Meat pies and Lawn Bowling

Today is a lazy day, seeing we've been working and playing hard all week.  Thursday we finished working with Hans the painter, and played an epic 8 person king of the beach well into the evening.  At about nine when we finished we turned off the flood lights above the courts and made our way to the bus stop, thoroughly exhausted and content.  The guys are all kind and hilarious; so far there haven't been any bad attitudes.  There are really only two Australians, everyone else is European.

Yesterday we met up with our old friend Daniel Demars, who arrived here earlier in the week.  We had a hit around with the guys on the beach, put on a sweat, then had a swim.  Then we went to our new favorite bakery and had some $2.80 meat pies.  For those of you who haven't had a meat pie, it's just what it sounds like.  A flaky pastry crust filled with all sorts of different meat fillings.  So far I've enjoyed the satay chicken the best.  The classic steak pie filling can be rather 'dog foody' if you get it at the wrong place.  We've had a meat pie just about everyday we've been here just in the interest of saving money.  Eating out here is way expensive... a meal under $10 means you are eating at Subway, MacDonalds, Happy Jacks (the Australian Burger King), or in our case the Manly Bakery.  Alcohol is also a bit more expensive than the states.  You would be caught dead if you found 1$ well drinks like I did in Iowa.  Their cheap beers on tap are about 5$ for a portion of a pint.

After our meat pie we made our way to the local lawn bowling club.  I had always imagined a lawn bowling club to be a snooty place where old people play croquet and drink tea, being careful not to drop their monocles.  Oh boy was I wrong.  Lawn bowling is actually quite similar to bocce ball, only you have 2 or 3 teams with eight balls per team.  In the club house we found cheap alcohol, slot machines (where I 'earned' three dollars off of my one dollar investment!), a restaurant, and lots of people getting a jump on the soon-to-be sloppy friday night.  It really is remarkably similar to bowling but without stinky shoes or greasy bowling balls.  Some pics...

 Lucas demonstrating a proper lawn bowling stance

Good form Daniel!  Gooood form!

Tomorrow we will be playing in a beach volleyball tournament at Brighton beach about 30 minutes south of where we are.  We're not sure what the prize money is like, but it sounds like it will be a fun tournament.  Further off on the horizon is the NSW open January 9th and 10th, and that tournament is $1000 first place, so there will probably be some good competition for that one.