Spring Carnival

Two weekends ago, we had a couple of special visitors to Chez Vargo. Pip and Mully (Vancouver roommates from a few years back) stopped in Melbourne for a week on their way to settling in Sydney after two years in London.

P & M are largely responsible for Doug and I getting together. We actually met at there "moving back to Australia" party in Vancouver nearly 5 years ago. Pip and I especially are such close friends that we will no doubt be in each others lives till we are old and gray.

As expected on the Tuesday, the boys took off for the Melbourne Cup while Pip and I planted ourselves bright and early in a nearby coffee shop. For those ill informed - Melbournians love Horse Racing and in particular the Spring Carnival - a series of 5 or so Race days over a month where crowds of up to 130,000 people head out to the track. In all honestly though, about 3/4s of the attendees go there for the parties in the Carparks rather than to watch the actual races. Melbourne Cup day is probably the biggest day and is actually a public holiday in Victoria. The big race has a staggering $5.5 million in prizemoney!!....for a horse race !!

While the boys were off at the races, my Coffee date with Pip quickly turned into Breakfast....then breakfast soon turned to lunch. Eventually, the waitstaff seemed to be eyeing our corner table wondering if we were planning on shutting the place down. I guess that's what happens when two old friends get together after a year and a half apart.

That was pretty much the way the week went. Great conversation, lots of food (including a great BBQ reunion with Tim and Fiona), and non-stop laughter.

On Thursday morning Libby (Pip's sister) landed in Melbourne, and the five of us got dressed to the nine's and headed off to Oaks (Ladies) day at the races. A beautiful balmy Melbourne day where some of us had some lucky bets on to add to our "baby fund" (way to go Doug) while the rest of us had a little less luck. Unfortunately the girls system was definitely NOT fail proof, but with our "massive" dollar each way bets, we were still able to walk away fairly unscathed.

The real drama unfolded as we were getting ready to head home after a long day at the track! After hours in the hot sun where the majority of the crowd hydrate on champagne and beer, most people take the train home at the end of the day. Well at approx 6pm, just after the last race, an announcement was made that all trains were down due to electrical problems !! So about 50 thousand people were now stranded. The solution? Send as many buses from the 1940's to the track to try and transport the crowd to the nearest functioning station.

You can only imagine the stampede of people that flooded around each bus as it pulled up to the track. Women in beautiful gowns...hair falling from their perfect do's... stilettos in hand & skirts hiked up... as they scrambled to push their way onto the waiting transportation. Thankfully we got lucky as a certain "preggo" happened to spot a bus sneaking down a side street and we were able to hop on before the hoards spotted it. There is nothing like seeing a big pregnant lady screaming her lungs out for her husband and friends to "follow me!!!" as she charges across the street to the nearby bus and a startled driver. Not my finest moment, but we managed to get out in record time... which is all that counts.

All in all a very fun, memorable day...and week!

Here's some pics from the day..