Melbourne Part 3: Footy & Crown

After our road trip to Phillip Island, we made it back to the hotel for a quick shower and then off to watch a footy match. Footy is a sport that is played only in Australia and predominantly around Melbourne. But it's huge there.

I could see how huge it was for Kruppy who was bringing us there. On the way to the Etihad Stadium he was gleaming away in excitement. 

He wasn't the only one. Crowds of people flocked to the stadium just to catch a match against the Bulldogs and the Magpies (Not their real club names but what they were referred as). 

Lots of people were wearing jerseys of the team they were supporting and it really looked like a football match in England except for one thing: They let the audience for opposing teams sit together whereas in England, the Liverpool supporters are always separated from the Man Utd ones or a fight would break out.

Footy is a bit like rugby and it's pretty fast paced so it gets quite exciting.

Trying to act it up like the locals, we all had by tradition.... a pie on one hand and a beer on the other. Apparently that's what everyone here is supposed to have while watching the match though we later realized that we seem to be the only ones holding both during the match.

The people around us must've been thinking

"Silly tourists... they must've read that in some silly tour guide book and think we all do it".

Here's a picture of Princess & me and the Perfect Couple Pierre & Lay See. 

Pierre is in the background eating his pie.

The match was great fun though. I was losing focus by half time so Grace suggested a game with Ming where every time her team scores she would get to punch Ming in the arm and every time Ming's team scores a goal he would get to punch her.

Grace's team was winning all the way up to the moment he made the bet so she was pretty happy with herself. Right after she made the bet though, Ming's team embarked on a winning streak.

By the end of the match, Grace was punched so many times in her arm we nearly had to call social services.

We all left the stadium just before the game ended to avoid getting stuck in a major jam.

Destination was back to the hotel to shower again and freshen up for dinner. Dinner was to be at Crown (the hotel & casino), at Rockpool with the Aussie Nuffies.

The Pierre & Lay See came along as our guests too.

We ended up waiting like 1 and a half hours for our food to come after ordering it. Can you imagine that?

Then we called the waiter with the intent to complain but when we said our food is not here, she calmly replied "It takes at least half an hour to prepare your steak". It was like her saying "You can't rush the artist.... and our chef is one... so wait patiently or get out".

And like art it was.... the steak we had that night was.... GOOD. 

After dinner we all went to the casino for a while where Pierre and Ming bullied me. I budgeted to lose only up to AUD100 that night and we were playing roulette. The money I use at gambling to me is like an entertainment expense. I treat it like money I would spend if I went out at night to a club or bar or something anyway. So I was losing bit by bit but I was having fun nevertheless.

Then came a point where Pierre suddenly decided to be brave and pushed in all his chips on BLACK. Giving him an almost 50:50 chance to double his money or lose everything.

Ming followed in and pushed all his chips into black as well and they both looked at me and told me to do it too. I cowered... "WAN MEHH???!?"

I didn't want to lose all my money that quickly... but they threatened our friendship so I put everything in except for a small little pile of chips just for me to play another 10 minutes before after we lose that big round.

Just when I thought that I had gotten away with it, Pierre shouted across the table

"TIM!!! I SEE YOU HIDING SOME CHIPS THERE!!! PUT IT IN... NOW".

And I reluctantly put out my chips waiting for it to disappear by the hands of the dealer.

All of us watched in fear as the roulette wheel spun round and round and I nearly passed out from the anxiety. Then the roulette ball landed on black and we were all saved!!! We all doubled our money!!!!

The next 2 times I did that same thing that night I lost though and I ended up losing whatever money I budgeted for the night.

So lesson of the day.... you never win at gambling.