being Strayan.

In honour of the Australia Day weekend just past, I'm making a list of all the things I like about Adelaide. I've been feeling kind of negative about the place lately, a little cooped up perhaps, and I hope that thinking about the good stuff for a while might help my mindframe. I appreciate that some of these would be applicable to other places in Australia, and others are the obvious ones that everyone knows about, but I think I'll include them nevertheless, and just see how many things I can come up with. I might keep adding to this list as I come up with things so it might grow a bit from this point over the next few days/weeks. It will be interesting to see whether these are the things I actually miss when I move away... It would also be interesting to hear what other people value most about Adelaide - particularly those friends who are away from home!

1. The Central Markets. I love the place, I love the food, I love the people, I love the noise, I love the culture.
2. The multiculturalism. Particularly in relation to the food. I love that nearly every culture and every cuisine in the world is represented by at least one restaurant. I take this for granted, but I suspect it's rarer than you'd think.
3. The proximity of everything. I love that I can walk to work in 45 minutes and the furthest I ever need to go is about a 20 minute drive.
4. That it's a small enough place that almost everywhere you go, you'll bump into someone you know. This would also feature on my list of 'bad things about Adelaide', but mostly it's a good thing.
5. My family and lots of my close friends are here.
6. I love that I've lived in the same house for my entire life, and because of this, I have a place that feels more strongly of home than most people.
7. That on my way home from work, I pass Rainbow Lorikeets, Roseallas, Galahs and the occasional Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. How many other cities still have such colourful fauna?
8. The old fashioned tram to Glenelg. I love being able to travel exactly the same way that people did 100 years ago.
9. That it's a 20 minute drive to the beach from the city, and the beaches have beautiful golden sand, not nasty pebbles.
   
10. The fact that we have our own accent. You can pick a South Aussie anywhere in the world as soon as they say 'no' (noy) or 'well' (wew) or a number of other words.
11. That we're one of the few places in the world (with Peru, Scotland and Sweden) where another beverage (Farmers Union Iced Coffee in this case) outsells Coke.
    
12. The pie floater and the AB.
    
13. The restaurants: I love Thea, Mandarin House, Ying Chow, Organic Life, Genki, the Russian Piroshki, Vego and Loven It, Beyond India, the Babanussa and all the other great places where you can get an excellent quality cheap meal, fast.
    
14. The fact that (anecdotally at least) we have the largest Sudanese population outside of Sudan. That is k.e.w.l.
15. My view from my office window, over St Peter's Cathedral and Adelaide Oval, and the fact the dominating colour is green.
    
16. The Beehive Corner and the Mall's Balls.
    
17. The Barossa Valley and the Hills.