Snoskred Travels

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Ah Adelaide, I knew you well..

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I’ve been here over a year now. It seems like forever. But sometimes, memories of the city I used to call home come to me as a surprise. I actually spent a whole night dreaming of places in Adelaide. So for those of you who might live there and consider leaving there, here is your future in one simple blog post.

The Myer Centre.

Originally built to house the new Myer, and containing two outrageous floors of amusements on levels four and five in the part that was not Myer but was called “Dazzleland” including an indoor roller coaster, I did spend quite a lot of time in this building over the years. It’s a shame that they quickly shut Dazzleland down. I have fond memories of the roller coaster. Here is an ad about it!

However in Adelaide nothing good stays around for too long, it seems. Downtown was yet another example. Magic Mountain, that was another. Anything involving fun, you can’t have that, apparently. That’s what the Gold Coast is for. People would rather save money to go there than have fun things in their own state! ;(

The Botanical Gardens.

How lucky you are to have such a gorgeous place right in the middle of the city. Hidden in the middle of the Botanical Gardens there is a hothouse of such goodness, and it contains a pond which is teeming with tropical live-bearing fish. It is one of the most relaxing places on the planet, I think. How long is it since you were there, people reading this who live in Adelaide? What’s your excuse, huh? And I won’t even go into the goodness of the Zoo.

The food.

Oddly, this is one thing I really truly miss. Leaf and Ladle, which makes great soup and salads in town. The Sushi Train. And some local places we used to go to and eat great food. Our names for them were not the same as the real names for them and I can’t remember the real names for them! But there was a great place on Grange Road near Tapleys Hill Road which make the best burgers. And there’s a great chicken place on Tapleys Hill Road which made the best roast chicken and chips. And Barnacle Bills. And Vilis Cafe.

The public transport.

You don’t think it is any good? Move out of the state for a bit, you’ll think again. The trains run on time. The tram is brilliant. Even the buses were reasonable. The 99b, I miss that greatly. But I loved the trains, and the last two places we lived were very close to train stations, which I loved.

The city.

I haven’t really had much of a chance to explore the city of Sydney. The main part of the town where I live is not very exciting really. But Adelaide city, there was always so much to see and do and places to go and even if you didnt have anything to do there was a lot of fun to be had watching other people. The shops were great. I miss the shops.

However, there’s some things I don’t miss, like the slow driving everywhere, the 60km speed limits, and the beaches. Not when I have these new beaches here, and great snorkelling within a short drive from home.

adelaide, Aussie Culture, growing up

Message received, content noted.

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Somewhere within a 50km radius of where I live, there is a town known as Sussex Inlet. When I was working, customers from that place were always.. how can I put this nicely.. trouble. For example – a lady wanted to return an item she bought from us because it did not match her curtains. The item? An LCD tv set. Now I don’t know about you, but I rarely try to match my electrical appliances with my curtains.

So the other half and I avoided the place because we thought it was a haven for lunatics. Then one day, we took a wrong turn, and somehow ended up there. I have to say once you’ve been there you know why everyone is so loony – the place is amazingly incredible. I go loony just driving around the place. To any Adelaideians reading this – imagine West Lakes, but with crystal clear green colored water. Most of the houses there are waterfront, somehow.

sussex

Of course, like all places in NSW, they have an RSL club, and a bowling club. Soon one of the two will be having an AC/DC tribute band drop past to visit, and all day long today while we were driving, every second song turned out to be an AC/DC song. I think there is some higher force at work, and it wants us to go to the AC/DC tribute show. However it is on a weekend when family will be here to visit so we might not be able to make it. :(

It’s been a long day, more when I have got some decent sleep!

adelaide, country life, electrical appliances, New South Wales

Invasion

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There’s not long to go till Christmas now, and the population appears to be growing. There’s been an explosion of interstate number plates

– Victorians

EEK! no offence to the Vics reading this, I know there’s a few of you, but damn many of your fellow Victorians have absolutely no idea how to drive! The worst ones are the ones with numberplates that say “On the move” because you can bet, they won’t be. Moving, that is. Or, they’ll be trying to move into your car with their car. One almost merged into us today. I usually let out a scream of terror and say “Look, a Victorian, keep off ooooooo” when I see a VIC numberplate.. and the other half knows this means stay well away from that car. ;) I had not seen one for about 8 months. What an idyllic time that was. I forgot how terrifying they were.

– Canberrans

OMG run and hide. Those people live in a state where they have high speed limits all over the place. These people want to get where they are going fast, and they want you out of the way, and they’re happy to run you off the road if possible.

– Queenslanders

SCARY! one drove into our estate today, it was almost enough to make me go looking for the boxes and get packing. You just never know what those people are thinking, but you often suspect they have a hidden stash of guns around somewhere.

– South Australians

RUN AWAY! Hey, I used to live there, I’m happy to say those people have no idea how to merge. And you need to merge a lot here in NSW. NSW people can merge at 80kms an hour. South Australians can’t do it unless the road is clear of other vehicles. That’s not merging, people. That’s something entirely different.

The worst invasion of all is the City People

If this were being made into a movie, they would call it “Invasion of people with carrots wedged firmly in their rear passage” and it would actually be a comedy. The other half and I sat at the petrol (for you Americans, I mean Gas) station for about 20 minutes today laughing at the sitcom unfolding before our eyes.

First, this chick who was probably 50-60 was with another chick of the same vintage. They were in a Subaru Forrester (there’s your first clue right there, a 4wd for people who have no clue!) and they were clearly suffering from the heat – it hit 27 degrees here today whoa evil I was here on a day when it was 45 degrees C, and we went bushwalking, you city people are WEAK!, but they also needed to discuss majorly important issues as one of them pumped petrol all over the side of her car, and herself.

One chick went in to pay, and the other chick picked up the windscreen washer out of the bucket next to the pump, put it aside, and proceeded to tip buggy dirty water all over the side of her car to wash the petrol off. She did not notice the watering can (full of *clean* water and there for the purpose of washing petrol off your car) sitting right next to the windscreen washer bucket.

They had a Sydney City Petersham Subaru numberplate identifier, but I knew they were from the city long before I noticed that, because they were walking around like they’d just been cavity searched, by a guard with really huge hands.

Next, the guy in the car next to us filled up his boat tank with petrol, but forgot to put the lid on before he put it in the car. Petrol went everywhere. That’s a nightmare waiting to happen right there.

Then a guy in a Jeep Cherokee pulled up so far from the petrol bowser pump thing that you could have parked two cars in between the car and the hose thing. He then tried to make the hose reach his petrol tank, which was on the *other* side of the car. He realised it would not work, and then tried to get closer to the pump. It took a good 5 minutes of moving the car around somewhat aimlessly before he managed it.

Shopping is a nightmare, you can’t get a park. Lunchtime is pure evil, because everyone wants to go to little cafes and eat. The shops are open to midnight here, so my strategy for the next two weeks is, if we need anything, we’re going after 8pm.. :)

Australia, city people, country life

Yay! It’s here!

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Today’s a really cool day. I was just watching Bed Of Roses (and what a great chick flick that is too, too much perfection!) and the doorbell rings and right away I know it’s the other half cos it doesn’t just ring once, it rings like 20 times like we do.. :) and he says he has a surprise, and opens the garage and backs in my parents car, and I figure out fairly quickly that it has finally got here..

surprise

I’ve smudged out his name because he does have an extremely unique name. ;) For the newer readers to the blog, my other half won a competition to go to Thailand and make his own washing machine in the factory there, and then he boxed it up, and it’s been on a boat ever since, and now it is here..

And I still have not managed to look at the photos from his trip yet. I suppose I should get around to it, right? ;)

electrical appliances, movies, travel

Eek!

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The weather is warming up, and this means the creepy crawlies are on the increase. I believe these encounters come in threes as any sane person does. :) Here’s this week’s three.

1. 3am the other morning I went into the kitchen to get a drink and found a typical house spider on the roof looking down at me.

2. Walking into my bedroom I spotted a house spider on the floor.

3. Returning home to my parents from the pub the other night, and trying to squeeze past my Dad’s car in the garage, I spotted a large redback near the ground.

Me “There’s a redback”

Dad “No it’s not”

Me “Yes it is!”

Mum “She’s right it is”

me – grabs spider spray and attacks spider with it, making the spider vanish behind a box

Dad comes over and pulls the box out so he can find out whether or not it is a redback. It is, of course.

Dad “Yes, it is a redback.”

Me “I must spray the entire house now”

Dad “But it’s dark! Do it tomorrow”

Me “Ok, but only because I don’t live here”

Always when I see a spider, I actually scream. The second one, I screamed so loud the *spider* jumped backwards. It was hilarious! I would have laughed was I not in mortal fear. :) I can laugh now that it is dead. Sort of. However I am also worried, that was in my bedroom, what if he/she had companions? What if they saw what happened and decide to crawl on me when I am sleeping, biting me all over? This is really my only fear, I hate the crawly things and kill them on sight, leaving their dead bodies around as a reminder to other spiders this is a dangerous place for them.

We once had a spider that crawled into our quilt when we’d hung it on the clothesline. For two weeks, the pair of us had bites all over us but we couldn’t work out why. Then one day I walked into the bedroom to spot it crawling out of the covers. I killed it, no more bites, and you can bet I have never hung anything on the line ever since. Oh no, stuff goes into the dryer, and the hotter the better.

However I think I’ve got off very easy because my cats have actually left a bunch of bodies lying around the house lately, they have been killing plenty of them and they like to leave them where we can see them, too but only so we praise them. Thank {insert your deity here} for the cats!

Earlier today I was having a chat with a friend on skype and I spotted several large house spiders outside on the fence. This calls for serious action. I have to get the spider spray so poisonous that I have a really bad reaction to it – the Mortein Surface Spray that works for 6 months. And it did last time, I did the house in February before we moved in and we really had very few creepies. Though it also killed the crickets in the shed and I am hanging out for the crickets to come back, I don’t want to dead them! So I will have to be careful where I spray. But the shed needs doing, it’s probably got redbacks in it too. :(

Redbacks are quite poisonous, those of you reading this who are not from Australia. I believe they despatch you from the planet in about 15 minutes.

Is your skin crawling reading this? Feel like stuff is crawling on you? It’s ten times worse for me writing it considering I’ve had three spider run-ins in less than three days ;)

Australia, spider

Kitties Fighting!

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kittysuper

They both want to sleep on The Other Half’s suitcase. At the moment it seems Big Kitty has won the prize, but it’s only a matter of time before Grumpy turns up to have another shot at the title of Queen Kitty.. :)

How do you like The Other Half’s idea of putting fluro tape around the bag so he would be able to tell which one is his? It worked really well but let’s hope no other travellers spotted it otherwise they’ll all be doing it which will defeat the whole point.. ;)

kitties, The Other Half, travel