{"id":420,"date":"2008-11-04T09:25:37","date_gmt":"2008-11-04T09:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/11\/04\/where_the_bloody_hell_were_ya\/"},"modified":"2008-11-04T09:25:37","modified_gmt":"2008-11-04T09:25:37","slug":"where_the_bloody_hell_were_ya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/11\/04\/where_the_bloody_hell_were_ya\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the bloody hell were ya?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the afternoon of the first Tuesday in November, something bizarre happens in Australia\u2014more bizarre than usual. Instead of skiving off and having a beer, Australians dress up<\/em>, skive off and have a beer (or wine or champagne or non-alcoholic beverage of choice). Except in Victoria, where they make a whole day of it and have done so since 1877<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nThe occasion for these revelries is the Melbourne Cup<\/a>. Think Ascot meets the Grand National<\/a>, but without the horses.<\/p>\n

\nNo wait, sorry, there are<\/em> horses; I wondered what was on the telly in the corner.<\/p>\n

\nAnyway, normally sensible people bet on the race and think they’re going to win, every office has a sweepstake, and in most places most Australians get dressed up for the event. True to form an email came around last week, <\/p>\n

\nWe will have a wee prize for the best dressed lady & to comply with the Uni policy of equality we will also have a wee prize for the best dressed
\ngentleman.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nWell, that sounded like a challenge to me.<\/p>\n

\nSo come this afternoon I wandered down to the common room for the drinks and nibbles provided by the department, and was met by a veritable sea of drabness. Hardly a soul had dressed up. I saw two, maybe three hats, but apart from Helen and Dave no one else had bothered. As soon as I walked in two of the admin staff turned to me and said, “You’ve won”.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a>
\nDave the scary Irishman, Helen, and me<\/em><\/p>\n

\nAfter the race I chaired a lab meeting (dressed like that), ate birthday cake with the rest of the lab (dressed like that) and then went back to my office to code in perl (dressed like that). Well, someone<\/em> has to show the bloody convicts what it’s all about.<\/p>\n


\nOh, I did throw a couple of dollars into the sweepstake, with the avowed intention of donating<\/a> any winnings. Sadly, it wasn’t to happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the afternoon of the first Tuesday in November, something bizarre happens in Australia\u2014more bizarre than usual. Instead of skiving off and having a beer, Australians dress up, skive off and have a beer (or wine or champagne or non-alcoholic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}