Friday 22nd December

In the morning I managed to have two cards snipped up - but actually I wanted that to happen! I closed one bank account and cancelled one of my credit cards. A very satisfying experience watching the cards go the way of so many others. In one bank there was a fellow getting very steamed up at the teller over somethingor other. I bet she was grateful there was a large screen between her and him!

Gourmet Extravaganza

Not bad for my internal check-off list yesterday.

Lunch was a proper steak and mushroom pie and a sausage roll covered with Berenberg Tomoto Sauce. Ooooh yeah!

Dinner was stretched out over 4 hours. A job well done if I do say so myself! A few Coopers at a tavern filled with pre-Christmas revellers. The tavern was a true old Aussie Hotel which was decked out in the traditional way – lots of red brick, brass and wood. The Coopers was, of course, delicious! My dinner-buddies for tonight were Matt (with his new girlfriend Amanda – she had to wiz off after drinks to another function), Adam and Jodi, Marc and his girlfriend, and a couple other of Adam’s workmates.
From there we wound our way to ‘Ciao’ in Pirie Street. I had a vegetarian lasagna filled with spinach, cheese and coated with neopolitan sauce. Oh, and real garlic bread! I managed to wash that down with a glass of McClaren Vale red. Our musical accompaniment was courtesy of the Metropolitan Fire Service who rocketed down the street as we were about to leave with all lights blazing. We passed them on the way to our next stop but it looked like it was a false alarm. Fire engines are shiny.

We made a pitstop at the ‘Bull and Bear’ (which was playing some gloriously funky music!) on our way to ‘The Pancake Kitchen’! I’m going to need another section entitled ‘Making Keiko Jealous’ since that was one of her favourite places on our last visit two years ago. I had a hot chocolate along with the ‘Bavarian Apple’ dessert which really finished me off entirely.
We wandered up Rundle Mall and met Amanda on our way. A lot of the shops were still open for the pre-Christmas trade. It was surprising to see so many places having large sales – some with signs saying "50% OFF" in their large street-front windows. These are the same places that will be advertising their ‘huge’ Christmas sales in the papers on Christmas Day.

Plans for today are to get blood tests done in the morning, followed by a wander around town and perhaps do some shopping. Tonight involves dinner followed by watching the Adelaide 36ers game live. Hope they win.