My 'Bachelor of Science' years were probably the most boring three years of my life,but Botany definitely has some hold over me! Which is why yesterday ,despite the unbelievably cold southern winds sweeping across Melbourne,a friend and I caught a random tram and headed out to the Royal Botanical Gardens. I was most disappointed with the place. Not because it's unusually small for a botanical garden but due to how half-hearted the whole effort looks. Very few of the plants are marked with taxonomical details -which is a huge disappointment for me,because 'Taxonomy' is one of my favourite branches in botany. The 'Australian Forest Walk' is the biggest joke of the botanical garden, as none of the trees in the "forest" are indigenous. There was nothing 'Australian' about the forest!
Finishing with the place,we headed back to the hub of the city - Federation Square. We saw a whole line - a very long line, of food stalls running along the Yarra River. It was a part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival,organised by Melbourne's hearthrob newspaper - 'The Age'. I didn't have the wine but decided to sample food from as many stalls as my meagre budget would allow. The variety of stalls was mind-blowing! We headed straight for the 'West African' stall first. I had a curry and rice sort of thing called 'Domoda'- apparently Senegalese. I must tell you that it tasted very much like south indian food-sour and spicy. But it's quite a rewarding experience to eat hot peppery food in a biting cold wind. The contrast is beautiful!
We walked down a bit more,along the snaking food stalls.But since all I seemed to want after the 'Domoda' was coffee (the south-indian conditioning of the tongue,i say!), that's just what I had next. In any case the festival is on till the 30th of this month. I plan to visit it again- I need to check out Cyprus food!
I completely enjoyed being at the festival. It reminded me a lot of the Trade Fairs I used go to as a child.
My day was to pick up,even more. After reaching home,my landlord- an ace swimmer in his sixties, mooted the plan of going to the FINA World Championships- water polo matches. I wasn't really interested in the water polo as the finals for the Synchronised Swimming were taking place as well and that's where I wanted to be. Don ( my landlord),wanting to rag me a bit, dismissed the sport as "a bunch of sheilas duck-diving"! In Aussie tongue,boys are "blokes" and girls are "sheilas".
Since I badly wanted to see the "duck-diving" I took the train to Richmond-where the Rod Laver Arena is. Yes- the Rod Laver Arena is where the Australian open happens. It's also where Melbourne's high-profile rock concerts happen but anyway... So what they did with this glorious tennis venue is that they ACTUALLY converted centre court into a swimming pool! Now why a tennis court should be converted into a pool when there is a brilliant aquatic complex the city boasts of, is a question on every Melbournian's lips. Especially since the city is going into Stage 4 water restrictions (pretty heavy ones) from next month!
I got my seat fairly close to the pool,which is actually a bad thing for synchronised swimming because you don't get the pool-surface view.The pool was gorgeous no doubt. But I couldn't help thinking throughout that it was the most idiotic thing they had done. So much idiocy prevails in the need for show,publicity and "making an impression".
As the 10 final teams came on,one after the other,I had to use superhuman efforts to stop myself from squealing! Synchronised swimming has always fascinated me and I was actually seeing it for real now! The combination of strength and grace this sport entails,captivates me.
As they dive,rise and bend to make patterns,there isn't a trace of gasping or panting! And they actually manage to keep smiles on their faces!
I noticed that the routines had become faster and more rythm based as opposed to some years ago when the music used was more melody based and was moderately paced. The music used yesterday,especially by Brazil was brilliant. But even the other countries like Korea and Russia used primarily rythm- based,techno-based music.
Whenever a team finished and the score was announced,I would marvel at how fast judges made decisions about whether say it's a '9.5' or a '9.6'. I was extremely curious about the marking criteria and how well worked out they are-as they've got to be,if scores are being fired out in seconds!
So Russia,as usual being good at sports such as these,came first with 99.000! They were the only team that actually used nose-clips to keep water from going in! It looked quite disgusting in my opinion,the skin-colour of the nose-clips notwithstanding (they should have lost points in the category of 'Artistic Impression'!) The silver went to Spain- which has the weirdest 'team-spirit' ritual which is that all of them slap eachothers' bottoms (including that of the coaches!) after their routine! The bronze went to Japan,which apparently is the only team to have "medalled" (I don't even think that's a word) at every single one of the 11 FINA World Championships held so far.Which is why I think they were literally given the bronze,as strictly speaking, China which came fourth was leagues ahead of them in every category. Even a lay-man could see that.The question about scoring criteria popped up in my head again.
I went back home,cursing the cold winds again. But I felt like one content person.