I know it's already halfway through the Games, but I was trying to delay posting until I'd uploaded all my photos from the night...It's not often you get to be living in the host city of the Commonwealth Games or Olympics, and I was in a dilemma about spending $400 on a ticket to see the opening ceremony in the stadium or missing a chance of a lifetime. Well I ended up going down to the Yarra River with Simon and Joe and we watched it on the banks. They had these metal fish sculptures down the middle of the river, each representing a species native to all the member countries of the Commonwealth. For the opening ceremony, the show extended outside of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (stadium) onto the river, with the fish illuminated with coloured lights and projections, spraying water from the top, and even fireworks being launched from the fish! While seated on the river banks, we also got a very good view of the buildings at the edge of the city. It surprised us when the there were fireworks coming off from the top of them even. A brilliant display that night. Where we we seated, there was also a big screen across the river showing the proceedings inside the stadium itself, so I think we probably got a better view than those inside, since we got to see both the inside and outside performances. I still have more photos to sort through and upload but here's the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony set on flickr.