Dizzy Heights and the AFL

Met up with Emily in the city today. Had a great view of the city form the top of the Eureka sky deck (230m up) - which included being pushed out of the side of the building in a metal and glass box with panels that, once fully out, revealed the views form the side - and underneath! Not as scary as I would have thought but definitely all the more entertaining for the groaning and creaking sound effects played over the top :)

Exlpored the city some more accompanied by a shnazzy latte and waffle from DeGraves.

Main highlight of the afternoon was definitely the Melbourne Museum. Spent a large and diturbing amount of time in the BUGS section of the animal bit where they had live specimens of all those spiders you are supposed to avoid. Which was actually fascinating and very helpful for recognising if the thing currently making it's way towards you is harmless, will make you numb for a good long time or is capable of dropping you with a single bite.

So I got to see a Red Back (surprisingly small - and mostly black), some Orbs, a White Tail and a Funnel-Web. There were also lots of huge ants and many, very pretty and harmless, things pinned to crates - or arranged into lovely displays.

The Orbs, by the way, are kept in an open fronted dark room and are fed once a day from below. Apparently they only had an escape twice in the past 10 years. How reassuring.

Best quote:

  "If alone when bitten by one of Australia's highly venomous Funnel-web spiders, first make peace with your God, then go to a hospital"

How reassuring.

Other sections of the museum included the living forest (a forest in the middle of the building but the ceiling is just a net - quite cool as they designed it so you could see under the water) a section on the human body and mind (included Aser's (?) room with a camera on delay so you go out and watch yourself get bigger and smaller) a section on early Australia an other bits and bobs, and a aection on the indeginous people of Melbourne. You could happily spend most of the day there exploring!

That evening D,A &D came into the city and I was taken to my first AFL game (which Ashton Kutcher was also attending). It was Hawks (Hawthorns) v Saints (St Kilda). Dee & A barrack for Hawks and D barracks for Saints, a theme echoed in a lot of the families and groups I saw with no apparent anonimity between either - apart from some good natured ribbing. Loved the game, it ended in a draw and got pretty suspensful with some disallowed goals due to too many people on the pitch, which sounds odd until you understand that the team don't only have the players on the pitch. Just one of the strange but fab things. It took me about 15mins to grasp the rules. If I had to describe it I would say that it cam about due to people wanting to play rugby but not quite remembering the rules - and making some of there own up. My favourite thing was probably the fact that it was the refs who did the throw ins and they have to do it backwards. They are just as fit as the players (and frankly that's a goood enough reason to spend 2 hours watching :)) and need need to be able to hurl that thing a good long way and high.

Amusing biut at the beginning when they have 3 members of the public on to try and kick goals. The competitors...A young boy, a fairly fit and definitley-serious-about-it Aussie, and an English guy called James who had no clue what was going on. I'll leave it up to you to decide who won......