Brisbane, QLD


Friday, July 4, 2014

THESE LITTLE PIGGIES WENT TO THE MALL

We are back home in Brisbane, Queensland where it is warmer than in Adelaide, South Australia, where we recently spent 4 days. Our daughter, Carol, from Sydney came also. We were there to celebrate my sister in law's 80th birthday. Ann travelled from London with her daughter, Liz and son Michael, who had gone to London from the West Indies to pick up his mum and sister for the long haul to Australia. They stayed in Sydney for a few days and then travelled to Wodonga on the border of NSW and Victoria. There they stayed with Ann's other son David. Then Ann and her 3 children, all together in Australia for the first time in decades, travelled to Melbourne. They drove along the scenic ocean road towards Adelaide, where Ann was going to celebrate her birthday with her older sister and other family. Unfortunately, on the way Ann got very ill with pneumonia and was admitted to the ICU at Warrnambool Hospital. She was in an induced coma and needed assistance to breathe. She was in ICU for the whole time that we were in Adelaide but she is now in a ward. She isn't allowed to travel for some time. David had to drive his brother and sister back to Melbourne to catch a flight home and then return to Warrnambool. when his mum is well enough he will take her back to his place in Wodonga and care for her until she is well enough to fly. Needless to say the birthday celebrations were cancelled and Ann didn't get to  see her sister, niece and other family including us.

We decided to try and make the most of 4 days in beautiful Adelaide but it turned on the worst weather possible. Freezing wind and rain so we didn't enjoy being outside much. However, I had to visit the Rundle Mall and show Carol my all time favourite sculptures.
 "A Day Out" by Marguerite Derricourt (1999) is a collection of 4 pigs running amok in the mall.

 "Horatio" sits and begs food from you when you sat on a bench but the bench has been moved probably because there is a lot of revamping going on in the mall at the moment. I hope they never move the pigs.

"Augusta " is running towards "Oliver," who has his snout in the litter bin.


 Even though "Oliver" has a variety of sculptured trash to snuffle into, someone always provides him with some real food. Today it was an orange.
He is so cute.

"Truffles" is on the look out for some food and excitement.

I have seen many sculptures around the world but I think the Adelaide pigs are my favourite. The next best were the men in Bratislava. 
We wrapped our scarfs and coats around tighter to keep the freezing wind out and headed to the arcade for a hot chocolate. 

25 comments:

  1. My blog feed has been up the creek for a while and i had no idea how to sort it. However it has now sorted itself out and i am receiving my favourite blog posts once again. This sounded such a wonderful reunion, so sad that it has turned out badly. Hope she makes a speedy recovery. Those pigs are fun sculptures. How clever to have them interacting so to speak.

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  2. Oh goodness me, what a journey, then illness. The main thing a hospital was available and she is on the road to recovery.
    Love the pigs...

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  3. Oh I am so sorry about your sister-in-law I do hope she is doing better now that is such a disappointment for you all. HUG
    Oh LOVE the truffle pig:) Hug B

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  4. Melbourne has received the same weather as Adelaide, only colder and windier. I did not know of the pigs until we visited Adelaide maybe four years ago. They are just great.

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  5. I am sorry some of your celebrations were canceled. But, at least you enjoyed time with your daughter.

    I love the cute piggies. I hope they keep them there, they are adorable.

    Have a happy weekend!

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  6. First of all I am so sorry about your sister-in-law and I do hope she will be better soon.

    Very creative the collection of four pigs.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog and nice comment.


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  7. i feel so sorry for your sis-in-law and all the family who were hoping to celebrate and instead were filled with worry! i hope she can continue to recover fully.

    i LOVE these cute pigs!!!

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  8. what a fun 80 th birthday.. and i love those pigs. Oliver in the trahs is my favorite but they are all really cute.. i want one

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  9. Diane, I do hope that Ann is well on the road to recovery. So sad that this had to happen during such a happy occasion.
    The pigs are totally fabulous! I agree, I hope they never move them.

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  10. How sad your reunion was ruined, along with the birthday celebration. I love the pigs. Such fun. Someone has a great sense of humor.

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  11. Those pigs are just so awesome I love them and would love to see them in person which one day I might since they are in this wonderful country of mine

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  12. Those pigs really are cute. I can understand why they are favorites of you.

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  13. Hope Anne is now on the road to a speedy recovery. Glad you got to spend some time with your daughter. Your photos made me smile, they were pure delight :)

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  14. How sad that it turned out this way. At least you saw the pigs, they are adorable ! Real nice sculptures !

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  15. So sorry to hear about your sister in law. Hope she is getting better soon.
    Thanks for showing the pigs. Indeed they are absolutely gorgeous

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  16. Hi Diane, The sculptured pigs are amazing... I haven't ever seen any sculptures like that before. Is there a name to the MALL--that talks about Pigs... Maybe it's named, "Bring me the BACON"... ha ha

    So sorry about the illness of your friend --who missed her birthday celebration. Hope she is okay now. Bless her heart.

    Glad you did have a good time with your daughter --even though it was COLD there. I thought when looking at the photo of Father/Daughter on FB yesterday that it was COLD down there.

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  17. So sorry to hear about your sister in law Ann, how awful and definitely not how you would want to spend a birthday.. I hope she is on her way to a full recovery Diane. I have to say your pigs in the mall are totally fabulous, if they thing of moving them you'll have to chain yourself to Augusta's trotter :)

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  18. Sorry to read about the planned and then cancelled festivities due to Ann's unexpected illness. Hopefully, there will be another celebration where everyone can gather. The piggies were quite amazing and amusing and made me wonder why they were selected for the scultures.

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  19. Those piggies are just adorable. So sorry about your s-i-l.... I hope she'll be OK. At least you got a nice visit with your daughter even if you were cold most of the time. (I hate cold).

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  20. The little pigs are so lovely.
    Hope your sister in law is feeling better now.
    We have cold weather over here now too.
    Thanks for visiting my blog

    Hugs
    Carolyn

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  21. Just love these little pigs they are delightful. The only trip we did to Adelaide it never stopped raining. We decided that we may as well get wet inside as well as out and spent most of our time doing the wine tours!! Take care Diane

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  22. I, too, love the pigs! How whimsical and clever! It's too bad about your visit and poor Anne being so ill. I hope she is now well on the mend.

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  23. such a very unfortunate chain of events and I am so pleased to hear that Ann is in recovery mode. The weather has been very chilly. Enjoyed the pigs in the mall too

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  24. That's so sad. I do hope Ann makes a full recovery. It sounds like you still spent some good time in Adelaide.

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  25. What involved arrangements and long journey for Ann and family to have made. Sad that she became ill and the celebrations were cancelled. Is she OK now? I love the sculptured pigs. I would think those were the best ever although I don't have much of a reference frame here in the boondocks! I Googled The Men of Bratislava and prefer the pigs in the market! Have a great day. Jo

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