Brunch-Off! & more AFL

This morning had been long awaited this week. Charlie and Ben had challenged each other to a brunch-off. Each was to cook meals that morning and we (the rest of the bystanders) were to judge and proclaim a winner. Charlie actually didn't participate this morning. Don't remember the reason, but basically said he would do it tomorrow. Fine for us, that meant we got 2 b-fast made for us in a row.
Ben made amazing food. It basically involved heavenly pancakes, French toast, a fruit salad (pear, kiwi and banana), and some Australian cake looking thing with strawberries. He cooked. We set off the fire alarm 6 times...the sign of a good meal (very temperamental fire alarms) and we all just talked and talked smack between the two chefs. In food coma, we sat down to play a nice vicious game of Mafia. I started out as all powerful narrator, but soon had no creativity and the title passed to drew (who decided to kill people with some sort of starfish-mutant breakfast invovling fiasco...we don't know).
It was a beautiful day. So later after brunch, we headed out to the beach to just kinda play around. Couple guys tossed around the football, others lie on the beach reading their books (they had esentially made lounge chairs carved outta the sand...interesting technique), I just lay their playing with cards and just thinking...it was nice. We lie out there for a hour or two eventually starting up a game of ERS. I had talked to Kim and Alex in the mean time and they were doing the Bondi-Coogee walk. I was hoping they might meet up with us before the game, but they went off to dinner after we headed in.
We did meet up (Kim, Alex, Aliza and others) to go to the IES free trip to an AFL game. Merlin, you're the man. He scored us pretty good tickets to the AFL game of Sydney versus Brisbane Lions at the Sydney Cricket grounds. Merlin, Mike and I traded off bying rounds for ourselves at the game. Merlin was actually pretty histerical that night for many reasons. The Swans DESTROYED the lions in the game. Their score was DOUBLE the lions. Something like 54 to 117 or soemthign crazy like that. Kinda shameful almost.
Most people headed back afterward. A couple of us were up for going out, but since the group diminished so much and we weren't necessarily dressed to impress, we wound up just going to a bar near Three Wise Monkeys (spanish bar of some sort) and just talking for a while.




We did however pass a guy on the street playing guitar while BALANCING another guitar on his head. Strange? yes.