It was just both fascinating and relaxing just to stroll along the several lanes leading to Rundle Street Mall. I was more than delightfully surprised. There were gems of shops, heritage stones, oases of bushes and flowery gardens and the straightness of good surveyed planning from days past. One lane brings me to the South Australian Art Gallery, another takes me to the main thoroughfare of King William Street and yet one more hides a well stocked lolly shop.
Adelaide always has a special place in my heart. The historical connections between my hometown of Georgetown, Penang and this outpost of hope and order surrounded by the dry South Australia landscape may seem unlikely. Yet, a series of remarkable events led to this unbreakable bond between a tropical island and a very well planned city. Captain Francis Light and his son Colonel William Light have each carved out their unique individual marks in this part of the world.
The question of water supplies in Adelaide posed a different ball game compared to the rain forests in South-east Asia. Stone buildings look so solid and charming in Adelaide, and yet they are there to face up to the harsh reality faced by settlers when there was a lack of tree wood. The tradition of Britannia still run strong like the rich veins of Cooper Pedy, unlike on Penang Island where other traditions have taken over. The presence of the imposing Catholic Cathedral near Victoria Square in the city centre of Adelaide acknowledges the influence of Saint Francis Xavier, the missionary who left a trail of influence from Goa to Nagasaki, but now has an Adelaide landmark run in the Italian way.
The trams still operate in Adelaide, where rides are free in the heart of the city and the conductor proceeds to issue tickets only outside this free zone. It was still nippy on the Thursday evening of 8 October in Adelaide CBD, where the office rush hour can be relatively tame and I can still ask a friendly face from the commuter crowds as to how to pay for a tram ride to Glenelg Beach. Some outsiders I think unfairly view Adelaide as a large country town, for to me, it is more than that - it is the heart and soul of central Australia, with a can-do attitude and fighting spirit shaped by the harshness of its hinterland. When I want to remember with respect the history of this land before the relative recent arrival of immigrants from the west just over 230 years ago, I can walk inside the fascinating world of the South Australia Museum at North Terrace, and this institution houses the largest collection of indigenous cultural artifacts in Australia.
The tenth of October, and I come across another surprising delight, a rather creative parade of post adolescents and young twenty somethings stumbling along the night quarter of Hindley Street. They were all splattered in make-believe paint blood, rather carefully pasted or splashed over their jeans, fake wedding gowns, faces, hair and shoes. The males carried toy sickles, knives and choppers. The females held black roses. The revellers on the balcony of the Woolshed Pub urged this motley crowd on and uniformed police officers casually accompanied this crowd at the back of this moving sensation.
More lasting fashion impressions are the almost synchronised pixie-like hairstyles of Adelaide youngsters - they remind me of the characters in my Merlin story book of long ago - and the wide sunglasses worn by most. I also recall with fondness the fascinating mechanical bull inside a nightclub, and how ready and flexible its riders - mostly male - were.
The sea perch Thai red curry at Red Rock was better than I anticipated, and I salute the early and long hours of business at the Boulevard cafe on Hindley Street, reliable for customers and hard work for their staff. The pulse of Adelaide can also be measured in its Central Markets and the surrounding Gouger Street precincts, with an upmarket Italian restaurant, an outstanding Argentinian grill and a whole host of choice across various ethnic food.
If one experience were to stand out on my recent sojourn to Adelaide, picture this. A helmeted RSPCA guy and his husky attract the attention of passer-bys in the centre of Rundle Street Mall, alive as it should be on a Friday evening, instead of being closed like in some other Australian capital cities. It is still school holidays. The groups of families merge with relieved office workers and all together, everyone literally walks into the sunset, for the east-west grid of the mall ensures that the setting sun shines into our faces. Hence those really big sunshades worn by Adelaide residents.
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