Melbourne Cup and Halloween

October/November means springtime in Australia, and the spring season in Melbourne is marked by weeks of celebration known as the "Melbourne Spring Racing Festival." It's basically a series of important horse races, with the biggest one being the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup takes place on a Tuesday and it's actually a public holiday -- we were all off work that day. Apparently over 100,000 people ended up going to this thing (us included) to admire and bet on the insanely expensive Thoroughbred horses that are flown in from all around the world just to race at this event.

But really, it's just an excuse for people to get dressed up all spiffy and stuff and then spend several hours getting SNOCKERED. The alcohol flowethed aplenty.

Men wear suits, women wear dresses and hats or "fascinators." I had never heard of a fascinator before, but basically, they're just fanciful little things that go in your hair. They usually have lace or feathers or flowers or beads. Or they can be shaped like little hats. Here are a couple of examples of fascinators, including one worn by my sorta-celeb-lookalike, Kate Middleton:



I had a black feather one with lace:



Of course, the term "fascinator" could be used in other contexts. For example, while we were there, a drunken guy yelled at this at an attractive girl: "YEAH! Show us your fascinator, baby!"

The Melbourne Cup brings in big money for those lucky enough to bet on the winner (like my friend Patricia) and tears for those unlucky enough to lose big time (like me. I lost ten dollars thanks to a worthless piece of horseflesh named Americain who was favored to win and ended up fourth. Outrage.)

Here's the horse that ended up winning (in a photo finish):


Here was the horse I bet on:


Can't complain too much though because in the race afterward, I did bet $10 on another horse that won me $47! Yay!

Overall it was a good day, despite some rainy and cold weather. Here's a view of the racecourse with the Melbourne skyline behind it.



Me and Patricia:


Lovely ladies! (Catherine and Patricia)


Me and Catherine:


Coincidentally, the night before the Melbourne Cup holiday was Halloween! OK, so it's really hard for me to associate "Halloween" with "springtime" -- but that's how it is in Australia. And although Halloween's not realllllllly big in Halloween, there's at least a tiny bit of interest in it. So I can't say it's not celebrated...but there's definitely none of the grandeur it gets back home. No jack o'lanterns in people's windows, no trick-or-treating.

Nevertheless, we dressed up in costumes and went to a Halloween party that was Thriller-themed, with a Michael Jackson tribute. Fun stuff.

I was an angel. (Stop laughing.)








Dunno what Triana's doing with her bottle there! lol

Christchurch - Shaken, Not Stirred

My epic weekend trip to Christchurch, New Zealand. Met some lovely people, celebrated New Zealand's massive win in the Rugby World Cup Finals, enjoyed the weather and the beautiful flowers, and was incredibly humbled by the earthquake damage that has shut down an entire city centre for 8+ months. An emotional weekend and one that I will never forget. Can't wait to go back in December!


































Interesting street art:



Somebody's TV:



The beautiful Christchurch Botanical Gardens:
















Punters along the river:


Beautiful tree:

Byron Bay trip!

This cute sand-dragon is not nearly as scary as what lurks in the waters at Byron Bay...so yeah, special thanks to the jackass kayak tour guide who told me it would be perfectly safe for me do a long-distance swim at Byron Bay. I later found this recent article about three massive great white sharks being spotted in Byron Bay in the space of two hours.

Yeah. Perfectly safe.

Luckily for me, if there was a Jaws anywhere near me, he (or she) left me alone to do my thing, which was a very nice 4km swim that took me about two and a half hours (with a lot of rest breaks). The most amazing part of this swim was that I was joined by far more agreeable company than the great Mr. (or Ms.) White -- that is, by a couple of humpback whales! How cool is that!

I was hanging out fairly far from shore, treading water and being lazy, enjoying the sunshine. It got boring after awhile so I headed back in toward shore. After a few minutes I popped my head up to see a bunch of people standing on the beach pointing behind me. So I turned to look and I saw a big spray of water and a dorsal fin of a humpback, followed by a second one. Two humpback whales, maybe 100-200 yards away! Not too far from where I had been treading water -- in fact, I'm pretty sure if I had just stayed put and waited a few minutes, they may very well have passed right by me.

Although I was wayyyy further out than all of the other swimmers, I was still relatively close to shore, so it was pretty amazing that the whales came so close in. I'd like to think they saw me and were insanely curious about what an awesome specimen of the human race I am. However, I doubt it, as I later heard that surfers had been routinely seeing the humpbacks come that close to shore in recent days.

Bah.

Anyway, it was still an amazing sight.

In addition to my long swim, I did a sailing trip and a kayak trip and got to see more humpbacks on both of those -- but at a much greater distance. Nothing nearly as incredible as being right there in the water with them.

...That is, if I could just forget about those great white sharks.

Maybe if I wore this amazingly awesome swim cap it would scare them off!!



And here are my Byron Bay pics.

Kayak trip -- that's me up front:


Looking back toward the lighthouse:


Me resting up front, letting Rob do the paddling (we're in the orange kayak):


I swear I paddled a little bit at least. Maybe.


Rob and I catch some waves on our way back into shore:


The rest of the group:


Back on dry land:


Main Beach:


Whales in front of the lighthouse (see the little dorsal fin?):


Whale!:


Julian Rocks:


Bird colony on Julian Rocks:


Two whales swimming next to each other:


If you look close, you can see a New Zealand fur seal who somehow got lost and ended up in the wrong country. (Typical kiwi.)


Sand art:


Byron Bay at sunset: