Today I went into the city to take some photos and see just how many people were there. If you hadn’t realized, the Commonwealth Games are on right now, almost finished in fact. I will forgive you if you didn’t realize this because you’re probably not from a Commonwealth country. Even if you are, I’ll still forgive you. I don’t really care much either. However, being in Australia and most importanly in Melbourne, my home town and the host the 2006 Commonwealth games I thought that I should go and experience at least part of the excitement.
The last time my city held something of this importance was way back in 1956 when Melbourne hosted the Olympic Games. We got a lot of stuff out of those games, like a few stadiums and such things. And a whole lot of memories of course. So now we have some new games to play and it should freshen up the city.
I had actually tried to get into the city the day before, however parking was impossible so I tried again today, and being Sunday and the last day of the games, it was a lot easier. First though, I had Yum Cha with my friends Keith and Chek Heng and their girlfriends Cheryl and Hiromi. You may have noticed Keith in my Sydney photos. He lives there, but his girl lives in Melbourne and he makes the commute. They recently got engaged and I had a chance to check out the ring and talk about the wedding. Looks like I’ll be heading to Singapore with my tux in the near future.
Yum Cha was interesting. If you’ve never had it, let me describe it for you. Firstly, it’s a Chinese lunch thing. Waiters bring trolleys of different types of food around past your table and inform you of what they have. If you like it, you take it. Lots of variety, lots of food and lots of money. You can get a whole assortment of food, from chicken feet to Chinese cabbage, prawn buns to peach and mango custard. The only downside of the meal was the little baby worm things that were still clinging to the Bok Choy. It was annoying because I specifically asked for fully grown maggots…
Anyway, after chowing down the various foods, I headed back to the city to check out the Games atmosphere. The city was alive and hot. It was a 32 degree day which is about 80 degrees in Ye Olde Measurement Style used in some unenlightened places around the world. There were a few events on, with the cycling the closest to where I was hanging around by the Yarra. There were tons and tons of people walking around, which is not uncommon for a Sunday, but probably about 4 times more than normal. I took it as pretty much my last day around the city, as I’ll be going back to Korea shortly. I wanted to take in as much of it as possible, feel like as much of an Australian, Melbournian or whatever the bloody hell I am. I also ate some vegemite. Due to the increased numbers of people around I was not able to fling a boomerang around and catch me some good bush tucker, so I just smiled and took another bite of my sandwich.
I have a hard time resolving myself to being Australian. Many people have this problem. They get stuck on the stereotype of their own country and just don’t feel it fits them. When you don’t follow the local sports, aren’t interested so much by the local cuisine, and find yourself longing to be in another country. Or when you don’t talk like your ‘mates’, wonder who those celebrities are on TV and frequently lapse into long dialogs about “what it’s like over there”. If these types of things start to happen, then you may find that you too are in cultural limbo.
If there are more of us out there, then why not start our own country. A country with no borders, currency or fixed address. A country that isn’t listed in the United Nations and won’t return your calls. A country with no leaders or followers. A country united by our diversity, not wars and sporting events. A country that you can travel to any place, any time.
Of course it has to have a catchy name too. Let’s face it, nobody wants to be from a country called Doobieland.
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