Penny and Fred

Anzac day, what a day (and night)

The day started after a little sleep in, although sleep in’s are hard to come by here at the apartment.  It doesn’t seem to matter whether its a saturday or sunday morning our neighbours are up, dogs are barking, cats are crying, music’s blaring or theres some construction activity going on.

The big game (Essendon vs Collingwood) was on at 11.30am here, so we had a quick breakfast and called our trusty tuk tuk driver to take us down to the riverfront.   The pub was great, it had a nice pool table,big sceen tv, great bar and furniture.  Although  there wasn’t a big crowd as I expected, expats started rolling in near the beginning of the match.  We soon found out there was 5 Essendon supporters to 1 Collingwood (Penny), but none of us felt bad for her.

Halftime lunch: I couldn’t resist the chicken and mushroom pie with chips and veggies and Penny had the beef lok lak with egg on top.  The menu had many aussie favourites like chicken parmas, hamburgers, chops etc… so no expat can feel homesick.  

I could go on and on about how good the game was and how it was the best match I HAVE EVER seen but I won’t cause this will turn into Fred’s Bomber Blog and most of you will not be pleased including the beautiful girl on my right.  5 mins to go I thought it was all over and I think I started to sulk, however it ended in Hollywood style; Essendon kicking the goal to lead in the dying seconds, the tv cutting out only to connect back after the final siren and me hugging a man I have never met before.  Wooo hoooo.

Well we ended up talking to the guy I hugged and his mate, then started to have a few beers and play pool with them.  They were both Melbourne lads, so we all got along fine.  Later on we found out there was an anzac day party held at another aussie bar so we went there for a BBQ and a few more lagers. 

The place was full of aussies, most working for NGO’s I believe, Penny and I met some great contacts, one in recruiting and one who worked at the local english newspaper.  The BBQ was superb and the night ended with a raffle and two-up.

What a day!  Check the photo gallery for pics of the day

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