sydney v1.2

toronga park zoo with its million dollar views of sydney harbour. caught the 12 minute ferry from circular quay. pretty fun experience for people who like zoos, even for people like us who are koala'd and kangaroo'd out. crazy world lesson for the day was that animals in the rainforest use its plants for medicinal purposes. we've studied less than 1% of the medicinal potential of rainforest plants, meanwhile we are destroying as fast as we can. the cure for cancer and aids or a better viagra may be waiting to be found.

back in sydney after zooing it up we went to get a movie fix as i was jonesing for some popcorn and the silver screen. when we went to buy the tickets, however, we learned that there was a 2 for 1 coupon in that day's daily telegraph newspaper. we ducked out of line and went searching the entire cbd for a copy of the paper. no luck. all sold out. not a single paper left at new stands, convenience stores or even the doctor's waiting room i passed through. in desperation as the clocked clicked down to the show time i spotted a gentleman reading the newspaper in a food court from my vantage point on an elevator. my opening line was "excuse me for interrupting" - which was fine. my second line of "are you going to the movies tonight?" probably sounded more like a date request than i would have liked. as they say here, though, no worries. we got the paper and the coupon and saw bra boys - a documentary on the famous maroubra surfing gang as narrated by russell crowe. the movie was great as it was 100% aussie, and the timing couldn't have been better as we had just seen cronulla earlier on in the week, and our surfing safari is next week. lyds even managed to sneak in a mcflurry-like ice cream treat in my knapsack into the movie without spilling any. the surfers in the movie were nuts as they charged hard on the big breaks like surfing jedis. their gang was more a brotherhood forged in the surf from their poor backgrounds and broken homes than toughs looking for a good time. some of the big wave riding included "jaws" in maui and "cyclops" here in australia. it is at the latter where the swells look more like jello than water it is so thick. at cyclops the surfers are 6 hours from medical attention if they eat it, and the area is crawling with great white sharks. there are even 3 tombstones on the beach. but these guys manage to surf them all while severing veins on boards and necks on rocks. they manage to look past the possibility, no matter how high, of the presence of the shark or the danger of the rock when the wave comes. they say "fu*k it. we came to surf." the movie is a definite see if you plan to visit or are a surf enthusiast.

moral of the movie is to not miss the perfect wave for fear of the shark or rock. charge hard. we all could do better.