Footy Finals

Footy finals are the Superbowl of Australia. This Saturday marked the biggest and final footy game of the season between the Hawthorn Hawks and Geelong Cats(two Melbourne AFL teams). Geelong was the grand champion last year and had only one loss all season. Despite their favored position and initial lead in the game, Hawthorn came out kicking and won by an impressive margin. All over Australia, backyard bbq's were hosted to cheer on the game. I went to my favorite new hangout at Mel and Waz's.

Mel and Waz have been working furiously to finish off the patio in preparation for this bbq to usher in the warm weather and start of beautiful Melbourne summer. He even set up a TV outside to watch the game in the glorious sunshine.

Ian, me, Mel, and Bel warm the wood benches between the nearly completed planters lining the perimeter of the deck.

Grill Master Waz cooked up satay chicken, chili shrimp, chicken wings, homemade burgers, and sausages...and Mel worried there wouldn't be enough food.

The serious footy viewers collected inside to view the big screen without glare from the sun. I was outside.

We celebrated Mhairi's 29th birthday with a chocolate mud cake full of sparklers.


Here's the Hawks celebrating their big win.

I played the didgeridoo for the first time Saturday night. The didgeridoo is commonly claimed to be the world's oldest wind instrument and originates from Aboriginals in northern Australia. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet, "drone pipe", or aerophone. It's a 1-3 m (3-9 ft) long hollowed wooden instrument with a low bellowing droning sound. The trick to playing it is that you have to master continuously blowing into it while breathing in at the same time.