Lowering My Standards

Last weekend I went to Broken Hill for the St Pat's Day races. These are billed as the biggest social event of the year in the hill and considering that there is a population of about 22,000 and 8,000 people attended, I'd say it's a well justified claim. Despite the family history, it's the first time I've been to the races and it was a wonderful day - I even managed to win $35!!

Bek and Jason are a couple of Sydney Uni med students who spent 2 weeks in Wilcannia (remember the raft/trampoline thingy? they were on that). These guys are fantastically good fun and I headed to the races with them, some other med students, some of the RFDS doctors, a few of the Broken Hill nurses and we ran into some of the Wilcannia teachers gang too.

I also learnt a few lessons whilst I was there. This photo is of Bek's incredibly impressive shoes early on in the day. Most important lesson that I learnt was that dirt and heels don't mix well together after a few hours - the wounds on my poor feel will bear testament to this.

I like this photo of Jason because it a nutshell kind of way, it encompasses a good few things about the races: lots of sun (so knitting a wool/silk 1920s style cloche was a bad idea); some people dressed rather fancily, some others not; cold beer; and not all that many people really taking a huge amount of interest in the horse races themselves.

Trackside

After my horse won!!!

As to the lowering of my standards, this is a little embarrassing to admit but I feel that most blogs are meant at some point to have embarrassing anecdotes in them so here goes. The party carried on well into the evening and later that night, I found myself at the fine Broken Hill establishment, the Mulga, with some nursing buddies. I was looking around the room and was gobsmacked - there appeared to be quite handsome, eligible men everywhere. I'd never seen anything like it! I mentioned this to my friends and they looked at me like I was some kind of crazy woman who had been taking mind-altering substances all afternoon. This was something that I certainly had not been doing, I hadn't even been drinking that much. Pondering it the next day, I realised with horror that in all likelihood, I was in my right mind when I said that - the only explanation that makes any sense to me is that after having been in Wilcannia for a while, my standards have dropped to such a degree that having more than a 5 word vocabulary, being able to read and write and not getting all nutritional requirements from mosie are all that I'm looking for in a man! Please save me from myself......... this is bad!!