December 12, 2014 Adelaide, Drinks and Dinner

 Today was a bit of a lazy day for me.  I finished the Call of the Wild and now will be working to read my next classic, Huckleberry Finn.  It still seems strange at 62 I’m reading books that most people my age probably read growing up.  My elementary school teachers didn’t require much reading other than the standard readers that students read back in the late 50’s and early 60’s.  Then I went to a private Lutheran School for two years and spent half of each day with bible studies, passage memorization, religion and German.  Wie gehts…that’s about all I remember, except I can still count to ten in German. 

Adelaide, as I mentioned yesterday, sets as an ocean-based city.  The city is known for its education and several important universities are located here in Adelaide.  The University of Adelaide is ranked in the top 1% in 11 research fields. The city has a beautiful downtown area, where the Hilton is located, with a large square and roundabout that centralizes the city.  I did get a chance to go to the convention and art center area that is situated on a beautiful river park grounds.  You can see people sailing and paddling boats along the river that runs through Adelaide.  Like all the other cities I’ve been to in Australia the streets are clean and buildings are very well kept up.  The architecture is a bit more Victorian in some places but I find that in most of the other cities in Australia as well.  Obviously the British influence over the last 300 years had a lot to do with the building influences.  I also notice, in the bigger cities in Australia, how they demand more parks and recreation area for families and citizens. Australia has a culture of being outside a lot and are avid sportsmen.  The sports program that is supported by the federal government starts from a young age.  Children are expected to be involved in some sort of athletic activity starting at a very young age and right up through secondary school. I hardly notice any overweight kids.   I do know when the USA started to devise its Olympic Training Program and facilities thirty years ago, came to Australia to see how their programs were administered and built.  Too bad the US didn’t institute the children level athletics endeavor.

Tonight I will be meeting with Julie Clifford, who was the college director for me at Carrick College back in 2011-12.  I find her to be a lively one, always with a smile on her face and always a kind word.  She is bringing her friend Barb and her husband around for a drink after work.  I always have to remember that other people have jobs when I come calling to their towns/cities.  We meet promptly at 6:30PM  in the lobby lounge.  I find Barb to be an interesting lady.  She owns her own beauty salon with several hairdressers in her employee and sounds if it is very successful.  I find this lovely lady to be very witty with a very talkative nature that I find adorable.  Julie and her husband have a funding ball to attend so I ask Barb if she would like to join me for dinner.  I had heard of a good Italian restaurant just across the street from the hotel, Auge.  Barb says without a reservation we would never get in.  Well don’t ever tell me I can’t do something.  I pop on over to the concierge and ask if he would ring up the restaurant to get a reservation.  He too says it wouldn’t do any good because generally on a weekend one would have to reserve a week out to get a table.  I ask him to call anyway just to give it a whirl.  He dials up the place and he is shaking his head, which doesn’t look promising.  So I ask him if I could talk to the maitre’d, whom I find he was talking.  I introduced myself and I start to stretch a tale a bit.  I hope Don Graham and the Post don’t mind if I name dropped at bit.  I told them I was from the US and I had worked for the Washington Post…not a lie mind you. I had heard that this was the finest Italian restaurant in all of South Australia and I would be very disappointed if I had to be turned away.  He was silent and then said, would I mind sitting at the bar?  or outside?  I’m in.  So Ms. Barb and I walk over to the restaurant and had a fabulous dinner outside in front of the restaurant.  I did forget to mention Ms. Barb had actually brought with her an excellent Penfold’s red that was just divine.  It was like drinking velvet.  It was fun having dinner with a mature person with no expectations for anything else.  We spent about two hours at the place that also had one of the best waiters I’ve had in awhile.  He was helpful with first serving and entrée dinner selections.  Ms. Barb caught a cab back to her home and I walked across the street back to my hotel, with a bit of a buzz going.  A great night, great company.