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Thursday 7 February 2002
On Sunday we went to my good buddy Rockin'
N's birthday party. Every year she organises a surprise
for the day - last year it was boating on the Yarra, the year
before apparently they all went camel riding. There was much
apprehension in the lead up to Sunday. Rockin' N sent out
an invite that had a blurry, stylised photo on it that was
meant to be some kind of clue. Popular consensus was that
it was a dragon, but for a while there I thought it was a
hamburger... So we were all sitting around on the back deck
of Rockin' N's family home, sipping punch and eating nibblies
wondering what was coming at 4pm ("Entertainment from
4pm... don't be late!")... when Rockin' N's dad started
fiddling with the barbecue there was a murmur that Aristos,
The Surprise Chef was going to pay us a visit. I felt
my heart sink... audience participation, especially on national
television, is no where near my idea of fun. I have an audience
participation phobia. And Aristos? What a huge and annoying
dork! But then a woman arrived carrying two huge plastic containers
with the words "Wild
Action" and a picture of a crocodile on her tshirt.
For a split second I wondered if the surprise was going to
be a barbecue dinner of different exotic meats. I quickly
remembered with much relief that Rockin' N is a vegetarian
so exotic meats were out. Instead the woman with the containers
introduced herself and then started producing live and squirmy,
cold blooded animals out of the containers. We got to see
a green tree frog, a turtle, an incredible leaf insect (He
was definitely my favourite ~ He looked like something out
of Starship Troopers),
several different kinds of lizards of various sizes, a couple
of pythons and a salt water crocodile (with his mouth taped
up).
It was quite incredible. Big-P got to pretend
to be a tree while a lizard climbed him, Rockin N and many
others had pythons slowly coil around their necks and some
had the cold little feet of the leaf insect pitter patter
across their arms as it balanced precariously. Of course,
I avoided holding anything but got to feel the amazingly soft
belly of a frog, the tough, spikey back of a crocodile and
how beautiful and smooth and cool the skin of a python is.
Yey N, you have surpassed yourself this year. Next year is
going to have to be a something pretty impressive to compete.
Photos
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link
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