Horsing Around
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Today, the whole of Australia came to a screeching halt. No, it's not a national holiday, and no, there wasn't any natural disaster. Today was simply the day that the annual Melbourne Cup is held, Australia's premier horse race. A horse race, taking place on a Tuesday afternoon, no less.
Everybody who's anybody (not us, then) dress up to the nines, and if they can't make it to Melbourne, head off to their nearest cafe or club to watch the action on big screen TV's, and celebrate with a glass of Champagne (or two). They do take their sport seriously here, don't they?
And, talking of Melbourne, here's another pic of one of the cool buildings in the Docklands:
It looks dry in that pic.. The grass is brown. I have a question. Why do people dress up to go watch horse races?
Welocome to the southern hemisphere...Oz is experiencing the worst drought in a 1000 years, (or so they say), that's why the grass is brown at this time of year. But, even if ithey do get normal rainfall, the grass only greens for a short while, and then it turns brown...
About the horse race - I think it's a colonial thing - we had something silimar in South Africa, but not to such an extent (it was mainly the rich english people who got involved). Here EVERYBODY got excited about the race, and many even dressed in their best when they went to work, becuase they had office parties to celebrate the races.