Adelaide, Australia (2008, 2009)

2008: Carmel and I are good friends with our next door neighbors in Oxford, Mark and Kate.  They got engaged and we flew out to their hometown of Adelaide in Australia for their wedding and some holiday.  It was nice and hot and sunny there and we hung out on the beach a bunch.  At night when you swam in the ocean, the ocean lights up momentarily with fluorescent green from the plankton. 

 

2009: Mark and Kate had moved back to Australia and gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. I found myself back in Australia for a conference so I went to visit them for a few days.


Arriving on a new continent.

 


Landing in Adelaide.

 


Carmel cools her feet in the sea.

 


There was a professional photographer there, but here are a couple snaps I took after the ceremony.

 


The flower girl desperately tries to save her dress from the water.

 


The last beach wedding we went to featured a fat guy in speedos as well.

 


Mark and I kick back a beer for a moment at the reception.

 


Watching the sunset.

 


Beach panoramic.

 


We needed a different kind of umbrella here.

 


We did a stroll of the lovely CBD (central business district).

 


Near the university.

 


Fantastic weather in South Australia, while England was getting hit by a record storm.

 


We checked out the Aboriginal stuff at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

 


One interesting thing about the Aboriginals is that they tended to paint from a birds-eye-view perspective.

 


This guy is totally flashing a West Coast gang sign.

 


East Side muthawanker!

 


Adelaide was lovely!

 

2009


So this is the guy who was kickin’ up a storm every time Mark and I were playing Street Fighter in Oxford!

 


Nothing’s changed.

 


Okay we didn’t play video games the whole time.

 


Albino roo.

 


Cute and friendly.

 


The one on the left would periodically exclaim, “Hello cocky!” while the one on the right would smile at you to lure you in, then lunge at you to scare you, which would give it heaps of amusement.

 


Pretty blue bird.

 


Seriously, that seat does not look that comfortable.

 


Saying hello to passerby’s along the bridge.

 


We hung out on the beach a bit.

 


Stylin’.

 


Doing some acro-yoga with Kate, who used to just watch me do it in Oxford, but she couldn’t participate because she was pregnant.

 


We went to the world-renowned McLaren Vale for some wine tasting.

 


Mark and I sampled the wines.

 


While Kate lounged with Felix.

 


Some of the wines we sampled.

 


A rather posh outing.

 


That is, until Felix needed a diaper change in the parking lot, but it was so windy that diapers were flying everywhere. I played wicket-keeper/catcher to try to catch all the flying stuff.

 


We stopped by one more vineyard for comparison.

 


This place had a really cool fence and generally scenic landscape design.

 


Old-school windmill.

 


Just chatting and drinking wine.

 


Cheers Adelaide!