Family & Community Day (aka Melbourne Cup Day)

realityskin said :

Overheard said :

Whoops, forgot about that ‘Don’t Feed the Troll’ sign. I’ll heed it next time.

Yeah, wouldn’t want to disrupt your verbal diarrhea about your mundane life stories.

CTRL+ALT+DEL+IGNORE+TROLL

You’re a dead-set oxygen thief. Go back to your comics and vat of hand cream.

Overheard said :

Whoops, forgot about that ‘Don’t Feed the Troll’ sign. I’ll heed it next time.

Yeah, wouldn’t want to disrupt your verbal diarrhea about your mundane life stories.

realityskin said :

Don’t worry tom-tom, Granny is the kind that types for the sake of typing, ignore.

The difference being, realityskin, Granny usually has something constructive, interesting, pithy or funny to say.

Whoops, forgot about that ‘Don’t Feed the Troll’ sign. I’ll heed it next time.

I’ve been in the paid workforce for 24 years and up until 2006, as nearly as I can remember, the first Tuesday in November was a work day.

Last year there was a gathering of some sorts on the Braddon Oval (?) put on by the ACT Government or Unions ACT — can’t quite remember. I know my (now-ex) choir the Canberra Union Voices were down to sing but apparently the weather was woeful so they ended up singing to two blokes and a dog. Some more people allegedly arrived later in the day. (I was off interstate.)

This year for my sins, I have to race back from festival-land on the Monday so I’ll scoping out what fun’s to be had in town that doesn’t involve taking delight in the whipping of quadrapeds and malnourishment of vertically-challenged people.

I’m sure there will be diversions aplenty. (If anyone’s coming to my trivia night next Monday, don’t bother brushing up on your Melbourne Cup knowledge — there won’t be any related questions.)

Why couldn’t they have just chosen a different day? Yeah, like the Monday, as Primal said. Then we’d be going, cool, what a swell guy and stuff.

They’ve only really given us half a day anyway.

Caf,
It’s a lot easier to go to Flemington when you live in Melbourne than when you live in Downer.

Aurelius: That doesn’t seem to be a problem in Victoria, where it’s been a public holiday for years.

Well, good for you Tylers. I hope you have a nice day.

: )

Personally, I’m just grateful to have a day off as a public holiday – whatever the random reason! Instead of milling around at some work arranged fiasco, I’ll head to the pub where I don’t have to be restrained by office politics, and enjoy the race.

As I think someone pointed out last year, if this holiday continues, kids will grow up without the culture of the Melb Cup Day they get at school. So they wont carry it into their adult years, and it will become just another day off. And once it has no meaning, it’ll vanish. Just like the holiday we all used to get on 24 February for Kokoda Day.

Thanks, emd!

: )

I want half of Tuesday off and half of Wednesday off. I’m going to need a sleep in.

Granny said :

I blame whoever’s stupid idea it was. I am quite happy to blame anyone and everyone.

straight to the poolroom with that line! 🙂

There’s a family fun day event in Glebe Park in the afternoon, complete with racing on the big screen. Info online here.

Give us the Monday off, let human nature take care of the Tuesday.

Don’t worry tom-tom, Granny is the kind that types for the sake of typing, ignore.

I just know that watching it as a class at school was fun. Watching it at places of work was fun. Watching it with mothers’ group can be fun. Watching it as a family is not as much fun for any of us.

Seriously, is my high schooler going to enjoy the day as much with mum and dad as she would with her generational counterparts?

I don’t think Gramps will watch it at all away from the office.

And as for me, sometimes it’s just less lonely when I’m alone.

you’re a carer right?

Dont get me wrong, i have a lot of time for carers, for reasons which i’m not going to get into here, but I’m not exactly sure how Melbourne cup day being a public holiday will prevent you doing what you would have done if it wasn’t.

There is nothing stopping you from spending the day how you would like. You know nothing about me.

go to the club, invite friends over, go into work in the afternoon and do what you normally would have done.

There is nothing stopping you spending the day however you would like.

I mean, it’s been a part of Australian workplace culture … even schoolplace culture … even groupplace culture … for I don’t know how long? Longer than I’ve been alive anyhow. It’s fun!! And I am so not into sport and stuff.

And then you take the tradition out of all our little fun groups and stick us together as a family and it’s like, gee, do we even have enough people to do a sweepstake? Who could be bothered? What’s the point? Are we really likely to let go with the champers in front of the kids?

He’s like, yay, I’m home, I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m like, I’m home all the time, I’m suffocating, I’m dying. Please don’t make me stay home ….

And if we went out for a picnic we’d miss all the coverage that let’s you know anything about anything if you don’t usually know one end of a horse from the other.

Public holidays are great, but it’s the worst of both worlds.

I’m just looking forward to the large number of my work colleages who will take the Monday off and spend a long weekend down the coast, leaving the rest of us at work to cover their classes….

I just hope my boss will let me come into the office on melbourne cup day and let me have the wednesday off so I can stay home and watch the US election results roll in.

349 electoral college votes and 60 seats in the senate, here we come.

It’s the vibe, tom-tom ….

Granny, I would have thought that given your ‘make your own fun’ comments on the dreary civic thread you’d be on my side of this. Why exactly is it not the same?

Yeah, whatever. It’s just not the same. If you want to like it, go right ahead.

The one ‘taken away by Howard’ was the union family picnic day, it wasn’t for everyone to start with.

FaC Day was a hamfisted fix by ACT Govt.

first of all this holiday is replacing an old one which was taken away by Howard. Its not as if the economy is going to crash because we get the same number of days off we always had.

Second to all the people whinging about losing their work sweepstakes etc there is nothing stoping you from doing them anyway…. If you want to watch the race over a few drinks and some nibblies with work mates then that’s what you should do. I don’t see how having a day off stops you from doing that.

FFS people the govt gave you a day off not a lobotomy.

I am a member of CORC (Canberra Off-Road Cyclists) and the club is running a Family and Community type event out at Stromlo Forest Park for anyone keen to try something a little bit different.

http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/holidays

The cmd website says that we will have family and community day again in 2009 but not in 2010.

I remember voting for our new public holiday a couple of years back. I wanted a day other than Melbourne Cup because it is a great day to be at work – the afternoon is basically a write-off.

Still a paid day off is nothing to scoff at, regardless of whether it coincides with a silly horse race.

Surely it’s not that hard to organise a BBQ with your mates on a day off, whether you work with them or not?

Is the government actually providing any entertainment for community day? Is there something that families can attend, or do we get to just stay home and clean out the garage?

someone told me that this is the last (and only second!) year we will ge this public holiday – i hope it’s just a vicious rumour!

Word!

Thankyou, S4anta.

: )

I blame whoever’s stupid idea it was. I am quite happy to blame anyone and everyone.

I’m torn between:

a) dislike of horse racing which I personally think is a pretty rotten industry built on a fair amount of suffering shared around between horses and idiot punters.

b) a nagging feeling I should be out taking social pictures.

So I think Rioters will have to make their own fun one way or another.

someone told me that this is the last (and only second!) year we will ge this public holiday – i hope it’s just a vicious rumour!

Granny,

I will be there and shall endeavour to have a champers for you matey!

Hi Granny I dont think you should blame Stanhope for this one. Try Howard and his total hatred of the union movement and its membership for the creation of F&C Day.

And Granny is again onto something. As far as I can tell, most of the-riotact “work” occurs in bars, so perhaps a riotact workplace Melbourne cup day activity is in order?

YAY! I get to work!

I would be interested to know how this affects the amount of gambling done in Canberra on FACD day.

On a related note, I saw last night a TAB advert telling people to avoid the inconvenience of interacting with the community and place their bets online. I am curious about the process involved, since I was under the impression that the ACT government had a policy against allowing gambling on credit, and most online transactions involve a credit card…

Newsflash! The Melbourne Cup is no fun at home. Take it from me. I’ve been watching it at home by myself for decades. It is boring and depressing. The place to watch it is at work with all your mates, you Stanhopeless idiot! Hopefully Riot will do something interesting … *hint hint*

YAY! Family Gambling Day!

We get to take the kids to the TAB and teach them the mathemagics of the odds.

Don’t forget to think of the poor and unable to cope Chicken Men (comment #11 onwards)!

Apparently the one day a year that turned their operations from being debt-ridden affairs into profitable ventures was cruelly taken away from them, and they aren’t flexible enough to adapt.