State of Origins

There is a series of All-Star-like rugby matches in progress where rugby players play for their home state ... if their home state happens to be Queensland or New South Wales.  Apparently nobody gives a hoot about players from the other five states.  This series is referred to as the "Sate of Origin" and rolled through Melbourne last Wednesday.  Our mate Matt, a Queenslander, bought a group of tickets and LT and I were in.  Truth be told, the prospect of sitting amongst crazed bogun (redneck) Queenslanders and rabid snooty New South Welchmen was far more alluring than the game.  As we may have mentioned in previous posts, this form of rugby is essentially a game of Red Rover between large adult men.  Dodgeball might be interesting, Red Rover couldn't hold our interest as kids.  But these guys love it.  56,000 strong in Victoria for a meaningless game between two states not named Victoria.

So in support of Matt, we donned Queensland maroon shirts and hair and cheered on the Cane Toads.  We have no idea what happened, or who did what, all we know is we had a fantastic time with the crowd, Queensland won, and we both had very sore throats and hoarse voices the next day.

Me and LT in Queenslander gear

Our mate Matt and his lady-friend Mel (a closet New South Welschwoman.
She failed the loyalty test.)

The rest of the crew: Justin, Michael, and Sander

The great crowd divide.  Queensland in maroon, New South Wales in smurf blue.

QUEENSLANDERS!!!!!  The entire game LT thought we were cheering
"QUEENSLAND ROCKS"

I don't know why this is on our shirts

Queensland wins 18-10

Artsy Fartsy

Last Sunday, we ventured to the National Gallery of Victoria to take a stroll around and see what kind of art was on display.  The NGV was founded in 1861 and it is the oldest and largest art gallery in Australia.  The collections are housed in two locations, the one below is the one on St. Kilda Road...the other half is part of Federation Square.

Water feature in the front of the NGV.

There is a Napoleon exhibition starting in early June, and Jeff was getting ready for his debut.

There's quite a resemblance, huh!

The NGV is known for this ceiling...it was made by Leonard French, an Aussie stained glass artist that was born on the north side of the city.

Leonard French ceiling at the NGV.

 I thought this guy looked like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons...I'm guessing that Jean-Antoine Houdon (the artist) didn't know that Voltaire would look like Mr. Burns.

Voltaire sculpture in bronze by Houdon.

This next series of shots is of Jeff and a random art stalker that hung with us (very close to us at all times) for a good part of the day...as you can see, he was all up on Jeff...

Jeffie peaking through windows that look onto the Leonard French hall.

The information claims that she used to have a
fighting helmet, but I think she had a lobotomy.

 One of the galleries is set-up as a Salon viewing room, and is reminiscent of how art was shown in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.  I love this look - it is a total assault of art.

There was also exactly ONE room of "contemporary" art...including this never-ending neon ladder.

That's me and the camera in the lower left-hand corner!

After our morning at the NGV, we headed to a cafe that is under a bridge on the Yarra.  

Notice that the sign says, "until sold out"...they
were sold out of all quesadillas :(

As you can probably tell, it was a beautiful day, but it was windy and pretty chilly.  And, the city is behind me, so most of the time the sun was blocked from the buildings...

I look thrilled...a result of being cold and the racket/music that was played
every time a train came...which we believe was to block out the noise
pollution of the train.  The "music" was HORRIBLE.

The little restaurant under the bridge.

We enjoyed the NGV, typically like a bit more contemporary art and more photography, but it was a good lesson in art and we still got to enjoy some Monet, Manet, Picasso, and Rembrandts.

Cats vs. Pies

On Friday, we headed out to another Geelong Cats footie match...only this time, we went with a proper Aussie fan.  A fan of the opposing team - the Collingwood Magpies.

Pie fans all around us...they are slightly obnoxious.

The evening got interesting with a 40-something guy wanting to fight a
teenager about 5 rows below us...

At first, he was a little hesitant to voice his "true"footie watching tendancies, but once he saw that Jeff and I yelled at the players and the refs, he was all over yelling at both teams and the refs!

Unfortunately, the Cats lost and this is how Jeff and I felt:

Sad, very sad.  The Cats haven't been playing well this year - after winning
the premiership last year, this year has been less than great...

But, this is how Michael felt:

Michael has been a Magpie fan for life, and they haven't been playing
great this year, so this was a good win for him!

And, just to keep the night interesting, Jeff took a picture of this when we walked by...

Discreet entrance in the rear.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to our moms and all of the other moms out there!

We celebrated Mother's Day in Melbourne with an 8k run - The Mother's Day Classic, which supports the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  Our first international race!!

Our first international race! 

We haven't been running and training as much as we should, but had a great time, anyway.  There was a 4k option or an 8k option - the 8k option required two laps...and, part of the lap was straight up a hill. Just in case you were wondering, there aren't any hills on Beach Road, where Jeff and I always run, which made the hill a bit HARD!  On Saturday, I took a tumble during a run, so I was happy to have woken up a bit sore, but still able to run - bit of a bingle/road rash on my elbow.

The track that we ran, "The Tan" is only about 12 feet
wide, and they were expecting over 20,000 people
to participate.

The morning started out quite cool, at 10 degrees, so we bundled up with our gloves and hit the road, ready to find our friend, Alicia who was completing her first ever race, and longest run!

Pre-race photo.

Post-race, we're a little damp.  Great job, Alicia!

We finished in okay time, and had a lot of fun - it feels good to get to running, again.  Our friend, Samantha wrote an inspiring blogpost on running the other day...turns out that a lot of what she said is true!

Once we got home, we took a gander at the radar in the area, and found that the walkers, which started after we were done, were in for a ton of rain...not the best of weather...

Hope everyone had their ponchos...

Once we got warm and cleaned up, we headed out to the local cafe for a hearty brekkie and big cup of coffee.  What a great way to spend a Sunday morning!

Fresh and cleaned up...and hungry!

Now, time to look for a half-marathon to run...anyone interested in joining us?

Coma Alimentos de Mexico

That's a Mexican food coma.  Two years of Spanish and I couldn't come up with the translation, so we're relying on the accuracy of Google translator for this one.

Anyway, as you're probably aware, Cinco de Mayo recently occurred on May 5th.  Australians are very unaware.  I purchased Coronas for the office for a Friday start and introduction to the holiday.  Many asked "when is that?".  Only one made the connection when I said "May 5th".  Spanish is not often spoken here.  Consequently, Mexican is not often eaten here.

Laura an I were determined to hit up one of only three Mexican restaurants in all of the greater-Melbourne area.  One of those, Mamasitas, is in the CBD, has a great reputation, and became our destination of choice.  It quickly had two strikes against it.  They do not take bookings.  That's a big swing and miss with LT.  Then the hostess was parading up and down the line of waiting patrons parroting on about it being Mexican Independence Day.  Big strike with me.  If you're going to claim to be a Mexican restaurant, at least take 4.37 seconds to Google "Cinco de Mayo" and read the facts about it.  Bazofia!

So it's 5:40 and we're in the couples line on the narrow staircase up into this joint.  Parties larger than two get to hang out at a local bar receiving a text when their table is ready.  We wait on skinny stairs for 47 minutes and ended up sitting at the bar.  Then we eat Mexican, and more Mexican, and more Mexican, and finally just a little more Mexican.  It was embarrassing ... and soooo good!!  We started off with some margaritas and chips with pico.  The pico did not hold a candle to our friend Ericka's, but we got it close while simultaneously endearing ourselves to the bartender.  I don't think they get asked to spice it up much.  He liked us after that request.  Then he was shocked and appalled at how much food we ate.  Tostadas, tacos, black beans and rice, tamales ... ridiculous!  We're both fans of Mexican cuisine and haven't had it 9 months.  Pretty sure we made up up for it in one sitting.  We got home at 9:00 on a Saturday night and I'm pretty sure I entered full on food coma at 9:03.

Mamasita's Sign

Line out the door.  Laura like the "Eat Drink" sign with the arrow up.

Narrow stairway of couple waiting.

Mariachi band brought in for the Mexican "Independence Day" celebration.  For those who might pretend to be Mexican and actually want to stick to the script, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated across the US in recognition of Mexican heritage (i.e. excuse to drink margaritas).  It is only celebrated regionally in Mexico to commemorate Mexico's victory in the Battle of Puebla.

Thanks to the Fields and Sara

Back in March, we had a visit from my Aunt Cathy, Uncle Mike, cousin Christopher, and his lady friend Sara.  By we, I mean me.  Duty called and unfortunately LT was pulled off on a trip to Germany.  But despite a quick visit, hopefully I was a decent tour guide and the Fields (and Sara) had a great time.  A few of us hit the massive Queen Victoria Market to pick up some veggies and meats for an at home feast.  Meats included two kangaroo loins, kangaroo sausage, crocodile sausage, barramundi, and blue grenadier.  We also put some kilometers on the old legs hoofin it all over the city, checked out the Imax special on Australia, and did the Hangman's Tour of the Old Melbourne Gaol.  They then headed off to Lord Howe Island, an isolated sparsely populated island in the South Pacific where I'm certain boredom ensued.

You may ask yourself, self, why hasn't this visit been on the blog?  Well as it turns out, Christopher is photographer.  As a result, I was incredibly lax in my duties and have zero documented evidence that they ever stepped foot in this fine country ... until now.

A hideous package arrived at our residence not too long ago.  The significance of the exterior packaging technique was lost on me until the contents were revealed.  We received a good ole' 'Merican redneck care packaged, with a few other useful items and some images from the visit.  Contents included a couple of redneck coasters, Cackalacky sauce, bacon peanut brittle, and creamy honey with chocolate.  The latter, actually not too bad on french toast.  An astute observer noted all of our pictures of friends and family are carefully laid out sans picture frame.  The frames will be put to good use.

Thanks so much for the package and it was great to see you guys.  Love to have you swing by again next time you're passing through the area.

Sealed with duct tape.

Never know when that snake is going to show up.

Some fine eats.

A picture of pictures from their visit.  Sad that I'm too lazy to steal them off Facebook.

We've Kept Our Silence for Long Enough...

You can thank us later.

Our AMERICA loving friend, Patric

Needless to say, we had accomplices.  

The Rainbow Row of Melbourne

Melbourne has a way of working a bit of artistic flair into everything.  Well this is Brighton Beach, well known for it's 82 decorated beach huts.  It was another stop amongst many around Melbourne during BigBull and Chris Ann's visit, and something we were curious to find out a bit more about.

Turns out these are "bathing boxes", not beach huts.  It's an idea brought over from England and  bathing boxes have existed in Australia since 1862.  Brighton Beach bathing boxes are iconic amongst bathing boxes for their proximity to the Melbourne CBD, uniformity in construction, and longevity.  Some are over 100 years old.   And despite being only 2m x 2m x 2.4m in size without running water or electricity, the most recent sold at auction for $216,000.  I'd hate to tell them you could get the same thing at Home Depot for $299.

They are governed by the Brighton Bathing Box Association, you must be a resident of Brighton to be an owner, and you must get your paint scheme approved by the BBBA.  That's really all there is to tell. I thought there'd be more of a story behind them, not so much.  But they look cool.

Brighton Beach from north side.

Brighton Beach

Inside a bathing box.

The boxing kangaroo, always a favorite.  It should be noted that the people
sitting on the porch of the boxing kangaroo are squatters.  They are not
the owners...I would not be happy if we were the owners and head to the
beach only to find...squatters.

Brighton Beach from south end.

Seems 63 missed the association memo on bathing box font size.

Chris Ann getting info on the bathing boxes.

Big Bull trying to get info on the bathing boxes.  What you don't see is the
guy he's trying to procure info from is asleep in the hammock-like
lounge chair at the front of the box.

Melbourne from Brighton Beach