What's that big orange ball in the sky?

We had a great three-day weekend down here in Aussie land. It was Anzac Day on Friday, so a national holiday/day of remembrance. I still have yet to go to a dawn memorial service; I had planned to this year, perhaps get some good photos, etc., but then I learned that it was at 4.30am. Ouch.

Friday the flatmates and I went to Newtown, just a short trip from our house, to a pub to play the traditional Anzac Day game of Two-up. Last year, we consciously avoided pubs offering the game because we wanted to keep it low-key and stay away from the fray.

This year, though, we jumped in with both feet. It’s quite a scene. The pub had set out a big carpet on its outdoor patio, and two priceless old Aussie blokes were the official emcees. Everyone stands around the carpet—only the emcees and the “spinner”, or the person tossing the coins, are allowed on the mat—and shouts out bets.

It’s a lot like those old-school movies of people betting, or like that scene out of Royal Tenenbaums where Gene Hackman takes young Richie gambling: shouting out bets and counter-bets, fists full of money, cash changing hands. It’s pretty fun.



I got to be a spinner for two tosses, so I can now tick that off my list. (I was heads-up on the first and tails-up on the second, for the record.)

The sun finally—finally—came out on Saturday, after two weeks of rain and overcast skies. Yesterday was beautiful, almost 80 degrees F, and sunny. It got windy later in the day, but it was good enough for us to go round to the pub and sit on the patio.

In all, it was a great weekend.