Do you want to hear....?

.... all about my jam-packed weekend?

Of course, you do (well, I hope so anyway!).

It started on Friday, when we spent a pleasant evening celebrating our dear friend Terry's birthday by teaching him and my dear friend, Linda, how to play 500.

We had so much fun!

Then on Saturday we (TraderVic, me, and our very dearest friends, Kim and Gino) caught a special, chartered flight with the Richmond Tigers (our footy team) to Adelaide for the first round final game: Tigers vs Port Power (to be held on the Sunday).  Needless to say, the flight was lots of fun with all of the club's famous people on board (not us, though), filming by TV crews and lots of singing of the club theme song - we were on the Tigerland Express!  Hopes were very high!  Richmond had made the finals this year!

Adelaide is a pretty city, with many of the houses made from local sandstone.  This cute beauty salon caught my eye and how cool is this painting on the side of the building?

We stayed in a hotel on North Terrace, just two doors down from where the players were staying and just across the river from the Adelaide Oval.  To say that the atmosphere in the area was electric would be an understatement.  Over 7,000 Tiger fans made the trip by hook or be crook from Melbourne to Adelaide for the game.  A short plane trip for us but an 8 or 9 hour road trip for many others.  It was the largest contingent of fans to every travel interstate for a footy game.

Unfortunately, TraderVic has come down with the flu, so he had to go straight to bed on Sat afternoon but Kim, Gino and I went for a walk along the Torrens River to the Red Ochre cafe to take a gondola ride.  Yes, I did say gondola - it was so beautiful. A calm, warm evening sipping sparkling shiraz - just magic!

As I said, magic!  Did you say the cygnets?  Only 5 or 6 days old, apparently.

Then, it was off to a lovely dinner at Vino's Ristorante, unfortunately, TraderVic was too sick to eat but the rest of us enjoyed a delicious dinner.

On Sunday, it was a relaxing massage for Kim and I in the morning then all the excitement started for the big game!

But alas, the excitement and fun was all in vain.... as the Tigers were thrashed by Port Adelaide!

Oh well, there is always next year as we kept telling each other on the very subdued flight home!

To end on a happier note, I did get some plane stitching done on Land of Liberty (sorry, no time to iron it as it is off to work for me in a minute or two).

Have a great week, everyone,

hugs,