It was the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty’s coronation yesterday. As hard as I looked, I couldn’t find a street party or any celebration in Sydney which, to me, seems somewhat ungrateful of the locals.
So, to mark the occasion my eldest son, Iggy Dylan Moonunit and I wandered down to the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the Reds and Whites take on the Blues (d’ya see what I did there?).
I’ve been to the SCG a few times before (follow the “Ashes” category bottom right on this page) and always find it an enjoyable day out. The endless long, bright days of summer have, erm, ended however and the SCG is looking a bit forlorn under grey rainy skies. The renovations to half the members’ area doesn’t help, giving the opposite end to where we sat a bit of Soviet-era look, where (as P.J.O’Rourke said) they seemed to have forgotten the recipe for concrete (1 part cement, 2 parts milk?).
For those not used to the great sport that is AFL, there is a bit of a tradition where the teams run out through big disposable banners before the start. The rain disposed of much of the Swans’ banner before they laid a foot on the grass, sadly.
The game was very one-sided with the Reds hitting the target 9 times in the first quarter. Great news for us as we were sitting behind those goals, not so great for the second quarter though as the action was all down the other end.
Iggy suggested a food break might be in order so we went in search of the culinary delights that can be purchased at sports events the world over. Meat pies, in other words.
An interesting exchange then occurred with the Customer Service Executive at the pie stand;
TNA; “2 meat pies please. By the way, what meat is it?”
Pie Man; “Meat, mate”
TNA; “Can you be a bit more specific?”
Pie Man; “Huh?”
TNA; “What type of meat is it?”
Pie Man; “It’s MEAT, maaaate”
TNA; “But I just wanted to know is it beef, lamb, chicken or pork?”
Pie Man; “It’s meat, mate. Look, do you want the bloody pies or not?”
TNA; “~sigh~ Yes, 2 thanks”.
Which serves as a timely reminder of one of my golden rules in life; don’t ask questions you might not like the answer to. See also, “are you going to give me a pay rise or shall I just resign?”, “why has my VHS tape of the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final got a Colin Firth movie on it?” and “what is my mate’s wallet doing on our bedroom floor?”.
The Swans went on to stick about 100 points on the Bulldogs and neither Iggy Dylan Moonunit or I have suffered any apparent consequences from the “meat” pies, so the afternoon was a resounding success.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Queen.