The first tablet of Augmentin, I could
make out, had started working. Even though the cough was unbearable in the
night, the fever had subsided and my head was less heavy. The comfortable bed
had played its part in resting properly. I had told Chris that we should wake
up early in the morning and, being Labour Day, would water the plants and pick
out the weeds. He got up early and did as he had been told and when I joined
him he wanted me to pick the weeds with him as well. Jeff was feeling better
and he explained to me the working of various games using the Xbox. It was
truly interesting to experience the games that used your gestures and another
that reacted to your movements. A multi-generational shift from the kind of
games that I was used to as a kid. Hand-eye co-ordination is most important to
play most of these digital games. I kept crashing a car into the side rails in
one of the race games. That much for driving skills! Jeff is a technology geek and his cogent explanation helped me understand the potential of technology
used in gaming. Honey checked with me if I had anything in particular laid out
for the day. Foremost was the laundry and then visit to the Adelaide Oval. For
the latter, Honey booked the 11 am Oval tour on line and, for the former, I used
the washing machine at home.
It was a rather long drive to the
Adelaide Oval and went through the CBD. Honey suggested that we try out the
tram service. However, since we did not see much activity near it we decided to
travel through to the St Peters Cathedral and parked near it. The St Peter’s
Cathedral is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide. This imposing
structure with a spacious nave and a grand decorative structure behind the
altar – called the reredos - was opened for worship over 160 years ago. The
reredos is over 30 feet tall and features Jesus Christ at the centre of it. The
play of lights on the panel makes it look magical. There is also a Lady’s
Chapel within the church. The unique statue of Our Lady inside the chapel was
made of beaten and oxidized copper by a Czechoslovakian artist. The church has amazing stained glass windows and a niche where drawings and paintings of
the gradual development of the church are displayed.
We decided to leave the car where we
had parked and walk to the Adelaide Oval, which was in close proximity to it. Suddenly
I came across the bronze statue of the great Don in full flow in front of the
East Gate of the Adelaide Oval and that was the first goose bump occasion of
the day. Ringing the stadium are statues of great sportspersons of South
Australia. We reported to the Sports Concierge and completed the balance
formalities when we were given tags to wear on the neck. After a feverish
search we finally landed up at the ‘Bradman Collection’ to start the tour. The
second goose bump moment happened then – the Bradman Collection. Despite it
being a public holiday there were a fair number to take the tour and two guides
were assigned. A short video introduction to the development of the Adelaide
Oval preceded the tour. David Banford was guide to five of us.
The absolutely
fascinating tour last under two hours when it was advertised for 90 minutes.
Apparently David had been a cricketer and Umpire before taking up work as a
Guide. He was truly outstanding. He took us through the various parts of the
stadium – explaining why the stands were steep (to ensure that the line of
sight of none of the spectators would be obstructed), how the architects met
the requirement of ensuring cross ventilation, how spectators had access to
toilet and food facilities within 40 meters (thus avoiding large queues), the
media rooms, entertainment centres, the players enclosure (goose bumps refused
to die down when we were made to walk through the door of the change rooms up
the ramp and on to the stadium to the accompaniment of sounds of crowd frenzy recorded with excellent
acoustics - unbelievable), the old scoreboard (how the names of players are entered
to respecting signals from umpires to a small contraption made at the behest of
the great Vic Richardson that showed up players in action on the field), the
heritage mounds where the Barmy Army are seen on TV, the reason why the Bar has
a covered façade (to stop people from crowding there) and the reason why trees were
planted on the hill (to stop people watching the game free!), the Hill of Grace
five star restaurant within the stadium that can set one back by about AUD 290
for a meal, the north-south orientation of the pitch (to keep the sun away
from the eyes while batting), the seating capacity in the Oval (53,000 plus),
that 18 games are played in this venue including cricket, Australian Rules
Football and soccer, the largest stand is the Riverbank Stand (named after the
River Torrens in the background – the run off from the stadium goes into the
river and when water is required for the stadium the river acts as the
reservoir).
Sir Donald Bradman lived just a few
hundred yards away from the Kensington Oval, where first class matches were played.
Apparently it was not unusual for him to walk down from his house to catch a
few hours of the game. David told us about a friend of his who was playing at
the Oval and, despite the fall of wickets at the other end, had stoutly
defended his stumps till tea. When he walked back to the pavilion for tea he
heard a voice saying, “Well played, Son”. He turned in the direction of the
voice and found Don Bradman standing there complimenting him. That’s true
greatness. David went on to say that his friend, when he was asked if he had
ever seen the Don, used to remark, “No, the Don saw me!” That’s genuine humor.
While on the tour one of the local T20 teams had arrived to practice at the
indoor nets. I recognized Mark Stoines and Justin Langer among them. The piece
de resistance of the tour was being in the Bradman Collection all alone. The
goosebumps will last forever. Various documents, memorabilia and even the
photographs of arguably the greatest batsman the world has ever seen brought
memories of my childhood back to me. I used to know all the records the man had
made and the statistics connected to his games. Here I was, face to face with
the legend, almost. There is a small enclosure with a model of a water tank.
Don, as a kid, used to bounce a golf ball off the tank at short distance and
middle it with a stump! That’s how he developed his uncanny timing. We finally
took leave of the Don and the Oval.
St Francis Xavier church, a catholic
church, was our next destination. Unfortunately, it was closed and were disappointed
that we could not offer our prayers inside the church. It was 3 pm by the time
we returned home and had a super lunch of fish curry and rice. Felt like just
being in Kerala. The laundry had been done and I ironed them, made ‘sets’ of
them and put them into the large bag in the car. After a short rest we left
again to visit the GP. After the payment of fee Dr Simounds took me over to the
treatment room to look at the wounds. He was satisfied by the progress. He asked
Honey to photograph it for my reference so that I could compare the wound when
I would open the dressing after three days. He reckoned that I was good to go
provided I kept the wound dry.
Honey suggested that we take the car
to an automated facility for a wash before leaving the next day. The AUD 12.50
wash was worth every cent. The car came out squeaky clean in just a few
minutes. Back at home I made the final readjustment of luggage inside the car
and got Honey to complete the log sheet entries. It had been a wonderful couple
of days in Adelaide and was now time to move on to tougher drives in the next
ten days. I turned in early after dinner of chappati, salad, fish and vegetable
curry – delectable.
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