Who Do You Barrack For?

After three fantastic weeks of visitors, I am now alone in Melbourne again. I officially saw Ethan off early this morning. Ethan left Melbourne at 8 am on Sunday morning and will arrive in Los Angeles around 6 am on sunday. He gains two hours on his flight and then he's set to arrive at JFK sometime around 6 in the afternoon on Sunday. A long long day of traveling. Molly left earlier in the week and she is now in Jerusalem after flying via Bangkok. Australia is far !!!

We had a fantastic time ... really a wonderful trip. The highlights for me was a trip on the Ocean Road -- we traveled south of Melbourne about 4 hours and saw a variety of different landscapes and scenery ranging from rain forest to rock formations in the middle of the ocean. We played mini-golf in the quaint town of Warnambool on the the tip of the Continent and ate kangaroo (not kosher and with a tough gamey taste), dunked in the frigid ocean near Apollo Bay and saw giant wave surfers in Bells Beach. (remember the last scene in Point Break -- with Johnny Utah and Bodie? This is where Bodie went off into the storm) We also visited the fantastic surfing museum hiked to a top of a lighthouse and saw more koala bears.

Ethan and I went to a footy (Australian Rules Football) match yesterday. We saw carlton played richmond, with over 73,000 others at the classic Melbourne Cricket Ground. The MCG is a mecca to Australia's sports fans -- like Lambeau to those in Wisconsin. It hosted the 1956 olympics, as well as other huge events including the huge Aussie Rules final every September. It's right across from Rod Laver Arena and the Aussie Open location ... which we toured as well.

Footy is a great sport!!! Fast moving, requires a lot of skill, incredible conditioning and is easy to follow and understand. I liked it a lot more than rugby. I am now a supporter of Carlton (in Australia to root for a team is to barrack for them -- I barrack for the Carlton Blues -- I also barrack for Barak --) who pulled away from an otherwise very tight game in the 4th quarter. Best of all -- once again got into the game free and also made friends with a guy next to us who was able to explain any parts of the game we didn't get. All in all loved Aussie Rules!

All else is great -- any visitors are welcome and encouraged!!! Off to see some of the Moosilauke Aussies in Sydney next weekend. Oh yeah, I'm working too!!