At the Britush Club - poolside and feeling no pain
A Giant Rat - oh it's a Joey
8am and champagne - oh what a day
The Venue
With Meat PiesHi All,
Saturday, 3 Oct. 2009
( my friends Chris and Susanna had their baby boy - Taavi - last night - saw Chris this morning - he's bouncing around )
The Australian Football League That AFL
Last weekend my pal Ross invited me to join him at The British Club otherwise know as "The Club" to watch the Grand Final of the AFL. The Geelong Cats and St. Kilda Saints played a extremely close match with the Geelong Cats winning in the last 5 minutes 80 to 68.
Some of you may have seen this game on an obscure TV station at 2a when you couldn't sleep. You would recognize it by the large oval field , the two tall w/ two shorter goal posts at both ends of the oval. The players use a ball like an over inflated football and must either run, or hand pass - hand pass is when the ball is bumped from underneath to their fellow player or kick the ball to their team mate. - There are 18 player per side. You can liken the game to the American playground game of - "Kill the Guy with the Ball". There is no padding and it's brutal. Scores are made when the ball is kicked thru the goals - 6 points between the tall and 1 point between the short goals.
Ross and I took a taxi into town as we knew we wouldn't be in any shape to drive back and arrived about 730a. The game didn't start until 9a local time- something like 3p in Australia. Along with the ticket came a breakfast buffet where they had pork bacon. Remember this is a private club which caters to the Brits/Aussies and their ilk. Along with the bacon, meat pies, baked beans ( very traditional English breakfast item) eggs/fruit/ pancakes etc. and naturally, a cash bar.
Well Ross and I got some food and since he was my host, I offered to buy the first round - well he said he was interested in some champagne - OK - well I think he thought he could buy a glass of champagne where it was only available by the bottle. Regardless, I splurged and wiped out having to reimburse him for the entry ticket. So there we are drinking champagne at 8a and getting "ready" for the match. After the champagne, we moved to beer. I was drinking Stella Atois out of big Stella logo glasses and Ross was into the Heineken.
The game is four 25 minute quarters - plenty of drinking time. Well after the game and the Cup presentation , we hung around talking to our table mates and I learned that one of the couples was in the process of moving to Sas Al Nakal - our villa compound. Since they were breaking down the room for another party, we had to leave. Instead of going home to sleep off our morning, which would have been the right thing to do, we moved over to the pool area and hooked up with a Brit who is working for the Abu Dhabi police - retired after 32 years with Scotland Yard - and was acting in a consultancy roll for them. We talked for almost 2 hours - of course enjoying more beer. Well as the day progressed , Ross who is 1/2 my size was getting sloshed and I wasn't feeling any pain either. We darnk a little more at another bar and at the end I was guiding Ross down the road to the gate house where we picked up a taxi for home. I saw Ross a few days later and he told me it took him 3 days to get back into a normal mode. I wasn't the sharpest tack the next day but managed to function well. All in all we had a wonderful day, was lots of fun and I'd do it again - but with less beer for Ross.
Ross did take a few photos and when I get them, I'll put them up.
If you ever do see this crazy game on TV do give it a watch as it is awfully exciting.
Cheers Mate
Scott
Saturday, 3 Oct. 2009
( my friends Chris and Susanna had their baby boy - Taavi - last night - saw Chris this morning - he's bouncing around )
The Australian Football League That AFL
Last weekend my pal Ross invited me to join him at The British Club otherwise know as "The Club" to watch the Grand Final of the AFL. The Geelong Cats and St. Kilda Saints played a extremely close match with the Geelong Cats winning in the last 5 minutes 80 to 68.
Some of you may have seen this game on an obscure TV station at 2a when you couldn't sleep. You would recognize it by the large oval field , the two tall w/ two shorter goal posts at both ends of the oval. The players use a ball like an over inflated football and must either run, or hand pass - hand pass is when the ball is bumped from underneath to their fellow player or kick the ball to their team mate. - There are 18 player per side. You can liken the game to the American playground game of - "Kill the Guy with the Ball". There is no padding and it's brutal. Scores are made when the ball is kicked thru the goals - 6 points between the tall and 1 point between the short goals.
Ross and I took a taxi into town as we knew we wouldn't be in any shape to drive back and arrived about 730a. The game didn't start until 9a local time- something like 3p in Australia. Along with the ticket came a breakfast buffet where they had pork bacon. Remember this is a private club which caters to the Brits/Aussies and their ilk. Along with the bacon, meat pies, baked beans ( very traditional English breakfast item) eggs/fruit/ pancakes etc. and naturally, a cash bar.
Well Ross and I got some food and since he was my host, I offered to buy the first round - well he said he was interested in some champagne - OK - well I think he thought he could buy a glass of champagne where it was only available by the bottle. Regardless, I splurged and wiped out having to reimburse him for the entry ticket. So there we are drinking champagne at 8a and getting "ready" for the match. After the champagne, we moved to beer. I was drinking Stella Atois out of big Stella logo glasses and Ross was into the Heineken.
The game is four 25 minute quarters - plenty of drinking time. Well after the game and the Cup presentation , we hung around talking to our table mates and I learned that one of the couples was in the process of moving to Sas Al Nakal - our villa compound. Since they were breaking down the room for another party, we had to leave. Instead of going home to sleep off our morning, which would have been the right thing to do, we moved over to the pool area and hooked up with a Brit who is working for the Abu Dhabi police - retired after 32 years with Scotland Yard - and was acting in a consultancy roll for them. We talked for almost 2 hours - of course enjoying more beer. Well as the day progressed , Ross who is 1/2 my size was getting sloshed and I wasn't feeling any pain either. We darnk a little more at another bar and at the end I was guiding Ross down the road to the gate house where we picked up a taxi for home. I saw Ross a few days later and he told me it took him 3 days to get back into a normal mode. I wasn't the sharpest tack the next day but managed to function well. All in all we had a wonderful day, was lots of fun and I'd do it again - but with less beer for Ross.
Ross did take a few photos and when I get them, I'll put them up.
If you ever do see this crazy game on TV do give it a watch as it is awfully exciting.
Cheers Mate
Scott
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