The Pad, Halloween & The Cup

I've been having troubles updating my blog... it's mostly because I have this urge to report all of the things I've done and the longer I put off writing a blog the more things there are I want to write about, and since I'm so lazy I just put it off even longer and it just snowballs. So with that said, I'm just going to report the highlights of the last month. So Grant and I found a great little apartment on the edge of the CBD, just across from the Victoria market (where we go buy all our fruits and veggies) and it's only a 10 minute walk from the Uni. We furnished it quite quickly...and quite cheaply. Our best buy was our black leather couch and matching chair for only $8.00!

We have been going to heaps of things like arts festival, fringe festival, Australian Idol, Final footy game, concerts, bars... it's been great.

As I learned last year, Australian's don't celebrate Hallowe'en. At all. Luckly we have some Canadian friends who decided to throw a party, complete with a pig roast, apple bobbing, and a great live band. Everyone dressed up. I found a great 80's prom dress from an op shop and made myself a sash and crimped my hair and went as Miss Canada 1985... Grant bought an old suit and ripped it all up and I put some make up on him so he looked dead. I must have worked because when we stepped out of our apartment there were some guys standing outside and when they saw Grant they said "aw man! you look like death." Except they sounded real serious! Anyway we had a great time at the party!

A couple of days ago we joined in the celebration of the biggest day in Melbourne... The Melbourne Cup. Some of you may remember me talking about it last year. Basically its a huge horse race that the whole city stops for. But it's a really fancy beer garden and it's as much about the fashion as it is about the horses. Women wear designer dresses and huge hats or fascinators (feathery clips you wear in your hair) and men wear their best suits (and pink ties). This year I made my own fascinator! But seriously though, I'm not gonna spend $100 on some ugly feathery thing I'll never wear again!

Of course in the middle of the worst drought Australia has had in over a thousand years, the weather decides to cloud over on Cup Day. It was far from fine. However the rain only lasted about a half an hour and held off for the rest of the day. Grant, Hamish and Sam and I hung around in the bar tent again as we did last year, and I managed to remember that champagne isn't really my friend! I put a bet on 2 horses and considering I had no idea what I was doing I was pretty lucky when they ended up coming in first and second. That's $110 more dollars in my pocket that I had before!

Anyway I know thats not a very exciting update but I will be updating more frequently now so keep checking back!