Racing Around Melbourne

Wednesday

Everyone was sacked out hard this morning; Mark didn't even wake anyone up while he got ready. His conference day was highlighted by a "hot topics" lecture from the always entertaining Joe Lex (Temple U), talks on the medical response to last summer's Victorian bush fires, and an ultrasound workshop. The most fun part, though, was playing the car racing game on the Xbox at one of the vendor booths. They were having a contest running all week to see which doc could post the fastest lap time, with the grand prize being a $500 gift voucher for a stunt driving school. Mark had a pretty successful run (after some practice the previous two days), and topped the leader board for most of the morning.

Dawn Princess stalked Cerine from Tauranga to Sydney, and now Melbourne!

Sherry, Cerine, and Ro set off to see Melbourne via the City Circle Tram, and planned out their day sequentially based on the route map. Ro hadn't slept well last night, and Sherry had a sinking feeling it was going to be "one of those days." Their first stop was in Fitzroy Gardens at Captain Cook's Cottage. His family home was transported from Yorkshire, England and rebuilt here, displaying the history of the explorer's life. Cerine had already been to the place of his death (in Hawaii). Ro wasn't in the greatest mood, what with the intense heat and his own exhaustion, but they still managed to see most of the quaint cottage and the English garden out back. After a quick tour of the gift shop, Sherry talked Cerine into splurging on a couple of postcards to send out from Cook's Cottage bearing a unique postmark; one went to Norma and Carver, the other to Ronan at the Mount for his trip scrapbook.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook

Inside Cook's Cottage

Ro liked the idea of living like a Captain

Meandering through the gardens, they saw a sign-post for the "Model Tudor Village." It was so cute, with a little neighborhood of houses under one meter in height, right down to a few well-sculpted shrubs that looked like little trees. Sherry asked Ro which home he wanted to live in, and he chose one. When he asked her the same question, and Sherry picked out a nice little Tudor next to one of the "trees" for it's "shade," Ro said crossly, "Oh, I wanted that one! I wanted the shade tree!" Sherry refrained from rolling her eyes, so as not to incite him further, and simply prayed for more patience.

Ro in Fitzroy Gardens

This village was a thank-you gift for food sent from Victoria to post-WWII England

There was a fairy tree carved opposite the village, where a craftsman decorated an old tree stump (nearly 3 meters tall) in carvings of fairies and other wee-folk from the village. Children are advised to make a wish here...Ro's wish was exactly the same as his Santa list: the Transformers Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Devastator, and Megatron, as well as another Ben 10 Omnitrix. He must figure he'll improve his odds the more he spreads the word.

Make a wish!

They stopped for an ice cream at the garden cafe, and although parched of thirst, found themselves out of luck drink-wise. Their water glasses had only been set down for a few seconds when they were inundated by aphids. Venturing over to a small play area where a Nana was pushing her toddler granddaughter on a swing, Ro happily kicked off his shoes and started running up the Dragon slide. The woman, a Melbourne resident, gently urged Sherry to have him put his shoes back on, as she lives a few blocks over and had found hypodermic needles in the sand at the park. Needless to say, shoes were not enough for Sherry or Cerine to want to be anywhere near that park, so they took off for the Tram. Their last stop was the old Melbourne Gaol (i.e. jail).

Not to worry, he really did get some in his mouth

Ro taking the hard way up

The tour of the Gaol began with the visitors being treated as convicts by a petite female guard with a big-time attitude. Ro fell in line with the other men and looked like he was near tears as the guard growled at her new prisoners. She noticed in the booking room that Ro was scared to death, and immediately made him a constable. He broke into a big smile once she put the blue hat on top of his head, stating that Constable Ronan never threw tantrums, did he? Ro solemnly shook his head "no," while Cerine and Sherry took cover, awaiting the lightning strike. They were carried through from booking, where Ro loyally refused to put Sherry into a cell, despite the guard asking him to lock her up. After the cells, it was on to the exercise yard, showers, the hanging room, and the infamous solitary confinement room. Afterwards, the tour disbanded and visitors had ample time to wander through the remainder of the gaol, reading about its most famous residents, most notably the bushranger Ned Kelly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly

We may be in jail, but at least we're together!

You rabble better straighten up!

The Usual Suspect

In the end, Sherry decided that she wanted the female guard for Ro's nanny; his near brush with incarceration inspired a decidedly more agreeable mood in him. Sherry and Ro left for the hotel, leaving Cerine to do a little more sight-seeing, as Sherry needed to shower and get ready for the big ACEM conference dinner.

Jailbreak!

After we all freshened up back at the hotel, Mark and Sherry walked a few blocks to Southern Cross Station. It wasn't hard to find the right train platform, we just looked for all the people in suits and evening dresses. A few ladies were even wearing hats worthy of Ascot. Soon, we were being entertained by Giddy Up, a four piece horse race themed band. They rode with us on our train through the outskirts of Melbourne to Flemington Racecourse. We noticed that no one was even checking tickets. If a well-dressed person just happened to be at the train station, they could have easily boarded our train and helped themselves to all the food and drink once they arrived, with no one the wiser.

Southern Cross Station

A-one and a-two and a...

Arriving at our destination

Flemington is where they run the Melbourne Cup, and you have an expansive view of Melbourne across the track from the grandstands. There wasn't a race tonight, at least not a live one, but each table picked their favorite fillies for the running of the make-believe ACEM '09 Cup. We chatted for a while with Judy and Burt, but they had to sit with all the ACEM power-players. We found a friendly table, and spent much of the evening talking with an American doc from the Twin Cities and his 8th-grade son who was thoroughly enjoying the father-son trip. The food was pretty good for such a large gathering: salmon or chicken, with raspberry mousse for dessert. The service was even better, never letting us see the bottom of our glasses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemington_Racecourse

Taking in the view before dinner

Our table

After dinner, they held the race on TV, with an entertaining live call from our MC. It must have been video of a race previously run at Flemington, but they called all the horses by medically-related names tonight. The table who correctly picked the winner got gift boxes of chocolate, while the table that won the most fake money overall got bottles of wine. After that, the dancing started, but we were tired and weren't too enthused with the live band's music selections (e.g. Deee-Lite), so we took the first of the two trains home.

This guy didn't take a breath during the entire call

No blackjack for Mark tonight

Meanwhile, Cerine was kind enough to watch Ro for the second evening in a row. We had already planned for her to do it tonight, but last night was an impromptu thing. They had a good time, going out to the casino for Chinese food. Ro ate heartily, scarfing down his honey chicken, while Cerine had the veggie tofu. When we got back to the Hilton around 11:30, Ro was sprawled across our bed, dead to the world.