There’s plenty to take in if you’re into period architecture, and it’s best taken in by turning off the shop-lined Hampden Road. That’s not to suggest that what amounts to the High Street has nothing else of interest after you’ve passed the restaurants and bakery. There are conjoined houses named Mafeking and Pretoria, built after the Boer War and one of Australia's foremost colonial historic collections in Narranya, which dates back to 1836 and has been pencilled in as a place to visit next time we’re in the area.
If the sun had been a little further over the yard arm I might have been tempted to stop at The Prince of Wales Hotel, but we crossed the road and headed down De Witt Street towards Cromwell Street and St George's Anglican Church, built in 1838.
The leisurely stroll took us back to Hampden Road, and on to Parliament Square, where there was some sort of photo shoot taking place in front of Parliament House. It may have been something to do with Gay Pride, given the presence of a hairy gentleman in a tutu, but I thought they might resent the interruption if I wandered over to ask what was going on.
In any case, I had an appointment with a CD shop, and left Madam at St David’s Park, looping around towards Music Without Frontiers, which was a couple of blocks away. We’ve learned by now that some people become bored rather quickly when Hughesy visits a music shop, though this time I was in and out rather quickly, emerging slightly lighter on the plastic to the tune of a mere $130.
The Critical Reader might question the use of mere in the vicinity of $130, but I didn’t look very closely, and could easily have doubled that figure on what I’d spotted in the collection of box sets. There was a Chuck Berry Chess label box set that nearly went in to join the seven disk Ray Charles on Atlantic set, a two disk Red Bird compilation, an el cheapo five disk Otis Redding and the Incredible String Band Live at the Fillmore 1968. Definitely the best and most eclectic store I've been in for yonks.