First time Footy Fan

RICHMOND vs ESSENDON – the match that got me hooked to Aussie football
By Praveena

Football has never particularly appealed to me. It may be one of the most famous games on the planet, but no thank you, I am not going to pretend to succumb to its nonexistent charms. Voila, UniLodge was organizing a trip to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch a footie match. Why oh why did I suddenly feel a pang of yearning to go? Kathy, my next door neighbour assured me that it would be fun and as a Community Sprit Member, I got to go for free.

I had no idea which teams were playing that night. Pulling myself out of bed, I got dressed and was still half-convincing myself that it would be very educational and I would get a chance to peek into the fabric of Australian culture. We took the tram. Michelle (the @ Melb Property Manager) tried her best to explain the rules of the match to us as we walked to the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

What particularly struck me was the amount of people who turned up for the game! Families came dressed in their favourite teams’ colours, some people were carrying huge banners and there was a lot of noise, mayhem and the faint whiff of anticipation in the air. I was pleasantly amazed to discover that we had seats seven rows from the front of the stands, behind the goal! The two teams facing off were Richmond and Essendon. Michelle’s a fierce Essendon supporter so we threw our support and started cheering for them!

The atmosphere was electric. To me, it was absolutely magical. The great big lights, the green pitch and the amount of people were overwhelming to say in the least. Around 76, 000 people attended the game. I had only ever seen matches on the television but to be here, sitting amidst boisterous supporters, was an experience to remember. We settled in our seats and proceeded to watch the game.

In the beginning, Richmond ran away with the lead. Their supporters went ballistic with joy. The only thing I am very confident about was the three poles that stood as a goal centre. Score through the middle one and you get six points. Score through the other two on the sides and you get a point. And yes, even if you do score through the middle pole but you hit the bar, you get a point. There were the few odd moments when someone carrying the ball would fall and everyone would jump on him and they would resemble Sumo wrestlers for the interminable fraction of a second.

There are four quarters and each quarter lasts for 25 minutes. After halftime, Essendon made a comeback. Backed by their supporters and probably a good ear-bashing from their coach, they scored some amazing kicks that had their supporters on their feet. We got caught up in the swirl of chanting and yelling, that we did our own dances whenever Essendon scored. Our ingenuity includes the “snake” dance, the wave and the crunk (or crumping, I’m not sure)! We started name-calling but sadly, I am not possessed of the ability to scream hoarsely at the top of my lungs like some of the gentlemen in the crowd.

At the end of the footie match, Essendon had opened a big gap over their rivals. The score was 125 to 85. We stood up to sing their anthem, making silly faces because we were exultant in the knowledge that we had won. On top of that, we witnessed a streaker who came out of the benches across the field during the game. The poor dude. He rarely made it past 15 metres before being subdued by the security. To make matters worse, it’s a 6000 dollar penalty. I wonder if he will be banned for life from footie matches.

We came back happy campers. For me, it was an eye-opening experience! I can’t wait to go for another one! Word is, Michelle might organize another trip and this time it might be Essendon against Carlton...Viva la Essendon! And viva la UniLodge for making it possible!

Aquarium

This is not the first time I have been to the Melbourne Aquarium but is the first time I travel with a group of Unilodgers!

I had to wake up early on Saturday morning, taking the train heading down to Flinders Street Station and then a tram to the aquarium so that I could meet all the UniLodgers there. The first thing we saw inside the aquarium are the cute little penguins! All of us are so excited to see the little penguins climbing up to the little snow mountain, queuing up to get ready and then jumping into the pool and swim!

Aside from the penguins, we also had the chance to touch the starfish. (Yes….put an alive and real starfish in you hand.) This is the first time I've seen a real starfish and the first time I've ever touched one.

I think that it was is an awesome experience travel to the aquarium! So if you missed out this time, maybe I'll just have to go again next semester! Have a look at all my photos http://picasaweb.google.com/UniLodgeMelbourne/AquariumVisit#

Ada Lee

Inter-UniLodge Pool Comp

On 12th May 2009, people were gathering around the game lounge at UniLodge@Melbourne to participate in the highly anticipated inter-UniLodge pool competition! Although this competition is intended for all UniLodge's in Melbourne, players who dominate the entire competition were mostly from UniLodge@Melbourne (7 players) and UniLodge at Swinburne (6 players) with only a few people from UniLodge 740 (2 Players) and UniLodge D2 (1 player).

There were 16 people who were chosen for the pool competition, including two girls! One of the girls even progresses to the second round (Gemma). The competition was hard on the home team (UniLodge@Melbourne), and they only managed to get three people from UniLodge@Melbourne to the semi final. Competition asside and more importantly, everyone in this event seem to be having a good time, while enjoying the free soft drinks and nibbles.

Congratulations to the pool team from UniLodge at Swinburne, who won the competition with Fergus taking home the cup! For the next pool competition we sure hope to see more people from other UniLodges (and also maybe some more girls to participate in the competition! ^_^ )

Roll out,
Dion Darius

Coming soon - UniLodge paintball! 3 teams of 10 only one winner. Community Spirit members sign up at reception and pay your $25 deposit to receive your $90 value of paintball games, 250 paint balls and all equipment hire to ensure that you get to go to the biggest event so far this year!

Wolverine

On 5th May 2009, 16 UniLodge community spirit members went to the Xtreme screen cinema in Melbourne Central to watch the People’s sexiest man, Hugh Jackman, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Everyone’s spirit was high on our way to the movie. Some of us including me took the tram, and others preferred to walk over to the cinema which is only 15 minutes away from our meeting point, UniLodge @ Melbourne.

I never known that a tram ride could be so hilarious; the tram driver reminded all passengers to look after our personal belongings and not to forget our credit cards. Especially, this coming Sunday is Mothers’ Day where we need to thank our Mothers for the lovely bunnies (maybe the tram driver was talking about the chocolate bunnies our mother gave to us during Easter holidays.) by showering our Mothers with presents and taking them to a nice dinner. All the people on the tram were smiling at his comments.

Because of the short distance to our destination, we reached Melbourne Central in no time and some of them split up to get their big bucket of popcorn and ice drinks. After a photo taking session,it’s time to go into the movie theatre. I’ve took some lovely photographs of the members inside the cinema as well. I can see most of us were chatting away before the movie starts. I started talking to one of the members, Alex, what was his expectation of the movie. He told me that this was his third time watching the same movie and he still loves it!

At about 10.30 pm the movie ended, on our way out I’ve asked some of the residents how they feel about the movie- Awesome was the response. One student has looked into the future on the community spirit calendar website and could not wait for the next cinema trip Terminator 3 in June to come. Check out the activities calendars at www.my.calendars.net/unimel .

I would like to say that my colleagues have done an excellent job planning the line-up of community spirit activities. We have positive feedback from the members! Haozhen