Last day with my incredibly hospitable Aussie fam

Friday, June 19, 2009
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
June 19: 

Jason and I got up again this day and went to work out .  My body was tired from the long day before, but our similar interests were great and the gym was right across the street from him.  The gym was old school with big muscle-y guys.  They were nice and gave me a free pass today. 

I made plans to take Bernie and his wife Carol out for dinner this evening and thank them for picking me up at the airport and meet Carol for the first time.  We had a great dinner laughing and exchanging stories of my trip and memories of Bernie as a kid.  I had met her son Michael at Jason's bar the night before.  The bartender joked that everyone in Melbourne is a cousin or family member of Jason’s.  My Uncle Bernie and his both have seven children from different marriages.



Corin came at the end of our dinner in perfect timing.  Bernie and Carol were off to the intro of their acting debut, playing a role in a multimedia production that was to be shown later that evening.  Corin and I had discussed going to a footie match, but I was not sure that we were still on .  He was excited and ready to go and I had not objection to continuing on as planned to my first footie match

We got pretty good seats in the best section and I was amazed at how big the pitch was.  It is kind of oval and the game never seemed to stop.  Different from the stocky rugby players, footie players are often lean and very athletic with Corin explaining to me that they often run 20K in one match.   The object is kick the ball through two poles for 6 points or if you are close and kick it through the poles outside the center poles, it is worth 1 point.  Game scores go into the 100’s. 

I loved watching this game.  I think the Australian fans shouting  behind me was my favorite part.  They kind of sound like that American commercial, "You can’t have any desert until you eat your pudding(did I botch that commercial?)….Yelling, “come on  mates, you are giving it to them," Not knowing what they were talking about, they would yell “ringer” occasionally .  By my definition, I thought this guy must be very good if everyone calls him a ringer, but Corin informs me that a person with red hair is called a Ringer in Australia.  Pretty funny that the entire crowd screams Ringer each time the red haired guy got the ball!!! 

The screams continued for the entire match and they were very passionate about their Footy, “Come on mates, play some defense.”  I think the guy next to me co-stared in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean.  He sounded like one of the Pirates.   It was priceless to listen to.  Compared to my Argentina soccer match, this was so well organized and well put together. I was very impressed with everything from the modern stadium to the messages telling fans to pardon their language for their our children in attendance.  Players finished the game bringing a small Footy to the random small kids in the lower section.

Finishing the match, I was exhausted.  My fast schedule had caught up to me.  Jason was doing the auction on his home the next day and I checked into a hotel to give him less stress in preparing his house.  I has arranged to meet my cousin Jessica that next day, but she lives an hour from the city and I really did not know how I would get there.  I faded quick after the game and bypassed meeting Jason for the opening of his Beer Garden because I could barely keep my eyes open.  

Comments

2025-02-09

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank