The AFL pilgrimage to the MCG

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Day 489 to 495 (28.07.08 - 03.08.08)

We had a normal week and were glad to get back to dancing after our break now that we were both fully recovered from our colds. Mark was still enjoying his basketball matches despite a bit of a beating this week.

On Thursday evening we joined Tiana at her monthly meeting for her group Earthwatch in St Kilda. Mark had offered to give a talk on media relations to help them to get their messages into the media and to give them adivce for if the media contacted them for opinions on current events. He really enjoyed using his brain and his working knowledge again after so long and the group semed to find the talk useful. Mark was awarded a fleece at the end of the evening as a gift for speaking.

We headed homewards for an evening with our friend Bevan who we'd worked with at the call centre and who'd left Melbourne to work in Perth for a bit a few months ago. He was back in town for a few days and it was great to see him. We had a good catch up over some dinner and planned to meet up and do some travelling in his homeland NZ. Bevo - if you're reading we are so looking forward to hitting the road with you - bring it on bro!

One of the things we felt we had to do whilst in Melbourne was to go to an AFL game (Aussie Rules Fottball) - this sport is huge in this country and particularly in Melbourne as it's where the vast majority of the teams are based. We really wanted to watch a game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) an iconic sporting venue, so a few weeks ago we'd checked out the list of fixtures with Tiana and Ash and picked a night where Tiana's team Hawthorn were playing the love 'em or hate'em Collingwood.

So on Friday after work we all met up at the Vietnamese Noodle House in town for some tasty dinner before making our way to the MCG (via the Doughnut shop for afters!). The trains were packed with footy go-ers and we joined a huge stream of scarf wearing fans making their way into the ground. The atmosphere was already electric and what followed was a superb game with Hawthorn emerging the winners. Ash helped us out with some footy going etiquette and we thoroughly enjoyed the game. It is a fast-paced sport with lots of action so makes an excellent spectator sport. Especially when you throw in almost 60,000 loud and excited supporters (including foul-mouthed old ladies!) and a stunning venue like the MCG. We had a great night.

Saturday was a quiet day of organising and an evening of movies at the flat and on Sunday we were joined by Andre, Veng, Darky, Jeanette, Humbug and Franny for a bit of a sunday session. A good chance for Chrissie to catch up with all the PCI people.

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