First Tuesday

Today is Melbourne Cup Day. Victoria gets a day off today for a horse race. Now, I grew up in Victoria, and still identify myself as such. But one thing I am not is a fan of horse racing. I'm sorry, I can think of nothing more boring than watching 20 horses run round a circular track knowing that one of them is bound to cross the line first anyway. You may love horse racing. You may love horses. You may love gambling. You may love dressing up in frilly hats, drinking too much, falling over and telling yourself you're living the high life because once a year you dress up for a horse race and drink champagne that's worth more than $20 a bottle. That may be your idea of a good time. Not me. I just don't get horse racing. It's just a big way for people to gamble and I don't really get gambling either: I'd rather keep my money. I work pretty hard to get it and I don't feel like throwing it away on the off chance that a particular horse is going to run a bit faster than a lot of other horses. Having said that, I have thrown away $2.50 to go in the office sweep. The price was about my maximum for gambling and I have three chances to win. (In fact, I have three chances to win, come 2nd, or last, which is nine chances. Out of 20 horses, that's nearly as good as a coin toss.) On a related note, C asked me this morning whether everything in Victoria was closed today. (I should preface this by saying that Victoria has completely deregulated shopping hours; South Australia does not and has only recently allowed stores to open on Sundays, and until 9pm weeknights; even then it looks like all the shops here will be closed for about 7 days out of 10 this Xmas but don't get me started). I said 'No' C: Isn't it a public holiday there? D: Yes C: So all the shops will be closed. D: No C: But it's a public holiday D: Yes, and people like to go shopping on their days off. So any shop owners who like selling stuff will be open. The shopping centres will probably be open; the city will most definitely be open; supermarkets wouldn't not be open... C: Oh... One day, surely one day, this state will move out of the 1950s. On an unrelated note, I could really go some chocolate right now. On another slightly related note, C & I were talking the other night about race day fashion, or to be more accurate, she was talking about fashion, I was suddenly struggling to stay awake. Some women who can't afford hats, will wear a few feathers and a fake flower in their hair and call it a fascinator. C forgot what the name was and started telling me that instead of hats, some women choose to wear a fantasizer. I wondered if they were the vibrating kind.