Ah, sweet Adelaide

What a beautiful city Adelaide has turned out to be.

I’m pretty sure that my favourable impression has not been entirely due to the fact that I’m on holidays with no responsibilities; get up whenever, run, eat, shoot weaponry in the back shed, Google whenever...ah, the serenity. Of course all of that puts one in a gleeful mind state, as does the succulent food and abundant wine....should I continue? Those of you living down here, by rights, should look like fattened calves with all the ‘culture’ you consume every day.

But it is definitely more than that. The thing that I’ve noticed is the people.

Not only am I staying with two of my favourite people in the world (I just got slipped a 50 under the table as I type), the Adelaidians are actually nice. It would appear that they like their jobs, really do want to hear what you have to say, and have a great attitude to life down here in their frigid land (which I must add has resembled a springtime paradise during my stay – go figure).

Adelaide seems to be all about people on people – hmm, well, I’m sure there’s a bit of that going on too, but not really what I meant – People appear to respect each other, and place value on things beyond winning and being the best. And it isn’t just one or two people; everyone I have spoken to genuinely seems to care. Even though the geographic climate is cold, the social climate is anything but.

The examples are abundant. The first winery we visited yesterday wasn’t open when we arrived. After checking to see if they could open the cellar door for us alone, the owner directed us to his immediate neighbour. Recommending his competitors??? Caring that we had somewhere to go? (Are you hearing this Brisbane service providers????) What planet was this guy from?

Planet Adelaide, apparently. Where everyone is a human...

To top off the perfect, heart warming day, we came home to our cosy stone bungalow (I’m claiming part ownership here) for some intimate face-to-face conversation.

Hmm...all three of us got on our computers and facebooked each other – laughing at the things we were typing and sending into cyber-space. Probably my Queenslander anti-social bad influence...

Okay, so they’re good down here, but they’re not perfect. Whatever. I am so coming back.