The birdmen plungeth

Two of the Three Businessmen who Brought their Own Lunch

I headed to Moomba again for the Birdman Rally today but, after a lengthy and unplanned sleep in, I didn't get a very good spot on the river bank, which was choked with people. I missed the first few birdmen, but it was still a fun bit of piss-takery.

There were contestants clad in parrot costmes, Astroturf capes and Inspector Gadget get-ups. There was a vampire calling himself Count Batchelor and a bunch of cavemen. There were "aircraft" made of feathers, cardboard, Styrofoam, clingwrap and tinfoil. As usual, there was a lot of jumping and plunging, not much flying.

The winner (Click here to see some more pictures - The Age photographer had a better vantage point than I did.)

The same guy who won for the past three years was victorious again. I think he's an engineer or something. Boo hiss. That's like when people who can actually sing hog the karaoke stage. Get orf, already!

Later in the day I sat on the grass in the Alexandra Gardens and listened to the Swing Patrol belting out some toe-tapping tunes while a posse of swing dancers from the Shuffle Club did their thing on the dance floor, along with a bunch of little kids. Everyone was smiling their heads off. It was quite contagious. People seem to have got the Moomba memo (i.e. - "let's all get together and have fun").

Book crawl

In between those things, I did a bookshop crawl. I picked up a couple more Dr Seuss at one shop, then I bought the follow up to Foyle's Philavery and Reading the OECD at another. I also bought a handbook for my camera since I'm still something of an ignoramus at using it. I don't know which book to start first. So much for belonging to two libraries, hey? Some books you just have to own.

After all that, I had a choccy injection at Chokolait - creamy, thick Belgian hot chocolate and an icecream sundae. Mmmmmm.... I walked about 13 kilometres today so I earned a treat, I reckon.

Weeeee! Public holiday tomorrow. I was going to continue my Walking Melbourne tour, but will see what time I get out of bed.

Sunset tonight