State of Origin

Tonight is the first game of State of Origin, a series of three rugby league matches between Queensland (the maroons) and New South Wales (the blues). The best players in the league are selected to represent the state where they first played rugby league (their state of origin), and since the sport is mainly played in Queensland and New South Wales most of the players are eligible to participate. It’s basically the Rugby League equivalent of the All Star Game, and is played right in the middle of the season.  

State of Origin began in the early 1980s, and since then Queensland has generally been more dominant. There was one extremely misguided attempt in the late 80s to play a 4^th game in California in order to popularize the game in America, but since then it’s been held in Australia. Also, thought I would tell Patrice and Mom that ever since Doug Fister got traded I’ve been researching who my new athlete husband should be. How about Josh Cordoba? 

There's a menace on the roads in New South Wales...

I got my driver's license! And it was disturbingly easy, all I had to do was pass an eye test and present my old license. Now I actually have to figure out how to drive through a roundabout on the left hand side.

Blue Mountains

A couple of weeks ago, I finally made it out of the city for a trip up to the Blue Mountains. There are numerous places you can go in the area, but I decided to go to Katoomba, which is probably one of the more popular destinations. I can see why; we drove right up to a viewpoint, and overlooking a gorge were the Three Sisters, a stunning rock formation that is one of the main attractions in the region.

The Blue Mountains were recognized by European settlers as an area rich in coal, and there are still abandoned rusty mining tools lying around all over. Probably one of the best remnants of the now-abandoned mining operation is the Katoomba Scenic Railway, which qualifies as the steepest railway in the world at a 52 degree incline! The train carries you down into the valley, where there are boardwalks and bushwalking trails.

From above, you can take cable cars across the valley. We decided to take the cable car across, and then walk along the trails back to the car.

Even though the air is much cooler at 1000 metres, the cockatoos are still everywhere.

We stayed the night about 10 minutes outside of Katoomba. Unfortunately, a lot of the accommodations in the area are SUPER creepy and old-fashioned. This was the “sitting room”. Yes that is brandy in the background. Unfortunately I still think it tastes like cough syrup.