A weekend in the city with fringe benefits......!

Morning all!  Sorry it's been a bit protracted after the last few days but when I am travelling on my own I do in the evening or early morning and write my blog.  But when I am with wonderful friends, busy busy busy, staying out til all hours and generally having a scream the blog gets left behind. Then I feel guilty.  So here I am, ready to fill you in on my weekend of fun and frolics, food and drink, laughter and rather disturbing confusion!!!!

Let's begin where I left of (which is always a good place to start) Jenn and I were back from the Gorge and we were heading into the city as this was the last weekend of the wonderful Adelaide Fringe where the city is transformed with The Garden of Unearthly Delights in the park, Gluttony and The Royal Croquet Club in Victoria Square.  These are pop up amazing venues with bars and clubs and shows and food and lights and madness and just has to be experienced.  Carrie, Jenn and I met Helen and Tracey there and after a little nibble and a jug of Pimms we headed in to see our show for that evening.  This is where the confusion starts.

The show was called 'all genius all idoit' and was described in it's flyer as 'a visceral gender bending display of strength and creativity, all genius, all idiot is not like any other circus performance you will see'.

Sweet baby Jesus and the orphans they were not wrong there. As soon as the first 'dancer' (I use the term loosely as if rolling around on the floor like you are having some sort of seizure is called dancing then therefore you are a dancer) stepped on stage wearing an all in one body stocking, almost floor length fur coat, lipstick, see through plastic pole dancer shoes and moose antlers and wailing like he had a poker up his behind (which in hindsight he may have) we knew this was not going to be like anything we had seen before.

And it didn't end there.  There were four of them. The above mentioned, a short bald bloke with a beard wearing leggings and a bomber jacket, an Orlando Bloom lookalike (he would be thrilled) and another who looked strangely like an old work colleague of mine which made it even more difficult to watch.

Here began over an hour of wailing, writhing, screeching, jumping (on each other), banging of drums, fighting, rolling around on the floor, shouting, grunting, ramming fists into other people's mouths, spraying the audience with spit, babbling and general bollocks, all topped off with what I have to say were some amazing acrobatic abilities (any man who can hang off a stripper pole with one foot whilst wearing a minute pink pants has to be applauded, and what Orlando Bloom did with his bit of rope was incredible).

We sat through this with faces of pure confusiuon, annoyance, bordum and sometimes disgust, constantly uttering to each other and whoever would listen 'what the ..... is going on???) No one seemed to know but we were unfortunayely transfixed to this display of disturblingly ridiculous dark homoerotic self indulgent tosh.  Genuinely I cannot tell you what it was about, why they were doing it or where they had pulled this idea from, but two things were evident and the end of a very long and uncomfortable hour....they were incredible athletes with very very very weird brains.

At last it was time to leave and the sea of bemused faces fled from the tent to find the performers outside greeting the public.  I had to say something.  So I did.  Me to the Transvestite Moose 'in all my born days I can say hand on heart that I have never seen anything like that and probably won't again' Moose: 'thank you' Me: 'that wasn't a compliment' Moose: 'oh' Me: 'where in the name of God did that come from?' Moose: 'our brains....'  A psycologists dream.

And then we were gone, drained, and if I'm honest all feeling a little bit dirty. We continuted to talk about it for the reaminder of the night, all admitting that we were kind of glad we'd seen it but kind of wishing we hadn't and all agreeing that we had shared something this summer that we could never truly explain and no-one who was not there could understand (even though I was there and I still don't understand).  And I end this little segment with the quote of the night from me 'well if that's contempoary dance you can shove it up your arse.....'

After a wander in the evening madness andv bright lights of the Croquet Club we were off home, ready to rest before another couple of days in the city with a nice little stopover to boot!!

Just as a foot note, if you do decide to google the 'dance' troup and look at a trailer for what we witnessed don't be fooled, that was nothing like we witnessed.  If I'd known there would be half naked men writing around on the floor and crawling out of shopping trollies whilst wearing fishnet body stockings I'm not convinced I'd have gone.  Believe me, it's not as good as iot sounds.....!

Then in a flash it was Saturday and we were all heading back into the City to catch two more shows and have a little night away.  We headed in around 2pm and checked into the apartment that we would be literally laying our heads down in for a few hours (which is a good job and one of us was going to have to be sleeping on a put up bed which had transformed the living space into what resembled a hospital ward) and it was out to our first venue in a stunning rooftop bar overlooking the city called 2KW. We got there at the right time, securing a seat with a cracking view and sitting under the cooling outdoor air con they had going before it began to fill with well dressed (and some not so) party goers, and making light work of two jugs of Pimms!

We moved on in search of some food and after a little detour and an unscheduled wander round the city we found a funky little place called Linders Lane in, well, Linders Lane I suspect, just off Rundle Mall.  So we sat outside listening to the street entertainers and enjoyed some amazing food.  I went for the Roo which was amazing and looked like a work of art, but left me with a little food envy as it was more the size of a starter.  But never fear, there was plenty more food to be eaten in this City tonight!!

Next stop was the Crab Shack which was so funky and cool, an oasis of seaside wonder right in the city, where we drank cocktails out of tin cans and jars, sank beers and nommed crab tacos whilst watching the young and not so young enjoying the atmosphere as much as we were.  It was then into the Garden of Unearthly Delights which every time I go to, fills me with joy.  Entertainment tents, food, drink, sideshows, fun fair, a windmill, lights and just wondrfulness under the stars.  The first show was an acrobatic event (thankfully it didn't resemble Friday's debacle) and it was really clever and amazing to see the strength in the guys and girls performing it.  Maybe would have been slightly more enjoyable if not for the rather drunk bogans sitting in front of us but hey, we all have our moments!

Then it was a little bit of a hurried walk to Glutony, another funky set up in the next garden to catch a comedy show at the Phat Club,  hosted by Micky D, an hysterical aussie comic who we saw last time I was over (we even had the same conversation when he asked if there was any English in and when I said where I was from he asked if I knew Maidstone and then went on to talk about a gig he did there and they were all on drugs....) followed by 7 more comedians from around the world Ireland, Scotland, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Australia and America).  We had a solid two hours of laughter and at 2.30am we finally got back to the apartment/hospital ward, ate our convenience store purchases and got our heads down.

Morning was soon upon us and we headed out for a brunch at another funky spot called the Market Shed where there were facinating food stalls and coffee places nestled into what was an old storage shed.  There were musicians playing and we sat and soaked up the atmosphere whilst eating some fab food and very good coffee.  This city really has many layers and plenty to keep you occupied, and is a foodies dream!!

Then the group parted company and I headed off with Helen and Savannah in search of ice cream made with liquid nitrogen!!!! It was called Fancy Ices and we watched them make the ice cream, freezing it in the mixer by using the liquid nitrogen and it was so cool!! (excuse the pun).  Soon I was tucking into coffee gelato with a candy floss top bigger than my head! It was lush.  Then we moved on, heading back to the Heggies to have a quick change and head for the beach.  Just what we needed to end a great weekend.

We had a blast, there was me, Helen, Carrie, Jenn and Savannah all chilled and enjoying the sea and sun.  Then Helen came up with the idea to hire paddle boards.  What a laugh!! After my experience with the kayak in France (near death I will have you know) I was a little nervous and maybe should have told Helen sooner I couldn't swim, but we were out on the water for over an hour, Helen stood, Jenn stood, Savannah stood and I got to my knees! All went perfectly until I tried to go for a stand up 5 meteres from shore....Helen and I both ended up in the drink in spectacular fashion but still managed to look fabulous!!

We watched the sun set on another incredible day and then it was home for pie and mash (curtosey of the Market Shed) and off to bed, happy, contented and just a little weary.  All that water action was exhausting!!!

Then it was Monday, which was a Bank Holiday here (because there was a horse race everyone needed to watch.  I love this country!) and another fun day bekoned....

But that is for later as it is now Truesday for me and I am conscious this has been a rather long post and I am sure you are all bored rigid.  So I will leave that for later and say thank you as always for your faithful attention and sign off by saying...

TTFN xxx