Baby's in Black (and Red)

   Pretty much the first things my Aussie friends told me, when I told them we were moving to Melbourne, was that we needed to choose a footy team. Footy, as in Australian Rules Football. Nothing like American football (sometimes called gridiron here). It's got the fast pace of a soccer game, with 18 players from each team running around, but a lot more scoring. As we found out on Sunday night, it's a lot more fun live. Andy's company bought tickets to a match, and when the clients couldn't go, the girls and I did.
   Back to choosing teams though...The first thing you need to know is that you most definitely do not "root" for a team, that words has an entirely different connotation. You "barrack" for a team. But you absolutely must pick a team to support. Andy chose the Richmond Tigers because the son of one of his rowing buddies plays for the team. Aliya, not surprisingly, chose Richmond as well. Alanna chose the Collingwood Magpies because her friends at school do. I chose the Essendon Bombers because they're a safe choice and Ben did, lol. And it just so happened Essendon was playing St. Kilda at the game we went too. 
   The cross-cultural consultants we met with last week mentioned footy scarfs, so I picked up a few before the game. Cheap knock-offs of course, shhh, don't tell! We took the train to the game, and walked to Etihad Stadium. It has a retractable roof, which is very cool, but it was closed due to inclement weather. Once inside, the girls immediately spotted the face painting lines. Can't believe they don't do this in the US: 

$2 for face painting. $4 gets you a fully-colored face, maybe next time!

   We had fourth row seats, very close to the men action! So yes, there were a lot of women present and they were very very loud.

Essendon vs St Kilda

   Since my team was playing, we all chose to barrack for Essendon, a good choice, as they dominated the game. In keeping with our family motto, "Quit while the quitting's good," we left after three quarters. By then the Bombers had more than 100 pts to the Saints 50 or so, so they had the game won. Final score was 136 to 84, just in case you were wondering! We all enjoyed the game, and would definitely go again.

   The scarves have proven to be a great source of amusement and entertainment. Aliya's used them to tie laundry baskets together and make trains. She also enjoys creating new fashion statements:

Bombers or Tigers fan?