Hail to the Victors!

The Toronto Film Festival is a pretty big deal with some of Hollywoods A-listers crossing the border to pimp their latest projects. Our buddy AJ got our names on the door for a party at Ultra Supper Club to be hosted by Lindsey Lohan and her DJ girlfriend Samantha Ronson. Jo picked up a cute LBD and gold heels and I slummed it in my $20 leather jacket (love outlet shopping in the US). We hit a couple of lounges first and by the time we got to Ultra it was rammed due to the red carpet and media so it took about 45-60 minutes to get inside. The club has a rooftop patio with a great view of the Toronto skyline and the weather was outstanding. Unfortunately Jo had a tennis match early the next day so without seeing Lindsey or Sam we bailed around 1:30 only to find out the next day that they turned up and Sam started spinning discs about 15 minutes after we left [sigh]. Anyway it's nice to get out with adults and leave the kids behind some times.The weather is leaving us with no doubt that it's Autumn with most days now in the low teens although the sun is still around to keep the chill off most of the time. I'm finding it hard to adjust for some reason, I keep wearing t-shirts everywhere and end up under-dressed and cold. I must be trying to will summer back, it aint working. Of the three Halloweens we've had here last years was by far the coldest and it's looking like we'll have more of the same this year. I doubt the kids will be dressed in skimpy outfits this 31st, they'll be in hypothermia territory if they do. I'm expecting to be in Istanbul before then so I guess I'm going to miss out on the spooky fun this year. We hope to know when we ship out for the Bospheros at some point this week. Although we get a flight home each month I think I'll only come back once in late November so we can celebrate US Thanksgiving with our friends the Ballestys down in Pennsylvania. Then I'll come back for our Aussie holiday in December/January. If I save up a few more flights and the project keeps going into next year then I might use them to bring the family over instead. We'd like to do a European trip next year, maybe London/Paris/Rome but cost will be the big decider and I haven't even started looking at that yet.I've been down to Ann Arbour, Michigan, a couple of times with my buddies Jay and AJ, previously we've gone to see the hockey. This time Jay got some outstanding seats for the football and so on Friday we took off down to the US to enjoy Home Coming weekend at the University of Michigan and see the Wolverines take on the Illinois Fighting Illini. We hit a few bars Friday night and chatted with some frat-boys who invited us to party with them prior to the game the next day. The frat-house scene is pretty crazy, it's just like the movies. We picked up some beers, put them in the frat fridge and headed off to the Mud Bowl. One of the frats hosts this Michigan tradition each year in a pond in front of their house. They flood it with about 4-5 inches of muddy water and teams play touch football. And it's not just the guys who get down and dirty, at half time the boys took a break to wipe the mud from their eyes and two teams of girls took the field. They all showed decent skills, I was glad I wasn't on the field, those girls would have beaten me up. We were standing on the side of a small hill over looking the 'ground' and a hose that was used to fill the field was leaking in front of us. This basically made the hillside a vertical swamp and we stood there alternating between watching the game and watching people slip over and fall down the muddy slope. It was pretty funny.Despite everyone drinking and the Michigan and Illinois fans mixing closely among the tens of thousands of people we only saw one person dead drunk and not a single fight or sign of aggression. If this was a football game in Australia I doubt the town would have been standing and the police would have had their hands full. Not in university town USA though, everyone had exactly the right attitude and was there for a good time and nothing more. It was amazing. The Michigan stadium is the biggest in the US, they don't call it the 'Big House' for nothing, and Home Coming is the biggest week of the year. Past students come back to the Uni at Home Coming and helped push the crowd to over 109,000. The spectacle was very cool with the marching bands and cheer leaders being thrown in the air. Everyone joins in the 'fight song', Hail to the Victors! It was a pity that Michigan couldn't live up to the fighting lyrics and lost the game.Our boy turned 7 a week ago and we had his party yesterday at Laser Tag. He and his buddies (and his sisters) ran around in the dark shooting each other and racking up points before settling down for pizza, KoolAid and ice-cream cake. It was weird to have the party at a venue for a change, in previous years Jo and I have hosted themed affairs and put a lot of effort into running games. So it was strange to just sit back and let someone else do the work... I could get used to it :-). He was spoiled by his buddies with some great gifts, 2 RC helicopters, yet another Nerf gun (sweet!) and I had picked him up a Michigan football jersey and cap as a stop-gap until his real gift arrives.Andy, out.