The Melbourne Cup...

They call it 'the horse race that stops a nation'...the Melbourne Cup run on the first Tuesday in November. All around Australia people gather to celebrate the occasion, so you don't have to actually be in Melbourne to enjoy the atmosphere etc. Like most workplaces, the schools that I worked in always had a staff luncheon  on Cup Day but somehow I always seemed to have playground duty on Tuesdays so I would miss out a bit on the festivities :-(  But would always wear 'a fancy' hat while supervising in the school yard...with plenty of volunteers willing to chase after my (impractical) hat if it should blow off in the breeze lol.

Last year I was retired, so DH and I went to our first Melbourne Cup function at a Bowls Club out at Pine Rivers with a group of friends. And that's where we went this year...

First of all we sat outside in a very pleasant area; our friend Liz with her husband. Liz and DH have been friends since they were teenagers :-)

We realised that now you can get special 'race day' balloons ....

The band were great! After the race we stayed for another hour just enjoying their music...in front of the band were the buffet tables with a delicious spread to choose from.

Two of our party looking through the form guides looking for a winner :-)

Lots of the ladies got up to dance...I found myself imagining them as young women dancing to that music when it was first recorded in the 60s,70 and 80s :-) Many of them were my 'vintage' and danced just like I used to in my late teens and 20s. :-) (I did get up and dance with the women in our party...the menfolk preferred to sit it out!)

DH and I just about to 'tuck into' our delicious lunch... my black and red fascinator was bought a few months ago when , on a visit to Spotlight for some bias binding, I saw that there was 50% off all headgear! 

DH chose the winning horse so he was quite happy to collect his winnings...We also noticed that people were taking the balloons off the tables as they left so we took 3 to give to DsD2's god children as we knew we'd be seeing them that evening. They loved the balloons with the horses on them! Our friend Liz took the rest from our table for her 2 grandsons.