maller crowd

While deserving people in this country have been getting recognition for their efforts the undeserving people have been getting on with their lesser lives.

Brilliant sunshine and blue skies beamed down on Ms Soup and Pearlie today as they took themselves off to use up their last entitlement as members of the HRPRC. The last meeting is held at Kyneton on Australia Day; there’s no messing around with the time frame at our racing club – it’s all over within the month.

We noticed the numbers were down this year, both in the members stand and in the public enclosure. There was no problem getting seating in the stand and there weren’t nearly the same number of entertaining people in the public enclosure. Last year there were quite a few people wearing the flag, often in a form of dress, including one woman who had fashioned several small flags into an elaborate dress and jacket. This might well be a hanging offence in some countries, but on Australia Day at the races it only draws a few smiles and maybe some criticism about the fit. This year there were only a few hats decorated with flags and here and there the green and gold of a bunch of young men who seemed to be in a state of confusion about whether they were at the races or the cricket. This confusion seemed to increase as the afternoon wore on and the quantity of liquor they drank increased.

I had only a couple of bets, we bought our lunch and drinks from the members’ catering area and my biggest disappointment of the day was the non-appearance of the ice-cream vendor from a specialist dairy in the western district of Victoria.

Leaving before the last race left us with time to have a coffee and a look about in a gallery in the town, where Pearlie Shirley discovered a print she would like to have hanging on her living room wall. She will make a decision later in the week and one of her work colleagues who lives in the area will be able to collect it and deliver it to her work place.