The Second Rummage

It happened again last Wednesday night. I'd been to the supermarket and was unloading groceries over a few trips, talking to kids and forgot to lock my car.

Goddamit!!

I came out on Thursday morning to pack for Oaks Day (Day 3 of the Spring Racing Carnival) and some of the contents of my glove box were over the seat. They'd been back.

Another pair of cheap sunglasses, stolen, plus all my parking meter money, my first aid kit and my manuals and service book! WTF??

There is a brand of car that apparently once you have the service book, you can organise a replacement key. A quick call to the service centre and I discovered my car isn't one of those.

Fortuitously, I had actually read my car manual last summer but still very annoying. I rang the local police in case they thief realised the books were useless and dumped them somewhere.
If you'd like to make an official record, we'll need to send out the crime squad to take finger prints on your car, the sergeant informed me.
Bit late for that I'm afraid, I confessed. I've already touched everything and anyway, I'm off to the races.
If it's got your rego in them, we'll find you, she added helpfully.

If you see someone around town wearing a tortoise shell pair of these - but TopShop, not Mui Mui - good chance they're mine!!!

On Sunday, as I headed off to Avalon (charity for the homeless) I remembered I'd grabbed a client-branded backpack from the office to donate. Now where was that? Oh that's right - it was in the car...

It would most likely have gone to some poor homeless drug addict and now, I supposed, it was the property of some poor homeless drug addict - so I guess on this occasion, we'd just cut out the middle man!

The Races

Yes, ladies (and gents!) - we've had that time of the year again - Spring Racing Carnival.

The season of hats, frocks, champagne and shenanigans. (And occasionally a horse race.)

You can tell it's close when the fridge looks like this...

More champagne than food!

When asked what I was wearing, my business partner Mandy would jump in and say A nightie and a Michael Jackson jacket. Not inaccurate, but not exactly talking it up either.

I suffered the usual indignity of the spray tan. God that process is awful! There you are in a paper G-string and shower cap in a black booth that is sadly, so glossy you can see yourself naked from every angle. I swear those girls don't get paid enough.

As has become tradition, we hosted clients on Oaks Day in a car park On The Rails. It was warm - but the rain was torrential. Karma got Mandy for being rude about my outfit - a veritable waterfall spilled from our shelter down the back of her coiffed head and expensive dress - laugh!!! (Well, I was laughing!)

Not us - but this was the day.

Eleanor decided she'd wear my dress on Stakes Day - a couple of days after Oaks. That was all fine until she decided to post a 'Who wore it better?' on Facebook. I did not give that my okay for this!!!

Anyway, I was winning the sympathy vote (and frankly, my shoes were more flattering to the leg!) when she gazumped me with this.

Game over :(

Dress De Jour

My business partner Mandy and I were at Oaks Day on Thursday, entertaining clients. That makes it sound so legitimate - and is was - but we were also just having a ripper day with some great chicks who we happen to work with.


But, the big surprise of the day was this ubiquitous pink dress.

Anyone else see one? Or ten??

There were three within a two car-park radius of our spot and we spotted a couple more floating by as the day progressed. We were in the section called On The Rails which would be one of the smallest and we guessed there were at least seven in our enclosure. One of our guests, Sue, sent us this pic as she'd spotted yet another on the train on the way home.

Mandy thought it may be a Manning Cartell - I said more likely the major department stores - Myer or David Jones. So intrigued were we than Mandy bravely approached a champagne-sodden wearer (the fifth we'd spied), said how much she loved her dress (liar), and asked what brand it was. The wearer was so tanked she couldn't speak - in fact, she was having trouble standing - but indicated Mandy was welcome to check the label herself - Country Road. Reminded me exactly why I don't buy it - well, the fact that it's ubiquitous and over priced....

So there you have it ladies, for $179 you too could be wearing the same dress as probably thirty people across the course on the same day. Maybe a hundred over the entire carnival - maybe more.

It probably doesn't really matter - it is a great colour. The girl above clearly looks gorgeous in it but some, dare I suggest, could have done with a better choice of undergarments....

PS Please excuse typos etc as my proof reader isn't recieving my emails... technical issue. Dn't you hate those!

Races and horses

It's been a big week of horse races in Melbourne. My buisness partner Mandy and I entertained clients at Oaks on Thursday and had a great day, if not a couple too many champagnes! We were extremely very tired on Friday (that wasn't a typo - we were extremely very tired on Friday!).

Not to be deterred, Geoff and I took the kids to Stakes Day, again On The Rails as the guests of some great friends. Eleanor's age was guess by a fashion icon at our carpark (and whom I'd just met) as being 16 or 17. He was bowled over to know she's 13. She and her friends spent committed hours getting ready - and I mean hours! If they put as much enthusiasm into their studies I'd be one very happy parent. Here they are on the way there, and one of Elle and me at the end of the day.

Yes, I was blonde Thursday, brunette Saturday - a whole other story....

I heard a story of a carpark in The Nursery a few years ago where the guys in the next carpark were having a buck's party. Nothing outrageous - just a great day at the races. A group of girls akin to the above walked past - 'Come in, come in!!!' the guys invited. 'They're 14,' came the whisper from the carpark next door - 'Get out, get out!!!" they screamed in utter panic.

After a solid 8 hours of standing in very high shoes, and being refreshed yet again by lovely champagne (me, not Elle!!) we faced the City2Sea Sunday morning. Yes, another of those ironic Fun Runs I've blogged about before. It seemed like such a good idea months ago before I realised it was the day after Stakes and had committed Elle and myself.

We were up at 6.30 and I glanced at the race info to check where the start was. 'Good news!' I exclaimed, 'it's only 10k.' What a relief! We thought it was 14. So weren't we surprised when the 10km mark came - and went - and it still wasn't over! I did realise it makes no difference to my running (if you can even call it that) whether the distance is 5, 10 or 15kms. On and on I plodded. Elle, unfortunately, had put in a big sprint at the 10k mark thinking it must be like the Run For The Kids and be just over the distance. It was only when she saw a flag marked 11km that she asked another runner - '14k darl.'  Of course she beat me - by a good six minutes, but I was still very happy with a time well under 90 minutes.

So after a week of races - horses and running - I came straight home and had a jolly good lie down!