The plan for the day was to go to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, the MCG, then to lunch and the bank, a trip to St. Kilda if time permitted, then I would be cooking dinner.
This plan fell apart rather quickly. Ina is not the biggest sports fan and so she had little interest in the MCG. To get her to go I made a deal that I would pick up chocolate for her and let her eat it in bed. This involved a 0.6km or so walk to a grocery store.
I picked up the chocolate for her, a couple of bars for myself a Blood Orange soda, which was quite tasty, and a bag of chips. What flavor chips you ask, well i am partial to sour cream and onion that come in a green bag. I grabbed a green bag here and ended up with “Chicken” flavor. They were actually quite good. With Ina now appeased we got on the train and headed towards the city. We had to walk a ways from the station to get to the MCG.
Once inside I decided we should do the guided facility tour and the museum. The tour was only supposed to be 1:15, ours was more like 1:45. On the tour we got to go down onto the field, natural grass helped along by mobile grow lamps.
The seats of the stadium vary in color, with all green seats being reserved at all games for the Melbourne Cricket Club, that owns the stadium. The total capacity is 100,000 people and both AFL and Cricket are played. The MCC has 100,000 members, 20,000 women (court mandated but they say they allowed them in as soon as the court required it). The club has about 4 stories of facility behind the stands for the members including the world’s second largest sporting library.
While I still have no idea how cricket is scored I did learn that the teams enter the stadium together with the referees. They also sit next to each other in the stands. In the AFL everyone is separated.
At the beginning of the tour the tour guide, 70-80 y/o member of the MCC, asked if any of us had been locked out or held up this morning. He then told us a gunman had been running around and fired shots near the stadium. We fortunately came in after this, but the police had not caught the gunman, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/21/2933088.htm?section=justin .
There was a patio type thing the overlooked the city as well as the other big sports complexes. The Australian Open stadium, with retractable roof, and multi purpose stadium , also used during the open. The blue practice courts, the blue competition courts are obscured. The former swimming stadium for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and the brand new, 4 or 6 weeks old, soccer/rugby stadium designed by the Australian that designed the bird’s nest in Beijing. There were also great views of the skyline.
The museum portion was pretty interesting there were several bicycles in the collection including a tandem track bike, which I must say had two chains on the same side of the bike, unlike Cornell’s. There was a big section on the Olympics, Cricket and the AFL. There was also a fun interactive zone where you could try netball, track cycling, soccer, cricket, AFL and rugby. Netball is basketball played by women without a backboard, no dribbling and no running with the ball. Ina and I were pretty tired and had low blood sugar at this point. It was about 3pm and we decided to head home. When we got to the train station the train came late after a 15 min wait. At our transition station our first train was delayed 20 min then cancelled before the next train arrived, 30 min after we did. This is all mass transit at school kids and regular rush hour. The train was totally packed by the time it finally left.
We got home too late for me to get anything from the super market and so I did not have to cook. We had fried fish and I was almost forced, by Ina, to eat three different big desserts. Ina’s uncle brought out a bottle of Port. My small glass helped the three desserts down. As usual Ina and I played wii with the boys before bed. We both went to bed excited for our trip to Phillip Island the next morning.
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