We've Come to the Land Down Under

Yes, it's not such an original title for a blog, but amazingly I cannot get that song out of my head. Why? How many other songs pop to mind when you think of Australia? I know of no such songs that discuss kangaroos or koalas or barbeques, and with shame I have to say that before coming that is really my entire impression of Australia. Obviously Kylie Minogue and various overused sayings come to mind, but my knowledge and ideas about Oz were fairly limited before coming. Hence, the song my great (and only) way to kick off this blog.

We've been here for three weeks now, and love it. We arrived the day before Grand Final Day, which is the superbowl of Aussie Rules Football. Went to a fantastic party and played in the halftime kick, which I have to say Rob and I did pretty well at considering we were barefoot (everyone wore sneakers, we wore flip-flops, hey, we're in Australia!) See the corresponding photos.

Obviously we have a lot of new impressions of Australia, and I would love to tell you about them, but this is all oerwhelmed by my amazing prowess at picking winning horses that I must brag about here. We went to the Spring Racing Carnival which is a fantastic multi-week event where various horse races take place at tracks around the city. Everyone dresses up (mostly nicely, but there are always a few who interpret things differently) and flocks to the sunshine with picnics and blankets surrounding the track. Our good friends Alex and Mel were down from Sydney, and amazingly Tony and Trixie from The Hague (whose brilliant idea the races were in the first place), so we formed a merry little band along with some of their friends and started in on the champagne. And sunscreen. The Aussies take their sunscreen very seriously. I can just about see my mom noddingly approvingly. They had a campaign a while back called Slip, Slop, Slap, which promoted sunscreen use and apparently was pretty effective (thank goodness, before that it was melanoma city here). Slip, Slop, Slap means slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat. Great advertising. And people do for the most part. They even had a sunscreen booth at the entrance which was packed with participants. Good for them.

Back to me then....I casually (but clearly knowingly and responsibly) placed a few bets throughout the day. $5 here, $10 there. My first bet had odds of 21 to 1. It won. (That's $105 AUS return, pretty nice). That was a long shot, but it was the first bet of the day. I bet on it because the horse was trained by the only female trainer in the race. Beginner's luck. The $10 bet was for a horse which I just loved the name of, All the Good. 47 to 1 odds, not looking so good for me and Rob. Still, it was fun to bet. The horse was placing fifth until the last few seconds of the race. Then it won. Yup, this no-chance horse zoomed ahead with a few seconds to spare and won the big race of the day. Rob and I couldn't actually believe it, and didn't really believe it until we claimed our winnings. It was a fun day for us. It would have been regardless, but that was just the icing on the cake. Called it a day shortly after that, and went home happy and impressed by how lucky we were in Australia.

Other than that life is peaceful and nice. We had our first kite surfing lesson, and have a second coming up this weekend. Rob bought a racing bike and cycles to and from work, and impressive 1 1/2 hour round trip. I of course am job hunting but appreciating the time I have do things such as write this blog. We adore our apartment and will post pictures soon. See if you can spot the planning flaw- it's great. Really though, it's an amazing place to live. Views to the sea, a balcony with a barbeque, and some pretty impressive ammenities that you'll just have to come visit us to see. And of of course, which is the main draw :)

With sunshine and sunscreen,

Sandra and Rob