Lawn Bowls

A few weeks ago, when the weather was a bit warmer and our days were a little bit longer, we had our first "go" at lawn bowls. To me, lawn bowls seem like a combination of bocce ball, shuffleboard, and actual bowling. Typically, you will find older Aussie gentleman (and women, but more often men) out at the local bowling club, and they are usually wearing tracksuits that look like they might have been made in the 90's. Pretty much every Australian town seems to have a place for lawn bowls.

Lawn bowl leagues can be quite serious, or it can be a fun activity for a buck's day (bachelor party), hen's do (bachelorette party), a birthday party, fund raiser, or any social gathering. During these non-league lawn bowls, the bowling is generally done barefoot, so the game is often referred to as "barefoot bowls". One of our friends organized barefoot bowls for his birthday, so obviously we were keen to try this new sport!

We played our barefoot bowls at the Port Melbourne Bowling Club, which, according to the sign below, was established in 1883!

This lovely older gentleman (I wish I could remember his name!) was quite serious about teaching us the basics, and once our short briefing was finished, we were free to play for a few hours.

It is my understanding that barefoot bowls rarely take place without the consumption of a few drinks, so of course we were compliant with that during the course of the day! Similar to bocce, the goal is to roll the ball as close as you can to the small white/yellow ball (the "jack" or the "kitty") at the end of the course. The "bowl" (ball) that ends up closest is the winner. Like shuffleboard, if you roll the ball too hard, it will fall off the end of course and you will not have a chance to be closest to the jack. The ball is actually not completely round like a bowling ball, as it has an "edge" that travels along the grass. Bowling is done in a sweeping sort of motion and there is a gentle curve of the ball due to it not being completely round.

We got a few early pointers from a man with experience!

Erik's first bowl looks pretty good!

Birthday boy!

Switching ends of the course

I was bowling entirely too hard during our first few games, and my ball was always going off the course. I was treating lawn bowls too much like duckpin bowling, and rolling with a lot of force. However, after I learned to take a little bit off of each roll, I improved and was quite happy with my performance. This was to the dismay of Erik, since in the first few games we were playing as partners, but by the time I had improved we were playing boys versus girls and I was winning some points!

Please note the man in the pink dress in the background. That is a buck's party!

Barefoot bowls was a great way spend a beautiful Autumn day, and I would definitely be up for playing again in the future!

Matilda Bay Brewing Company

A few months ago, I received a Travelzoo email with a "local deal" for beer tasting with food pairings at Matilda Bay Brewing Company. Matilda Bay is a local brewery that Erik and I learned about early on during our time in Oz, as we tasted many of their beers at the Fed Square Beer Festival (which we will be hitting up again this year...in just a few days!). The deal was $25 per person (regularly $50), so I bought a couple of them with intentions to arrange our tasting during the time that my parents were visiting. Fortunately, we were able to book in on a Thursday night during that week!

Our tasting was scheduled for 5:30, but in typical Aussie fashion, people were late and I'm pretty sure we did not get started until around 6pm. The brewery is located in Port Melbourne, and traffic getting there during that time of day was not easy, so that does provide a bit of an explanation for the delay, though Erik and I find that things rarely start on time here! The guy who was leading our food and beer pairings had a terrific personality and was quite funny. He briefly described each of our six beers and the food item that went along with the respective beverage. It was a "go at your own pace" type of tasting, which was great for conversation among the group, but I was not exactly sure which beer was which because our guide only described them in the beginning. 

From L to R: Prawns, Risotto Balls, Seared Tuna, Lamb Chop, Pork Belly, Chocolate Brownie

There were about 16 people in our group, but we ended up spending a lot of time chatting with the four men next to us, a group of three brothers and a friend of one of the brothers. These guys were local to the area and really fun to chat with during the course of the evening. It was my parents first interaction with Australians, so I think they struggled to understand some of what the men were saying (when we first arrived we had to ask people to repeat themselves often...now we are getting better at interpreting Ausssie English!), but they were definitely entertained buy these gentleman while we were beer tasting.

The darkest beer, Dogbolter, was my favorite! It paired amazingly well with the chocolate brownie.

After the tastings, we were given a short tour of the brewery, where our guide explained the brewing process. He also gave credit to the Americans for their beer brewing skills, explaining that the States is way ahead of Australia when it comes to brewing beer. Aussies do seem to be impressed with the beer choices in bars/pubs in the States. Here we are often limited to just a couple of choices on tap at most pubs. The tour lasted about 30 minutes, and afterwards we said goodbye to our new friends. 

I cannot remember the name of our guide, but he used very "colorful" and entertaining language!

Overall, I thought the value for the money was good and I would definitely go back to Matilda Bay Brewing Company for similar specials. The only caveat is the location, as it is in more of an industrial area and most people would have to go out of their way to get there. It was a great "activity" to do with visitors, so perhaps we will be back soon with our next round of guests!