On the Adelaide Zoo, musings

I visited the Adelaide Zoo yesterday. I did so in spite of the giant pandas that the zoo acquired recently at excessive cost. The pandas take up a disproportionate amount of space in the zoo. Also, they aren't particularly interesting. I found Australian critters to be much more fun.
The zoo has been very clever in some spots in how it has laid out the pens. The best example are the meerkat enclosures which are just in front of the giraffes. As the meerkats are small, people can look at the giraffes with an unobstructed view. It helps that both are African animals.
I embarrassed one of the zoo volunteers by asking what the birds I had taken a picture of were. They had been hanging around a zoo café hoping for handout. They were obviously not zoo animals but they were exotic to me with their crests. The volunteer wasn't sure but thought they were common wood pigeons. (I have since decided that they were crested pigeons.)

I also surprised a clerk in the shop by asking if there was a plush rainbow lorikeet that didn't make noise! There wasn't.

Afterwards, I moseyed through downtown Adelaide finding a used book store with a Footrot Flats collection the family doesn't have. I also found lunch in the form of some tasty lamb yiros and hot, salted mixed nuts.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Old HMAS Adelaide Gaol. Interesting, if slightly morbid.

When I got back to Diane and Rob's house, Rob had the TV on to the news. The big story was Quantas being ordered to end its lock-out. One side story was that Great Southern Rail had sold out Monday's Overland from Adelaide to Melbourne despite having added two extra coaches.

Over a supper of salmon and assorted roasted vegetables, we chatted about a number of things including the sometimes odd ways some Aussie words are pronounced. I gave the example of Wagga Wagga which sounded to me like "Wogga Wogga". Rob piped up that I was still pronouncing it wrong as "the second 'Wogga' is silent." ;-)

Rob has a crazy habit of getting very early such as 4:30 AM and then falling asleep at the supper table. ;-) Of course, I have get up at 4 AM on Friday to catch my plane to Sydney.