Playing Santa – Toys for Benji

The reason I went to Adelaide by coach rather than driving down was that I wanted several things and  I believed that I only needed to go to one place, Muno Para Shopping Center,  and I could attend to them – Telstrashop (New Travel Modem) Bunnings ( Garden things) and  some things for the Benji. Well, I guess two out of three is not bad – although having said that, I could get these two things anywhere but not the Bunnings things. Well, I got the new Travel Modem – I got things for the Benji and discovered that  Bunnings Muno Para has closed down and moved to another area. I had been to this particular Bunnings in Muno Para several times before and now, it was gone. Here’s the rub, had I been in the car I could simply driven to another  store in another part of town, – Modbury, Mile End or Pooraka- but relying on public transport and having to watch my time for the coach home, kind of put paid to these notions. I suppose I came out ahead, but not really because I actually NEED the units that I was going to get in Bunnings. I did not have the time to go elsewhere and getting there was not all that crash hot on public transport. As I said, I have

driven to the Muno Para Shopping Center several times before, so when I went over to the train station in Adelaide I got a ticket to Muno Para – seems logical, yes?? Well no!  I got off at Muno Para Station in the middle of nowhere – almost. I happened to  see a  person and asked them where the Muno Para Shopping Center was and they informed me that the Muno Para Shopping Center is in Smithfield – which was the last stop. So I had to  go over to the other side of the station and wait for a train back to Smithfield. Agreed, not difficult to do – not rocket science – but time consuming.

After I  got the things I was looking for (except the Bunnings things) I went back to the train station and took the train back to Elizabeth and had a look for some things there. Did buy a second toy for Benji so that was good. I have this theory that a dog can’t have too many toys.  Also had a belated lunch.  I was back in town by 16:40 and spend  three quarters of an hour at the Central Market  where I finally found a collapsible  water bowl. Overall the trip wasn’t a complete loss but a lot of time spent  traveling and getting nothing done. I mean  11 hours in coach travel alone. Why Bunnings – why not get what I want elsewhere – because like Ryobi Tools in Australia,  there are things that are exclusive to Bunnings – what I wanted was part of that.

On the journey up as it got dark I was  puzzled by all the lights around us, then I realised that it was the farmers working into the night – under lights- to get the harvest in whilst it was still dry. This  was on both sides of the highway all the way up through the farming areas. After the wettest spring on record, you can hardly blame them working hard to get  their crops harvested in case the weather breaks.

Travelling to Adelaide by coach these days is  very much a waste of time. The coach leaves at 6 am – arrives in Adelaide at 11:30 am and departs again at 4 pm – not really a lot o

f time to do much other than wander around Rundle Mall. Thursday the departure time is 6 pm so  that certainly helps – although it used to be at 6:30. I can understand the coach company reducing services – last Thursday, for example, there were six people on the coach leaving Adelaide. Four left at Port Pirie, one left at Port Augusta, so for the last 80 klms I had a 44 seater coach all to myself. -With the driver, of course.  Still, two new toys and a water bowl for Benji – seems like a good day out to me  :o)