Schinckel.net

I’ve never understood the fascination Australians have with horse racing in general, and the Melbourne Cup specifically. Mind you, I’m not a real big fan of motor racing for that matter either. Anyway, back to “the sport of kings.” My sister is a Vet, and races Pacers (which, I just learned a week or so ago, are different to Trotters), and obviously she and her husband are kind-of into horse racing. Whenever I’ve been out drinking and horse racing has been happening, (like at Dan’s bucks night, and Sam’s bucks night, and so on) I’ll ring Tish and ask her for a tip. Either she doesn’t have good tips for normal horse racing, or just likes feeding me duds, as none of them have ever come in. Back when I was teaching swimming lessons we used to have lunch at the pub every day, and have a bet or two on the horsies, but I was never really that into it. When we go to the easter races at Oakbank I’ll follow Marion’s tips, but that’s only because they tend to win. I think that’s what it comes down to. I don’t mind doing it when I win, but I think I’m realistic enough to understand that I’m not going to win in the long run, and don’t even consider putting a large bet on, even if there’s a chance to make a lot of money. I just don’t have enough of a gambler’s streak for that to be an appealing option. I’m not really into gambling at all, come to think of it. Pokies seem like a waste of time - I’d rather put my money into a video game machine where you get to shoot stuff, rather then just push buttons and rely on dumb luck. Maybe it helps that I’ve never really won any money in gambling. Perhaps if I’d won a bit on my first time, I might have become a gambler. Maybe not. Even when we went to the pub in Sydney a year or so ago, Andy and Dan played the pokies - I played ‘Big Deer Hunter’. One of the other guys won some serious money. I wasn’t jealous at all - I knew I probably wouldn’t have. Moving onto a related topic, I was watching Episode 5 of Lost Season 2 last night - the episode where Hurley remembers winning the lotto, and how his friend basically became jealous of him, and just walked away. I don’t know that I’d be jealous of someone else winning millions of dollars in the lotto. I guess because I’d never enter it myself, I like to think I’d feel happy for them. Back onto horse (and motor) racing. I fail to identify these as sports. Sport is about major physical activity. Fitness and the like. Which these, IMHO aren’t. Reminds me: I’m making my Men’s Open Touch comeback tonight. I wish I was fit.