Yesterday, courtesy of Steve's (1201 hostel owner) comp tickets, Friday night became race night. Armed with more money than sense (which thankfully didn't amount to much) we went off to the Perth Trotts.

One of the fantastic things about travelling is the amount of firsts you have, and for me, this was one of them. We don't have this form of racing in England and when I first saw it on tv I laughed my arse off. Little men in little carts drawn behind littlish horses which are forced to trot (not run) around a track. I'm sure it doesn't sound that funny to most people, but I can't help comparing it to Jon's fantasy of watching spider monkeys race around a track on the back of greyhounds (which is also VERY funny).

As it turns out, I had a fun and exciting time and feel that I emerged a winner, despite only winning in two races. I would therefore like to thank Chillies Jackpot, The Jobs on, and Mister DG for helping me to leave the track with some money remaining in my pocket. I would like to make a special mention to Catch a Jet and Swan Draught beer for their involvement in my last race place bet in which my inebriation prevented me from realising that I had mistakenly put $3 on instead of $1 and resulted in me winning 3 times what I would have otherwise done.

All that remains now is to decide who are the fools and who are the horses. Now it's obvious who the horses are (brown four legged trotting things), and the jockeys, although looking slightly foolish on their carts, seem to be un-foolishly making some money and getting a share of fame. So, with our frenzied betting on horses, that we have no real idea about, in the distant hope that we will win some reward, that just leaves us punters to carry burden of being fools...