Happy New Year!

The highlight of the balmy summer days following Christmas was a trip to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch England v Australia on the 28^th December. The day began at 0600, painting our faces and t-shirts as well as having a few drinks before heading off into town. Everyone was in an excitable mood, and we left the house chanting, on our way to the Celtic Club Irish pub to watch Arsenal v Chelsea prior to the cricket. Amongst the six of us who went from Murray Street were 2 French who turned English for the day. Dimitri, despite being French, would be one of the most passionate on the day.

Early start waiting for the train

Having skipped breakfast at home, rob and I wolfed down some bacon and egg rolls at the pub watered down by a few pints.I had guiness- the first here and it was actually pretty good- I had expected the worst though. We drank beer wrapped in paper on the way to the ground(its illegal to drink on the streets here).

The cricket match itself wasn’t that great on the day, with the large radius of the MCG pitch giving a poor view of the ball. We were however on the bottom stand of the 100000 capacity ground, and the weather was perfect for the event. Only the English fans were singing (the score probably helped that) though the small size of the barmy army meant that they couldn’t be heard. The odd chant of “aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi” mumbled out of the stadium but the aussie fans were quiet. We sat and drank steadily, unfortunately you couldn’t bring your £4.50 plastic schooner (3/4 of a pint) of beer into the stands so had to stay at the bar. A fair bit of time was spent drinking at the bar as a result.



Beer in disguise



The Frenchies Nico and Dimitri on the left with Paul on the right 

Is that a plastic football fan?- I think so

 For new years everybody went into the centre of the city to a bar called section 8, which our housemate frequents. The bar was outside down an alley near chinatown with a ‘street’ feel, playing a range of hip hop and alternative music. It had just the right number of people fortunately not being packed out as with many venues in the city on new years. Before mignight Robert and I went to the fireworks a 20 min walk away on the bridge over the yarra river, next to federation square(the others weren’t interested which we thought was odd). The fireworks were spectacular, being set off from the roofs of the surrounding skyscrapers over the river, though I cant help but think Sydney would have been bigger-we wanted to go but left it late. The area was packed as shown by the photos though you weren’t ever squashed unlike the mare that is London Waterloo. On our return to section 8 the house lot had dispersed, so we stayed for a bit longer till it began winding down. Entry to any clubs and bars on the night was excessive- at least £50 to get in with many places charging £100+.

In the Centre on the way to Section 8

 

We have also moved the trip around a bit. Our flight to Singapore has been changed from the 4^th May to 20^th April, and so we intend to finish work 2 weeks early in mid February. The logic being that this trips purpose is to travel. We intend to leave Melbourne on 12^th February, drive the great ocean road to Adelaide using a campervan, see the city and head to Sydney for our flight to NZ which we have booked for the 21^st February.

I cant really see myself writing much more until that point as I feel I have exhausted much of the city. Plus, over the next two weeks 7 of the 12 people in the house are leaving so the house may well become unfortunately quiet. I am however, very much looking forward to going to the Aussie Open.

I leave you with the following pictures of captain cooks original cottage. The cottage was built by his parents in 1755. It was transported over here using 253 cases and 40 barrels in 1933 from its native ground in Great Ayton, North Yorkshire. The cottage is surrounded by an English garden and is adorned by ivy taken from Yorkshire. It now resides in Fitzroy Gardens, a 15 minute walk from the centre of the city. With the red postbox outside, and the English spring like weather on the day, I felt briefly as if I was back at home in a country village, perhaps in Dorset or somewhere.