Fun At The Races

Well I can now say that I have officially experienced a Griffith University Race day. I had an amazing day (and weekend). So now that I am an expert on the subject I can explain what it is.. ;) It is basically exactly what it sounds like, a day at the horse races. Add in some semi-formal attire, good food, live music and open bar and you have race day. The festivities started at noon and went until 5pm. Tellu and I managed to get tickets for Todd and one of his friends (Al) so we all left Todd’s place and headed to the Gold Coast Turf Club via taxi. Al is one of Todd’s friends from work and an engineer who graduated from Griffith last year. The four of us had a really amazing day. Alas we never won any money but it was very entertaining. Sorry dad, nothing like the race scene in “My Fair Lady” because everyone was pretty obnoxious by the end of the day and Henry Higgins would not have had it! :-D One redeeming “My Fair Lady” reference was that there were a ton of girls with very outrageous and enormous hats/ feathers. Tellu and I were not daring/prepared enough for the head pieces but we cleaned up pretty nicely :-D. After five hours of good times we were all pretty tired and hungry and I was cold (of course) so we had a cab take us back to my place. After I changed and added on another 5 layers or so ;) we went to the Clock Hotel for dinner. Man if one knows where to look there is cheap and good food everywhere. The rest of the night was a great mix of good food, and amazing company as we pub hopped.

The life style/pace in Australia is SO different. Early on Saturday Todd made the suggestion that we have a BBQ at his place on Sunday. Of course I was thinking that this requires planning and previous notice etc so I started inviting people as soon as the idea was agreed upon. This is obviously not the Australian way as Todd didn’t invite his mates until around 3pm on Sunday (for a 5pm BBQ). So different!!! Everyone is just very laid back here. The other day Tellu and I played tennis (badly, ha ha) and so on Sunday we challenged Todd and Al to a doubles match. My performance was really quite pitiful. I left the court at one point to get banana bread out of the oven and Todd did much better without me as his partner, ha ha. Oh well, I guess that is another addition to my list. So far in the next year I need to get better at: wakeboarding, pool, tennis and surfing (although I haven’t tried that yet). I am sure the list should just keep growing. I suppose I should add running to that list. There is a charity run on August 30th called Bridge to Brisbane and Tellu and I are going to be apart of Todd’s work’s team. It is 10K and I have never run anything that distance so I have been doing a fair bit of training to prepare for it. Actually I have only run 3 times or so since I have been here but I will get there! First a 10K and then the world! I can conquer both ;-D