the first 75 days....

come on, victoria!

picture source: john woudstra, the age

we are saddened by the tragic consequence of the bush fire in our beloved adopted state earlier this week. we hope the worst is over and affected victorians will find strength and courage to rebuild their lives and emerge stronger.

be strong, victoria!

australia open 2009

on 25th jan 09, we were at melbourne park to catch the action of the first tennis grand slam of the year. we were all there except my better half as she prefers the comfort of the home. (it turns out to be a good decision on her part as the sun sizzled that afternoon)

as parking in town would be a pain during the aussie open, we took the connex from boxhill and 25mins later, flinders street station beckoned.

we decided to walk along the yarra river to the venue. it was a busy late sunday morning at the riverbank with runners, bladers, canoeists and tourists all added to a bustling morning. by 11am, the crowd were steadily building already. a pack schedule awaits tennis fans all over the world.

as newbies, we weren't sure what to expect and spent the first 30 minutes wandering and just soaking up the atmosphere. we went to the canon photo booth to have our `official' photo taken (see 1st pic）.

we decided to park ourselves at the margaret court arena as there are a few meaningful matches in the line-up. first-up was the sania mirza/mahesh bhupathi (india) mixed doubles match. we thought we would support our fellow asian. and on the 3rd match on the schedule were the pairing of the awesome williams' sister, due to take on an australian pair. little did we realized that sania/mahesh and venus/serena will go on to win their finals and crowned mixed doubles and women's doubles finals respectively. apparently our `first timer' luck rubbed on to them!

it was really hot by noon time and we kept cool with lots of water and ice cream. even that, it became too much to bear for us. we decided to call it quits by 3pm. we caught a tram back to flinders street station to catch a train back to blackburn south.

for a first timer, it was a great experience for all of us. we could have been better prepared, especially for the heat and also `gunning' for the matches we wanted to catch, but i guess there is always the 2010 australia open. also, experiencing australia open is a childhood dream come true for me. to be able to spend it with my kids is priceless.

video: the wiliams sisters getting a warm reception from the crowd in their doubles match.