Australian Open, Check

Melbourne, Victoria – 27 January 2011 at 11:59pm
Kansas City, USA - January 27, 2011 at 6:59am

Tonight I checked another item off my bucket list.

One of the categories (yes I have categories for my bucket list…it is important to itemize and organize) on my eight page bucket list is called “Did you see that?” Under it is a list of numerous things I want to see/witness before I die…one of them being to attend a live game/match/etc of every professional sport…tennis, you have now been checked off the list. Even though attending Wimbledon is still on there…the Australian Open was fantastic!

I arrived in Melbourne (the locals as in all Australians pronounce it: Mel-bun) last night (Wed. Jan. 26) with the hopes of going to the Australian Open before it ends on Sunday. I really enjoyed my time in Sydney and would have loved to stay longer but this is one of the few things I had in mind that I wanted to do before I left the States. So on Monday while I was getting ready to try to secure a ticket for the Buffett concert I got online to check out the cost of airfare…luckily because Wed was a public holiday (Australia Day) there were some discount flights…$92 to fly one way from Sydney to Melbourne versus the $120-$150 range that it would be otherwise… yes, success….I thought I’ll buy a ticket, fly on Wed and try to go to the tournament on Thursday before the prices get too outrageous (every day the price goes up…obviously b/c people are eliminated and the play on the court gets better). Well, I’m happy to say my plan was a success. I took the cheaper flight and again, thankfully, there are some awesome KS/MO people living in Melbourne that I have mutual friends in common with so they meet me at a bus station (I took a bus from the airport to get to the city center) and are letting me stay at their house a few nights before I move to a hostel…thank you Megan and Roger…and Squintini for introducing us! 

After we dropped off my stuff at their place…which is ocean front property…check out the sunset that was happening when we arrived… we set out on foot to find a restaurant to have dinner. We ended up at this quaint little Italian restaurant not too far from their house. We had a wonderful meal and it gave us a chance to get acquainted.

It had gotten very late, very quickly (time flies by when you’re having fun!) so after dinner we all went to bed shortly after going back to their house. 

This morning, Megan was so sweet to help me get my bearings of Melbourne. I needed to print off a few things for my next adventure, New Zealand, so she took me to the library (where I got a library card…woo hoo… I love the library) and then she explained the mass transit system before I took off for the day. 

Roger works at Ernst & Young as an accountant, so he left before I even woke up. Megan use to work there also (as an accountant) when they were in the States but long story short when Roger applied for the international position Megan had to resign and then interview again over here for the same job she had in the states…she got the job over here but decided it wasn’t really a good fit so she is taking some time off from the corporate world (like me). She does though have an awesome part time job …she is a dog walker! How fun is that…she has about 10 walks a week, each are an hour long…so she is definitely getting in her exercise and seeing lots of Melbourne!

Anyway, Megan had a couple walks today so I was going sightseeing by myself and then we talked about meeting up after she was finished. So the first thing I did was go to the box office to see about a ticket for tonight’s match-up between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. Shocker…they were completely sold out. So I asked if they ever had any that were released closer to the event…she said “sometimes…and to check back regularly to see if some become available.” Okay, fine…I can do that… I have patients. By this time it was about 1pm so I thought I would go get a sandwich for lunch and sit in a park and watch the passers-by…which I did. On my way to the park I came across a little media event in honor of the first day of the Chinese New Year…the year of the rabbit. 

It reminded me a little bit of the events we’ve held at places where I was previous employed…the stage, the podium, a banner, live entertainment, a local official giving the address, the media, a few chairs set up just in case people need to rest, etc… it’s funny how we are more alike than different but we usually only notice the differences. I once had a teacher in college who was giving a lecture on the differences in advertising in other cultures…he went through what works and doesn’t work in different regions and why but at the end of the lecture he said something I will never forget… he said “you know, we are really more alike than we are different…we basically have the same nouns just different adjectives…we all have blood in our bodies but the type is different (O, B positive or negative, etc), we all have eyes but some are blue, green or brown, we all have skin but it varies in color and texture.” He was a pretty smart guy.

I digress.

So I ate my lunch, walked around a little more and then went back to the ticket booth to see if just one lonely ticket had become available…at this time it is about 2:15 or 2:30pm….still no tickets.

Now the next set of events that happened I cannot disclose in writing and especially on a blog because in the eyes of Australian law they fall under the “illegal” category and could result in a fine…so, I’ll just say….I did in fact purchase a ticket to tonight’s game.  

The seat was AMAZING. Thirteen (my lucky number) rows behind Roger Federer’s bench…and it gets better… I paid LESS than face value, yay me! It is still too much for a ticket but I probably will never again be in Melbourne to witness this event and like I said before, I didn’t drive a thirteen year old car for nothing.

Side note: Does somebody have a couch I can live on when I get back to the States? I have a feeling I will be penniless which goes along nicely with my homelessness….no wonder I don’t have a boyfriend…I’m quite the catch at the moment.

Back to the ticket....I was so excited. I held on to this ticket like it was a precious egg that might break. I saw so many people trying to buy tickets and most were unsuccessful in doing so. I couldn’t be more thankful .

I spent the next few hours walking around and scoping out hostels. I stopped at a café named “Slow and Easy” (get your mind out of the gutter Matthew, Mike and Margret – my three friends who would crack a joke if I told them this story face to face) to have a coffee and read the map. 

This is where I met Jack.

I ordered my coffee and sat outside at a table in the sunshine. Jack brought out my coffee and dashed off back inside the building. I thought he had gone but apparently he was watching me as I took a photo of his creation…it was so beautiful I had to capture it in a picture. He came back out and asked me if the coffee was really that good that I needed a photo of it? Of course I said yes. Then we discussed coffee and his job as a barista. He was telling me about how he had a passion for coffee & music and that he quit his job as a civil engineer to play in a band and the job as the barista paid the bills… He was a bit flirtatious (harmless flirting of course) which I thought was nice but I definitely wasn’t interested, not my type…then he said “Yeah, I’m 21 and I figure….blah blah blah” I have no idea what he said after that because all I heard were the words “two and one”…. I thought to myself…wow, I’m pathetic, here I am 32 years old flirting with a baby, yikes (he didn’t look it though)and then my second thought was…wow Em, you’ve still got it…which was immediately followed by my original thought of ‘you are pathetic!’ 

After he finished rattling on about following his life dream of being a rock star, (which I completely encourage anyone to follow their dreams, including Jake to do), oh I forgot to mention the name of his band is “Thrust” (no comments from the peanut gallery – Matthew, Mike or Margaret, zip it!) he offered me another coffee on the house… I said “Thanks for the offer but I’ve got to go meet my friend (and really I did).” So I got up and left. 

I headed toward a hostel that I had found in one of the guide books, to check it out for when I move out of Roger and Megan’s house. They have been so sweet to offer to let me stay with them as long as I want but I definitely don’t want to be in anyone’s way and I’m kind of looking forward to staying in a hostel… I haven’t stayed in one yet, even though I planned on being in one basically every day after Christmas (but I’m very thankful to have such wonderful people who let me stay in their spare bedroom…for free). It will be fun to meet some new people who are traveling and I haven’t stayed in one since my Europe travels in 2002 so it will be like a trip down memory lane…let’s just hope I don’t end up in anything like we had in Turkey. While I was touring the hostel I met a guy named Tommy from California and he gave me the low down on the hostel situation…he gave a glowing review and the place looked great so I think this will be the spot for me. We exchanged email addresses and might meet up somewhere down the road. He will be in Tasmania when I’m at the hostel and will return the day I leave for New Zealand so we will just miss each other. It’s kind of weird how you can find out so much about a person in 20 minutes.

After I spoke with the owner about the price I headed back to Megan and Rogers to clean up and head to the tourney. I was soooo excited. I loved watching all the hustle and bustle. Since part of my background is in event planning I was in awe of all that was happening. The guest service was spectacular…friendly, knowledgeable…their uniforms were very nice…Lacoste provided the entire wardrobe for everyone from the ushers to the ball kids on the court, hats all the way to the shoes. The color scheme for the signage was clean, bright and eye catching. The merchandise stores were immaculate. The lines moved quickly in and out of each store and at the concession stands. It was a well oiled machine. I met a girl named Rachel on the tram on our way to the event. She had come all the way from Townsville for the week to see the games. She was by herself and she absolutely was in love with Roger Federer...her excitement was contagious. We actually went in to the event together and I bought her a drink since I know what it is like to travel alone. I kind of felt bad…he she was in love with Federer and her seats were in the nose bleed and I was thirteen rows behind him…but when he walked out I could understand why she feels the way she does. Move over Jeter…hello Federer!  

The game was getting ready to start. Each opponent came out of the tunnel and waved to the crowd as they headed toward their designated benches. They did a little stretching and headed out to center court for the coin toss and the media photo op. 

Every set was long and grueling for each player. They played for exactly three hours…I know because the Rolex clock on the sideline told me so. Federer as I’m sure you might have seen lost…he didn’t even win one set but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have a tough competition. I’m use to watching team sports, where every player usually gets some down time to rest but not in singles tennis…wow. This sport requires endurance and stamina. Anyone who says tennis is for wimps is an idiot. I could not believe how challenging this sport is…I was very impressed to say the least… Tennis lessons have officially been added to the bucket list!

I was sad Roger didn’t win but “the friend who let me buy his ticket” was rooting for Djokovic…so even though he didn’t get to go to the game I’m glad his guy won…it makes it a win, win for everyone!

After the tournament games are finished, they host a legends game…which is hilarious. They either team former singles players together or it is former doubles teams that compete. Tonight it was two singles players, Henri Leconte from France (who has incredible stats and he even beat Pete Sampras a long time ago) and Patrick Rafter from Australia, who has a stadium named after him in Brisbane…unfortunately the stadium is still under water from the floods, versus a double team from the Netherlands, Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis…who were good but they didn’t fill in their accomplishments as much as the others…so you can google them for yourself.

So for the legends game it is all about fun…they are competing but it is really a show off session…they do tricks and basically try to entertain the crowd….Henri was the lead comedian…at one point he was competing against the other three (Rafter went and joined the other team) and Henri was winning…very cute.

So…..

I’m off to a great start in Melbourne…or Mel-bun as they say around these parts.

Goodnight.

Additional Photos: Australian Open