Flight was uneventful, didn't have any better opportunity to talk to CPF than her sneezing on taxi-ing off the runway as mentioned. Got to Melb, was a balmy nine degrees, so out came the leather jacket, and to the baggage claim, and just in case I had missed V in the airport gave her mobile a ring to see where she was. Her sister answered and apparently V was in the shower, so my fifty fifty odds of her deciding to come to the airport were clarified (she said she wouldn't, but hmm, not seeing you in two months, coming to a strange city, hmm).
Got to the taxi rank, I needed to go about two suburbs from the airport, said the destination through the window to the first driver, he drove off without taking me - grrr, apparently that happens in Melb a lot, the drivers pick and choose. Second driver I chucked the luggage in the back and got in before saying the destination, would have been at least half alright since he actually dropped someone off at the same time, and it was a much shorter trip than it looked in the map, and it was blimmin expensive. $10 to go over two suburbs basically. Or maybe even one and a half, where V's sister NRI lives is basically a suburb that has a lower case name in the mapbook, always know that's a subdivision of a suburb - LOL, just didn't want to write something stupid like sub-suburb LOL.
Got in to NRI's house, sat on the couch for a couple of hours chatting, watching ABC (Rage and the netball), and making plans for the day - which came to consequences later in the night... one of those things that was talked about, agreed to and discussed without any proper follow through in thinking and responsibility taken. Between the four of us, V, NRI, CCL and I, we agreed to V and I going to the footy, CCL joining us for dinner at the casino, and NRI and her boyfriend INB picking us up at 11.30ish. Now apart from the footy, I was OK being easy with the entire rest of the trip, so didn't really get involved with the discussion, so thought that the whole picking us up thing would be IF we were still in town.
INB came over and told us that we would have to get to the game early cos it was Collingwood Hawthorn and that it would take ages to battle the crowds of the MCG. Of course, it had been forty years since he had been to a game. We got in the car and were dropped off at Essendon station, with INB getting stroppy about us not listening to him, although he didn't like us having conversations amongst ourselves at all. Reminded me and V as well of GD, but a worse version.
We got a train at Essendon and caught it all the way to Flinders. We were there at 12.30, and only about ten minutes to the MCG, were there well within the rushing to the ground phase. We went across the street to Hungry Jacks, although V actually wanted to go to McDs, to have lunch. Took the tram to the ground, and got a ticket in the Pontsford stand, top tier, slightly to the side of the goalposts.
The MCG is as huge as it looks on TV - it is HUGE, from the top tier, looking down at the ground, the cricket block at the Basin or Westpac or the Oval even (from memory) the centre block takes up much more room than at the MCG. The teams came out for warm up and V had a good view of Shane Crawford stretching his thighs and showing his butt, and it was very helpful for us without binoculars to wear fluorescent green shoes. The toilet paper banners came up and were run through and it was game on. The crowd around us were probably 50/50 between the teams. Hawthorn had more scarves, Collingwood had more flags.
The Collingwood fans seemed more shrill, but that could just have been because they were bottom of the table. Had two preteen girls behind us whose only thing they seemed to be able to say was scream Go Collingwood - didn't know the players names, didn't know what to say when the Hawks had the ball, apart from to scream Go Collingwood even louder. Also was interesting peoplewatching apart from those who kept going past us. Three guys kept going for beers or pies or restroom visits - the worst being the guy in the blue/white check shirt with the huge gut and after the first beer the smell of booze around him - eww. About three passes by us every quarter grrr, and the guy next to us holding his mobile an inch from his eye to text and closing his eyes when the game was on.
And the guys two rows ahead of us having four beers a quarter and to finish it off, a round of Cougar bourbon - would have been much cheaper to have had that amount of drinks at home guys, $5.20 a beer hmm, maybe even cheaper to watch it drinking that much in a pub. Had a pie before half time, after V had made fun of me saying you go to live sport for the dodgy pies and the warm beer, she was quite happy to have a pie and agreed that it was a good thing to have at the game. Had a beer at three quarter time, was also good.
And saw Dermot Brereton come out and sit with the plebs for ten minutes, he was just in the row ahead of us - Hawthorn great, used to have curly hair, but straightened and smoother faced than on TV - he is a TV commentator and on the AFL Footy Show, just saw him on the TV before, looked smoother faced in real. It was generally OK until three quarter time and he got mobbed by fans and when the fans cleared, he had disappeared - obviously not torn to bits, to be on TV before, but really, so you see a famous person, maybe it's the retiring Kiwi aspect of me, if he is within five seats of you on your row, or the one below or above, yes you can show attention then, but to mob him from the entire bay OMG. V was more interested in the ugly woman he was sitting with LOL.
Oh, and the game itself - still not an AFL fan per se, but it was entertaining and a great atmosphere (almost 50,000 people), and it was good that it was close for all but the last ten minutes of the game ('my' team, Hawthorn, eventually lost heavily). And not that I've turned into a Hawthorn fan, but now not just Eddie Maguire, but the phase 'Go Collingwood' seared into my mind, makes me hope the Pies always lose.
And at the end of the game we were allowed onto the turf of the MCG, apart from the cricket centre block. Went down onto the ground, played avoid the hundreds of footballs being kicked around, took a few photos, and the light towers were on. Also picked up a few blades of MCG grass, as a souvenir. Yes, I know it isn't trademarked MCG grass, but I know what it is. Went past the club souvenir stalls, but decided I wasn't enough of a Hawks fan yet to get team gear. Oh, and it is even more amazing watching in real than on TV all the trainers and the messengers going all over the ground - nuts.
Then headed back into town. Now, as we were going to be in town all day, going to both the footy and the casino, and that I had been told that the casino had a stringent dress code, and didn't want to wear my formal shoes to the footy (INB saying the possibility of my shoes getting muddy getting to the MCG from the train or tram station. Remember, forty years since he had been to the ground), with me wanting to change shoes I had my backpack with a change of shoes. All day.
We wandered across Federation Square, not until we got halfway across did we realise the name - I hadn't looked at any actual city maps since getting to Melb - maps viewed in Brisbane don't make as much sense as when you have an idea of the lay of the land. Walked across the Yarra on St Kilda Road to Southbank. Wandered along the Yarra Riverbank to the casino complex, which is huge. Even though we were dawdling along it was still only 6 by the time we got to the Spencer St bridge and the Exhibition Centre. To kill time until 7.30 when CCL was arriving we went into the shopping complex. And CCL was joining for dinner so V and I couldn't eat until then. And then I got paranoid about the dress code before going into one of the bars to kill time, so I found the toilets and changed shoes - a la Clark Kent obviously - so that I would be OK to go into bars and casinos.
Went into a bar, the Super 12 final was on, and for the first time since forever, there was Kronenberg on tap - LOL, memories of the chateau in Beaujolais in 96. Watched the second half, Crusaders crushed the Waratahs, but NSW finished strongly, was tense while V was clockwatching thinking of whether CCL would be outside waiting. Managed to convince her to wait until fulltime, and then headed out to wait for CCL to appear.
So standing under the Spencer St Bridge realising we hadn't sorted out whether the rendezvous was on the City side or the Southbank side, or even which pedestrian bridge side the meet was at - and then not having a mobile phone. Eventually CCL turned up, having been dropped off two blocks across on the City side of the river, dropped off in the dark alone, and she was terrified until she met up with us. And we, V and I had been waiting to eat for about three hours. My choice and I chose Thai.
Was nice, I had red roast Thai duck curry, was VERY hot and delicious, the mango chicken that CCL ordered was apparently a bit of a rip off and I should have had rice with my curry, and the pricing was a bit high - my bad, choosing the restaurant obviously - but V and CCL abdicated their choice LOL. But out of the choice of about ten or twelve cuisines I was in the mood for Thai - the choice in the front of the casino cuisine wise I'm meaning. At nine we watched the gas fired lanterns outside the casino go off, quite impressive.
Then headed in and the endless rows of slot machines and spend spend spend, went around a couple of machines, put about $25 in, V doubled her money, we both got bored of the slots and wandered off to the bar, leaving CCL to her own devices. We only lounged over a coke and bourbon and coke for half an hour or so, watching music vids, quietly talking, and massively tired. Was relaxing, but when we headed out onto the floor again to see CCL, she thought we had abandoned her and she was petrified again; hmm, she was OK with us leaving her on the floor, but petrified to the seat and continuing to feed the slots.
So we headed out of the casino to the food court, grabbed an ice cream and a coffee at about 11.00pm, waiting for NRI's phone call to say we're coming to pick you up. Now due to the fact that we hadn't put together a plan B for going home by public transport suddenly became apparent. The phone call was due between 11.30 and 12.00, and by 11.25 I had completely lost my sense of humour - hey, I had been up since 4.45 that morning, and in a strange city, maybe $100 taxi fare away from home. Very very grrr. Yep, lost the sense of humour. Completely.
NRI and INB turned up at about 11.55, smiling. Umm, where was the phone call guys? I was going to be OK shortly until INB said a sarcastic awww. Got my sense of humour back when INB lost the car, from Level 2 to the Mezzanine, but was adamant we were on Level 1, no carpark only shops. Then getting lost in South Melbourne due to his directions, then numerous arguments regards every subject under the sun. For some reason he needs to be centre of attention and hates any other conversation going on at the same time, and is a control freak and know it all. And needs to control the TV and radio - if the conversation gets too loud he turns the TV up, he wanted to turn the radio to footy scores over the wishes of four other people in the car, he never shuts up and talks 99% crap. Grrr.
As if any of the rest of us last night really cared about who won out of St Kilda and the Swans. And the usual argument about rugby being a crap sport - usually is a league v union argument, not an AFL v union, but nothing I haven't rolled my eyes at before.
Got my fourth wind of the day when we got home, had a coffee and skimmed the paper. Went to bed after 1 in the morning, INB was nicknamed and then came into the room looking for his 'toolkit' - I don't even want to start to think about it. More tomorrow!
Got to the taxi rank, I needed to go about two suburbs from the airport, said the destination through the window to the first driver, he drove off without taking me - grrr, apparently that happens in Melb a lot, the drivers pick and choose. Second driver I chucked the luggage in the back and got in before saying the destination, would have been at least half alright since he actually dropped someone off at the same time, and it was a much shorter trip than it looked in the map, and it was blimmin expensive. $10 to go over two suburbs basically. Or maybe even one and a half, where V's sister NRI lives is basically a suburb that has a lower case name in the mapbook, always know that's a subdivision of a suburb - LOL, just didn't want to write something stupid like sub-suburb LOL.
Got in to NRI's house, sat on the couch for a couple of hours chatting, watching ABC (Rage and the netball), and making plans for the day - which came to consequences later in the night... one of those things that was talked about, agreed to and discussed without any proper follow through in thinking and responsibility taken. Between the four of us, V, NRI, CCL and I, we agreed to V and I going to the footy, CCL joining us for dinner at the casino, and NRI and her boyfriend INB picking us up at 11.30ish. Now apart from the footy, I was OK being easy with the entire rest of the trip, so didn't really get involved with the discussion, so thought that the whole picking us up thing would be IF we were still in town.
INB came over and told us that we would have to get to the game early cos it was Collingwood Hawthorn and that it would take ages to battle the crowds of the MCG. Of course, it had been forty years since he had been to a game. We got in the car and were dropped off at Essendon station, with INB getting stroppy about us not listening to him, although he didn't like us having conversations amongst ourselves at all. Reminded me and V as well of GD, but a worse version.
We got a train at Essendon and caught it all the way to Flinders. We were there at 12.30, and only about ten minutes to the MCG, were there well within the rushing to the ground phase. We went across the street to Hungry Jacks, although V actually wanted to go to McDs, to have lunch. Took the tram to the ground, and got a ticket in the Pontsford stand, top tier, slightly to the side of the goalposts.
The MCG is as huge as it looks on TV - it is HUGE, from the top tier, looking down at the ground, the cricket block at the Basin or Westpac or the Oval even (from memory) the centre block takes up much more room than at the MCG. The teams came out for warm up and V had a good view of Shane Crawford stretching his thighs and showing his butt, and it was very helpful for us without binoculars to wear fluorescent green shoes. The toilet paper banners came up and were run through and it was game on. The crowd around us were probably 50/50 between the teams. Hawthorn had more scarves, Collingwood had more flags.
The Collingwood fans seemed more shrill, but that could just have been because they were bottom of the table. Had two preteen girls behind us whose only thing they seemed to be able to say was scream Go Collingwood - didn't know the players names, didn't know what to say when the Hawks had the ball, apart from to scream Go Collingwood even louder. Also was interesting peoplewatching apart from those who kept going past us. Three guys kept going for beers or pies or restroom visits - the worst being the guy in the blue/white check shirt with the huge gut and after the first beer the smell of booze around him - eww. About three passes by us every quarter grrr, and the guy next to us holding his mobile an inch from his eye to text and closing his eyes when the game was on.
And the guys two rows ahead of us having four beers a quarter and to finish it off, a round of Cougar bourbon - would have been much cheaper to have had that amount of drinks at home guys, $5.20 a beer hmm, maybe even cheaper to watch it drinking that much in a pub. Had a pie before half time, after V had made fun of me saying you go to live sport for the dodgy pies and the warm beer, she was quite happy to have a pie and agreed that it was a good thing to have at the game. Had a beer at three quarter time, was also good.
And saw Dermot Brereton come out and sit with the plebs for ten minutes, he was just in the row ahead of us - Hawthorn great, used to have curly hair, but straightened and smoother faced than on TV - he is a TV commentator and on the AFL Footy Show, just saw him on the TV before, looked smoother faced in real. It was generally OK until three quarter time and he got mobbed by fans and when the fans cleared, he had disappeared - obviously not torn to bits, to be on TV before, but really, so you see a famous person, maybe it's the retiring Kiwi aspect of me, if he is within five seats of you on your row, or the one below or above, yes you can show attention then, but to mob him from the entire bay OMG. V was more interested in the ugly woman he was sitting with LOL.
Oh, and the game itself - still not an AFL fan per se, but it was entertaining and a great atmosphere (almost 50,000 people), and it was good that it was close for all but the last ten minutes of the game ('my' team, Hawthorn, eventually lost heavily). And not that I've turned into a Hawthorn fan, but now not just Eddie Maguire, but the phase 'Go Collingwood' seared into my mind, makes me hope the Pies always lose.
And at the end of the game we were allowed onto the turf of the MCG, apart from the cricket centre block. Went down onto the ground, played avoid the hundreds of footballs being kicked around, took a few photos, and the light towers were on. Also picked up a few blades of MCG grass, as a souvenir. Yes, I know it isn't trademarked MCG grass, but I know what it is. Went past the club souvenir stalls, but decided I wasn't enough of a Hawks fan yet to get team gear. Oh, and it is even more amazing watching in real than on TV all the trainers and the messengers going all over the ground - nuts.
Then headed back into town. Now, as we were going to be in town all day, going to both the footy and the casino, and that I had been told that the casino had a stringent dress code, and didn't want to wear my formal shoes to the footy (INB saying the possibility of my shoes getting muddy getting to the MCG from the train or tram station. Remember, forty years since he had been to the ground), with me wanting to change shoes I had my backpack with a change of shoes. All day.
We wandered across Federation Square, not until we got halfway across did we realise the name - I hadn't looked at any actual city maps since getting to Melb - maps viewed in Brisbane don't make as much sense as when you have an idea of the lay of the land. Walked across the Yarra on St Kilda Road to Southbank. Wandered along the Yarra Riverbank to the casino complex, which is huge. Even though we were dawdling along it was still only 6 by the time we got to the Spencer St bridge and the Exhibition Centre. To kill time until 7.30 when CCL was arriving we went into the shopping complex. And CCL was joining for dinner so V and I couldn't eat until then. And then I got paranoid about the dress code before going into one of the bars to kill time, so I found the toilets and changed shoes - a la Clark Kent obviously - so that I would be OK to go into bars and casinos.
Went into a bar, the Super 12 final was on, and for the first time since forever, there was Kronenberg on tap - LOL, memories of the chateau in Beaujolais in 96. Watched the second half, Crusaders crushed the Waratahs, but NSW finished strongly, was tense while V was clockwatching thinking of whether CCL would be outside waiting. Managed to convince her to wait until fulltime, and then headed out to wait for CCL to appear.
So standing under the Spencer St Bridge realising we hadn't sorted out whether the rendezvous was on the City side or the Southbank side, or even which pedestrian bridge side the meet was at - and then not having a mobile phone. Eventually CCL turned up, having been dropped off two blocks across on the City side of the river, dropped off in the dark alone, and she was terrified until she met up with us. And we, V and I had been waiting to eat for about three hours. My choice and I chose Thai.
Was nice, I had red roast Thai duck curry, was VERY hot and delicious, the mango chicken that CCL ordered was apparently a bit of a rip off and I should have had rice with my curry, and the pricing was a bit high - my bad, choosing the restaurant obviously - but V and CCL abdicated their choice LOL. But out of the choice of about ten or twelve cuisines I was in the mood for Thai - the choice in the front of the casino cuisine wise I'm meaning. At nine we watched the gas fired lanterns outside the casino go off, quite impressive.
Then headed in and the endless rows of slot machines and spend spend spend, went around a couple of machines, put about $25 in, V doubled her money, we both got bored of the slots and wandered off to the bar, leaving CCL to her own devices. We only lounged over a coke and bourbon and coke for half an hour or so, watching music vids, quietly talking, and massively tired. Was relaxing, but when we headed out onto the floor again to see CCL, she thought we had abandoned her and she was petrified again; hmm, she was OK with us leaving her on the floor, but petrified to the seat and continuing to feed the slots.
So we headed out of the casino to the food court, grabbed an ice cream and a coffee at about 11.00pm, waiting for NRI's phone call to say we're coming to pick you up. Now due to the fact that we hadn't put together a plan B for going home by public transport suddenly became apparent. The phone call was due between 11.30 and 12.00, and by 11.25 I had completely lost my sense of humour - hey, I had been up since 4.45 that morning, and in a strange city, maybe $100 taxi fare away from home. Very very grrr. Yep, lost the sense of humour. Completely.
NRI and INB turned up at about 11.55, smiling. Umm, where was the phone call guys? I was going to be OK shortly until INB said a sarcastic awww. Got my sense of humour back when INB lost the car, from Level 2 to the Mezzanine, but was adamant we were on Level 1, no carpark only shops. Then getting lost in South Melbourne due to his directions, then numerous arguments regards every subject under the sun. For some reason he needs to be centre of attention and hates any other conversation going on at the same time, and is a control freak and know it all. And needs to control the TV and radio - if the conversation gets too loud he turns the TV up, he wanted to turn the radio to footy scores over the wishes of four other people in the car, he never shuts up and talks 99% crap. Grrr.
As if any of the rest of us last night really cared about who won out of St Kilda and the Swans. And the usual argument about rugby being a crap sport - usually is a league v union argument, not an AFL v union, but nothing I haven't rolled my eyes at before.
Got my fourth wind of the day when we got home, had a coffee and skimmed the paper. Went to bed after 1 in the morning, INB was nicknamed and then came into the room looking for his 'toolkit' - I don't even want to start to think about it. More tomorrow!
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