MCG Essendon Vs Collingwood

Day 9 - MCG Essendon Vs Collingwood

Melbourne

Sunday, 31 July 2011

Today I got up before everyone else and left the flat just after 8. I was on a mission. Shake Seigel, a friend, has bought a flat which is under construction in Nicholson St., Melbourne and he asked me to take some photos of the progress if I was nearby. It was a beautiful blue-sky morning and there was not much traffic and so it didn't take long to find the flats and take some photos and video. I had a coffee in a coffee house across the street called "Birdie Num Nums" which was really nice and then drove back home, arriving just as Wendy and Cathy were leaving the flat to pick up coffee and pastries. Emailing the video and photos to Shake from the iPad proved a bit of a problem but I eventually sent them one at a time using Wendy's account.

After breakfast we got ready for the big trip of the day. We were off to the MCG to watch an Aussie rules (AFL) game, The Essendon Bombers Vs. The Collingwood Magpies. We decided to shout for Essendon as they were the underdogs and I even bought an Essendon hat. We had met Andrew (Cathy's sister's partner) at his office as he was working (commerce web design) even though it's Sunday, and we parked the cars outside and walked from there.

The ground is massive and seats 100,000 but today there were 73,000 spectators. The atmosphere was great and fortunately I was sitting next to Andrew who is an expert, having been a Carlton season ticket holder since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. It was actually against his religion to watch either of these two teams but he sat manfully through the game although I couldn't get him to chant for Essendon however hard I tried. It was great to have an expert by my side as the rules can be a bit confusing for a Pom. The girls enjoyed the game but I think they particularly enjoyed the pies, chips and drinks at half time.

Match report:- Essendon made a good start and were well ahead towards the middle of the second quarter...then they picked up a couple of injuries and Collingwood's superior form and fitness started to show...in the end it was like watching a predator finish off a wounded animal as Essendon got hammered. The final score was 166-92.

We are now having tea (left over curry from last night), and will then be packing ready for our flight to Alice Springs tomorrow morning. I don't know what the availability of wifi will be when we get there so my next blog post might not be for a day or two. We are staying the first night in a hotel and then will be camping (sleeping out in a swag under the stars, not in a tent), so I'm pretty sure there won't be wifi! The temperature at Alice is currently 29 by day, 6 by night so it should be lovely.

By the way, I now have a cold (man-flu), so thanks to the sneezing lady that sat by me on the plane from Sydney, my virus evasion measures obviously didn't work.

Will post soon.

	Shake's Place [Map]		Andrew's Office Balcony [Map]
	Outside the MCG [Map]		Inside the G [Map]
	Watching the game [Map]		Go Bombers [Map]

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Sent from my iPad by My Vacation HD app (www.myvacationapp.com)