Noorma Picnic Races

10./11.04.2010

Hey Mates!

I am very glad to inform you that we started our new working week energetic and enthusiastic (and that we got not eaten by the mosquitoes at the weekend).

‘Cause we spent our weekend together with Ann and the English girls at Noorama, where some horse races took place, which was connected with camping and a lot of fun!

But let us start from the beginning:
The last weeks a lot of people were talking about something like “The races”.

We didn’t care that much, because .. well .. who knows what the Aussies have in mind by chatting about stuff like that. But then, day by day, we realized that this must be something socially important. So we checked out what it is and here we are.

A horse race with full catering, bar, entertainment for kids, music and a lot of fun!

- That was what we were promised.

For such an important event you have to look really good and Linda and I thought about for felted weeks what we should wear. We were told that the female majority would be highly dressed up, with swept-back hair, glamorous dresses and high sandals.

Now imagine you are a young girl, it is your first time in Australia, you had have to fly with at least 3 different airlines and so you have to mind a lot of the international package rules. I am nearly sure you can’t imagine what it means for such a girl to decide, what she will take with her for the trip of her lifetime and what not. And, that’s a law, whatever you take with you, you will wish you took one of that things you dismissed!

But who could know that we would have to wear pretty dresses?

To present me as the hero in that story, I shared my beach dresses with Linda and Ann, so that we could wear something like a (pretty) dress.

Then the big day came.

Saturday, 10th of April 2010.

The hairdo lasts.

Sorry, just kidding….

So, after we dressed up and put all useful things we would need in the car, we made our way through Cunnamulla and went to the farm where Ann works. We met with some locals and the English girls and drove together in three cars to the racing place.

We paid our entrance and looked for a good place to park the car.

Then we had a look around … We saw a lot of muscular horses with healthy gleamy coat and athletics bodies. After we lowered our heads we also could see some thin, friendly looking jockeys ;) .

The weather was great: sunny, something around 30 degrees, with a small breeze from time to time. There were high tents to find some shadow and to sit and enjoy a cool drink you just got from the bar. We started with cool champagne mixed with orange juice (for free!) and delicate fingerfood, served by charming middle-aged women.





After having a short lunch the races started.

The distance the horses had to pass increases from one race to the next. I don’t have that much knowledge about horses and stuff, but I think they were pretty fast! But also here I felt sorry for the animals. Poor horses!

Everyone was in good spirits, especially when his or her favorite won!

Linda and I hadn’t had a bet, but some of our friends had. The English girls even won some dollars, which they used for their next refreshing beverage.

So we spent this afternoon with chatting and taking pictures and of course having some drinks. I mentioned it that often, I think I don’t have to write that we kept on going with that the whole evening?!

We also watched the “Fashion in the Field” show, where the best male and female outfits were chosen and the first three got an award.

A DJ joined the party after the races ended. The music was really really good I can tell that.

People of every age danced and were laughing together. You should have seen that.

Germans would say it was a big great village fete! Probably they would say so in England too.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun that evening!

We were dancing to real country music and to famous modern stuff, a good mix for everybody I would say.

But everything has come to an end and so we took our swags (or cars ^^) and camped directly under the stars. It was nearly morning till all of us went to sleep.

As we all regain the way to daylight we had a hefty breakfast from the grill, cooked by charming middle-aged women again ;).

Then we packed up our seven things and everyone followed is heart home.

Linda and I slept the whole left Sunday and started, like I said, energetic into our new working week!