Tuesday, 13 November 2007

A Day At the Races: Melbourne Madness

I fell in love with Melbourne as soon as I landed in the city.

I met Sooze at the airport, where her parents picked us up and promptly dropped us off in town at the Casino for what was going to be a nice quiet night of catching up. Before I knew it, we were talking nineteen to the dozen, drinking champagne, then ripping up the dance floor in a cheesy bar called JJ's. Everyone else was about 20 years older than us, and didn't seem to be having a good time when we arrived - it was a sea of grumpy faces. With our air guitar, crazy dancing and Sooze's song miming at the head of the impressive grand piano we soon changed that, causing havoc as we went. Intending to go home, we got in a taxi only to find ourselves heading to Melbourne institution Revolver for some late night grunge and yet more boogieing. The night was finished with lots of giggling and the required cups of tea and toast back at Sooze's house (plus a tour of her Mum's food cupboard in all its biscuity glory). A fine introduction to a fine city!

The following days were spent cruising about, taking in the earthy atmosphere, pretending to be robots/devils/stick men at the Museum of the Moving Image, gawping at crazy art that we didn't understand, helping Sooze survive the city's highest building, drinking coffee and perhaps a few wines here and there, dancing to some awesome live music at the Espy in St Kilda - and of course, shopping... for we had a very important day to prepare for...

Early on Tuesday morning, Sooze and I got up to get ready for the Melbourne Cup. When I told Sooze I'd visit her home town, she suggested we go to the Cup and I readily agreed. At that point, I had no idea of the style we'd be going in - she had managed to swing us corporate tickets in the Winner's Enclosure. It's all about having friends in the right places folks ;-). Donning hats, high heels and posh dresses, we headed for the Yarra river and set sail with a host of important and smart looking people (why did they let us on I wonder?!). Complete with champagne - as much as you wanted. And breakfast - yum yum little baby muffins and croissants. And the most amazing weather we could hope for - not a cloud in the sky.

Feeling like VIPs, we docked at Flemington and crossed the race track away from 'the common people' to our air conditioned tent near the finishing post. The champagne continued to flow, and we had the most delicious food at group tables - little canapes, then later lunch and desserts. We even had little presents to open, each containing a brand new pair of binos! Flemington is famous for its roses, and it certainly didn't disappoint.

But on to more important matters...The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major annual thoroughbred horse race. It takes place on a day of ten races (this year, the Emirates Melbourne Cup), and the actual Cup is race number seven... so there were plenty of races before hand to get us in the mood. The tension was particularly high this year, as a lot of horses weren't able to compete because of restrictions due to horse flu. We were given race books to swat up on those that had been taking their cold and flu tablets and to study the odds, and had several betting stands near us - so naturally, we got into the spirit early on. We poured over the likes of Maybe Better, Master O'Reilley, Just Curious and Simplest. I of course used serious tactics to decide which horses to go for in each competition - Blue Monday, because it is a song by New Order, Secret Daughter, because it sounds like a book I read recently...that sort of thing. Fail safe I thought. Not so! I did win 25 bucks on race four, but of course I got cocky and promptly spent it (and more).

By the time the actual Melbourne Cup rolled round, we were, ahem, several champagnes along and very much into the swing of the whole event (we had even picked up a couple of swanky gents to cruise around the race course with). We moved from the seats in our private grandstand (wooo!) to stand on the grass and watch the action close up. Sooze and I had placed so many different bets on different horses we figured one of us had to at least win something! Suddenly, the 'race that stops the nation' kicked off and the crowd on both sides of the course went wild, everyone screaming and waving as the horses ran past us and around the track. As they neared us a second time, it was neck and neck and it looked like I was going to get lucky with Purple Rain, until he was pipped at the post by Efficient. Damn. Guess he lived up to his name.

I looked at Sooze and she was laughing. "I didn't think it was any of our horses?", I queried. "It was my mystery bet!", she said with glee. So another winner for Sooze... We decided to cross and see what was happening on the other side of the tracks. It was chaos! By this stage in the afternoon, many people were looking sunburned, drunk, having arguments, missing bits of their outfits - hats, shoes, dresses... nevermind the horses, it was fantastic for people watching! We saw another race...and Sooze's horse Snort (great name eh?!) won. She went to claim, only to find she had misplaced the winning ticket. Damn!

So it was all go at the races...by the end of the last race, we'd been going for some time. The horses think they have it tough running for three and a half minutes, but we'd been drinking ten hours! That didn't stop us taking advantage of further beverages on the boat trip back into the city though. Or ending up at the Casino...deja vu, I thought to myself as I poured another glass of champers...

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