More Cool "Free" Things

So the Common Wealth Games were utterly fantastic and provided more free entertainment than any traveller could desire. The highlights of the past few days have been :

1. Men's 20K and 50K Race Walk - SUNDAY AND MONDAY
I still haven't decided if that's a real race or not. They definitely haul some walking booty! These men are in peak performance condition and I reckon they were once marathoners who have stuffed up their knees at some point in their lives and are now race walking? What do you think? Australia won...

2. Golden Pride Children's Choir - TUESDAY
Saw this show with Jodi, a friend from work, and it's amazing ... 42 Tanzanian children sing about the joys of being Tanzanian. These primary school children from a remote area in Tanzania had no voal traning but have beautiful voices. They were discovered by an Australian mining engineer and offered the opportunity to perform in the UK and Australia.

Tanzanian children singing in Swaheli


3. Random Dance - WEDNESDAY
Just that--- bazaar random dancing with amazing strength... but definitely bazaar. I think the first scene was about a threesome and the second was a fight between a man and woman and then they made up... hmm....

4. Athletics - THURSDAY
OH Wowsers! Meg and I was watched the Women's Pole Vault at the MCG and I couldn't have been happier! Tatiana Gregorieva and a jumper from Canada both jumped 4.20 meters which was exciting. We only had tickets to see the semi finals and therefore only watched a few jumps... the finals on Saturday produced a jump of 4.62 meters (a meet record) by Australian Kim Howe. That's a great jump! Also, the quality of the track and field facility was ridiculous! (Apparently they are going to throw the track away in a few weeks because they have to prepare for a footy-match that will be in the MCG! What a waste) I got so nostalgic watching the sports and momentarily regretted quitting pole vault. Grrr....










I also saw a Canadian high jumper Nicole Forrester competing who used to practice with me at UT!! That was a trip to see someone I knew! I mean, I realize that half of if not most of the girls I used to run with at UT were Olympic athletes, but WOW!

Other events we watched : Men's 200, Men's 400m Hurdles, Women's 400 m Hurdles, Discus

5. Legs on the Wall - SATURDAY
We headed out with the intention of watching a huge Bollywood (Indian cinema) production in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl but discovered that the amphitheatre had already been full for a few hours. Jess, Meg, Stuart and I wondered around Alexandra Gardens (among probably 2 million other people) looking for something to do and ended up at Young and Jackson's Pub for a beer followed by Legs on the Wall- On the Case. It was an aerial "thriller"performed high on the wall of the arts center in which the artists are attached to rigs and transform the wall into a vertical stage. Really cool.





Stuart, Meg, and Me watching Legs on the Wall...






Jess, Me, and Meg on the bridge overlooking the Yarra at Night






Back to the Bollywood tragedy... my flatmate Jess decided that every person wearing a Sari walking around the gardens was also too late to get into the Bollywood show and was therefore"severely depressed" and on the "verge of tears" because they didn't get to see their favorite actors/actresses! haha She proceeded to take pictures of these "sad' Indian families to document it.