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Sitting in cloudy Port Douglas fresh back from a three or four mile stroll down the beach, the dulcet snores from Antony thrumming from the driver’s seat next to me. Some awful creature has taken it upon itself to drink blood straight from my knee bone: the raised wound there is pulsing in a most unseemly fashion. It’s 12:49pm on Saturday. Brazil are out. So are Ghana. Ha. Feel the pain, suckers! The majority of the World is now either sulking or gloating. Only six nations left with hope in their hearts. Far be it from me to join the gloaters and sulkers, but ha! That’s it for Brazil and Ghana.
Curse that referee for not allowing Lampard’s goal to count. With hindsight, I think we would have won that game if that goal had stood. It would have been England vs. Argentina tonight, then merely two minor obstacles ( Holland and Spain) before England would clamber back to the lofty summit of their inevitable destiny to accept the World Cup again: Brazil 2014 is just around the corner. Soon mighty England will rise again…
But that’s not the exciting news. What’s the exciting news, Michael, I hear you
Horseshoe Bay
Horseshoe Bay from the fortask? Koalas, Kangaroos, and Cairns I reply, with nary a dropped beat. What a fantastic couple of days amongst the fauna of Australia: two days ago, on Thursday, I returned to Magnetic Island to do a fantastic walk with all kinds of exalted views from these decommissioned Second World War forts on the top of the hills. The three hour walk went up to the main fort then back down again along a rocky, exotically vegetated, path. On the way, I saw three different clumps of koalas hanging in the trees, including the mother/child arrangement I've posted here. Talk about cute! If it had been any cuter I would have had to peel her off the branch, steal her and bring her back to Medford in my back pack. If you don’t find these little buggers cute, you may already be dead!
Very windy ferry crossing today. I noticed that when it’s as windy as this my saggy face flesh flaps about so much under the g-force winds that I look like a mutant muppet. Younger people just look wistful and romantic with their hair flowing and shiny as the wind bashes them. Cursed rats!
So then on Friday,
I have my major Kangaroo encounter. Fantastic! We tried to figure out where we should go to guarantee kanga sightings. The answer may seem surprising. The golf course. That’s right - the golf course. So off we went on our way along the coast to the far North calling in at the golf course near to Crystal Creek where Antony’s work place is.
We walked across the first two or three greens, then we came across our first Kanga! Brilliant! He let me get within four feet of him. One funny thing that happened with the first kanga was when he unexpectedly sneezed, and we all looked at each other, all a bit surprised and taken-aback. A few holes later, and we came across a whole gang of kangas, including a mommy with a joey in her pouch, and giant males with extremely spherical testicles dangling in a most amusing way - as my photographs clearly illustrate. Having watched these beasties hop away when we got too close, I can tell you that the balls bounce against that funny looking lump behind them as they lurch ahead. It’s a very odd design, let’s be honest, but, hey, not our
problem, right?
I particularly liked when the big male lay down under the tree like some porn-model as we started taking pictures. This was a great natural experience, and we didn’t even have to play golf at all! Perfect!
Despite slightly dodgy weather we made our way all the way up to groovy Cairns where we stayed for the night, walked the Esplanade, ate at the groovy hip central area, had a few drinks then went to sleep earlier than anticipated in our posh Balinese hotel. So much for me watching the World Cup. I woke up at 5:00am in time for the second part of the Ghana/ Uruguay game.
Today, the weather continues crappy - poxy Allen luck at its finest, but we’ve had an excellent day anyway, having driven up to Port Douglas and beyond, and having walked for miles on the beach, miles in the rain forest, and miles around Cairns (we did slightly lose the car for a circuit or two). So we’re thoroughly exercised, staying in another fancy hotel, this time in Port Douglas, with a plan for tomorrow that the continued rainy weather may cause to be postponed, the next World Cup
games upcoming later, and ready to ‘suck piss’ as the Ozzies say (drink a beer). If the weather was a bit brighter, if we had seen a tree kangaroo, if England were still in the World Cup. Ah well, let’s not dream of foolish things when what might have been is as nothing as compared to simply what is!
See you on the flypaper.
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vicki
non-member comment
of all the muppets...
..mutant ones are the best! Look forward to more tales of the Ozzie flora, fauna and such....