. My favorite? Herbaceous.

The biggest thing at The Show are the infamous Show Bags. What is a show bag you ask? Well to tell you the truth I'm still a bit confused. You walk into a gigantic building and there are all different bags that you can purchase ranging from $12 to $30. Each bag had a theme and was filled with crap related to the theme. For instance you could by (and Keith did) a Skittles show bag that was filled with all the different skittle packs you can imagine. Or there was a black angle show bag filled with a black halo, black wings and a bright pink wig. There was also the all man show bag (good thing Simone purchased this one or I might not have known about it) containing two Sports Illustrated type magazines, an energy drink, and a thing of easy mac. Mark and I did walk around for a good 15 minutes and decided that we would pass on the show bags this year (to ponder until next year).

And that was The Show - a good time to share with our new friends who are turning into our family. Can't wait to see what the other festivals are going to bring.