Still in Adelaide

It's freezing in Adelaide. We had heavy rain all through the night. When we woke the rain had stopped but it's still windy and cold. Carol has joined us last night so we decided this morning to visit the nearby Art Gallery of South Australia,to take in some art and to keep warm.

So here are some picture I've taken on our exploration of this fair city. For you art lovers out there, you may or may not recognise some of the artists. I didn't bother writing down names of the exhibits or the artists. Sorry.

On the way we stopped for breakfast, during which we got an iPhone lesson from our daughter.

'..then yo press that button mum.'

Strange fountains outside the Art Gallery

Art Gallery of South Australia

We bumped into the washer woman in the art gallery

 Thie following is a sculpture by a Swiss artist using screws and nails. I do hope he got them wholesale.

Nail sculpture by a Swiss artist

 This one projects two faces onto a screen but the due sculptures themselves look like nothing at all.

Never worked out the purpose of this one.

Not sure but the one below looks like it could be Tony Whatshisface, the budgysmuggler from Canberra

We're going out to dinner tonight at the Balcony. More later.

Adelaide

We're in Adelaide for a few days. We came down here for Diane's Sister-in-law's 80th birthday. Upon arrival here, he heard that the dear lady ended up in Intensive Care in Warrnambool and is unable to make it to Adelaide. But our daughter Carol is, so we'll have another cultural weekend down here.

We had a very pleasant 2 1/2 hour flight on Thursday

Our hotel is right next door to the Adelaide Casino, so on Thursday night we went there for a buffet dinner and dessert.

Maybe I shouldn't have had the ice cream Sundae

This morning, we strolled up to Rundle Mall with a stop for Brunch at the local shopping centre. It is absolutely freezing down here which is weird as a few years ago when we were here it was 45 Deg C. I wonder if they have any 'normal' days down here.

The ever popular Rundle Mall

 The piggies are still in the mall, although they've moved. The pig artwork is called 'A Day Out' by artist  Marguerite Derricourt.

Oliver the pig loves eating oranges

Horatio is looking on

 The Blogger insisted of visiting David Jones in Rundle Mall and I discovered this strange couple having coffee at DJ's cafeteria.

We then walked over a new bridge from North Terrace to the Adelaide Oval. A very pretty walk,

The Intercontinental Hotel where we're staying is next to the casino

The bridge ends up nowhere but over a waterfall

Our daugher Carol arrives tonight to join us. So more tomorrow. Maybe.

Football Fever in Our House

The Blogger and I are avid Football fans. She follows the Brisbane Roar and I am rather partial to English Premier League with my favourite team, 'The Gunners' (Arsenal for the uninitiated).

But every four years this household comes to a virtual standstill for a few weeks during the World Cup. In the cup we follow three teams. Obviously 'The Socceroos' (Australia), and also England but both have been eliminated to make it into the final 16 teams. The Swiss, our third team are hanging on by their fingernails.

Australia was ecstatic after leading 2:1 against the Netherlands for all of 4 minutes, after Tim Cahill scored his second goal with a header. 

Over all, the Socceroos have a higher standing now than the current World Champions, Spain, who have departed Brazil scoreless. How great is that?  

The Socceroos celebrate after their second goal

 The most disappointing result for us was England's loss to Uruguay. Luis Suarez, a Liverpool player served humble pie to Roy Hodgson's England. One could say, he bit the hand that feeds him.

Luis Suarez denies England a win

We record the three matches which are played in the early hours every day, watch match 1 during breakfast and the other two matches sometime during the day.

I'm sad to say that our third team, Switzerland (ranked No 6 in the world according to FIFA), also lost this morning to an excellent French team (ranked No 17),  - 5:2.

Granit Xhaka  scores one of the consolation goals for Switzerland

That now means that if they win against Honduras in their next match, they're through to the next round, if not, they too will be on a plane home. Both the Blogger and I predict that France will advance to either the semi finals or the finals in this year's world cup. They are a formidable team at the moment.

Buildings and Monuments

Our camera club went on a photo shoot into Brisbane recently to capture building and monuments.
I made a little video of it