March 1, 2010
I can’t believe its March 1. The first two weeks went fast but yet it seemed like we had been here a really long time. Now, I think WOW! March 1 we had better get moving. Of course, I need to remind myself that we have 31/2 more months. I think we have time to do a few things. I think they were in their cars because they were cold.
OK, I now believe that SA can get cold. This morning I was wearing long pants, a fleece and my jean jacket in the house. And we learned this the hard way (I guess Dave and I can still be stubborn enough to learn the hard way). On Sat evening there was a light show for the opening of the Festival (Yes, we went to a parade for the opening of the Fringe – the three things, the Fringe, WOMadelaide [World Music] and the Festival are loosely tied together but separate). It had been hot so we went in shorts and t-shirts; we took lots of water because we always need it in the heat. Well, we didn’t need the water; we needed long pants and sweaters, as all the locals were wearing. We almost froze and left before the light show was quit over. Sue was volunteering and when she went at 5:00 it was warm out. She was also VERY cold. Her shift ended about 10:00.
The light show was put on by Groupe F from France. They have done a couple of Olympics and some shows at the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty fantastic. Saw things I’ve never seen fireworks do before. Sue told us later that there were also acrobats, when there were breaks in the lights, but we couldn’t see them. Again there were thousands of people out. We took a shuttle bus from the city and the line up was about three blocks long. There were many other shuttle stops. The show was at the horse race track. It was packed and when we left we discovered there were people watching from the street and from their cars from quit a distance back. I think they were in their cars because they were cold.
People here take festival seriously. They don’t plan to do anything else during festival time and often they seem to just to “be out.” We went to the city on Friday evening and the streets were shoulder-to-shoulder people. You could hardly get down the streets. There was nothing going one -people were just sitting in open-air cafes or walking down the streets – they were “just out.”
Sue’s volunteering for festival is, as they say here, brilliant. She gets rush tickets for shows that aren’t sold out. We went to one yesterday that would have $50.00 each and paid $15.00 each. We’re going to take advantage of that a lot. I really enjoy any type of live performance so will just go when tickets are available. We went to a dance show put on by the Australian Dance Theatre. I have seen people in such good shape – talk about amazing acrobatics.
We had to pick the tickets up in the afternoon in the city. I didn’t realize the show was at 5:00 – I thought it was at 7:00. So, we didn’t have time to come home to eat before the show. We decided to go to a café and get something to eat. I’m happy to say they were all closed – imagine a day off for the staff! Anyway, we bought some fruit at a convenience store and ate in the Victoria Square. It is a triangular park in between three busy streets in the centre of the city. It was really nice – cool day, more wind than we have had here but that made us feel right at home.
We walked downtown to get the show tickets and then home again after the show. We were forced to walk along the river – see below
And enjoy the plants, birds and weather.
This is the grass along the path. Sue agreed to give us a perspective of the size. 
These trees are in the city beside the sidewalk.
The swans swim up and cry for food. The red eyes are strange - kinda creepy because they look fake - they don't move or blink. Note that the great photog got another kind of duck in one of the swan photos. Will try to get a better shot of it another day.
Look familiar. This was taken on the river here - not at North Battleford. 
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