Tuesday, January 27, 2015

AUSTRALIA DAY ADVENTURES

Knighted  Cockie  going  nutty  on  The Strand .
Townsville's waterfront  area  known as The Strand is a  grand concourse, the jewel in the  city's  crown . On  Australia  Day it  was  alive with  a  merry,  happy  throng  of family groups, joggers, cyclists, skate boarders, dogs, a  flock of  screeching  Palm Cockatoos feeding  on  Asian  almond seeds, swimmers, café  habitués and a trio of  young  buskers , two of  them  rangas, the centre of much  attention .  Overhead  circled  the  Red  Baron  and  suddenly the   RAAF  C-17 Globemaster roared  by, grabbing  everyones attention .
 
An abiding memory this  writer took away from  The Strand was spotting an elderly gentleman , sitting on his  own in a  secluded spot, taking a selfie  of  himself  with  a koala  bear  soft  toy. Hmmm.  At  first I thought it was Mr  Bean .
 
Also noticed  were  many children and  adults  draped in flags , wearing hats with  flags on sticks . Some of the  small  Australian flag  face stickers  on  cheeks  and  foreheads were  in the  upside  down  position.  A flag flown upside  down  is taken  as  a  sign  of  a  ship  in  distress  at  sea . 
Talented musicians on The Strand
There was  evidence that somebody had  spat the  dummy  during the  day -there was  a repulsive  kid's  soother  on   the  main  drag.
Yummy dummy 
It is hoped it was  not recycled  as  a few  passing  dawgs  gave  it a lick. Hopefully the child  deprived  of  the  dummy  did not crawl into the grassed  area and  mistake the many strange mushrooms  that have popped up due to the rain and sucked  them  to  ease  the  teething  pain .
Hotrods, motorbikes and  LNP and ALP  election  signs on trucks circulated on  the  road  running along  the back  of  The Strand .