Friday, April 16, 2010

Redunkulous



So it turns out that at American sports events, you don’t have to have just one seat. The four of us went to see the Houston Rockets get their butts kicked by the New Orleans Hornets at the basketball the other night. Nosebleed seats in the US mean you still get a good view, and a good opportunity to people watch as everyone seems to shift places and have a wander around every now and again. We four (two Aussies, Dutch Marielle and me) seemed to be the only ones who stayed put.

It was also a pleasant surprise that unlike in the UK, at half time (or every time out in this case), the most important thing seems to be keeping the audience entertained, and on a grand scale. We had everything from the regulation cheerleaders to catapults firing T-shirts, dance-offs, players with names like 'Chase Bundinger' (or was it Budinger?) and a custard pie fight, in which a giant teddy bear smashed enormous cakes into the faces of the assembled line up with enough force to knock them off their chairs. This was right up my street, and I wish we’d been nearer the front.

We got to see the senior cheer team, as well as to watch the very large (but very friendly) father in front of us encourage his six year old to eat a box of popcorn about the same size as the boy himself. Sport (or at least watching sport) seems to be very inclusive here. All in all, a satisfying evening.

And at home, the increasingly vigorous attempts to catch both the racoon that is living in my house and the possum that is terrorizing the office are still proving unsuccessful. The possum has been seen all over the place, except in the cages which have been set for it, which are usually occupied by neighbourhood cats which have fallen for the bait.

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