THE MIGHTY PIES . . .

. . . are fixin' to ARRIVE!



SEASON OPENER
March 29 v Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.



LOOK OUT.



.

MELBOURNE vs SYDNEY

A question came in via the Email Machine:

Hi Sean,

A Guy referenced you as a source on Oz / Melbourne. I can't find your blogging on either. Were you born there? Did you choose to retire elsewhere due to how cut off Oz is?

We are planning to immigrate if Victoria will have us. We chose Melb as It is has a European flavor, good climate and liberal cosmopolitan attitude as well as being one of the most livable cities. I appreciate your help. So I'm all ears...

Sincerely,

J___



My Reply:


Sydney versus Melbourne? I lived in both cities for many years. They are both terrific cities, for several different reasons.


Sydney's got the Harbour Bridge:


Yes it really DOES look like that at night.


Me? If I was fabulously rich, I'd live in Sydney. I'm not, so I would probably choose Melbourne, I like it's style. On the other hand, if I was fabulously rich, I could live in BOTH. As far as I'm concerned they BOTH have European flavor, good climate and as you say, a "liberal" cosmopolitan attitude - although be advised: Down Under, the Liberal Party is synomynous with the Conservative Party in Canada, or the < gasp! > Republican Party here in the Good Old U. S. of A. Sydney is like a big North American metropolis (a lot cleaner though) and Melbourne is somehow more civilized, sophisticated in it's own way.



Melbourne has a LOT going for it:



The Great Australian Pub Culture is celebrated to its highest form in Melbourne.


Chloe, seen at the Young and Jackson Hotel, Flinders Street, Melbourne.




Australian Rules Football is a product of Victoria.















The Mighty 'Pies.











Sydney on the other hand has the amazing harbour, and some of the greatest scenery in the world, especially the North shore.




Here is the link to my posts on Melbourne:

THE ORIGINS OF STORMBRINGER


The follow-on story, about the bird infestation in the place I was born:

PENGUINS



















Funniest thing happened to me about the last six months I was in the Army; I was babysitting the fresh meat just coming out of jump school, coming into our program. This one new guy, he was Australian. I had to say something, so I asked him where he came from?

"Australia, Sergeant."

"Yeah, like no sh*t Sherlock, I meant what part?"

"Sydney, Sergeant?"

"No sh*t? What part?"

By about now he's looking me in the eye. "Uh, Bondi, Sergeant."

"NO SH*T???"

I had to reveal myself then - I used to live in Bondi, went to Bondi Elementary, learned how to surf & swim on Bondi Beach and damn near drowned in the process; I know that place like the back of my hand.



Bondi Beach

You see and do a lot in the course of a military career but that moment floored me. Turned out he'd done a hitch in the Australian Army, in their airborne battalion, then he came over to give Uncle Sam's Lean Mean Green Machine a go. Good on ya, kiddo.

THE ORIGINS OF STORMBRINGER

This Victorian rowhouse "Beaconsfield" is my parent's address on my birth certificate. It's my first home:

The Beaconsfield

This is Victoria Avenue, in the suburb of Albert Park, in Melbourne Australia. My Dad says he purchased/sold Beaconsfield for around the $14,000 mark in the 50's. Current value in the order of $1,500,000 plus. Those overhead electric wires are for the tram.

Melbourne tram.


I am a Victorian. My grandfather was a TRUE Victorian - he was born in 1899, during the reign of Queen Victoria. I guess that makes me a double whammy Victorian.

There are two pubs on Victoria Ave - the Victoria, across the street from my old place, and the Bleakhouse, down by Beaconsfield Parade which runs parallel to the beach. Bleakhouse is a novel by Charles Dickens; an apt name for a windswept piece of sand on Port Phillip Bay. I once stood on that beach and saw a flock of penguins swimming by, I shit you not.


Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia

This is the house I used to live in before I shot over to the States in '81. It's on the same street; Victoria Avenue, about two blocks up from the Beaconsfield.

The Arcadia

Unfortunately it is no longer in the same happy state it was thirty years ago when I lived there, now in very neglected run down state: veranda disintegrating, garden overgrown, woodwork unpainted and weathered, glass around front door broken. This is unusual for this area which is nowadays infested with yuppies paying high prices for rundown inner city homes which they then extensively renovate and extend.





This was before I became a soldier in the best damn Army ever to march across a battlefield, of course.






I actually went back once, had a beer in the old pub, and made the mistake of actually telling some drongo at the bar who I was and what I'd been up to.

Drongo: "You're not Australian."

Me: "Yes I am, actually."

Drongo: "Where are you from, then?"

Me: "Here, this place. I was born at St. Vincent's hospital, my parents lived up the street."

Drongo: "Bullshit."

Me: "I shit you not. I'm from Melbourne and I barrack for Collingwood. Mighty 'Pies."



Drongo: "Well if you're from Melbourne, then who's Chloe?"

Me: "Chloe's the naked lady by the door at the Young & Jackson Hotel, across from Flinders Street Station. Everybody knows that."

Drongo: "I'll be buggered, you ARE Australian!"











Chloe












Of course I am, everybody knows that. I am what I am. I am Victorian.


And now I'm an American, of course.



- S.L.