Olympics, The Coopers Arms and the footy

Things have been a bit up in the air of late.  Well, there's been the Olympics - which for us means late nights or very early mornings to see stuff live, and I like to see it live.  Makes for a weird body clock though.   Still, it only comes around once every four years so might as well get into it!  The thing that gets me is that if one of these world class / Olympic level athletes don't win GOLD, it's like a failure! Gee, I remember winning red (2nd) and green (3rd) ribbons at my school swimming or athletics carnivals and thinking I was a star! By the way, first was a blue ribbon....

In the same vein, our Aussie cyclist Cadel Evans, who won the Tour de France last year, finished seventh this time around.  I was appalled that one of our commercial TV news channels called it his "Tour de Failure"..What?  I'd like to see those guys ride a bike up a mountain and all over the French countryside for days on end.

Mmmm.  Oh well, I'll continue to gripe daily to anyone that listens about this ridiculous obsession with Gold medals and lack of recognition for Silver and Bronze.  Oh yeah, sorry, I only won an Olympic Silver medal....

So, anyway, we had lunch at the Cooper's Arms hotel in Newtown.  Good winter fare.  I liked the quotes in the comic-like wine list (and no, we didn't drink the French champagne)...

I like the one from Will Rogers

This is the a la carte winter menu, but there's also burgers and stuff, and daily specials:

For me it was the prawns on chermoula pesto linguine, a wonderful flavour mix:

Delicious!

The other half went for the sausages and mash special.  This time they were Merguez sausages - I tried them and they were really great, so was the mash and gravy.

The mash was fab as well

And we had a bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio as well.  I like the label with the knife - it is called La Vendetta after all:

Cool label

We've also been to the footy lately.  That's football.  Which means many different things depending on what country you're in.  Over here it can be Rugby League, Rugby Union, soccer or AFL.  This time it was the AFL - Aussie Rules - a weird running, jumping, handball and kicking game that we play over here.  It is fast and furious and the guys are lean and mean and fast and well, very fast.  They officially play for 80 minutes in four 20 minute quarters, although the quarters can go over 30 minutes depending on what exactly happens.  It's very exciting. We were backing the Sydney Swans - they were playing St Kilda.  A big rivalry there between the teams, and the supporters.

Our friend Celia of the royal crown knitting fame brought along her Swan's bears.  The larger bear is 24 years old.  Celia knitted their gear.

The bears watching the warm up

The match was played at the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) and they've been demolishing one of the old stands.  It was a bit curious looking at that end of the field:

Weird

But the rest of the SCG looked just right

Match warm up

The bears were having a great time! Just like a teddy bear's picnic at the footy!

The 24 year old is having a beer

It really is a fun day out, even if you have to share it with 29,000 others

The local crowd

The bears were right into it

Original Swan's supporters

Celia was happy the Swans won, as we all were.  The bears are looking cheeky, a bit like winners!

Momma Bear with the kids

 It was a big day and everyone slept well.

Sleepy and warm