Chicken and champagne
THE CONTRADICTIONS AND PARADOXES OF CUP DAY
It's Melbourne Cup Day - the first Tuesday in November - this year the first day of November and all of Melbourne is gearing up for a party. Well not all of Melbourne but a huge chunk of it and almost all of it will either be at the cup or glued in front of a television screen when the race is on. My bet is that the supermarkets will have a screen somewhere for the very few who venture into them. It's a State public holiday and it is famously 'the race that stops a nation'. Nowhere else does this happen. Not Ascot, or the Derby in England, nor the Kentucky Derby in America. Only in Australia - and this year - first paradox for this so Australian institution - there is only one Australian horse running.
I'm sure it earns millions in tourism, and provides employment for backpackers and the like in their thousands. I remember David's nephew from England trundling champagne around Flemington for a week. For the Racing Carnival, as it is called, lasts for a whole week - well there aren't races every day - maybe every other day - I'm not sure. There are at least four big race days though each with their own theme. Companies invest huge amounts of money in their pavilions with the best chefs, the best wine and imported celebrities. Not sure who is here this year. We were invited to one once, but my anti-gambling husband declined. I've always been sorry about this, for I have never been and it's one of those things one ought to go to once - just to experience it all. And the theme of the whole thing is glamour, glamour, glamour - fascinators (those silly hats), roses, chicken and champagne. The girls will be cold today - it's only 18 degrees.
If you can't get to the race itself then you can throw a party at home - or even at work. For some people don't have the day off. Apart from the usual - hospitals, police, transport workers, the hospitality industry, etc. - universities for one, keep going. I always used to work on Cup Day - but we always had a chicken and champagne lunch, stopped everything to watch the race on especially imported television screens and the more flamboyant amongst us dressed to the nines. It's a fun day - even on a dull and potentially rainy day such as today. You can dress a little warmer and still have your lunch of chicken and champagne in the car park.
But there is a much darker side to it all of course, ranging from the irritating to the downright sordid. I had a friend who lived near the Flemington racecourse, who always went away from the area on race day to avoid the noise of the helicopters ferrying in their expensive guests from 6.00 am in the morning. She found the noise unbearable - but then my niece lives near there too and is not too bothered.
The two main downsides of it all though are drink and gambling. I cannot imagine how much champagne (yes real champagne as well as Australian bubbly) is consumed as well as other alcoholic drinks. In the posh pavilions it flows freely and is upmarket stuff, out in the general areas it's most likely a free for all with most people having brought their own supplies. Well I assume you can take your own picnic. But maybe not - maybe you have to buy the booze. Either way what you end up with is this!
Which is probably why they don't have a race every day - it probably takes at least a day to tidy it all up.
As for the gambling - well this is what it is all about really. If you can be disciplined and allot yourself a set sum to gamble with for the day, all is well and it can be fun. And this is probably what a large number of people do. They don't go to the races very often and it's an expense of the day. But there are of course, those who bet vast sums or at least much more than they can afford. And it's so easy to do these days. Online betting is huge, and their TV ads are truly dreadful. My father used to have small regular bets on the horses - by small I mean really small - like a minimum bet. One year he was staying with us in Melbourne and he went into the local betting shop to place a bet on the Melbourne Cup, and came back horrified at the amounts of money that people were betting it. As an aside I do remember fondly being taken to the races in England by my father as a child. It was an exciting and very pleasant day out. We were allowed to place tiny bets up to a certain sum for the day, which gave a little more focus to the race. If only we could all be as restrained it would truly be fun. But alas for many it probably means misery.
The race itself is apparently the richest in the world for three-year-olds and over, handicapped over the distance (3,200 metres). The winner gets $3.6 million! The owner gets 85% of this, the trainer 10% and the jockey 5% - so not quite a fair reward for effort there either, although I guess it costs the owner a huge amount to own and maintain the horse and everyone associated with it.
But back to chicken and champagne. We always used to buy some chicken from the chicken shop but nearly all of the pictures I found showed fried chicken - but then I guess the web has an American bias. I hope it's not a reflection of what is eaten here. I suspect that there is actually a whole lot more seafood eaten - oysters, prawns, lobster, etc. by the wealthy. Chicken after all (another paradox) is, as I have previously discussed, the cheapest meat available at the moment and therefore a food of the poor. So not really a good companion for wealthy champagne. And I did see somewhere that chicken doesn't go with champagne either. For the not so wealthy though chicken and a good cheap bottle of Aussie bubbly are a very good combination. It's celebratory somehow.
I think it's on now. Perhaps I'd better go and watch it! And we are having chicken for dinner tonight, but not champagne. Just New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Much better.
