Monday, 10 November 2008
Monday’s game plan, remembering we were flying back north late in the afternoon, was based around further opportunities for Madam to catch up with friends and acquaintances while Hughesy indulged himself in various pastimes that would serve to kill time. Those were supposed to involve wandering around various bookstores and CD emporiums, but once I’d picked up a couple of titles I just had to have (the new Le Carre, a Michael Dibdin/Aurelio Zen omnibus and a new title from Andrea Camilleri) an extreme reluctance to spend anything beyond what was absolutely necessary saw me sitting around cooling my heels while I waited for departure time.
And if that sounds a bit extreme, the reader needs to remember that straight after I’d picked up those three titles I wandered into a nearby CD store where I could easily have handed over a couple of hundred dollars filling gaps in the music collection.
Better, I decided, to avoid unnecessary temptation and difficult decisions. After all, I had Inspector Montalbano to keep me amused.
Once I’d caught up with Madam and one of her on-line acquaintances in the coffee shop at the Hilton and induced a minor dose of excitement by announcing the luggage belonging to the visiting Gamba Osaka soccer team was at that very moment being unloaded in front of the hotel. I started reading, taking a break after a couple of pages to wander around the locale, deftly avoiding various besuited young fit-looking Japanese gentlemen scattered around the premises and talking animatedly into mobile phones.
We wandered over to Gouger Street for a yum cha lunch, caught up with another of Madam’s former colleagues over a gelato and, thanks to an unexpected offer of a lift to the airport, found ourselves cooling our heels waiting for check-in to open. 
As previously indicated, Adelaide Airport is an impressive facility, but I wish someone had impressed on the architect the fact that passengers waiting for the check-in process to open might be there because they don’t have too much choice in the matter and might appreciate something to sit on.
Once we’d separated ourselves from the luggage there wasn’t a great deal to do that didn’t involve enjoying the view across to the Adelaide Hills from inside the Coopers’ Ale House and a snack before the boarding call.
Once aboard, I immersed myself in The Patience of the Spider and, some three hours later, having returned to terra firma and reclaimed the belongings, it was time to see about a shuttle from the airport to the unit.
It wasn’t the speediest of transfers, but once were safely back where the Adelaide leg of the trip effectively started there wasn’t a great deal to do until the time came to catch the airport train and resume the northward journey two days later.