Showing posts with label melbourne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label melbourne. Show all posts

The Melbourne Cup Carnival

Every year at about 3 pm on the first Tuesday in November, all Australians stop what they’re doing and turn on the television or radio. Why? They’re waiting for the country’s most famous horse race, the Melbourne Cup. At the first Melbourne Cup back in 1861, 17 horses competed in front of a crowd of about 4000 for the grand total of £170 prize money and a gold watch!
Melbourne cup horse race carnival event party
These days 24 of the world’s best horses run the 3200-metre race, competing for some of the biggest prize money in the business - about $5 million. Not only are the crowds huge at Flemington Racecourse, but more than 700 million people around the world also watch the race on television. A lot of people only ever bet on a horse race once a year — on the Melbourne Cup.

The event is a party. It doesn’t matter if you are not at Flem
ington to see the race yourself. People all over the country, and many in other countries too, hold Melbourne Cup parties, where they dress up, catch up with friends, and of course, watch the race! Dressing up is a regular part of Melbourne Cup Day Each year. There are competitions to find the best dressed man and woman at the racing carnival on the racecourse.
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Sydney Versus Melbourne

There has always been a battle between Sydney and Melbourne over which city is the best. It is a longing to be seen as the capital of the country despite the nation having built an official capital in Canberra, ironically, midway between Sydney and Melbourne.

Sydneysiders think little of claims by Melbourne. A recent world survey put Sydney at ninth as the world's most attractive cities. Melbourne didn't rank in the ten. The problem was that the researchers only knew of Sydney as an Australian city. This says a lot about how outsiders view Australia.

Most capitals have the highest population of any other city in a country. Sydney clearly has the highest population. Though many Australian companies choose Melbourne as their base, overseas businesses go to Sydney. Furthermore, Sydney is the main distribution point for Australian news to the world.

Thankfully, tourists from other countries do not come to Australia to experience city life. They get that at home. They spread themselves broadly across the country in choice of vacation destinations.  There is not much doubt that tourists enter the country through Sydney. This does give a "tourist dollar" advantage to the city. The Gold Coast, Great Barrier Reef and Melbourne would be fly-on destinations for most visitors.
Tourism by Ty Buchanan
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Being Fat Is Normal

People get fat because it is normal. Our ancestors had to go out and find food so they burnt up a lot of energy. It is modern society that is making us fat. Food is readily available, at arm's reach. Our bodies are preparing for the hard times that would inevitably happen in centuries past.

Being able to put fat on the body was a key to survival. That is why many dieters today are on a see-saw round of weight loss and weight gain. It is due to our hormones. When the body loses reserves hormones tell us to eat more. If you want to be slim you will have to put up with constant hunger. Work at the University of Melbourne has shown that hormone levels are indeed higher after people go on a ten week diet. It remains high up to a year later even though the dieting stopped nine months earlier.

There is hope. New products are coming onto the market that swell up in the stomach thus stopping the craving for food. Whether these are safe is another issue. They do offer money back if there is no weight loss in the first two weeks. Apparently they do work. Time will tell.
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Woman Complains About Gollywogs

Be careful! There might be a gollywog about. A Melbourne woman saw a gollywog doll for sale and she is now campaigning to stop it. But is she stopping racism or preventing the gollywog from existing? This all goes back to the Noddy series of books by Enid Blyton. Gollywog, who held an important position as Toytown garage proprietor, was a major character. Enid Blyton had no racial intentions by including him. Though she did admit that she hated children.

The woman says, “It’s a shock to see them brought back." They didn't actually go away. They have been available for many years in shops despite Gollywog's removal from Blyton books after 1980.

These days you can buy Caucasion, Asian and African style dolls, so what is the big problem about selling gollywogs? Banning things always causes problems because it makes an issue out of something when no bad feeling is intended. Australians used to call people from Italy and Greece wogs in the 1960s and 70s. These new Australians made it into a badge. Remember the wog series of films?

This lady is reading something into the situation which really isn't there. She complains, "There is an elegant white ballerina doll whereas the black doll is seen to be poorly dressed." Gollywogs were always dressed in a type of uniform, dungarees. She probably interprets this uniform as being "poorly dressed". Obviously there is demand for them, otherwise they wouldn't be for sale. Perhaps a dark skinned child wants one for comfort, a friend to play with.
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