Wow! What a weekend of football fever and celebration. Because we’re overseas and away form home, I think weekends like this are celebrated even more than if we were at home. This was certainly the case as far as the AFL grand final was concerned on Saturday. Because of the time difference, we were ensconced in Josh’s house at 11 am and drinking our first beers! What a day was to follow….Reg Reagan made an appearance to extol the virtues of the real game of football and plenty of Australian beers were brought along from Jason’s. We ate pies and chicken (KFC of course!) and generally tried to be as unhealthy as possible.
The game was just fantastic: I think I partly enjoy watching the reactions of the real AFL aficionados and the general banter being thrown around. About a dozen of us were in attendance and the funniest thing was watching some of the Americans and Canadians trying to make sense of the game. Long after the game was finished and after copious amounts of beer had been drunk, it was discovered that someone had brought a pastie to the proceedings. This act apparently was seen as a slur on the manliness of others present and several “just for fun” all in brawls erupted. The just for fun brawls quickly degenerated into something approaching the real thing and the debris strewn around Josh’s place afterwards had to be seen to be believed. We all had a ball, relived our youth, stood up for our codes and then: well, we had to help clean up the mess that we’d made!
Of course, we then had to head to the Green Bar to prolong the celebrations and prolong it we certainly did.
Surprisingly, I didn’t feel too bad on Sunday morning, except for a bleeding thumb (?) and several bruised parts of my body, obviously from the day before after-game celebrations. Cass and I decided to go to the pictures, but a dearth of decent films showing saw us attend one we normally wouldn’t bother with: “World Trade Centre” Oliver Stone directed and Nicholas Cage starred, so they managed to carry it fairly well. There were some strange directorial timing issues and a little too much jingoism towards the end, but it was reasonably entertaining. We got home in time to listen to the lead up to the NRL grand final on the radio then a full coverage of the game and pre and post match entertainment on the Australia Network (the old ABC Asiapacific). One reason this blog is coming out a day late is because we were watching the game in my usual writing time slot! We enjoyed the game, but just couldn’t arouse too much passion. If I was asked at the start of the year which would be my two least desired teams to contest the grand final, it would have been these two. Suffice to say, we admired the technical abilities of the players and the teamwork in evidence, but I was the least impassioned for a grand final I have ever been. I didn’t even get the boys around this year. Bring on the Knights in 2007 is all I have to say!
Cass was a bit of a football widow this weekend, but we have the Moon festival long weekend next Monday and Tuesday, so we plan to do a few different activities and have a few more adventures then. The hiatus is on in earnest now: when does that first Ashes test start again?!
Photos: Cass with a couple of little helpers at the very soggy 8th grade camp, Virg'n Mary occasionally spy the door to our bedroom open and they're on the bed like lightning! An NRL legend stirs the pot at the AFL grand final.