Coffs Harbour Race Day

Whoo Hoo!! Race Day! Today was Coffs Harbour Race Day. In Australia each larger city holds one a year and everyone in the area gets dressed up and goes to the track to bet on horses. Girls wear really nice dresses and the boys wear suit pants, button-up shirts, vests, jackets, and ties. Oh yeah…the ladies usually wear extravagant hats or headpieces with feathers, beads, ribbon, etc. Some of the ones we saw were pretty crazy! Something you would see the “Queen Mother” wear on a daily basis. The day is kinda similar to our college homecomings… a big day out “enjoying yourself” with friends.

We all were up and getting ready around 9:30. Actually, since it usually takes This Chick quite a while to get ready, I hopped in the shower first while the Boys went to get groceries for breakfast…well minus Christian…he hung back at the house with me, Mark’s sister Angela, and her friend Emma. It was pretty amusing…here were us girls sitting in the back of a television repair shop, putting on make-up, and doing our hair while Christian was just talking up a storm(which may have been due to the tapping of the goon box).

About an hour later, everyone had arrived from Lismore and we were all ready to go…well almost. The Boys still had to find a way to bring their flasks in. Somehow I ended up taking one for the team and had a bottle of vodka strapped to my leg...maybe it had something to do with my maxi dress? Our walk to the race track wasn’t too bad. It was a few blocks down, along the golf course, and down to the track. We managed to make it without any problems, though we did take a few stops along the way for drinks, photos, and the restroom (random trees and shrubs).

At last we had made it to the races! I didn’t place any bets, but a few of my friends did. My first time at the horse races and it was pretty fun. The track was really crazy…there were a lot of people out for the big day and it was hard to keep track of all the horses and jockeys. Once we were inside, I made a pit stop in the bathroom to hand over the drinks. Not a very fun experience ripping tape off your leg, but it had to be done. We ended up staying at the track for most of the races.

On the walk home I managed to get lost…on the golf course! I couldn’t remember which way to go back to Mark’s house and thought we went across the course, but apparently we just walked along/through a part of it. It was pretty funny running across the greens, especially when people were out golfing!

When we got back to the house, we hung around for a while and talked to Mark’s parents. Mark, being the gentleman that he is, introduced all of us to Richard & Susan. However, when it was my turn he said, “This is Lacey, you know, like a good pair of undies.” I had never heard that one before! I have to admit that it was pretty funny.

Not really sure what time we got back to the house, but we ended up going out for the night around 6:00 pm…or we tried to. The Maxi Taxi was full so Lisa, Gord, and I ended up waiting for a while for Nicky Dog to bring us out downtown. While we were waiting, we joined The Family for a dinner of stir-fry. Mark’s niece, Chloe, probably thought we were nuts because we kept asking her a bunch of questions.

Finally Nick arrived and brought us out to meet the group at The Coffs Hotel. [Not sure if I explained this before, but “hotels” are usually pubs, not somewhere you can check in for a sleep.] The Coffs Hotel was a pretty fun place, though not many of our friends got in. The security guards at the door could tell who had been out consuming all day and turned a lot of people away. I got in along with Nick, Lisa, Kelly, Arlo & Sarah, Rob, Gord, & Christian so we stayed and danced for a while before leaving for The Plantation to find the rest of the group. As we were leaving The Hotel, security guards carried in tons of Dominos pizza boxes and set them on random tables for everyone to enjoy. It was pretty sweet, especially cause the Boys were talking about getting pizza once we left.

We saw a bunch of our friends as we were leaving, who told us no one was at The Plantation because they didn’t get in so we decided to head back to Mark’s house. There wasn’t enough room in the car so Rob & Christian decided to try to find their way back to the house on their own. Once we got back Mark called to tell us everyone was at the Ex-Services Club so we drove back into town. It was interesting because this place was not a club or a bar; it was a casino. We found everyone and hung around talking for a bit. Nick was being pretty funny…he one his jokes “In Mark’s Letter to the Corinthians” was pretty funny. On the way home, he was telling us that he was trying to be…“What’s the word? Responsible?” by driving us home on a Thursday night when he had to get up the next morning to teach P.E. Back at the house we found Rob & Christian, apparently they had made it home and were snoring safe & sound.