November 6^th 2019

For us in Breezy Brizzy it started with a walk over Australia’s longest cantilever bridge, the Story Bridge which must be a delight for all meccano enthusiasts. It is amazing that a bridge opened in 1940 for the volume of traffic at that time can still easily deal with the 97,000 vehicles that cross it each day. Three men died in its construction including poor Arthur McKay who, eighteen months after he saved another man’s life was hit on the head by a piece of equipment, fainted and succumbed to the force of gravity himself.

Remember what I was saying about the old wooden buildings in Brizzy suffering the ravages of time, well there are two examples viewed from the bridge.

Despite the revelations of the cruelty inflicted upon ‘failed’ racehorses in Australia, both in their being slaughtered from very young ages and in the appalling treatment they have been getting at the abattoirs for many years, Melbourne Cup Day went ahead with the usual Ascot Style dressing up on the part of the ladies. I remember a similar scandal in the UK abattoirs a few years back, and who knows if the situation has improved at all, I certainly hope it has.

Young red lipped ladies tottered along painfully on scaffold high heels and were a great source of entertainment to Rob and me as we sucked our iced coffees through straws. The most beautiful, and the ladies who appeared to carry the extreme attire most naturally were the Asian ladies. Set the horses free, this riverside fashion show was enough!