2024 was our second Christmas in a row spent in Adelaide. Although Sebastian has a comfortable two bedroom unit in Marden, he shares it with Chaos, his cat, and his two Australian Green Tree frogs so taking into account all their paraphenalia, there isn't much room for estra humans. Susan and I rented an apartment nearby in Walkerville with views to the hills and the city and a magpie that came and carolled to us every morning. Although they aren't mentioned in one of my favourite Australian Christmas songs, it did feel as if we had our own Carol of the Birds.
As well as the view and the magpie and the proximity to Sebastian, the Watson Hotel is one of the Art Hotels and is full of work by the indigenous artist Tommy Watson. There was other good art to explore in the city as well. An exhibition of great nature photographs at the South Australian Museum. A collection of 'radical tapestries' at the Art Gallery of South Australia. A retrospective of a number of glass artists who have worked at the Jam Factory. An extraodinary array of glass installations by the American artist Dale Chihuly.
 |
| Tommy Watson print - Watson Hotel |
 |
| Australian Geographic Nature Exhibition |
 |
| Radical Textile exhibition |
 |
| Jessica Murtagh vase |
 |
| Chihuly @ Botanical Gardens |
When I win the lottery, I'm going to buy one of the witty 'greek' glass vases made by Jessica Murtagh. But in the meantime I treated myself to some colourful glass 'gelato' bowls in tones of pistachio and apricot, swirls of hokey pokey and strawberry....which was a ludicrous piece of expenditure given that I spent the previous couple of months giving away crockery and glassware. 'But they are beautiful', I said to myself. However, I can sometimes resist shopping. I went to my other favourite Adelaide craft shop T'Arts Collective and stopped myself from buying anything but a minute later, I discovered an impressive second hand bookshop Orchard Bookshop, so called because the contents are described as 'hand picked' and my 'stop shopping' resolve disappeared.
Having demonstrated such weakness, after years of saying that we should limit Christmas presents to one item, Susan and I finally did so - pieces of pearl jewellery we'd bough earlier in the year when we visited the Cook Islands. Sebastian did get slightly more but then again, he is the favourite/only son/nephew. We had Christmas lunch at a hotel buffet and went fully prepared with plastic containers in our bags to smuggle dinner home. There's only so much one can eat at lunchtime and one couldn't possibly let food go to waste!
We did have other good meals: cooked at home by both Susan and Sebastian, dinner in the art filled houses of friends, cat-focused morning teas with goodies from the Wayville Farmers Market, and in a pink-toned Italian restaurant in early celebration of one of those decade-related birthdays. And in between all the Christmas shopping and art, eating and socialising, we did manage to squeeze in some swims in the Watson pool.
 |
| Sebastian and Max |
 |
| A colourful birthday dinner |
 |
| Watson Hotel pool |
I do enjoy the size and scale and ambience of Adelaide. I have fond memories of the times I've lived there in both the 1980s and more recently in 2019. Because it's never had a strong economy, many of it's wonderful blue- and sand-stone buildings survived the wreckers ball. For a minute when discussing leaving Melbourne, Adelaide was on the agenda but although I have good friends there, Susan doesn't so Perth it was.
Comments
Post a Comment