Second bite at the cherry

Back in Brisbane now! That was a full day as well.

A few more photos added to the Flickr set, now completed:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157647944491370/

First job of the day was to head back to Brighton Jetty and take some photos in daylight, with the sun shining and the clear sky. The colours of the arch and the sail are much nicer as the focus of a photo during the day. They turned out well too:

Brighton second time around

I then headed off to run a couple of errands, including printing my boarding pass for tonight from Officeworks. Yes, despite the fact that Tigerair finally introduced web check-in, they failed to introduce mobile check-in. Give it a few years perhaps.

After about 90 minutes of mad packing, I headed off to get a train and bus to the airport. I also got on one of Adelaide's famous trams. The city section of it was a bit tedious as it navigated the traffic lights.

After walking up to Tigerair's single, solitary bag drop queue that was longer than both Virgin and Qantas (which had MASSIVE spaces), they said "would you like an exit row today sir?". They offered me one on the way down as well! To be offered an exit row on both sectors of a return trip is highly unusual.

An hour and a half later and boarding time rolled around. Not only did I have an exit row both sectors, but the seat next to me was empty on both sectors. Well, until the seatbelt sign came off and some guy claimed that he wanted the spare seat so he could sleep. I seriously had half a mind to say "ah, no, if you needed the space you should have paid for it?", but decided against it. It was after 9:00 and I was just too tired to argue.

We arrived in Brisbane a whole 20 minutes early, thanks to the ridiculous airline policy that says "we were on time because the flight was 2 hours instead of the 2 1/2 hours we said it would be". So after a fairly eventful flight, I headed back home, where normal service will resume again. Except it's a public holiday tomorrow for Labour Day. I really don't think I would be in any shape to go to work anyway, landing at 10pm.

Well, that will be the end of travel blogs for a while. Unless the chance arises to go on another short trip, which I very much doubt it will until at least the end of the year. It's been fun, no doubt, and I will miss travelling. See you on my next adventure!

There's the siren! It's full time!

Wow. I am categorically glad that is over. I had three enormous games of footy today, all involving running, back-to-back-to-back. First up on field, then two more on boundary. I was still able to run hard all the way to the end though, something I would never have been able to do back in my first Masters Carnival at Maroochydore in 2011.

After collecting my 'Team Orange' photo of all the umpires and assorted crap that I had used for footy over the last week, I had a bit of a chat with some of the other umpires, sitting down to alleviate the 25.4km of running I did today, before heading back to Seacliff.

Some more photos on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157647944491370/

As the sun went down, it stayed fine and sunny, with small scattered clouds. I headed down to Brighton Beach and Jetty to catch some sunset and night photos. While I got there about 10 or 15 minutes later than I had planned, the sunset photos still came out well:

Sunset in Brighton

Once the sun had set, I got the tripod out and started taking some long exposure shots. I joined some Japanese tourists at the end of the pier who were doing the same thing, with much better lenses and filters. I still think I did a fair job though, I had some space to myself once they left, and again on the beach there was next to no-one at night:

Brighton Pier at night

I think I'll head back here again tomorrow, and run a couple of errands to round out my stay. Catch you then!

No running, and no spirit with me

Only one more day of footy to go! That's perhaps a good thing - the lads started getting on my nerves a bit today. Today was only one game of running (on field), with another couple in goals. So a pathetic 7.8km today, I'll definitely be able to work on that tomorrow.

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate with my mood swings, and I ended up not going out at all after getting back to Seacliff after footy. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon I'll feel a bit better about it. 'Til then!

Earth and water

Well that was definitely another good day for sightseeing! As promised, I headed into the centre of Adelaide and took lots more photos.

You can see the results on Flickr, as always:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157647944491370/

My first destination for today was Himeij Garden, a small Japanese garden built on South Terrace, on the opposite side of the city from North Terrace (spookily enough). Adelaide's city centre is fascinating - it is completely enclosed by green space, from manicured gardens to parks with trees and fountains, to football ovals.

The garden itself was quite nice, and also quite small. A couple of nice ponds and sculptures thrown into the mix:

Himeji Garden

Then a walk up East Terrace to the Adelaide Botanical Garden, on the corner of North and East Terraces. It's a typical Australian botanical garden - lots of tall trees, a couple of greenhouses and other buildings, and some different landscapes thrown in:

Botanical Garden

After exiting the garden I walked up through the University of Adelaide. A far cry from the universities we have up in Brisbane, the uni has kept its Victorian-era buildings, including, among others, an abbey, while still allowing itself a modern flourish or two:

University of Adelaide

On the spur of the moment I decided to walk down to St. Peter's and Adelaide Oval for sunset. I got a couple of nice pictures of the church, before winding up on the other side of the Torrens from the city centre. I got talking to another couple of photographers who were there, and took some night skyline photos for myself:

Adelaide at sunset/night

That brought the last of my full rest days to an end. Tomorrow and Saturday will be half-days at the footy - maybe I might have a couple of hours to wander around Brighton. Until then!

Upping the workload

Day two of the National Carnival, and I am well and truly buggered after today. I had four games in total: two on field, one goal and one boundary. After going to Camden Oval, near Glenelg in the morning for the first two games, I headed back to Marion for the last two games, for a grand total of 25.7km of running for the day. That's starting to get up there!

The weather has started to improve, too. The wind was considerably lighter today, so it was much easier to do said running around.

I staggered back to Seacliff, completely spent and ready for a relaxing afternoon. Tomorrow I'll go back into the centre of Adelaide, this time with some more specific destinations in mind. See you there!

A successful inner-city visit

To say I saw lots of stuff today would be an understatement. I saw a really good chunk of North Terrace and the River Torrens in Adelaide. On Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157647944491370/

Picking up mid-afternoon, and I made the train trip to the city. The trains, by the way, are interesting here in Adelaide. I'm staying on the Seaford line, which is currently the ONLY electrified line on the whole network (yes, this is the 21st century, no that's not a misprint). About half of the trains on the line are brand-spanking new electric trains. But the rest are diesel jobbies from about the 80s. Old, loud buggers that make so much noise you can't hear yourself think:

The old and the new

Anyway, on to the sightseeing. We begin at Adelaide Railway Station. The station has a long and rich history. It was rebuilt in a neo-classical inspired design in the late 1920s, and was so massive and blew out over the budget so much that South Australia nearly went bankrupt. It's still a magnificent masterpiece today though, and much of the unused space was converted into a casino (that I didn't visit):

Adelaide Railway Station

I then headed north of the station to the River Torrens, runs from the bay inland towards the city centre. It's completely free of passenger and cargo vehicles, meaning there are many kayakers and rowers going up and down the river. There are also unrivalled views of the city's attractions, including Adelaide Oval and the Entertainment Centre:

The River Torrens

It was approaching sunset by this stage. I decided to head towards Rundle Mall, and its famous silver balls. On the way I walked past some of North Terrace, which is a big collection of Victorian-era buildings that I will have to revisit on my next free day. Here are some photos of the mall and the terrace:

North Terrace and Rundle Mall

It was getting dark by then, so I headed back to Seacliff on the train. Tomorrow's the second umpiring matchday, so no more sightseeing for a couple of days. Until next time!

Wandering around Glenelg

The first of four rest days today - I was determined to make the most of it. Fortunately mid-afternoon the clouds gave way to bright blue skies and I headed to Glenelg to take some photos.

Scour for the Glenelg photos amid the Adelaide set:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/sets/72157647944491370/

This was my first trip to Adelaide since 1995. Yes, it's been that long. I was all of two years old, and I remember absolutely zero.

Glenelg was absolutely gorgeous. I'd been told there's a really nice strip of restaurants and cafes, but I couldn't see the evidence of that seeing as how I didn't stick around until dinner. There's not much of it, there's a pier, a beach and a square as the main attractions. There's a couple more parks if you wander around a bit, with more blue skies, and an enormous amount of tall apartment buildings and hotels.

Here are some of my favourite photos from today:

My favourites from today     

Another rest day is coming up tomorrow, my plan is to go into the city centre. See you there!

Partially exhausted - bring it on!

Well, one matchday down, three more to go! Actually it's only one plus two half-days, so I should be sweet!

Today I field umpired two games. First up was the Over 35s, the youngest (and therefore fittest) age group. That was actually a pretty fun game to umpire, especially it being my first go at Masters footy. There were a whole set of new rules to memorise last night, and I managed to remember all of them and apply them properly.

I also got an Over 50s Division 2 game as a field umpire, and goal umpired another game. Total running for the day - a paltry 17.6km! I look forward to improving it over the course of the carnival.

Tomorrow I'll be in Glenelg if the weather holds - hopefully it will, the winds have been up at around 60km/h the last couple of days!

Greetings from Adelaide!

Well... welcome. This is my second blogging trip - I guess that means that I can successfully masquerade as a travel bug. For the time being at least.

Greetings from Adelaide! It's a whole lot less organisation to go on a domestic trip for a week and a half than to Europe for three months, of that there can be no doubt. It was a fairly uneventful Tigerair flight from Brisbane, which is impressive in itself, or so I'm told. I don't think I've ever had a problem with them. Oh, except they offered me an exit row seat. Woohoo!

What's the schedule? Well I'm down here for the annual AFL Masters National Carnival. That's basically Over 35s to Over 55s (old farts) playing footy. I'll be doing some umpiring, as well as some photography on my free days. There's four days of footy, and four free days.

Today there was grocery shopping (yes, I'll have to cook on my own for a week and a half, OH NO!) and an umpires meeting at Westminster School in Marion, where the carnival will be held. It's a pretty boarding school about 10 minutes on the train from where I'm staying in Seacliff.

Tomorrow is the first matchday. Until then!

Play on!

Wow! What a day of exercise. I tried my hand at a bunch of stuff today.

I had previously arranged with the Dutch AFL association to umpire the practice match they were scheduled to have today. I had to get our friends to give me a lift to the game, because the player that was supposed to give me a lift was caught in traffic, so I couldn't attend the pre-match training as planned. Good thing though, because it didn't eventuate!

There were 20 guys there to play the game - about 8 ex-pats, 4 Gaelic footballers from Ireland, a couple of English boys (one was only 14) and the rest were Dutchmen. They played a 9-a-side game with mixed teams, on a ground marked with standard cones. It was a pretty large field, and I had a pretty torrid time keeping up with them. There were some group photos taken after the game:

The Dutch AFL team

After the game, I hung around at the canteen with most of the team, and plans were made to go back to one of the guys' apartments to watch the Fremantle vs. Geelong game from earlier that day. I arranged to join in, and tried my hand at 'dinking'. It's what the Dutch call riding side-saddle on the back of another person's bike. Unfortunately I was terrible at it, and it was reorganised so I had a bike to ride.

We stopped by a supermarket for supplies and ended up ordering pizzas at the apartment and settled in to watch the game on their projector. We watched the whole game, which was an absolute nailbiter, going down to a kick after the siren to win the game. After the game finished we decided to watch the second half of the Port vs. Sydney game, also from earlier that day. It wasn't quite as close, but still a good quality game of footy. The Dutch guys found it great to be able to turn to me and ask me to analyse every decision the umpires made. By the way, they seemed to think I went alright today.

Eventually I decided to make my way home. Conveniently, there was a cross-town bus that left from a stop very close to the apartment just after midnight. It was only a 20-minute trip back to the apartment where I was staying.

Tomorrow we will leave Amsterdam and embark on a two-day trip from Amsterdam to Avranches, on the coast of Normandy in France. From there we'll explore some of the northern French coastline. Internet in Avranches will be spotty, so blogs might be a bit sporadic. Until next time!