There was so much excitement and anticipation in the air this weekend. Firstly, on Friday we went and picked Katie up and after doing some shopping and having dinner we went and picked Taylor up.
Taylor was also sleeping over on Friday night because the next morning we were taking the girls in to the city for the annual Christmas Pageant. They were very excited about the impending arrival of Father Christmas.
On Saturday morning we were up very early....5.45am. I let the girls sleep while Tony and I had our showers. When I went in to wake them, there was no problem getting them up. They were soon dressed and we left home just after 6.30am.
We parked the car at Tony's work and this year the pageant was coming down Flinders Street and then turning into King William Street due to building work going on at the Harris Scarfes' site in Grenfell Street. I was so shocked to see the large number of people already lining the street at 7.00am. Some people must get into town at an ungodly hour just to get a good possie. They estimated the crowd that lined the streets to be about 335,000.
We found the last free spot just opposite the State Bank. Put the blanket down, set up the chairs and the girls and I went off to McDonalds to get us some breakfast. The weather was perfect, not too hot, with the maximum temperature to hit 30 degrees. At least we had shade.
To keep the kids occupied, you either bring your own, or if you buy the morning paper, they give out chalk for the kids to draw on the road. This keeps them amused for a while. Then, every year some enterprising ladies make up streamers and for $5 you can buy these and the kids have great fun twirling and dancing with them.
They also had people giving out red noses to the kids. They wanted to set a new World Record of how many people were wearing them which they succeeded in doing. Yay go Adelaide!!!
Finally, we could hear the sounds of the band as the pageant wove it's way through the streets and nearer to us. Everyone is asked to sit behind the blue honour line, which is painted on the road, and for the next hour and 10 minutes the kids and adults alike are kept enthralled with the sights and sounds of the passing parade.
The clowns are always the girl's favourite, they love to hit hands with them as they pass. This year the floats consisted of some of the old favourites plus some new ones.....Happy Feet, African singers and Fergus the fire engine. Bringing up the rear was who every one had come to see......Father Christmas.
After we packed up we took our gear back into Tony's work and then headed off to get the girls some lunch and Tony and I a coffee. This weekend we only had Katie overnight. Kahra and Darrin came in and picked her up around 12.30pm and then we went and dropped Taylor off.
On the way home we called into the shops to pick up a couple of things that I forgot last night and then went home. We no sooner got home when we had to have another shower and get ready to go out for Saturday night.
We were going off to see Dolly Parton. Robyn and Bob were coming as well, we had had our tickets since June. When it was announced that Dolly was going to perform in Adelaide Robyn rang and asked if we would like to go. Not being a real fan of hers I said,"yeah, we'll go". She was last in Australia 24 years ago when she toured with Kenny Rogers.
They came by about 4.00pm and once again we were off into the city leaving the car at Tony's work. The plan was to catch the tram down to the Entertainment Centre and then find a hotel to go and have dinner.
We decided to have dinner in the city. We ended up going to the Ambassador's Hotel and had a great meal. We were pleasantly surprised. Robyn, Bob and Tony all had steak while I had the Beef roast. The roast even came with Yorkshire pudding, something you don't see these days. We all decided to have dessert as well.....petit lemon meringue and Tony had a passionfruit creme.
We went and waited for the tram and when it finally came along it was crowded. We all managed to squeeze in and headed off to the Entertainment Centre.
There must have been at least 12,000 people there. Anyway, Dolly gave a great show, she was thoroughly entertaining, communicated great with the audience telling us about her life when she was growing up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
The most moving experience for me was when she sang "Little Sparrow". You could have heard a pin drop. She sang it acapella with 2 of her backup singers for harmony. Dolly....I think you have another fan.
When the concert finished we decided to wait awhile to get the tram back into the city. The only reason being was so many wanted to catch it you just couldn't get on. We let 2 trams go before we decided to get on the next one......even that was crowded.
When we got back into the city we went for a coffee. Our usual coffee shop was closed so we went off to the Pancake Kitchen. Tony and I shared a walnut pancake and Robyn had a short stack.
By the time we got home it was nearing 1.30am. Robyn and Bob definitely aren't used to such late nights....hhahahaha.
On Sunday morning we woke up around 7.45 am and I felt terrible. My head was pounding, my eyes were watering, nose running and my jaw ached. Sinus.....ugh!!!
Around 10.00am I went back to bed and slept until 1.00pm. Tony wanted to go and pick up our new bar-b-que. We had our showers and off we went. While there we went and paid some more money off the tallboy. We paid for and picked up the barbie and then decided while we were out we may as well go to Ikea. Last time we were there I had seen a small table that I liked. Of course, they no longer have it.
We came home and Tony started to assemble the barbie. It's not quite finished but as it was getting late we loaded all the cardboard into the car and once again we headed off into town to dump the cardboard at Tony's work.
After taking some sinus tablets I went straight to bed when we got back as I was still feeling like crap. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel much better.
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