Zoo, Waterslides and Fireworks

Historically I have associated zoos with money making machines and a part of me has felt saddend by the restricted homes of many of its occupants. The kids and I visited the Monarto zoo today and my view of zoos has changed entirely. The Monarto Zoo sits about 10km outside of Murray Bridge, a quick easy day's break from the doldrums of Mum and her school agenda. Given the size of the zoo, similar to Dubbo but larger, we loaded the 'zoo' bus and toured the grounds. You can occasionally disembark and grab a closer look at the animals or listen to zookeeper chats if kids are feeling cooperative. What amazed me is the immensity of the breeding program at the zoo and in turn the role zoos have played at returning near extinct animal populations to at the least protected numbers. The exchange of animals between zoos and the reintroduction of animals into the wild is huge. Also to the kids' amusement there was a touch/feel section where you could look at the bones/fur of the range of animals who have lived at the zoo and have met an their ultimate demise. Quite cool to look at the hoof of a giraffe or hold the lower portion of an emu leg. (That was Jen - now it's my turn)

Yesterday we decided to do a day in Adelaide and its surrounds as soon we'll be heading out of the area - onwards ho! With the aim of checking out the Science and Tech museum we put ourselves at the whim of Fiona. some loose instructions from the internet and info centre personnel - none with any real idea of whether this place actually currently existed. In the end we found it in the old (and hidden) stock exchange building with the heart dropping sign on the door - "Open Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm" - it was Saturday. After some lunch in the local food fair we decided to head to Glenelg - a suburb of Adelaide with a beach and amusement park. En route a shiny blue falcon sped by followed by 2 police cars in hot pursuit. From the road we could see the helicopter above tracking the chase - and we thought we could only experience 'Cops' in LA! All very exciting. The Glenelg Amusement complex was suprisingly new with 3 large water slides, an arcade of games, mini-golf, a carousel and a very slow ferris wheel. The slides were great - would've been right up Uncle Fraser and Craig's alley. We found a nice wharf restaurant area and gawked at the tarty wedding celebrations going on (A short white dress just didn't seem appropriate!) while enjoying some very fresh sushi/sashimi. A walk on the beach, a short drive, some serious parking searching and a couple km walk brought us to Victoria Park for the opening of the Adelaide festival - a fireworks display put on by Group F - from France. Our rather late-ish arrival put us a bit far back from the lower firework displays which seemed likely to set the local woods on fire - you could imagine the headlines! The higher and louder fireworks were as usual pretty spectacular and Cole was jumping up and down in excitement and awe. We're off to the Barossa today and the top of Mount Lofty. Looking forward to hearing and maybe seeing Canada woop some American ass in the gold medal ice hockey game which should reach our shores tomorrow! Go Canada!

Aidan breaks 1 min., Cole does his first races, we amble onwards!

Sorry to have missed a couple of days - I've been fighting for the internet link with Jen who is currently doing the books. After almost a year of trying (but not much training) Aidan has finally broken the elusive 60 sec mark in his freestyle. He's been training almost every evening with the local swim club and it's paid off. His previous best was 1:04 and he dropped to 58.9! Cole was smoking fast as well given that he was barely doing dog paddle a couple weeks ago and clocked a 1:25 in his 50m backstroke and 1:20 in his freestyle - very impressive! We've had to put our imminent trip to Alice Springs on hold as for some reason my registration in the NT won't allow me to locum in the hospital there as a GP emergency doctor or ED Registrar - it doesn't make much sense but oh well - might be a blessing in disguise. We'll probably take our time through the Flinder's Ranges, head up to Coober Pedy then back down to Port Lincoln and the Eyre peninsula en route to WA and maybe some more work. Maybe we'll get back to Alice from the top end or look out for pertinent conferences in the area for a family trip via Qantas. This being our last weekend in the Adelaide area we think we'll try to get into the Barossa Valley and tour around Adelaide and the Port a little more.

Back at the Bridge

Caught up with Jen and kids at the airport and as we were in Adelaide decided to head to the Fringe Festival currently on show. It's sort of carny meets circus/music/theatre/street entertainer comedy fest all meshed into one with amusement rides, food stalls, and small theatres for puppet, theatrical shows, jazz/ opera etc. The kids were obviously more interested in the carny amusement rides and some circus training - the rest seemed a bit overpriced and desperate really. Would have been nice to check out some of the evening comedy et al but the kids wouldn't have survived or likely been allowed in for that matter. Prior to collecting me at the airport the kids had a visit of Port Adelaide, visited an old ship where families had come across from the motherland and did a bit of sight seeing. Jen was understandably a little waxed from the past few days without someone to hand the kids to - resistent journal writers and confined caravan spaces can wear on you after a little while! I've organized just over a week left of work in Murray Bridge and then we'll head out to explore a few more spots in South Australia before trekking into the middle. Not sure if it will go ahead as yet as for some reason the Northern Territory has me conditionally registered as a GP and this presents a problem if the locum agency has me working in the emergency department as a registrar. Will hopefully get this sorted in the next day or so and still keep these plans.

Sucker's Pair-a-dice

I promise - here's my last slag - must be feeling a bit vitreous being away from my family or something. Decided to take a run along the beach from where I'm staying towards Surfer's Paradise - a couple of words that should bring to mind a magnitude of beautiful rolling waves, a line up of surfers steadily catching each roller as it crests towards shore as well as some palm trees, perhaps Jack Johnson idly strumming his guitar at the base of said trees, feeling the serenity and harmony of life all mixing into one. Alas - nothing could be further from the truth - about the only thing going for it is the beach which is long, sandy and apparently eroding as far as the eye can see. Palm trees (if ever there) have been supplanted by a seemingly unending skyline of high-rise hotels and apartments. One knows they're entering this facade as its gate of luminescence - the golden arches of a two-story Maccas - stands tall and true heralding entry to this fabled land. Perhaps it is fitting that such an anachronism of "food" should gate such a community based more on looks rather than substance - a warning of its failure to fulfill what it's name proclaims. The sort of place you'd expect to to see a lot of fuzzy dice dangling over the dashboard, bling bling fashion sense and a whole lotta posers looking for an elusive paradise that exists only in their minds - alas - Sucker's Pair-a-dice - good riddance!

The Gold ? Coast - looks more trashy to me.

Finished up my preliminary ultrasound training today and can now make my way around the controls of my machine and actually see something that makes sense on the screen. We were run through the motions by a rather frenetic little woman who seemed to be flying off in every direction at once - made life interesting. I've been staying up the road from the venue and have to walk a couple of kms back and forth. Maybe it's where I'm located, but the restaurants and apartments in the area seem to be stuck in the 70's and deteriorating, giving a pseudo-third world feel without the razor wire fencing or glass embedded rock walls. The contrast of the Conrad-Jupiter Casino and Pacific Fair mall to the surrounding area is grossly apparent with plenty of pre-mix cans and beer bottles scattered through the parks and walkways. All in all it gives the place a rather trashy feel so I've been staying relatively close to home at my hotel and enjoying the facilities.

Jen and the kids have reported a relatively slow productive day on the schoolwork side of things with Cole managing a mere 6 words an hour or there abouts - astutely affirming his ability to procrastinate and sulk thereby delaying gratification - perhaps a good thing? I'm sure he'll eventually get with the program - the quicker you get your work done - the sooner you can do fun things. Jen sounded a bit burnt out by the end of the day yesterday - I'll catch up with her tonite to see how the last 24hrs have gone. I fly back tomorrow and get back into the clinic on Monday for another couple of weeks. Looking forward to being back with the wife and kids and out of this part of Oz.

And the piano fell....

Decided to ride to work for a change - turned out to be a bit longer/tougher ride than anticipated. As I headed across the narrow pedestrian path beside The 'Murray Bridge' - just wide enough for my handlebars and shoulders - I scraped along the side briefly with my arm avoiding a long drop and inevitable splash but putting a hole in my new shirt and scraping my arm - whoops! The wind wasn't friendly and seemed to attack whichever direction I headed but I made it to the hospital eventually and did my round. It was a beautiful facility, appearing almost recently refurbished - the kind of new that you could smell. I was on as one of the 'emergency doctors' at the clinic and could barely keep up with the other two GPs who seemed to be seeing 2 patients for every one of mine - must have been the computer slowing me down? While I was boldly trying to see my share of patients, Jen, the boys and Piper were out on the town checking out some of the local sites and parks - I'm told - nothing all too exciting. I met up with them at the pool again and this time it was my turn to jump in with the senior group. I started with some serious gusto - going second in line for an IM and freestyle set and going strong (more or less) until the wheels came off and the figurative piano dropped on my legs, making me nothing but a lead weight in the water with both quads in cramp mode. Fortunately, the kids were near the end of their session so I warmed down and helped to get them organized.

We headed into Adelaide today to drop me off at the Airport for my trip to the Gold Coast and Ultrasound training starting tomorrow. Jen and the kids hit the museum and the 'heli' park in town. Aidan reported the museum as being 'mad' - containing the first T-Rex skeleton/skull ever uncovered - he said it was almost as big as him! When I last signed off - Cole was having some difficulties getting into his school work and Jen was off to find Piper - presumably near or in the playground adjacent to where the boys were trying to do their work.

I caught a bit of the Olympics today while awaiting boarding for Coolongatta. It was the half-pipe snowboarding up at Cypress. Although disappointed by the Canadian contingent competing (only one in the top 10!) I have to give it up to the Americans - especially Shawn White - the gold medalist - he was phenomenal compared to the rest of those posers! His last run was incredible - completing a 460 (?) on the last jump! I should be able to catch up on a bit more over the weekend and am looking forward to it. Almost wish I was back home to take it in firsthand - alas - the choices we make!

Bunyips, The Mighty Murray and the house!

Woke early to go for a run as am feeling a bit unfit and, as you do, ventured along what seemed like a path around the marsh. As I progressed the trail became more undulating, narrowed in places and I managed to knock my head on a few overhanging trees and run through a massive spider web which I think is still clinging to my hair despite showering. I later spoke to one of the doctors who lives in the area and she said she hadn't been down there for a while as was worried about the snakes! Whoops! Made it through unscathed though and confirmed that the fitness needs a little tweeking. While I got into the swing of things at the clinic, Jen, the boys and Piper tripped into town to visit the library for storytime and some scholastic work. In the afternoon they explored the banks of the Murray and found the Bunyip (troll) which had been touted to be in the area (see pic). It's a mechanical rendition of the "real thing" which you pay a dollar to see - fortunately it was under repair and they all got to see it for free! I caught up with everyone after work at the pool again where Aidan and Cole (who now swims backstroke, some inkling of breaststroke and a gradually improving front crawl) were going great guns. Aidan put in 1400 ms. We had an invite to Dr Beckoff's house for dinner and managed to find his house through a bit of a windy track. His house sits atop a small bluff and looks like a couple of boxes advantageously placed to capture views of the Murray from the front and back. They've incorporated a courtyard into the design and a lap pool with spa. In the basement he's built a full on mini-theatre complete with angled seating and a massive screen - the kids were in heaven - being all TV starved and all. He has an indoor barbeque set up and we feasted on organic steaks, homemade zucchini relish, scalloped potatoes and a couple of very nice wines from his burgeoning cellar. Check out Yalumba's Signature series (Cab Sav/Shiraz blend - 2000) and Shawn Smith's Sauv Blanc if you can find them - very pleasant on the palate.