The Melbourne Cup

This is Australia's most famous Tuesday...aka the day that stops the Nation! At 3 p.m. Melbourne time, on the first Tuesday in November, Australians everywhere stop for one of the Worlds most famous horse races. Since 1877, Cup day has been a public Holiday for Melbourne ... and the rest of the country just appears to take the day off (chuck a sickie!) to flock to the track. People from all over Australian states usually take the time off to stop what they are doing and watch the race to see if their "flutter" has paid off. This includes many schools, which wheel televisions in to the assembly hall for the children to watch!

Then there is all the pomp and pagetry of the race. People take a year to find that perfect outfit (usually something vintage from the 40s or 50s and the most extravagant plumed, flowered and netted hats you have ever seen for that cup party or bar attendance! Just fabulous to watch! This year Olivia Newton John sang the National Anthem and the winning horse was named "Shocking Crime Scene"!

On Saturday night we went into town for dinner, ahhh a nice Aussie steak dinner, since it was Halloween night. The children in town were costumed, the girls as princesses and the boys as pirates (did they call each other or what!). We asked our waitress to guess what our costumes where (we just looked like everyday) she said she could not guess...so we told her in a loud voice that we where dressed as American Tourists! So our Kiwi waitress said she was costumed as an Aussie waitress! Very imaginative...she really looked and sounded Australian!

On the centre stage in town there was a presentation of Bollywood dances by the Australian Bollywood dancers (who did not appear to have ever set foot in India!). These Aussie ladies take dancing lessons at their Yoga school and present their repertoire in public every couple of months. The choreographies are very complicated and just the setting up of each dance would take the Master of Ceremonies (whose clear british voice could have been used in mystery films or a butler for Count Dracula!) a few minutes as the plots of Bollywood movies are always so complexe and lenghthy! The ladies danced for 2 hours without any breaks and had many costume changes! Very impressive! A most excellent weekend that added to our cultural knowledge of the country!