Weekend Update

So, Davs and I had another quite eventful weekend. We may not have jumped out of an airplane, but there were still a few landmark firsts to mention. Before that however, we went to a bar called The Local again on Friday night to watch our buddy Adam play some live music. The guy is straight up nasty on the guitar, can beatbox, and plays all the music you'd want to listen to. He's dropping an album, so become a fan of his band, SHERO, on facebook. He'll be dropping some free songs on there from the album so trust me and check it out, it's very legit.

On Saturday, after fighting off the hangover, we had an even bigger day ahead of us, as it was the Aussie Football Grand Final, the Australian equivalent of the Super Bowl. In Melbourne, this is easily the biggest sports day of the year, as more than half the teams in this league are represented by the city's suburbs. Friday afternoon, a few million fans converged on the city for a huge rally and parade, and Saturday, the city stopped for the big game. Luckily, Davs and I were invited to a house party where a dozen friends were watching the game, and it was the first time it felt like something Id definitely do in Boston. The people there helped explain the game to me, showed me they love grilling food and drinking while watching football, and made fun of me for not being in tune with the sport...all things I would make sure to do at a SuperBowl party with foreigners invited.

Needless to say, the booze won yet again, and we decided not to go out on the town, as we were warned that the city was going to be insane with drunken footy supporters, a combo not likely to be welcoming for Americans who no little or nothing about the sport. I'm all set with being hit in the face while Im here, so staying in and watching Lost was fine by me.

Sunday morning was a quite eventful one considering the carried over hangover, as Davs and I went to play some cricket with a few of the guys from the Grand Final party we went to. I had always wanted to play cricket, heck, I've always wanted to watch more than 5 minutes of it. My experience going in was about as minimal as it could be, which was great bc I'd rather have no ideas one way or another about what to expect.

First off, baseball skills do translate a little bit, but you almost have to unlearn any skills before playing. I preferred the throwing, though it is a much different way of throwing then in baseball. For one, it has to be a straight arm motion, so the way to hurl it to the wickets is to jog to a line and perform a windmill motion to throw it. Ideally, it should bounce a little before it reached the batter, and the main goal is to hit one of the three wickets with the ball or get the batter to hit it in the air, where it can then be caught for an out.

The batter's main goal is to protect the wickets. That's literally the only thing you have to do. If it hits the wickets, you're out, if it doesn't you keep hitting until that happens or someone catches you in the air. The kicker here is that a main strategy by pitchers is to throw it directly at the batter, and hope to ricochet off the body and into the wickets. Not so sweet, but once you become oriented in the game, hitting balls directly at you becomes happenstance. Davs and I were surprisingly good for first-timers, and there's a chance I may join a casual team while I'm out here.

On Sunday night, I pulled an all-nighter...not to get weird and drunk again, but to watch my beloved Patriots dominate the Falcons at 3 AM. It was well worth it, and though it ruined my sleep schedule for the week, there's nothing better than seeing Brady get a W. This team seems to be a few weeks away from being where it should be, so hopefully they can tread water and win a few games while they work out the kinks and rust. I forgot what it felt like to see a team that might win, as opposed to a team I know is going to win, but it makes for a more fun experience watching the games. With those games and now the Sox playoff games approaching, I should have my hands full each morning with sports to watch from across the world.

In other news, I got another job somehow, so it looks like I'll be a full time worker now which is pretty cool. Unfortunately this job is fundraising face to face for a non-profit here in Australia raising money and awareness for the Wilderness, but beggars can't be choosers and I'll wear the hat of a tree hugger any day of the week if it puts some money in my pocket...plus nature is definitely worth saving out here. More to come on that, but as long as they don't catch me littering, it looks like I'll be able to survive my team here monetarily. Go Sox and Pats.