Wednesday 3 November 2010

The Race that Stops a Nation















Picture this.  Melbourne Cup Day.  It's a public holiday in Melbourne and it's raining cats and dogs.  Here in Brisbane we gather with friends in the warm sunshine to soak up the Melbourne atmosphere, but not that pesky rain. 















I was up early to make my contribution to lunch, lemon meringue pie.  Eleven of us gathered on the back porch of our friends' home and before long the first champagne cork popped (Mr Fudge has a special talent in this department).














Jack the kookaburra knows that sound only too well.  If there's champagne, can the food be far behind?













Ah, that's better.
















It was time to draw the sweep and one of the punters came prepared to spend up big.  This is legal tender in Zimbabwe - it will buy you three eggs.

After lashings of prawns, cold beef fillet, seafood pie, roast potatoes and salad, washed down with a little wine, it was time to watch the race.














As every living soul in Australia knows, the winner was Americain, an American bred horse, trained by a Frenchman, ridden by a Hong Kong based French jockey and owned by Australians.  Tres jolie!  My horse ran in second, so I came away with a little more than 100 billion Zimbabwean dollars.




















After all the excitement of the race, dessert was a welcome diversion.  The lemon meringue pie was followed by some of Joy's baked cheesecake.  Mmmm ....

Where would you rather watch the Cup from?  Melbourne ...

... or Brisbane?














I know - it's a no-brainer.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ahh! The Melbourne Cup, what a wonderful day, not only does Australia stop, watch and listen to the race, but here in New Zealand we do the same.