Cup Day

Waking up at close to 5 am is not something I am normally willing to do, but Kayla and I actually had a paying gig going on and needed to be at Addington Racecourse by 7:30. Why wake up almost 2 and a half hours beforehand? Well, the buses weren’t running that early in the morning sooo we had to walk. Over an hour away. But it wasn’t really that bad – it was a really nice morning and it gave us both a chance to wake up. Once we showed up in our spiffy black collared shirt, black pants and nametags Kayla went off in search of her members only area and I walked over to Blanc de Blanc, my section for the day. After 3 hours of set up in the off and on rain (fun stuff) people started arriving and the real work began. I’ve gotta hand it to the kiwis, they do know how to have a good time when they want to. All their alcohol was included in the ticket price and they wanted to get their moneys worth. I don’t know how many rounds of wine, beer or bubbly I brought out to my tables but every single time I walked by them from 11 in the morning until 6:30 at night, somebody always had a request for another round. On the whole it was a pretty cool way to make some money. A ton of drunk and happy people dropping hundreds of dollars in bets on horses like Boomshakalaka (my personal favorite) make an okay crowd to be around. Some highlights of the day include; Andrew Hore and Graham Henry sitting in Blanc de Blanc – a player and the coach of the All Blacks aka the greatest rugby team ever if you didn’t know J; getting a job offer as a bartender from this adorable older couple who thought my southern Tennessee accent was “delightful”; and the best highlight of all – free food and booze. I’m talking lamb shanks, chocolate covered strawberries and bottles of champagne. YUM. -E

As Erin headed off to Blanc de Blanc, I made my way over to the Lordships area which was hosting corporate. These people paid close to $3,000 or more to be there. Ridiculous. But there was an open bar with no limit and free nice coffee and meals and snacks provided. And a great view of the track. Since we were already all set up, I ended up sitting around for an hour before I could check in at 8:30. Unlike in Blanc, we didn’t do table service. Lunch was buffet style and they had to walk up to the bar to get their drinks, so we just floated around and picked up plates and empties. The way things were set up made no sense to me and it ended up causing more problems than anything, but other than things being a little slow it went well! And the more drunk people got, the more fun it was to walk around and talk to people. One group of guys would not stop giving me crap about being from Idaho and made silly jokes like “Where da hoe?” to which at one point I replied “you da hoe” and they died laughing. And then one of them gave me a flower from the centerpiece on the table and said he picked to especially for me. How sweet. The best part of the day though would have to be at the end when one lady stood up from her chair and toppled backwards on the ground, letting out an almighty whoop and landing flat on her back, both feet up in the air. All in all, it was pretty fun for a day of work, and I got paid to watch the biggest horse racing event in New Zealand. -K