SLOTCARS, HOCKEY, WIGGLES and ANT’S BUMS

While waiting for the car to be serviced yesterday I had a few hours to do a few things around Rockhampton. I visited the art gallery where there was an exhibition of year 11 and 12’s work from all around central Queensland and there was some excellent pieces, some too deep for me though. Checked at the Post Office for mail from Mum then noticed a red sandwich board on the side of the footpath advertising slot car racing and I must admit I was curious. A doorway opened straight into a steep, carpeted staircase, then more stairs to the right which leads to the landing and a darkish corridor each way. A most unlikely place to find slot car racing, whatever that is. Taking a punt to the right I happened on a door with an A4 sheet of paper which indeed indicated I was at the right place. In a huge room there was a long, blue, 8 lane track, snaking around within a metre of the walls in most places, except for the work areas. Consisting of a 25 metre straight, full 180 degree fully cambered turn, right hander, hairpin left, right again, 270 degree loop and a left hand turn onto the straight once again. This takes about 7.8 seconds! You use a little controller, they go about 50 km/hr, great fun, although I spent quite some time putting the car back on its track until I worked out corner speeds. There is a monitor with lap times, fastest lap etc. Took the kids there this morning and they loved it, they decided to spend some of their own money and go back on the way home this afternoon. In 20 minutes Rennie did 107 laps, she was very consistent; Tal completed 97 but had some very fast laps. It is run by a guy and his wife, they must be 50ish, he looks like he has been playing around with slot cars all his life and he decided to import this 1/24th size track from America. It was certainly something a bit different, we all really got into it, we were really racing those zippy little things, was good fun. We heard that there was a hockey International on and I was lucky enough to watch Australia play Korea last night. Haven’t seen that standard played for many years and I enjoyed seeing the sport I loved playing for so many years, it brought back some good memories and it was not a bad game, we won 2-1 for the record….. It was quite strange for me that they had a speaker system all the way around the ground that was playing “We Will Rock You” before the game and the opening whistle was co-ordinated with the end of the song. Loud bits of “Black Betty” were blared after each goal, that dodgy 80’s ice hockey organ accompaniment came to mind. From the hectic racing circuit to the tranquil and very beautiful Botanic Gardens which host a free zoo and is a most interesting place. There were 3 pythons which pleased Tal, some baboons, chimps, cassowaries, the usual native cuddly and hoppy creatures. We were lucky enough to meet Simon the head zookeeper and got talking. He showed us this amazing skull and jaw bone of a huge croc that was 8 metres long. The solid bony heads of these things is amazingly solid, Simon pointed out the recess that the brain sits in and it is about as big as your thumb, they rely on instinct, there is not too much thought processes going on in there. We will pay heed to the travel warnings, when north of Rocky, watch out for croccy!! Simon would have given us a close up look at the snakes, but they were shedding their skins and they subsequently lose their sight for a few days as the skin peels off. Instead he took us around to let us meet Wiggles the 1 year old wombat. I fell in love, so did Helen. She is the most adorable little thing, just lying there in our arms, big soft nose and the softest, greyish fur, as placid as can be, just gazing into our eyes. The kids noticed an army of green ants outside the information centre and asked Simon what sort of ants they were. He said to the kids,”Hey, have you ever sucked an ant’s bum?” What the? He grabbed an ant and squeezed the back section, a green sac, and said it tasted of lemon and that some people put a whole lot in a pan of boiling water to make a sort of lemon tea. We all had a go at this bit of bush tucker, was very sour, the kids thought this was great, sucking ant’s bums!! In the info centre they also had a collection of dead spiders, scorpions and other crawly critters. There were funnel webs, tarantulas, redbacks, huge hairy bird eating spiders, quite creepy. The tropical fruit garden contained an amazing array of different trees, although the wrong time of the year for most of the fruit. Can’t believe it is 6 months today since we departed on this trip, unbelievable how the time has flown. So, time to say goodbye to Rockhampton, city of; bulls up on verandahs with slogans such as “Move a bull” on the furniture removalists shop; “Edi bull above a restaurant, etc.etc. City of hoon car drivers. City of many, many pubs, seems to be one on every second corner. And of course, city of cool slotcars.