Melbourne Cup...go,go,go!!!!!

Today we have a HUGE horse race Carnival here is Australia. Every year they hold this event on the first Tuesday of November. It’s heaps of fun!!! The boys get all dressed up in charming suits or sometimes they choose to be a bit funny and more creative, and they try colourful suits or sometimes costumes (I'm trying to upload a photo to show you but blogg has been a bitch and it won't let me). The girls go through heaps of trouble to look amazing! And most of them do it very well. They all wear very posh hats and the most attractive dresses. Every year they have a contest to see who has the most beautiful outfit of the day.

This event is called Melbourne Cup, and of course you can tell by the name, that’s held in Melbourne (ddduuhhhhh!!!!!). The whole country stops at 2pm (and in a few states at 3pm) to see the 24 horses racing, trying to collect the main prize, which I don’t know exactly how much, but I think it’s around one million Aussie dollars.

Not being an Aussie myself, I have to say that in my first year in Australia, I was chocked with the Australians’ obsession with horse racing, and with the Melbourne Cup in particular. Even the few people who don’t gamble normally (there aren’t too many of them here in Australia), make sure they make their way to a TAB (I don’t know what the name stands for but I know it’s a kind of a betting bank full of smelly people, wearing some weird clothes etc) to place their bets.

Here at my ‘glamorous’ work, we had a sweep. So I got the list of all the 24 horses and wrote them in a paper so we could gamble a bit and have some fun. So each one of us got the chance to pick at least two papers out of the hat, and for each horse you get, it costs two dollars. So I collected AU$48, and the person who picked the winner (horse) will score AU$40. And the person who picked up the loser, the last horse to come, will get AU$8. That sounds good. At least once in a while the loser gets to win something…

Well, but what I thought was quite funny is the fact that we are all having a bbq this arvo, and the company is providing the food and the alcohol. But the boss MADE SURE that everyone knew that partners weren’t allowed in. But guess who is coming??? His wife!!! Also, when we were doing the game with the horses, everyone picked two horses only to make sure everyone would have at least two options. He came in running, saying that his wife was coming so he could pick four horses. It kinda of pissed me off, as I had to have only two horses in the end while the only partner allowed in the bloody bbq had her two.

Now, I have to say that I'm happy about one thing. He picked four very shitty horses, so even though he has more chances to win than everyone else, he still is going to lose. Hehehehehehehe… I’m keeping records of every horse each of us picked and he is so disappointed that he got shitty horse that he wrote down under his name in the record (I didn’t see him doing it. I just know it’s his hand writing!) the name of the four best horses... What a nut case??? He should be happy that at least he’ll have his partner at the bbq to cry with when one of us gets the first prize!

Go, go go horses!!!!! Good luck to everyone!!!!