The Melbourne Cup

Tuesday was the running of the Melbourne Cup. This is a monumental event here in Aus - running since 1861. It is the most famous Tuesday in Australia, and an actual public holiday in Melbourne. The whole country stops at 3pm AEST to watch/listen to the event - Kyle even got to watch the horses run during his sport class today. In a country of 18 million people, they expect 160 Million to be bet on the race. That's almost $10 for every single Aussie!!!! They do love their 'punting' (betting) down here!

The Melbourne Cup is also an 'urban fashion show', especially known for the women's hats. And they are not only worn to the actual race, but on the day where ever you may be. This years event was jeopardized by the equine flu which has been widespread and devastating to the racing industry/horses down here. But despite the ongoing lock down in the stables, the race was run - although there were no horses in the parade for the first time ever.

A few of the teachers are Pinjarra are photoed here in their race day get ups (either their own or borrowed - you guess which of the 3 is wearing an outfit on loan!). And not to miss out, Anthony Pittman (host of the last party we attended) has created the Official Pinjarra Cup including Race Book - in which he states "If anything written offends it was totally unintended but those people should dry their eyes and toughen up". The Pinny Cup consists of 2 races 'run' by a group of fictitious horses from Pinjarra HS. 'Maple Syrup' (Monty's horse as you may have guessed) was listed as:

"Out of Dud Exchange and by Walshy's Pad. A long horse
who doesn't like carrying weight on his long frame. This overseas invader
hasn't had success on Australian tracks and will be a long shot, may just screech past them on the home run."

Each race has 6 horses and they included 'Algebra Sinner', 'Dancing Queen', 'Bookman Magpie', 'Gun Pouch' and 'Office Chicks'. There even was official commentary of the running of the races.

In the first race Bookman Magpie came from the rear of the pack to take the lead towards the end of the race. Then right near the finish, jockey Guillam fell off the horse. And in the end, this allowed Canada’s Maple Syrup to win the race (yeah!) followed by Pickers of the Bunch and Dancing Queen.

In the second race, Office Chicks appeared to have won the race but were later disqualified for whipping their horse leaving the win to Algebra Sinner. Two very exciting races!

And a couple of other random notes....

You will now notice that Daylight Savings has come in to effect down here and it has finished in the North - so we are now 14 hours ahead of Southern Ontario. And if you want to start a heated debate down here just ask someone what they think of DST. It is in it's second year of a 3 year trial right now. The pressure is on to put it to a vote tomorrow with the strong expectation that it would be voted out overwhelmingly. They really don't get the concept very well.... people constantly refer to the 'real' time and have to clarify they mean daylight savings time when making appointments. Our hike even started an hour later since we were in DST - quite funny really. No matter what they say, I like the extended daylight in the evening myself.

On a final note, November is 'Mo'vember down here. It is a fundraising month for Prostate Cancer. Men grow their mo'ustache' for the month to raise cash. Mike had hoped to do the full beard since he really does not look that good in a mo, but that was voted down. So he's going for the Frank Zappa look with a minor goatee as well as a moustache. It was quite by chance that Mike decided to copy Frank Zappa. In looking for a photo of him on the internet, Mike discovered that Frank actually passed away due to prostate cancer at age 52. So it was quite an appropriate choice. We'll include photos once the facial growth is worthy.