The Games

It was nice to be back in Melbourne for a day or so. It was certainly all happening in the city, alive with the buzz and vibe of the Games, and plenty to do and see without actually going to any sporting events. The Yarra River looked fantastic with the very creative metal fish barges, a certain species of fish signifying each country, eg, an eel for Australia, brown trout for Scotland. They were beautifully crafted, using a lot of stainless steel, copper and corrugated iron and were approximately 5 metres long by 3m high, lined up the centre of the river, spectacular. While walking along Birrarung Maar we stopped to listen to a group of drummers playing African drums, they were fantastic and the kids sat down and were transfixed as the beats and rhythms were belted out on the skins. The leader of the group was very entertaining and produced some amazing sounds. I asked to look at his hands when they finished and his palms and fingers were so calloused and hardened by all the drumming he had done, they looked quite unnatural, almost grotesque. We spent an hour at the “beach” at the Arts Centre, the lawn there had been transformed into a beach, loads of sand for the kids to play in, Tal had a great time playing touch rugby that was organised by Touch Victoria, while a band played good music at the stage there. We bumped into our friends Ben and Janet and their three girls, they were as surprised as we were, we felt funny being recognised, almost fraudulent, as we were meant to be far away, travelling. We have seen a fair bit of the Games on TV, it seems to have been a great success with a lot of very inspiring performances. Lunch with Cam, Gillian, Kaiya and Freya for lunch on Wednesday was great, and a lovely dinner that night with Mum.