I Love Livin' in the City

Melbourne was once named as the "Worlds Most Liveable City". Something that a fair few Melbournians have let me know during my stay here. It has in fact been made quite obvious as to why they achieved this accolade however. Even during what will be the cities busiest month ever (hosting both the Commonwealth Games AND the Melbourne Grand Prix the following weekend) public transport was clean, fast and efficient; generally a breeze to use. The people are as friendly as you could imagine for a large city to be. The shopping, eateries, drinkeries, sports facilities, parks, the sites to be seen both in the city and within several hours drives are all exceptional. The weather is the only thing that could possibly cause any concern. But from an Englishmans perspective, 40 degrees in the Summer, and around the 10 degree mark in Winter - I'd say it was pretty good anyway - despite the "Four Seasons in one day" theology which had made itself apparant several times during my time so far.

The weird thing was, that as soon as the games had started - the weather was at worst 'a little overcast' and at best - 34 degrees. So in the baking sunshine I ventured to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch an evening of Athletics. My first experience doing so, was rewarded with some of the most amazing crowd atmosphere I have ever experience at a sporting event. I got to see: Asafa Powel (the world record holder for the mens 100m) win his race, Dean Macey of England, Essex top the Decathletes overnight table and saw an enthralling 5000m mens final where the Aussie was pipped to first place by a Kenyan; amongst a bunch of other track and field events. I fail to see how any athlete couldn't put in an all time best performance with a crowd like that behind them - the Aussies really go mad for their girls and boys.

To follow up the Athletics, I had an evening of Boxing to go to. But before this I took a trip to the dizzy heights of the Southern Hemispheres tallest commercial building - the Rialto Towers (in the top picture you can see the view from the Rialto's, of the Southern Hemispheres tallest residential building - the Eureka Tower). The 360 degree view was absolutely amazing - and enabled me to see everywhere that I had already been to in Melbourne.

The nocturnal boxing session topped off my audience participation of this Commonwealth Games. It was good to see the English do so well in the Ring, and also good to see and hear some of the less well known African nations supporters.

On Thursday night, I went for drinks with Kev (Scot) and John (Wales) and we met the England Basketball, seething after a loss to the Aussies. They were in good spirits really and after introducing myself, I got to feel like a midget for the rest of the evening. Cool guys - and great to meet the first Englishman that ever played in the NBA.