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Adelaide, Animals, Politics, Cycling
Nov. 15th, 2011 09:51 amHave returned from a very enjoyable visit to Adelaide. Stayed in the delightful Horsham House as a stop-over on both legs of the journey. We spent a few days with Paula and Craig's beachfront home at the rather stunnning location of Port Willunga, and taking a couple of short trips down the road to visit several of the local wineries at McLaren Vale. Specifically we loaded up the car with Fox Creek verdehlo, Maxwell cabernet, some Lloyd Brothers rosé and olive oil, some desert wines, cabernets from D'Arenberg and an incredible mead from Dennis.
Port Willunga was also a great place for some animal watching; specifically dolphins in the harbour and a pair of falcons that would come out on a very regular basis. It made up for the excessive roadkill spotted along the journey in western Victoria. On a related topic our cat has decided the house needs some young birds. So far he's brought two in; not injured but rather stressed from the experience - they've both been rushed to Lort Smith. In other news little Lucky had her tail caught in a door, resulting in a partial degloving. She's perfectly fine having received appropriate first aid but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caseopaya is still beating herself up over it.
A political upshot of the journey was establishing a new Isocracy group which immediately took up the idea of acting as a bit of a think-tank (there's some very clever and practical people there) and running regular 'politics in the pub' sessions in the coming year. On the way back from Adelaide I was also invited to a brunch held by the Wimmera branch of the Labor Party, possibly one of the most conservative electorates of Australia, who nevertheless conducted a very intelligent discussion on the relationship between the Party and its members (an issue touched upon by the PMs opinion piece today). On that topic the challenge to the FPLP by myself and two others for breaching the party platform on asylum seekers has been delayed until after National Conference.
With the change in weather I've taken up cycling to work again, such as is possible in stormy Melbourne - the only place where I've encountered a 'White Christmas'. Although only a 20km round trip half is a little ardourous, the result of living at one the highest points in the metropolitan area. Whilst I've only injured myself once so far (the derailleur skipped a gear and down I went), the more interesting story involved encountering a rather athletic lass in a short dress on a windy day; the inevitable happened of course but more surprising was the fact she wasn't wearing any knickers! (If she was they were a g-string at best). As a divvy van turned the corner she found it necessary to tuck her skirt under her bum, the best she could. Such is the lifestyle of the frolicsome.
Port Willunga was also a great place for some animal watching; specifically dolphins in the harbour and a pair of falcons that would come out on a very regular basis. It made up for the excessive roadkill spotted along the journey in western Victoria. On a related topic our cat has decided the house needs some young birds. So far he's brought two in; not injured but rather stressed from the experience - they've both been rushed to Lort Smith. In other news little Lucky had her tail caught in a door, resulting in a partial degloving. She's perfectly fine having received appropriate first aid but
caseopaya is still beating herself up over it.A political upshot of the journey was establishing a new Isocracy group which immediately took up the idea of acting as a bit of a think-tank (there's some very clever and practical people there) and running regular 'politics in the pub' sessions in the coming year. On the way back from Adelaide I was also invited to a brunch held by the Wimmera branch of the Labor Party, possibly one of the most conservative electorates of Australia, who nevertheless conducted a very intelligent discussion on the relationship between the Party and its members (an issue touched upon by the PMs opinion piece today). On that topic the challenge to the FPLP by myself and two others for breaching the party platform on asylum seekers has been delayed until after National Conference.
With the change in weather I've taken up cycling to work again, such as is possible in stormy Melbourne - the only place where I've encountered a 'White Christmas'. Although only a 20km round trip half is a little ardourous, the result of living at one the highest points in the metropolitan area. Whilst I've only injured myself once so far (the derailleur skipped a gear and down I went), the more interesting story involved encountering a rather athletic lass in a short dress on a windy day; the inevitable happened of course but more surprising was the fact she wasn't wearing any knickers! (If she was they were a g-string at best). As a divvy van turned the corner she found it necessary to tuck her skirt under her bum, the best she could. Such is the lifestyle of the frolicsome.