Melbourne Cup Day and Thanksgiving

Melbourne city gets a holiday on its biggest racing day the Melbourne Cup. It is a tradition, that if you don't go to the race, you are at a Cup day party.

The latter was the case for us, which was combined with a token Thanksgiving feast of roast turkey owing to the presence of an American at the party.

It was a great day, lots of food, booze and convivial company.

The photos are a tradition that was started last year. One of the hats we used for drawing the Cup Sweep was a pith helmet. We thought it would be amusing if we took photos of everyone wearing it, so I took along my camera this year to reinforce the tradition for a second year.

Bernie - the hostess with the mostest

Nani - turkey cooker supremo and manufacturer of intriguing home made liqueurs.

Tony's looking happy because, for the third year running, he won the Sweep and also managed to successfully bet on the Cup trifecta which paid a tidy sum.

There's always one...

The inevitable grumpy person who would rather be dead than be seen wearing a pith helmet ... Michael - resident cynic and trenchant wit of the party.

The Melbourne Cup was won by Japanese horse Delta Blues and his stablemate Pop Rock came second. A clean sweep by the Japanese racing contingent.

You may well ask - how did I go? Well, I did select Delta Blues a month or so ago in a future bet, so I scored rather well myself, though not as well as Tony.