Adelaide’s Santa apocalypse | Another political reporter on the move
This week, InSider counts the cost of a weekend Santa massacre and tries to keep up with Adelaide’s media musical chairs.
Santa is down, everywhere
Well, folks, it happened again.
Adelaide City Council’s inflatable Rundle Mall Santa, whose deflationary antics have become a perennial target for this column, returned to form over the weekend with another dazzling display of PSI piss-taking.
The big guy in red was spotted collapsed under a blue tarpaulin Saturday evening, only eight days after InSider warned that we were officially on Santa deflation watch. Doesn’t seem like our North Pole friend is capable of handling scrutiny, let alone Adelaide’s hot weather.
Rundle Mall Santa at his peak.
Deflated, again.More shocking, however, is that we found THREE other council Santas in deflated distress on Saturday, and these poor sods weren’t even given the dignity of a tarpaulin.
Among those lying down on the job was “Santa the Curator” outside State Library, “Santa the Suit” outside UniSA’s City East campus, and “Santa the Slacker” outside the SA Museum – the latter well and truly living up to his name.
Santa the Curator.
Santa the Suit.You might like
Santa the SlackerWe’re not opposed to Adelaide’s St Nicks getting some weekend respite – it’s a busy time of year after all – but the kiddies following the “Santa Course” on Saturday could be forgiven for thinking they’d witnessed some kind of Christmas apocalypse. Only in Adelaide could council’s marquee festive attraction resemble a trail of un-erected red tents.
A council spokesperson said: “While we can get a little flat about the Santas being temporarily deflated, hot and windy conditions over the weekend meant our Santas needed a short break.”
“Whenever there’s adverse weather conditions or occasional tears to the Santas’ fabric, our elves get them mended and reinflated as soon as possible,” they said.
“Just like Santa closely monitors his naughty or nice list, we keep a close eye on the Santas each day and any unexpected disruption is quickly rectified.”
To council’s credit, all four Santas were back up on Sunday, although InSider spotted our Rundle Mall friend back under his tarpaulin by Wednesday. Blue is at least a minor improvement on last year’s uninspiring garbage bag-coloured covering.
Last year’s Santa (pictured) perhaps should have served as a warning.Melting Moments
On the subject of Australia’s hot and blustery weather deflating Christmas spirit, InSider couldn’t help but wonder if this breathless press release from Nestlé and Booking.com was a good idea: “Here’s how you can win a magical weekday stay in the chocolatey KitKat Christmas Cabin!”
“Hansel and Gretel’s iconic Gingerbread house is a core memory for us kids who was [sic] obsessed with lollies and chocolate growing up,” the release asserted.
“But what if we told you there’s a chance to relive your childhood dreams by staying in an IRL KitKat cabin – think Hansel and Gretel’s Gingerbread house but make it KITKAT.
“This holiday season, KitKat is offering families the chance to win the ultimate break: a two-night stay in a life-size KitKat Christmas-themed Cabin.”
OK, there is just so much to unwrap here (pun intended).
Firstly, while we appreciate the notion, the idea of a chocolate cabin in the middle of an Aussie summer screams recipe for disaster, even if it is located in the picturesque beach town of Newport, NSW.
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Second, if InSider’s memory of childhood fairytales is accurate, didn’t the Gingerbread house belong to a witch whose goal was to fatten up and eat her visitors? While the fattening up aspect rings true for our Christmas plans, we’re not so crazy about the second part of that tale…
Lastly, if witchy cannibalism isn’t enough to swear you off chocolate, the social media duo of Josh and Matt certainly is.
SA media musical chairs
It’s been a red-hot week in Adelaide media movements.
To recap: veteran ABC Radio Adelaide host David Bevan announced his retirement on Tuesday, with SA Press Club president and ABC state political reporter Rory McClaren revealed as his replacement the next day.
More changes are afoot at Collinswood, though.
InSider understands The Advertiser’s state political editor, Kathryn Bermingham, is taking up a job as an investigative reporter with the ABC.
Her appointment comes fresh off her winning the gold award at the SA Press Club for her role in breaking the David Speirs white powder story.
It’s not Bermingham’s first time at the ABC. She briefly worked there from April to July 2020 as a digital producer and journalist, before moving to NewsCorp’s newswire service and later The Advertiser.
But wait, there’s more.
Spence Denny is returning to ABC Radio Adelaide on the Evenings program, with current presenter Jason Chong moving to Sunday Mornings.
Further, Nikolai Beilharz is moving to the Drive slot at the public broadcaster, while Jo Laverty will present Afternoons in 2025.
Adelaide flushes away an old record
In another piece of big Adelaide news, we became the proud (or not) holders of a new record this week. Appropriately announced on World Toilet Day (which, as we all know, was November 19), Adelaide has broken its own record for the most sewer blockages in a single year.
SA Water blamed flushed wet wipes for the increase, with 1667 blockages recorded to date.
“With another six weeks of the year to go we’ve well and truly surpassed the previous record, which came in 2022 and saw 1344 blockages across our city’s sewers,” SA Water senior manager of infrastructure planning and strategy Daniel Hoefel said.
Hoefel said he hoped to share better news on the otherwise joyful World Toilet Day, which was established in 2001 by the World Toilet Organisation. It became an annual United Nations Observance in 2013.
The key message? Toilets are a place for peace, toilets are a place for protection, and toilets are a place for progress. Hear hear!
