The first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup day when the biggest horserace in the country is held, and a public holiday for the state of Victoria. The spring racing carnival is known as much for the fashion as the races, and I went on the Saturday prior to Melbourne Cup, known as Derby Day and traditionally when all racegoers where black and white. I do love a dress-up event, and this is one of the few occasions where fascinators and hats with netting are standard attire. I went with my friend Lauren, we drank lots of champagne, and lost all of our (fortunately very low stakes) bets, but still had a blast.
On Sunday, I decided to show some Halloween spirit- I didn't really get my act together in time to organize a costume party, so instead I invited a few friends over to carve pumpkins and eat pumpkin pie (made from canned pumpkin, not the carving pumpkins). Proper pumpkins are difficult to find in Australia- what they call a pumpkin is actually a squash, and two people did end up bringing acorn squash instead of pumpkins. None of the Australians (or my Irish flatmate) had ever carved a pumpkin before, nor tried pumpkin pie, and found both quite enjoyable. And now the pumpkins look great sitting out on my balcony. And I don't even have to worry about punk kids smashing them because they don't have that tradition here either :)
3 comments:
So carving the acorn squash worked out okay? I was tempted to get an Australian pumpkin (i.e. one of the green or grey ones) but I wasn't sure how well it would work. They seem more solid inside, and the flesh feels firmer. Might see if I can find an acorn squash next year!
It took a little more effort scooping out the inside, but they came out fine in the end!
I wish we had a stylish racing event in my neck of the woods. I like gambling, and MY WIFE would love to dress up. Sadly, the closest such events take place in New York, so we won't be doing any soon.
Post a Comment