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Published: July 23rd 2008
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Mini chicks reunion
Julie, Anna, Bega and Yvette - Getting four of us in one spot isn't bad these days! by anna (and david) June 20th-22nd
When we were first planning this trip we took the opportunity of being on a plane between Sydney and Melbourne together to work out vaguely what we wanted to do. On the back of a boarding pass I wrote the months of the year, and next to them what I wanted to do - stay in Spain for a decent period to learn the language and really immerse ourselves in the culture, do some weekend / longer trips around Europe, travel a bit in South America, visiting friends in NY on the way through, etc. In response, against the same timeline, David wrote all the major sporting events he could think of - FA Cup, Real Madrid v Barcelona F.C., Euro Cup, Royal Ascot, Wimbledon, Tour de France, US Open, Easter carnival back in Aus, etc
(and Warnie playing County cricket but he has now retired to play poker).
I'm sure you could write a decent essay on how this sums up a lot about the two of us, but the point is, being the racing enthusiast David is, one of the most heartfelt desires on this list was a day at Royal
Us at Ascot
... David expressing his pure glee at the experience Ascot. Getting dressed up for a day at the races didn't sound all bad to me either. So we brought a suit and a dress all the way from Sydney, gathered together a couple of friends and David stressed himself out trying to find tickets
(long story but thanks to Chris for his persistence with our friends at Viagogo in making sure we secured the tickets - in the end I had to approach a dodgy looking pommie in a trenchcoat outside the library entrance at Ascot to get our tickets).
I had picked the final day of the 5 Day carnival with the hope that the Aussie sprinting champion Takeover Target was racing. He was indeed, he ran second and third in the same race, the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes, in the previous two years. He was lining up as favourite in the race on this day, with New Zealand's sprinting mare Seachange also lining up against about 20 other horses. By the way, this is the same race that Choisir won in 2003 putting Australian sprinting on the world map before he went on to sire our champion colt named Maniago) We arrived in London
David at Ascot
Some photos are classics! on the Friday before and had
dinner with some of "the chicks" (a group of Anna's girl friends from uni) and partners, at a nice little Italian in Notting Hill. It was a great, if short, catch up. We dragged ourselves out of bed on the Sat morning to meet a vista of classic English drizzle. Unperturbed, and dressed for anything, we headed out to Ascot on a very packed, very hot train
(approaching the conditions we suffered the previous year en-route to Cardiff for the Rugby but far more bearable. Not a fan of British Rail).
Royal Ascot is massive. When we first arrived, the crowds were reasonable, and we found ourselves a great spot, on the barrier between the plebs and the royal enclosure
(under the Royal box), where we had a clear view of both the finish line and the TV screen, and the opportunity to escape under cover if it rained. By the second or third race, we were frantically protecting our spot as thousands more people crowded in, and all that could be seen across the front of the grand stand was a sea of bodies
(it was a fantastic scene, better than I Julie and Chris ...
.... smiling even before their trifecta win expected. The stand outdoes Flemington which is saying something and the crowd, which I think was a record that day, was fantastic scattered all of the way down the straight).
The rain held off, and we had a great day, despite losing our 'place pot' (a bet on a place winner in every race, which we all put in for) early in the day, and the Aussie champion, Takeover Target, missing out on a place in the main race
(he ran a very credible 4th, something amiss I think).
The highlight for the day happened early on. A horse bred and owned by the Queen won the first race. It was the first time she'd had a winner in 14 years or something at her own meeting, and the celebration was priceless - a little fist pump, with all the restrained enthusiasm and style expected of an octogenarian Queen. It was hilarious. I have tried to find it on You Tube, but, apparently, no one who was willing to publish it captured the moment. Priceless.
(On the punt it ended up being quite a successful day with Chris and Julie jagging a lovely trifecta to pay for their day, Racing Party
Phil, Anna, Chris (above) and Jez and more, and I recovered from the Takeover Target 4th to back the last 3 winners and pay for the day and the curry that night. Fantastic meeting to attend and looking forward to taking one of ours there someday. Shame I didn't get a shot of the Choisir bar in the stand behind us - good effort for an Aussie horse to have its own bar there).
We stayed at the track as long as we could, drinking champagne, pimms and british lagers, including listening, with a mix of amazement, amusement and horror, to the crowd gathered at the end of the day around the bandstand, singing patriotic british songs ('god save the queen', 'Jerusalem', 'swing low, sweet chariot', etc). I was amazed at the tradition, amused at the enthusiasm, and general antiquated idea of such patriotism, and somewhat horrified that it still existed with such fervour
(I was more horrified when they closed all of the bars midway through the singing).
We had a few more drinks we didn't need at a nearby pub, while we let the crowds dissipate, before joining the long queue for the train. In true London style, we found some great
Two generations reunite
Anna and her Papa enjoy a bit of dancing in an english country garden Indian, 'curry', for dinner on the way home.
The next day, we dragged ourselves out of bed to grab a hire car and navigate our way to
Bottisham near Cambridge, where Anna's grandfather happened to be spending a few weeks with an old war buddy and his wife. By the time we had spent almost an hour waiting for the car, as all the paperwork was done by hand, we didn't have a lot of time with
Papa, but we did have time to be welcomed like royalty by Brenda, Adge, and their extended family who were all there for a Sunday BBQ. It was a special experience to be able to catch up on the other side of the world.
After an hour or so, we sped back to London to catch our plane to Madrid. Annoyingly, it was late. Thankfully, we were in the very comfortable, new-ish London City airport (we'd recommend flying in and out of here), where the whole thing is like a airline lounge. Unfortunately, this meant we missed Spain's big win over Italy in the Euro Cup quarter finals. When we arrived in Madrid, the result was clear, as people drove past
Us with our hosts
David, Adge, Me, Papa, Brenda in their cars honking their horns and flags flying. Having been in Italy for their world cup win, we held our breath at the prospect of being in Spain as they competed for the Euro Cup title. Could we be so lucky?
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love the blogs guys, keep them coming!
Hey, love the pics guys and hearing all your tales! Also agree with comment on alcohol placement! keep it up! can't wait to see you for your b'day anna, Beges xxx