Yesterday afternoon I took in my first live Australian Rules game and watched Brisbane Lions play Melbourne at the MCG. Melbourne unexpectedly edged the match and won by a single point - 14.9.93 to 13.14.92. The scoring soon made sense: 6 points for a ‘goal’ (the first number) and 1 point for a ‘behind’ (either side of the goals) which are added together for the actual scoreline (the last number).
I had an introduction to AFL last week courtesy of my cousins partners seven-year-old son who had to give a talk to his class on his favourite things and used me to practice his presentation, so I wasn’t completely at a loss as to what was going on. I was confused for a while about the guys in HiViz outfits running around the pitch, seemingly at random. I knew they weren’t officials, water carriers or medical staff. I asked a friend who told me that they were ‘runners’ and ferrying messages from the coach to the players.
It wasn’t the most free-flowing of games but I enjoyed my afternoon. Like a rugby match, integrated seating and being able to have a beer during the game helped the atmosphere. Attendance was over 23,000 but the ground felt bizarrely deserted as the MCG has a capacity of 100,000 or over four times the crowd on the day.
After the match we jumped on to a tram down to St. Kilda - made famous a few years ago in the TV series The Secret Life of Us. We headed home after some people watching, a nice dinner and lots of slobbering as we passed by the multitude of cake shops.
Yesterday was spent touring around various wineries and sampling their wares. Either side of lunch we clocked up somewhere in the region of seven or eight places, from the large to the small and family-run. The car was clinking with the sound of bottles as we came home loaded with a fair amount wine.
I’m afraid to say that I forgot my notebook and the nature of the day lead to my memory being pretty vague so I can’t really elaborate much on which wines we sampled where. Suffice to say that there were some good ones and some not-so-good ones. Definitely something to add to your list of things to do for the next time you’re in the area.
I took a trip with a friend out to see the kangaroos, koalas, duck-billed platypuses and other Australian animals at the Healesville Animal Sanctuary. On the way out there we also randomly spotted a couple of elephants when we passed a circus tent but didn’t stop for a closer look as I’m very allergic to them.
It was a pleasant enough afternoon but I was a little disappointed by the kangaroos. I thought that they’d be bouncing around all over the place but instead just grazed lazily. I suspect that they may be pulling some kind of flying-penguin type prank as uncovered by Lisa Simpson.
I passed a few hours this afternoon at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image where the Game On exhibition is currently underway. I missed this in Edinburgh last year so it was a pleasant surprise to stumble upon it.
I’ve never really been all that into gaming. Mainly, I think, because I was crap and not a big fan of losing. I vaguely remember the children of friends of my parents bringing around their Atari VCS to play with and I can’t have been much older than three. Next up was my neighbours’ ZX81 and my best friends’ Acorn Electron before my first computer which was a Spectrum 128 +2A. I then had a C64 and dreamed of an Amiga with a meg of RAM before moving into the world of the PC.
I have to say that I was surprised by just how much traffic was on the M5 freeway in to Sydney at 0530 and glad that I allowed plenty of time to get to the airport. I caught up on some sleep on the plane before occupying myself by circling typso and errata in Virgin Blue’s in-flight magazine. Parachute jump over Port Macquarie from 30,000 meters? I may have only one tandem jump under my belt but I’m fairly sure that jumping from the stratosphere - even HALO or HAHO jumps - isn’t all that common.
Gordon Ramsey is in Sydney at the moment for the Good Food and Wine Show. While here, he has been mentioned in the parliament for his abusive language and rudeness on television. To clarify, that’s the Australian parliament. Oh the irony! Aussies swear like a docker who just stubbed his toe at the best of times.
A few years ago I got talking to an Australian girl in a bar in Edinburgh. Once she realised that I was English she asked me how I felt having the whole world hate me. I explained that not everyone in the world knew me and enquired if having such a pleasant demeanour helped her make friends easily. The conversation carried on in a similar vein for a while until I eventually lost patience and told the criminal to rack off.
Chef Ramsey has snubbed Sydney and opted to locate his first restaurant in Melbourne instead. Apparently he thinks Melbourne is more like New York. I’ll find out for myself this week.
Now I’ve recovered after being taken around the Kings Cross area for my cousins birthday, I headed into the City and walked from Darling Harbour up to The Rocks, Circular Quay and around the Botanical Gardens. I remember a rumour that one of the guides on the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb was Kristian Schmidt (you’ll know him better as Todd Landers from Neighbours). I didn’t particularly want to blow a couple of hundred dollars to find out so I hopped on a bus to Bondi. I opted for the 333 limited stop service (AUS $4) instead of the Bondi Explorer (AUS $39). I’m not sure exactly why the regular bus was so much cheaper. It may have been a little slower but I was still walking on the beach 30 minutes later.
I carried on my walk along the coastal path down to Coogee. I arrived in time for the reply of last nights game between Spain and Italy and by luck walked into the Coogee Bay Hotel Sports Bar which is home to the two largest plasma televisions in Australia (103″ Panasonic TH-103PF9UK).
I fancied Spain before the tournament got underway so I’m glad they’re through. Who knows, the “Spain never wins a major trophy” hoodoo just may be over.
This was the best response I heard given yesterday to the question posed by one of the many bemused passers-by that looked at the queue forming for the opening of the first Apple Store in the southern hemisphere with a mixture of derision and pity: “Why are you lining up for a computer shop?”
Continue reading ‘“Because Microsoft just aren’t worth it”’
I took a trip up to Katoomba and the Blue Mountains yesterday with my aunt and uncle. The scenery and views of the Three Sisters are amazing - easily worth the drive. While it was apparently raining back in Sydney, we were blessed with unseasonally warm and sunny weather.
We also took a trip to Scenic World and had a ride on the steepest incline railway in the world (a maximum gradient of 52 degrees) down to the Scenic Walkway in the lush valley below where the temperature drops by a good few degrees. It was midweek so the place wasn’t all that busy but I’m told that at the weekend you can barely move for all of the tourists.
It’s supposed to be Winter here at the moment but the daytime temperature is still nudging 20° Celsius now that the rain from last week has dried up. The country has been under drought conditions for six years so all precipitation is actually welcome.
This place is simply massive. The UK could fit into New South Wales alone seven times over. Australia is a place that is full of things that will kill you, ridiculous place names like Woolloomooloo or Ulladulla and strange-looking foodstuffs in-and-among the familiar. I’d never even heard of a durian or a garingale before never mind seen or eaten them.