Bird flu.....
I know I know, it's been nearly a week since my last blog. Well you can scratch 4 of those days unless you want to hear about me sitting watching tv blowing my nose and complaining about my cold.
On Saturday I'd finally got rid of the virus and we headed for the nags. Australian Derby day at Randwick Racecourse. We wandered off about 10.30am in normal holiday gear, t-shirt and jeans (yep jeans, it's getting cold brrrrrrrr only 25C). We got to central station and waited around for the bus to the racecourse. Strangely enough there were a heck of a lot of young people standing around dressed to the nineties in ball gowns and feather hats. The lads were 'dressed' too. In ill fitting shirts, suits they'd obviously never worn before and trainers. Yep, derby day is an excuse for Sydneysiders to get dolled up and hit the grog.
Anyway we weren't knocked back at the gate for not keeping up with the dress code and went on to mingle with the huge crowd and even win ourselves a couple of dollars. The nick of some of the people, guys especially, cannot go un-mentioned. There was one guy in an entirely sky blue suit, another in beige and having hair seems to simply be an excuse to make yourself look stupid in this country for some of the fellas. There's more bleach than you'd find in a domestos factory and it seems the larger you can make your head appear the better, some of the do's were simply defying physics.
Anyway it was a great day and we all went home happy.
Next morning I took the 'Bondi Explorer' bus which, among other sights, takes you to the famous Bondi beach where I hopped off and walked along the coast to Coogee beach. Bondi was one of the most amazing beaches I've ever seen, crashing surf, blazing sunshine, golden sands and thousands of lay-abouts sizzling in the sun.
Back home for din-dins and off to the Super 14 grudge match between the locals, second placed team the Waratahs and the third placed ACT Brumbies from Canberra (just down the road in Aussie terms). It was a 36,000 sell-out and the Aussie Stadium rocked as the Waratahs came from 14-6 down to crush their Southern cousins 37-14. A strange experience sitting with both sets of supporters in together. There was a fair bit of banter but that soon died down when the eventual winners became clear.
Today we made the pilgrimage to Manly, home of a cracking Pacific Coast beach (from which we took a rather lengthy swim in the 24C water) and just a generally great atmosphere. Back on the 30 minute ferry to see the sun go down behind the harbour bridge.
We're off for a couple of days in the Blue Mountains tomorrow. It's beginning to grow on me now, this country. Shame they had to fill it with Australians.
On Saturday I'd finally got rid of the virus and we headed for the nags. Australian Derby day at Randwick Racecourse. We wandered off about 10.30am in normal holiday gear, t-shirt and jeans (yep jeans, it's getting cold brrrrrrrr only 25C). We got to central station and waited around for the bus to the racecourse. Strangely enough there were a heck of a lot of young people standing around dressed to the nineties in ball gowns and feather hats. The lads were 'dressed' too. In ill fitting shirts, suits they'd obviously never worn before and trainers. Yep, derby day is an excuse for Sydneysiders to get dolled up and hit the grog.
Anyway we weren't knocked back at the gate for not keeping up with the dress code and went on to mingle with the huge crowd and even win ourselves a couple of dollars. The nick of some of the people, guys especially, cannot go un-mentioned. There was one guy in an entirely sky blue suit, another in beige and having hair seems to simply be an excuse to make yourself look stupid in this country for some of the fellas. There's more bleach than you'd find in a domestos factory and it seems the larger you can make your head appear the better, some of the do's were simply defying physics.
Anyway it was a great day and we all went home happy.
Next morning I took the 'Bondi Explorer' bus which, among other sights, takes you to the famous Bondi beach where I hopped off and walked along the coast to Coogee beach. Bondi was one of the most amazing beaches I've ever seen, crashing surf, blazing sunshine, golden sands and thousands of lay-abouts sizzling in the sun.
Back home for din-dins and off to the Super 14 grudge match between the locals, second placed team the Waratahs and the third placed ACT Brumbies from Canberra (just down the road in Aussie terms). It was a 36,000 sell-out and the Aussie Stadium rocked as the Waratahs came from 14-6 down to crush their Southern cousins 37-14. A strange experience sitting with both sets of supporters in together. There was a fair bit of banter but that soon died down when the eventual winners became clear.
Today we made the pilgrimage to Manly, home of a cracking Pacific Coast beach (from which we took a rather lengthy swim in the 24C water) and just a generally great atmosphere. Back on the 30 minute ferry to see the sun go down behind the harbour bridge.
We're off for a couple of days in the Blue Mountains tomorrow. It's beginning to grow on me now, this country. Shame they had to fill it with Australians.
posted by PeterZ at 12:57 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home