Yesterday we went to the gallops!
But first… I woke early again and went for a stroll up to the Randwick shops. I perused a map on a sign and noticed that Coogee Beach wasn’t that far away (only maybe 2km). So I walked there!
Even though it was very early, it was already brutally hot. The walk was downhill all the way, and I was a sweaty dog upon arrival. It being New Years Day there were still people milling around, including more than a few still obviously drunk (and some with drinks in hand). Quite a few police as well, although if they were there to control the expected New Years Day crowds or had been there since the night before I couldn’t tell. After a bit I headed home, which was of course uphill all the way… making me even sweatier when I got back! Thus are memories made 🙂
Oh yes, here’s what my breakfast was!
A bit later we headed for Royal Randwick Racecourse, just down the road from Adam’s, for the first race day of the year. Neither Bernard nor I had ever been to the races, but we had an expert with us in Adam (he spent a year working for the TAB after all). The racecourse is gargantuan, and plenty of people were dressed in their finest for race day. There was to be 8 races, 40 minutes apart, lasting from just after 1pm until nearly 6. We would stay for all, and bet on them all.
The shot above was taken during the 3rd or fourth race (make sure you click on these to view them all full sized). Most of the races I watched from down on the rail, and it was quite exhilarating seeing the horse rocket past just before the finish line.
There was much beer drunk, and much (well, a little bit) money spent. It was an enormously entertaining day for many reasons, even though I personally have a narrow view on gambling.
Here’s a video of the first race of the year, complete with sage words from the master himself. (I’ll link the video after I can upload it to youtube)
Now for the results. As I said we bet on every race, and each of us bet on a different horse in each race. So we bet on 24 different horses. Every one of my bets was $1, and Adam and Bernard bet $5 each time. I put very little effort into selecting my horses – in fact I based it on how much their names (Aquatic King, Lyncean Academy) sounded like MTG cards! Bernard and Adam paid more attention to the form, which is a newspaper supplment containing an absurdly mind-boggling amount of information about each horse one can peruse.
The results, over the 8 races:
– RS bet $8 and won $2.10 (won 1 out of 8 bets)
– BS bet $40 and won $11.75 (won 2 out of 8 bets)
– AW bet $40 and won $28.50 (won 4 out of 8 bets)
After the gallops we went over to Fox Studios and sortof inadvertently stumbled into a delicious dinner at a chinese restaurant!
< Dim Sums
And then… well then we saw Avatar!
Now I could spent an entire blog entry on Avatar, and suffice to say we’ve been dissecting the film (and it’s notable flaws) since. But the bottom line is that it was not boring but, in my opinion, it wasn’t really very good either. However, the blue girl is intriguing (<- euphemism there) and ultimately ‘saved’ the film 🙂
It was midnight when we got home from the movies, and I was asleep very soon afterwards. I’ll leave you with two other shots of food I ate at the trots!
[I drunk 2 cans of Lift today, a total of 750 mL. My trip total is now 7.75 L.]