Festival of the Boot

This weekend is called the "Festival of the Boot" because of the AFL final that was yesterday at the MCG and the National Rugby League (NRL) final that is tonight at the Telstra Dome.

The problem is, nobody really cares about NRL in this town, even though the Melbourne Storm are in the final. It's pretty sad, really.

Not quite as sad as the game yesterday where the Swans were behind for the whole game, came back in the second half to tie it and then lost in the final minute by one point. That's really hard to do in this game. Did I mention I was cheering for the Swans?

The neighbors downstairs were cheering for the Eagles, and so it was a nice little melodrama as we each yayed and booed every time a play was made. They also had their TV turned up so loudly that we were able to shut the sound off on ours. Instead we tuned in to Triple J radio where their sports guys were calling the game on their own. I don't remember the commentators' names, but they are a bit of an institution here in Melbourne, and they have been calling the Grand Final match for 20 years. It managed to get even Barb yelling at the TV, which is quite a feat, considering she's a Canadian who isn't sports-minded.

Vocab for the Day
Chockers: overly full or stuffed. From chock-a-block, which apparently has some kind of nautical derivation.

The trams out of downtown were chockers after the game was over and two old ladies almost got in a fight because we were all so jammed in.