Cockroach races

30 years ago Igor from Kangaroo Point and Sven from New Farm were in severe disagreement over the size of the cockies in their back gardens. Over copious amounts of alcoholic beverages the self proclaimed entomologists told tales of behemoth sized cockroaches stamping in the garden and stealing sheep from meadows.

Fearless hunters as they were Igor and Sven agreed to trap one illusive monster from each of their gardens and bring the goliath colossi to the bar for weighing and measuring the next day.

This is where the legend of Igor and Sven becomes a bit blurry: For unclear reasons they decided to race the cockies against each other. Outside the Story Bridge Hotel (about 3 minutes walk from our home) they drew a chalk circle, dropped the cockies in the middle and watch them race.

And thus was born one of Australia's great traditions: the cockroach races, held just outside our apartment building. The event can be ranked amongst the great sporting events on earth: world cup football, NZ kiwi kicking contest, Olympic Games and of course the world series of possum tossing.
I reckon the Kangaroo Point roaches are the biggest: I have seen gigantic claws sticking out from underneath my couch. Now all I need is rope a semi automatic stun gun and a big bag to catch it and to race it at the Story Bridge Hotel in 2 weeks time.

Bondi beach: Surf’s up

Continuing my quest for the treasure and following instructions given to me by anonymous letters we caught a bus to Bondi Beach. There I, the pirate, was to be challenged by the waves of the world’s most famous beach. The captain demanded that I took as many lessons as needed to stand on a board for more than 5 seconds to get the next clue.
We stayed 3 days at Bondi beach, in a suite in a hotel that overlooked the beach (The captain has really done well). The beach is majestic, clear blue/green water, white clean sand aaaand… 10.000 tourists. Surfing is actually not that difficult, after 10 tries I ride my first wave all the way to the shore and after 6 hours of lessons I catch a couple of ‘green waves’ and actually manage to ride the flank. Challenge won, clue received.

I rock! Me big bombastic surf-dude! Me billabong curlz rider, me quick silver tsunami master.

Well, not quite yet, but surfing is really cool and I hope to buy my board soon, to do some more.

Streets of Sydney

The saga continues. The captain keeps sending me clues, indications and challenges which allow us to visit everything Sydney has to offer. The captain made us visit the opera house, the city center, we had dinner in the highest tower, we took the ferry to the Sea side suburbs, we took the city explorer bus, went to see where the rich and famous live, saw the botanical gardens and so on and so on. Too many things to write down, so I’ll write about two of them.

Hand feeding sharks

One of the challenges was to hand feed the sharks at the Sydney aquarium. There were lemon sharks, white tips, shovel heads and guitar sharks. The lemon shark is a big bugger and as if asked he ‘finned’ at the surface to eat the mullet I had thrown in its general direction. “Don’t put your hand in the water” the guide told me. “I have a basic brain function” I replied.

Hotel Party

Our hotel organizes very exclusive parties on the rooftop, next to the pool, with DJ’s, lounge couches, barbeque and bars. The promoter is Absolut vodka, so guess what we were drinking. The people who come here are 20 to 35 years old and behave as if they are very wealthy. Women dress as sexy as the law will allow: The bikinis are so small it barely covers nipples; the bathing suits are basically thongs… not that I looked of course, I only have eyes for my beautiful wife.

NYE 08

Woohoo!! Okay I know how this is going to sound, especially after everything we’ve done in the past few weeks, but… Emmanuelle invited me to Sydney!!! Yaaay!

In a true Pirate, Captain-style story line she led me to my present. She had been sending me e-mails with all kinds of assignment I had to solve, the last solution was DJ236. After kicking my brain into overdrive trying to understand what was meant, the penny dropped and I yelled: it’s a plane ticket!! Yep, and sure enough, 65 minutes later we were taking off to Sydney! I had no idea what to expect and had to follow instructions found under my pillow, given to me by complete strangers or I plainly had to guess. RLRPG (Real Life Role Playing Game)

You’re not going to believe this but we spent NYE08 on a tall-ship in the Sydney harbor between the opera house and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The only ship allowed there was ours! We danced, ate, watched the 21:00 and 24:00 Fireworks, gazed at the opera house and the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people standing on the shores of the harbor wishing they were on our boat. You would not believe how impressive that firework is, you would not believe how well I can dance after a bottle of champagne, you should believe that this was a once in a lifetime wish that came true in the most fabulous way!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!