Heh, I'm back. : )
Soulsis and I had a fun weekend - did and saw a lot of things - and we're resolved to go back again soon, with money. <g>
The train trip up wasn't a lot of fun but then travelling at night is never less than dull. Fortunately, The Overlander (the train that goes to Adelaide), unlike the XPT (the train that goes to Sydney) has a dining car with comfortably padded seats and room to stretch your legs, and tables (so I could get on with some patchwork, impossible to do in cattle-class with its droopy little pull-down trays.)
Only managed to get a few hours of broken sleep on the way up, so arrived in Adelaide feeling kind of shell-shocked, (though with the lights in the carriage dimmed we could see the moonlit landscape - that was quite nice.) The trip back was much better - during the day, by coach, which didn't have a full complement of passengers so we were able to spread out.

Went to see 'Return of the King' while we were there.... It really needed a fast-forward button, and the Frodo/Sam angst got a bit much. Yes, we understand they're suffering but can we get on with this, please? I still love the scenery, especially the mountains, and where the horselords live (mmm.... horselords...). Had some interesting thoughts about Gondor (or is it Minas Tirith? The white city? I'm never good with names, anyway... ) I was thinking that as the city stands it'd rely heavily on food being produced outside of its walls. All well and good but given the amount of space there it wouldn't be impossible to grow a substantial amount of food - excepting grains, perhaps, but that can be stock-piled for years - within the city itself using the food scraps for compost. Heh, permaculture in a fantasy-realm.

Alarice drove us to Victor Harbour so Soulsis and I could go on the horse-drawn tram that goes across the causeway to Granite Island. Interesting place, and somewhere we'll be going back to with more time on our hands to explore. On the way there we stopped off at a cheesery for some cheese-tasting, and a yummy milk-shake. The factory was part of a 'Tourist Produce Trail' and we also passed a smoked trout outlet, a winery, an olive processing plant, and fresh berry farms. <bg> The plan is to do the tourist trail next time then take all our goodies to a picnic at Victor Harbour.

Alarice also took us to the Port Market, an intersting place - a huge warehouse with lots and lots of stalls, a mix of antique, junky and cheap/new. There are times I'm very glad I don't have a credit card, would've been all too easy to blow the limit on that. One of the things I had to leave behind was a pair of old, crab-shaped salt/pepper shakers. Just lovely. : ) Ah well, if I'm meant to have them they'll be there for me next time.
(We did loads more stuff as well, which I won't go into detail just yet - running out of time - but the descriptions will probably come dribbling out over time when I'm not so distracted.)

There were 2 very snuggly cubs waiting for me at the bus stop when we got back to Melbourne. <soppy grin> I think they missed me. So did KittenKong.
Big hugs for Alarice and Pete for feeding-housing-entertaining Soulsis and myself. We had a great time, hope you did too. : )

(nicked from Joules' blog:)

[growl] You only realise how much the computer is your life-support when faced with the prospect of not having it.

Ack, yes! I hate that adrenaline-fuelled chill that twists your bowels when you realise something's not right with the computer...
Are we too dependent on our tech? <g> ... nah.
Hope it's all sorted soon, Joules.

[... <doves scatter as an anxious tenshi barrels into the bower>... ]