But!
I didn't get tom, the deadly treadly, out. Nor did I snort and snarl my way to campus cursing the day my fellow motorists were born. No. Instead I walked to the kitchen table and turned on the laptop. I was working at home, and I was loving it. Still in my pyjamas I'd done a couple of hours work by the time I was normally heading in the door. And I'd got more done than I normally did in a day by then.
However by around 11am the stomach was starting to make itself known, so as I didn't have to justify my whereabouts to anyone, or write 'gone for lunch, back in 10' on my office door, I went into town to do my food shopping.
When I was younger, I hated living in Adelaide. It was small. It was quiet. The good bands never toured. Now I'm older, and have lived the high life in some of Europe's most famous capital cities - I still think Adelaide's boring but I'm old enough not to care. I don't have the energy to go out anymore and young persons music bores me to tears, so it's just as easy to stay at home in Adelaide as it is Melbourne or New York.
But no matter what my age, there's always been one thing about Adelaide that has made the place worthwhile - the Adelaide Central Markets. They're one of the largest covered markets in Australia, or the Southern Hemisphere, or the World, or the Universe or something. I'm not sure and as a tourism person I should know. Don't try to over analyse it, they're just great.
And they're where I come from.
At least they could be, as they're the first thing I remember. Truly, it's the ONLY thing I remember from being young. I remember going there and my brother being in an indigo blue canvas backpack thing, that were de rigeur in the 70s, on my father's back. So he must have been about one, so I must have been about three. I really don't remember anything before that.
Of course there was food involved (is it any wonder I've become a fat foodie). I'd eat kabanas at Con's chacuterie, doughnuts at the bakery, and at Lucia's I'd eat kitkat. Lucia and her husband Pasquale opened Lucia's Pizzeria sometime in the Pleistocene era, and were the first in Adelaide to serve up pizza. Back then it was a tiny, two table place and I clearly remember sitting on Pasquale's knee as he served me pieces of chocolate. Mother and Father having been in Europe not long before my birth were no doubt slugging back the short short Italian coffee.
I remember many birthdays there, Saturday morning outings with Miss Quinn the slightly mad old cat lady from next door (I aspire to Miss Quinn) and later lazy student days eating pizza and buying cheap veggies at closing time.
These days it's still one of my favourite places on earth (I even dated one of the staff very briefly - and very disastrously). The coffee's wonderful and if you order right the breakfasts are close to heaven. I highly recommend the baked beans on continental toast. I have breakfast there every week with Opera Boy and we always sit at the same table and laugh and snort until we run away to our respective places of torture a little happier than on other days.And it's still a place of habit for me. Same fruit and vegetable shop
Same baker, some butcher. There's a lot more Asian food available than when I was little. Then it was all Italian and Greek and not nearly as fashionable as it is now. But the sights and smells and noise and range of delicious things is always amazing and you always see something new and come away with something you didn't plan, unless you're very very good.Today I came away with fried pork dumplings for my lunch. They were a little cold by the time I got them home (and changed back into my pyjamas), but still a very delicious thing to do on a busy day working at home.
So really, I worked a long day, 10 hours, got about 12 hours of work done but still managed to have a blissful day with the cats by my side, a long trip to the markets, a coffee at Lucias and dumplings for lunch.
I really, really need a job where I work from home.
1 comment:
I like that Italian deli near Lucia's - great meat.
Post a Comment