Triple header - 1-20-12

The days seem to be getting shorter and I am not a writer, I'm a thinker; forgive my rough patches.

Epicenter of everything: our shrine.

Down on the MCG pitch.

Various sports teams across the world – particularly in the states, to my knowledge – sub their respective home stadiums a Temple of their trade.  The place that fans go to pay homage to the greats of their team and where players go to lay their hearts, bodies and souls on the line for one another in a show of competition.  This brings to mind places like Wrigley Field, Lambo Field, or Jordan Hare Stadium.  All of these sports carry a particular grit and history to them that is hard to describe and is what sets the diehard setting for these stadium “temples”, but to call a cricket stadium a temple is going a little overboard – from my recently exposed viewpoint, anyway (sorry, Anoop).  This analogy between stadium and temple, competition and worship was made by our resident volunteer tour guide on a walking tour of the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.  I don’t understand it, but these guys live, breathe, and eat cricket.  I am not so sure I will ever understand this obsession with the sport, but damn I respect it.  Few people in the world can get so excited for such a seemingly droll and slow paced sport; which it is. 

Incredible guide, Roger.  He's the man.

Awesome structure we toured and I failed to mention.

Our tour guide, Roger, had been a member at the MCG, as it’s called, since the late 40s, something he made a point to announce several times, proudly.  Also, throughout the tour he would point out where this happened, where he was seated when his team won the championship, or what his regular seat is in the member lounge.  He really did make the tour, as in any other circumstance this would just be another regular old concrete, two tiered stadium.  He added so much flavor and history to the tour that it gave life to the structure.  Not only was cricket played here, however, but also the national past time of Australian Rules Football was battled on the same pitch.  ARF is unique to Australia, but between the main cities across the country covet championships and wins in true Australian fashion: passionately crazy.  Or would it be passionate craziness? Either way, they take it serious down here, and I will definitely have to make it back down here for when the season opens up.

We had a break in the early afternoon, so I took advantage of the time off to get some research and took a walk around downtown at some of the major historical buildings that are still being utilized.  They were all very well done, and they held on to the deep societal culture throughout the city that is so important to the identity of any region of people.  Not to bore, I got some solid contact information, pictures, and information on a lot of the adaptively reused buildings in Melbourne.  Boring, eh?

Moving on, we went back and dappered up for a play we were to attend that evening as a group before hitting the town one last time with some newly acquired friends.  The play was pretty good once I got the ear for the ridiculously foreign bogan (Australian for redneck) tongue and could finally follow what was happening.  The most notable event that happened during the play 

The awkward void we had to fill.

occurred after a lady had been fairly sassy towards Andrew when we were simply passing through their row to our seats; an inevitable inconvenience for them.  We later decided, when the angry couple took our seats in the first intermission and sat 2 seats apart – to cool off during the fight presumably – that we would sit in the two buffer seats between them – one of which held her purse. It was hilariously awkward, but funny nonetheless. Actually it was really just awkward; especially when the play was over and the poor guy had to let us out first to wait on his wife, girlfriend, or whatever to get out following us two fools.  That’s what she gets; super wet blanket.  Hit the town fairly late that night to send off some friends we had made during our stay and had an incredible time. 

League of extraordinary gentlemen.

Ended simply, after a 2 hour “nap” we are off to New Zealand, and with this comes the subsequent dethroning of my number one place to visit.  Being that I am writing that as I am already here, I have almost moved past Melbourne and onto NZ, and I think this country, beyond previous speculation, will easily trump Australia.   Psyched.