Derby Day!

It had come time for Melbourne's annual Spring Carnival celebration, a 5-week-long horse racing fiesta that filled the city's streets with men in colorful suits and ties and ladies flaunting their grandiose, flowery hats, everyone eager to place their bet and win big.

There are a few highly recognized racing days during the Spring Carnival - Melbourne Cup Day, an actual public holiday in Australia, and Derby Day, the race day event that was graced by the presence of Amdocs. It was an event extravaganza, marked by frantic last-minute hat shopping on my part.

Given that it's a season suited for quite the marketing scheme as accessories that have no other purpose in life make their way to store shelves all across Melbourne, I was blinded by choices. Should I go with a hat? Or should I choose a fascinator - a clip full of feathers that you stick in your hair, which I so fondly (accidentally) kept referring to as a fabricator. Being the decisive person that you all know me to be, I bought both. There we all are in our suits, ties, dresses, hats, and fascinators.

It was a full day of betting, spectating, drinking, betting some more, and drinking some more. Later in the day, the guys began partaking in some mask-wearing and mud-wrestling activities as the ladies chatted about which horse and jockey boasted the best outfit. We all had a great time, and I ended up breaking even on all of my betting (better than losing, right?)