Day Two

Robbie roused everyone out of bed at 7.00 this morning, and at 7.15, and again at 7.30 and finally, and successfully, at 7.45! It wasn't a fair choice: cold wet grey Melbourne winter morning or comfy warm bed! What would you choose?
But the equation of 16 people and one working shower was the deciding factor. No-one braved the cold showers today but a few opted to wait until tonight. I washed my hair under one of the kitchen taps for my daily ablution.

We were due at the MCG for our tour at 10.30 and with the weather looking threatening we opted to take the Box Forest bus and the kids had their first taste of driving in Melbourne traffic. I don't think they're keen for too much more.

I need to apologise at this point because I'm unable to illustrate today's events with pictures. There are plenty of photos but sadly my camera battery is dead and will need recharging before it's willing to talk to the computer.
I also need to apologise to Matthew Kreuzer for calling him Justin yesterday, Sean pointed out my mistake, which is only fair cause I've pointed out plenty of his!

Our tour guide at the G was an old bloke called Geoff who was the proverbial walking encyclopaedia, if there's a fact or story about the MCG that he doesn't know it isn't worth knowing. The kids were mightily impressed with Australia's biggest sporting icon, and, as we learned, the 4th largest capacity stadium in the world. The view from the top of the great northern stand was awesome and they're all even more eager to go back tomorrow night when it has 50,000odd footy fans in it.
We saw the Long Room and sat in the arm chairs the Australian cricket captain and vice captain sit in to watch the test matches at the G, saw the media centre and sat where the journos sit as they report on games, and finally walked onto the ground, or the small cordoned off section behind the goal square at least.
At the end of the tour Chris thanked Geoff for guiding us and he in turn complimented the kids by saying they had earned the highest rating he's ever awarded in his personal tour group rating system, an A+ triple 4!!

After a quick lunch we embarked on part two of the excursion, the National Sports Museum, a treasure trove of sporting artefacts and memorabilia: Bradman's bat, Warney's baggy green, Jack Brabham's world championship winning formula 1 car, Cathy Freeman's suits from the 2000 Olympics, the green and gold one she won the 400m in and the white one she wore when she lit the Olympic torch, Raelene Boyle's silver medals from Munich and Montreal, Dawn Fraser's togs, Walter Lindrum's billiards cue, Carji Greeve's inaugural Brownlow medal, and much much more. We didn't really have time to take it all in and appreciate it but it certainly gave me a taste for another visit next time I'm in Melbourne.

Seeing as we had the bus we set out on a tour of Melbourne's sporting venues and footy grounds that took in Rod Laver Arena, Olympic Park, Albert Park, the Lakeside Oval, Princes Park, Whitten Oval, Flemington Racecourse and finally Arden St.
We stopped at the Western Bulldogs ground for a closer look but they are doing major construction work there so it looked like we wouldn't be able to get in, until the friendly barman/security manager generously offered to give us a quick look around. The contrast between the MCG and Whitten Oval is like travelling from a first to a third world country. Unfortunately we missed seeing Jason Akermanis by about half an hour, and we weren't allowed to have a kick on the ground, but it was still good to see it just the same.

We found Arden St after a bit of searching! A less impressive facility it is hard to imagine but seeing as Dane is a Roos fan we got out for a kick of the footy. While we did that a large contingent of police and ambulance officers were attempting to remove a man from behind the goal who was extremely intoxicated on something.

Gotta go, the net cafe is closing.

Had a BBQ for tea then took the kids late night shopping at Northland SC, where they indulged their consumerist hearts.