State of Origin

Tonight was a big night for Australian rugby league fans.  It was the final game of the State of Origin tournament, which I've learned from my males clients, is a big deal in sport.  Aussie's love their football, maybe even more then we love our hockey! 

State of Origin is kind of like the NHL's All Star game.  It features two teams, the Queensland Maroons (pronounced ma-rones) and the New South Wales Blues.  The players play for whichever team they started out with or played a majority of their career for.  I'm not quite sure why State of Origin includes only two out of the seven states.  Something to do with there being two different streams of rugby here- AFL and Rugby League and Rugby League being most popular in Queensland and NSW (other states prefer AFL).

Anyway, this is a three series game and tonight was the final round.  Queensland has won for the last six years.  Round one was played in Melbourne (who knows why?) and Queensland won, as predicted.  Round two was played in Sydney and much to everyone's surprise, NSW won to tie up the series.  (Queenslander's were upset about this one as they felt there was some "unfair" reffing).  Tonight's game was on home turf, in Brisbane, so Queensland had the hometown advantage.  All day radio and newscasters were making jokes about how long it had been since NSW had won (ie the last time NSW won we believed the Earth was flat).  Everyone was pretty hyped up and excited and people started lining up for the game at ten this morning.  I didn't watch it (obviously) but I could here from all the neighbors when each team got a point!  It was a close game, but in the end Queensland prevailed.  I imagine it will be a loud night and many people will call in sick tomorrow morning!

I hate to admit this, but we had to turn on the heater in our apartment today!  It is not cold, about eighteen degrees, but the windows don't seem to be insulated very well.  When we got home from work it was colder inside then out.  Does that make us official Aussie's???

My parents arrive in Oz tomorrow morning!!!  I'm so excited.  They fly into Sydney and will be driving up to the coast (my Dad loves to drive and "see the scenery"), so they will be here Friday evening sometime.  I plan on greeting them with some Jacob's Creel muscato wine and Tim-Tams- a very Australian welcome.  Lucky I have tomorrow off to clean the house for their arrival!