It has been another exciting week here in the great land of Australia! Tuesday was the biggest day of the year for most Aussies... it was the Melbourne Cup. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the Melbourne Cup is a horse race. But not just any horse race, one which the entire nation stops to watch. I am not kidding, the principal told me that there are about 20 million Aussies and over 15 million of them would be watching the race. On the news it said that over 100 million dollars was bet on the race. Now, this sounds like a pretty big deal...more than one would think. When it was time for the race we gathered all of the little tikes at school together in the Assembly Hall and watched it on the big screen. It was nuts. The kids were yelling there heads off and there I was wondering what in the honk is happening. All of a sudden they start screaming even louder. I turn to Sue and ask her what is going on. She yells, “They are coming down the final straight!” And it was over. That was it. Three minutes. The whole nation stops and gets all worked up for three minutes. And then they show it over and over again for days.




Here is the whole school assembled to watch the race on the big screen!







But it doesn’t end there. The kids all went home (the race was ten minutes before school let out) and then the staff partied! Champagne on the principal! It was fun, of course they all took time to explain to me what had actually happened after we watched it over and over again. One of the teachers said, “well it’s like the Kentucky DArby” I said, “excuse me, it’s not the DArby...it’s the DErby!” These people and their accent!
Also on Tuesday I had another go at netball. And if I do say so myself I am getting pretty good. I still don’t understand this whole non-contact sport thing. I can’t get the rebound because I am too worried about touching someone. Bah!
On Wednesday I was watching the news and there were three reports that had to do with the United States. #1. Midterm Elections and the Republicans losing the majority. #2. Kristie Alley appearing on Oprah in a bikini. #3. Britney Spears divorce. I thought, no wonder people all over the world think Americans are loonys! I think we are too after that!
Today (Saturday, November 11th) was Remembrance Day in Australia. It is basically a combination of Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day. Yesterday at school we had a huge Remembrance Day liturgy. All the little kids brought in red flowers and there was singing and praying. The kids did a really good job putting it on.
Also yesterday Sam and Luke came and picked me up and we met President Reiri and Aiden at the driving range. Man, I am SO bad! The whole time I could hear Dad in my head giving me little pointers-- “Keep your head town” “bend your knees” “hold the club more like this”. Alas, I don’t think I am going to make it on the pro tour. But it was nice to be invited to do something...so that I can at least pretend to have a social life with people over the age of nine.
Today I wandered all over town and in the evening I found...da...da...da a BASEBALL DIAMOND! Right by my house. It may be run down and decrepit but there were bases and it had been mowed. I was excited...don’t ask me why...a little bit of civilization...ahhhhhh.
Well that’s all for this week, sorry that I don’t have any exciting stories. The kids just weren’t all that memorably funny this week. I’ll tell them to try to do better next week... until then!