Escapisms

Caught up with James, who I first met out in South America back in 2001, on Sunday morning before we headed to the airport. We walked down Southbank and went on the citycat before having a coffee & a bite to eat at a little place in Teneriffe before he & Michael dropped me back at the hotel.

Managed to get everyone checked in & through security no problem, thankfully! Noticed that Kev had been on his wifi moments before & so messaged as I was sure that they said that they were flying down to Melbourne that afternoon too. Yup they were in the airport so legged it down to where they were as we were slightly delayed boarding, caught up with them & what they had been up to – amused to say it wasn’t hard to spot Kev as he too was in his Bath Shirt!

Spent the first couple of days in Melbourne being quite lazy in regards to sightseeing. I had a good read through who was going where post Melbourne as I was starting to get myself VERY confused. After popping to the Visitor Centre in Federation Square and researching what we could do and so on, I went ahead and booked the tours that I had been talking about with others in the group. I managed to pop into a couple of sports shops to see what the prices of the Lions tops where & if they had any other merchandise that we didn’t have in the UK – OMG the strip is $120 as are all the other official strips, that’s absurd. I couldn’t find much other merchandise that we didn’t have in the UK. I found a fleecy blanket and a stubbie holder which I got.

Spent the afternoon sorting out the transfers and bits & getting my head around the next week or so! I also did more research on the possibilities in Cairns for my group as there are several expressing an interest in some of those similar to things I’d like to do. Just found out timings and so on & if there was space on the days that some wanted. I washed some of my clothes in the sink – not paying laundry in the hotel for my socks & undies?!!

Match day came round again & prepared for the colder weather it was the most beautiful day & of course, in the shirt rather sticky!! We had prematch hospitality in Transport Bar, literally bang smack in the middle of Federation Square & we had a private are for our group once again & once again sharing it with the Trevor Brennan Group. I enjoyed being a ‘heavy’ on the door banning people without bands! With it starting from 3pm & make your own way there, we had them all turning up in dribs & drabs to the bar but you could tell as the kick off came closer & closer by the sheer volume of red shirts all around!

Originally Sophie wasn’t going up he going to the match as one of her group wanted an extra ticket for their son & so it would be hers that she would have given up. In the end tho it was decided that she should be with her group & I was without a ticket. My tummie went. I know it’s not a test match & ours were never guaranteed, but I just so wanted to be there. Thankfully it was all in hand, I had a ticket I just wouldn’t be sitting with our group. No bother, I had a ticket – sitting on my own did not bother me!! I ended up behind the posts around 8 rows back, surrounded pretty much by Rebels fans which of course meant I’d just have to shout more!!

The Lions chant in the stadium was phenomenal and of course we nilled them! A couple of very sloppy passes from our backs I must say, thankfully Faz’s kicking was right on target though! Zebo was also being chanted at one stage too, it must be such an amazing feeling for the players hearing that – both as a team & individually!

Headed back to the bar post match having managed to cram onto a tram & narrowly avoided getting stuck in the middle of some harsh words in the carriage. As I went to order a drink as I got there, who should be standing next to me but Lou! & they had not even got my texts telling them where I was! As there was no post match hospitality it was a free for all so I introduced them to some if the group & caught up with them for the evening – a total added bonus!