It must be Cup Day

On one of the cold and miserable days last week, I overheard someone say “At least it’s sure to be hot next Tuesday, it’s Cup Day.” Normally I would have dismissed that as pure superstition, but it’s true – no matter how bad the weather has been, the second Tuesday in November is always a hot and windy day in Christchurch, because that’s the day everyone puts on their finery and heads out to the racecourse for the Trotting Cup. There’s always a nor’wester on Cup Day, blowing the posh hats off the Merivale ladies and drying everyone out so the alcohol consumption is even higher than the excess a day at the races would normally justify. And despite the bitter southerly blowing last night, the weather has done its thing again this year: it’s a bit muggier than usual for a Cup Day, but the nor’wester is out in force, and it’s hot – walking to work this morning at 7.30am already felt like being in a blast furnace: the wind was almost burningly hot, and the sun, despite the veil of clouds, felt fierce – I was drenched with sweat by the time I got to work. It’s going to be so much worse by the time the races start this afternoon – I bet St Johns Ambulance will be working overtime treating heat exhaustion and alcohol poisoning.

I’m so glad I’m not spending today standing around outside watching races!

The games evening on Saturday night was a success: two of the people from MrPloppy‘s group turned up, plus lytteltonwitch, so we had enough of us to play Pictionary properly, after the hilarities of which we decided we needed a quieter game, so we played Carcassone. As always, we had far too much food, but we managed to work our way through a lot of it 🙂

On Sunday, we had an impromptu meetup because KomradRikardo was in Christchurch. He’d contacted lytteltonwitch, so she arranged a meetup, but because of the late notice there was just a small turnout – only the three of us and awhina. But we had a nice lunch anyway, and a good chat, and for once I managed not to come home with more books than I’d gone with. I passed on Miss Garnet’s Angel by Sally Vickers, Altar Ego by Kathy Lette, and The Cat Who Played Post Office by Lilian Jackson Braun.

Show Day this Friday, otherwise known as Canterbury Anniversary Day, the day when traditionally all of rural Canterbury descend on Christchurch for the A&P Show, and the population of Christchurch respond by leaving town for the long weekend. So lytteltonwitch, MrPloppy and I have decided to go on a little bookcrossing expedition up to Mt Cook. I’ve never actually been up to the township itself, so I’m looking forward to it. Of course, a bookcrossing expedition means I have to do a lot of registering and labelling of books before Friday!

Currently reading: Paper Nautilus by Nicholas Jose and listening to Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood (library audiobook)