One has to love living in Melbourne. You get up in the morning and drag yourself out of bed to get to class (yes it is a struggle, especially for J who had to get up at 6:30 for work!) and there is sunshine everywhere and hot boys in shorts and thongs (though not for L or H since they're paired up, and not for A since she's being an idiot about the opposite sex) and yet by lunchtime the rain is bucketing down and somehow everyone is wearing jumpers and cardis and carrying an umbrella. No thongs in site. How does that even happen? Surely not everyone went home and changed, they couldn't have the time! But that is a mystery for another day. That, is Melbourne.
Another thing that is very Melbourne is footy and Grand Finals and Grand Final celebrations. This year, as anyone Australian would know, Collingwood won. Collingwood is that team: you know, the biggest, the most famous, the most hated. They have the most supporters and everyone who doesn't support them hates them. Of course because of this Collingwood supporters are like a family. A big, crazy, toothless, alcoholic family. But anywhere in the world if you see someone in a Collingwood Magpie jumper and inform them that you too are a pie supporter you'll be welcomed. You'll be home. You'll be family.
A, J, B and C all belong to the Collingwood family. K is like an honoury Collingwood supporter, being B's twin. They screamed their hearts out at both Grand Finals and celebrated in style with a whole bunch of other Collingwood supporter. Who remembers what went down exactly? It doesn't matter, the point is that Collingwood won its first flag in 20 years. There was beer. Lots and lots of beer. There was hugging random strangers and screaming "Go Pies!" at every car that drove past. There was improv dancing and singing the Collingwood theme song hundreds of times. At one point we were in a nightclub. Where it was and what it was called no one knows, but it was full of black and white. There were shots with strangers. It was ridiculous. It was insane. Roaming the streets of Melbourne, all full of black and white, all excited happy and insane.
A and J woke up the next morning to work. Afterwoods A got calls from her father inviting them to the pub and they headed off for beers with the group of Collingwood supporters he'd gathered round the corner from where A and J work. Soon C showed up (no one knew how he'd heard, or how he was alive after the night before) with a few of his mates and all of a sudden the entire pub (including A's underage brother) were dancing in a circle singing the theme song and swigging beer. This continued deep into Sunday night, with parmas and pizza somewhere in between the 'black-n-white' shots not that anyone knew what they contained. New friends were made, great proclamations were made ("We're going to win the next 3 premierships" "3??? 5!") and no one got to bed until the sun was up. What a weekend to start daylight savings.
Somehow A and J made it to work on Monday and C made it to uni. A's dad took a personal day. Her brother wagged school.
Thank god the Grand Final is only once a year. Well, except for this year of course.
