How's it going my Darlings!

The past eight days here have been absolutely fabulous. Everything is so lovely and so brilliant. They do use a lot of adectives around here.

I was supposed to update my blog last Saturday but we headed down to the Mornington Peninsula and Blairgowrie again, where Ben's mother Lib lives, and her internet wasn't working. That's the reason why all of my China pictures neither have the text. But I'l try to tell you about my week, without telling you every little detail; otherwise this page would get very very very long.

Let's start with this day, the 6th of November. The Royal Oaks Day. Every year in the first week of November the great Melbourne Cup is held. Melbourne Cup day is always the first Tuesday of November. It's a day when everybody, the whole Australia, has a day off for a jockey race! During the week 4 different races are held but the Tuesday is the most important one. The winner of The Most Important Race wins quite a large amount of money, over a milion euros. The jockey gets some 10%, the owner and the trainer win the most. The jockey will be the hero of the year. This year the winner was 21-year old young man, and the trainer 81-year old gentleman who has won the Cup for 12 times during the last 5 decades. The owners of the horse are Japanese. Mostly it's Australians who win, but others are wanting the victory also. Like the ruler of Dubai who ownes 6000 horses, 1000 only here in Australia. His horses are better treated than the Asian people who are building Dubai, starting from daily massages and imported hay from Washington.

Today I got to witness the spectacular thing myself. The day didn't start very well as I don't have any proper clothes on this trip and I was trying to find something from Tiia's wardrope. I didn't feel very pretty but off we went. To get to the race course took us about an hour. The are was huge. We checked three races while our stay there. We/I was also checking all the clothing people wear. If you know the spring-summer dresses than English women wear so you know everything. The hat or a 'thing' on your head is also very important. Everybody wear high-heel...and quite a few just carry them after getting sore feet from all the standing and walking. Women spend hundreds for the outfit and the looks. But after the races all the glamour is gone (if there ever was that even). People get drunk and just try to find somebody whom to spend the evening with.

As the race was finished, surprise surprise all the trains had been cancelled. Buses were provided to the next tram stop but it didn't speed up the things much as 100 000 people were trying to leave the course at the same time. We took the tram to the opposite direction and then cought the correct one - and nobody at the stop close to the course couldn't get in. A one hour trip there, and 3 hours 45 minutes to get back. So bad it was all organized.

Wearing Tiia's high-heels was awful. Now I remember again why I prefer my Ecco-shoes. My feet feel more horrible than after running the marathon!

Last Friday we went to the football game. It was a mixture of Australian and Celtic football. Irish against Australians. The athmosphere was awsome. We had some Australian spectators in front of us and Irish behind us. They both had quite some cheering going on. The ball used in the game was soccer ball. You have three different type of goals: four poles forming goals like in American football and then a normal soccer goal. Mostly the players were holding the ball in their hands and passing it to another players. The Irish were kicking the ball for a few times but not much. Irish were much better in kicking the ball to the direction they wanted to but Australians did good job on catching and reaching for the ball. Not much tackling was used in the game though it is an important part of Aust.F. On the other hand neither was the filming part of the game. If you fall or are being pushed down the game continues, no drama. Am looking forward to see an Australian football match or rugby game one day.

Four full days spend on the peninsula were very nice. Me and Tiia have been catching up some time and were able to talk much more in Finnish in Blairgowrie. Ben is in the middle of his exams and he returned to the city and left us girls alone, with Lib. The weather wasn't great but it didn't bother us too much. We were still able to go to a Saturday market. To the two Saturday markets I've experienced here have been fantastic. In different stalls people sell handicrafts, clothes, food, drinks, soaps, creams, jewellery and sorts of small things. Lovely!

I started getting to know the area quite well. I had walks and runs on the beach. With Tiia we did 15km walk from one town to another and coming back via paths on the bushes next to the ocean. The day was rainy and windy, so perfect for a walk. Not so perfect was the flying sand on the ocean side. The sand was steaming as it hit the face. On the ocean side it was very windy and the the waves were hitting the shore. But on the sea side, on the bay it was very calm and nice. I wouldn't take a dip in the ocean (valtameri) cause it's so unpredictable. Just ask how many people have been washed away, swimmers and surfers. Also Harold Holt, a former prime minister was disappeared during his daily morning swim; it is/was believed that the Russians (by a submarine) took him, conspiracy theory. You never know...

As I wouldn't swin in the ocean on the other hand I did take a swin in the sea (meri). The sun was shining a bit and the water was very clear. And I've come all the way down here, so why not take a swim even if the water was only +15C degrees. Chilly and numbing but the feeling afterwards was oh so nice. Should start the winter swimming in Finland as I've been planning for the last few years.

Tuesday was one of my most intense days here in Australia. In the morning we went strawberry picking. The season is only starting so it was very hard to find ripe strawberries. And of course I needed to check the quality and taste quite a few while picking. For four euros price you were allowed to pick 500g, I think I ate 500g on the field. We had a few pit stops and were checking out some parks and look outs. The sea was clear blue and tempting but the ocean not so. If you ever come to Melbourne I recommend a visit to Mornington Peninsula. I suppose there lots of nice places around here but that is now something I know for sure is beautiful. During the summer time it gets very busy there. People have built their holiday houses there and spend a month or two there, just relaxing. As I had not seen any kangaroos yet we drove to an animal farm. With the entrance fee we were able to go and feed the animals, they gave us some bread. We passed dingos (they were fat and looked more like pets than anything else) and saw some deers lying on the grass. And then we saw it, a huge emu heading towards us. We were throwing some bread to it and hoped it would disappear. We saw two families and kangaroos futher away and walked there - emu following us. And the kids got pretty scared of it. A very rude animal! Tiia said that it's fine to feed the kangaroos, just let them grab the bread from your hand. But once a kangaroo started aproaching me I wasn't very brave anymore. Also the 'tiny' kangaroo baby seemed scary to me. We walked on, emu and some geese following us. They got very aggresive trying to get out food. We couldn't stop the hysteric laugh. We had thought it's nice to feed some animals but it was hard work. One goose was even eating a zipper on the pocket of my pants. After fighting the emu and geese I got my courage back and was able to feed a kangaroo quickly before leaving the area for animals. What an experence! I prefer zoos. Then it was time to put our bets, it was the day for the Melbourne Cup. Twenty to three we were betting and only then noticing the race was at three - not at three fourty! Quickly back home, tv open, snacks - and the race itself lasted a few minutes if even that. No winning for me. At eve we/I still went swimming in the sea and we had a walk by the ocean. Busy day. For dinner we had shark. Very heavy white fish. I always thought it's a prizy fish but appartently it's like salmon to us Finnish.

Two nights left here and then I head to Bali to meet Amore Mio. But let's not think about leaving yet, I wanna spend some good time with Tiia while it's possible.

Erika