SueSue's visit part 1/2

So SueSue has come and gone, and I totally failed to write anything while she was here.  Whoops.

But I like doing recaps anyways.  I’m well aware that I have a tendency to ramble on about minutia sometimes, and I always look at recaps as a way to force myself to condense.

So let’s see.  First off, I worked most of the time she was here.  This was fine because it saved me from the multitudinous trips to the market.  And Target.  I’m pretty sure there were a couple trips to Target.  As has become pretty standard for our visitors, Ruthie took SueSue out to Healesville to see the animals.  Upon their return, never mind the “magic moments” with the baby wombats and the kangaroos, apparently the vet working with the wombats was HOT.  At least there are pictures of the two of them with the wombats if not the hot vet.  Also becoming standard for our visitors, there was also a trip along the Great Ocean Road. 

In true SueSue fashion, we sent her off in the evening in search of her own favourite pub.  After the first night being a failure [in Port Spraytan’s defence, it was a Monday night], I provided her with directions to the older, off-the-beaten-path pub called The Clare Hotel that I’d been to only a couple weeks prior with a couple of my local video game nerds.  After watching a few of the train wrecks there, I knew it would be up SueSue’s alley, and sure enough it was.  She went two nights in a row, quickly made friends with the barkeep, and was hit on by a local, who claimed to be a former footy player and true enough asked her if she wanted some Australian in her.  Seriously, the stories this woman inspires. 

Back in the pages of clean, wholesome fun, we also introduced SueSue to some more locals via a diner at J&J’s, where they provided us with some home cooked kangaroo - pretty tasty, but different.  I’ve often heard various things described as gamey and the like, but I don’t know how to apply those adjectives – I would simply describe the ‘roo meat as leaner and less juicy [not in a bad way] than a regular steak.  And on the page of entirely new things, we also went to a footy game.  It was the first game of the preseason, where they have a little round-robin type thing where three teams play each other over the course of the night in three, shortened games.  Apparently they also try out different rules and scoring during the preseason, but that didn’t impact us any.  What surprised me was just how many players were on the field.  I realised pretty quickly just how big a regulation AFL pitch was, but when watching on TV [and without knowing the players], you just don’t really appreciate how many people the pitch can fit.  I think we counted something like 16 players per team.  Then there were at least six referees on the field, as well as what looked like a few substitutes.  And to their credit, those refs worked hard to keep on top of the action. 

Well, I think that might roughly cover SueSue’s time spent in Melbourne.  That leaves the trip to the Whitsundays.

-EP

EDIT – a quick check on Wikipedia tells me that footy is to have up to 18/side.