Record crowd for pageant

AdelaideNow... Record crowd for pageant:

"CHILDREN in their thousands lined the streets of Adelaide this morning to get their first glimpse of the man in red. Perfect weather drew a record crowd of 320,000 to see the 57 floats, 15 bands and 164 clowns of this year's Christmas pageant."

I am not surprised they had a record crowd for the Christmas Pageant this year. The day turned out to be one of those magical, sunny Adelaide days which was just superb. The kids would have loved it, I am certain, and I know there has been a lot of anticipation this year. The Christmas decorations are starting to go up and I must say they are very tasteful and well thought out this year. Since I do not have littlies I thought I'd go and see how the rebuilding and revamping of Colonnades was going. I thought it would be quiet. I was wrong. Not a child in sight and everyone else has had the same thought as I. It looks less like the airport runways onto the plane, less industrial and certainly bright and airy. The atmosphere was really good and the shops are starting to look pretty impressive. Not overdone. Just a bit of character and style. It's very fresh looking and there is a good mix of shops and places to sit. The sitting is great on those long hauls across the long malls. We'll all be getting fitter, that's for sure. The oldies were very comfortable there and that's a good sign. Often older people can't manage the big shopping centres, but the seats and layout have made it senior friendly. I had a really good shop and look forward to going there before Christmas...and so Santa is in his magic cave and the count down to Christmas has begun. I love Christmas.