Red Riding Hood Productions

Gallery Jack, originally uploaded by pinkfixie.

Friday, March 10, 2006

ACMC's

Australians and Australian Messengers are some of the nicest, most awesome people I've met. This writing is seriously long, long overdue and all I can say is it's been a hectic few weeks since I've been back.

First a little backround: I went to Australia in Jan. for my little brothers wedding. He married an Aussie girl in Melbourne. Of course when I found out that they were getting married and that I'd be going to Australia, the first thing I did was email Macca in Melbourne and Smokin' Joe in Sydney. I let them know when the wedding was and when I would be there and they let me know that I would be in Australia for the Australian Cycle Messenger Championships, and that I better be there!! What luck! Good timing little brother! In true Smokin' fashion, he invited me to stay with him in Sydney even though he had no idea where he would be living at that point. There really is something to be said about Australian hospitality.

Getting through customs was a pain in the ass. I mean, I know all the eco-dangers of bringing in foreign dirt and fruit and stuff, but these guys (actually they were girls) sliced open my bike box on the side with a box cutter. Why they couldn't just open it up the regular way on top I don't know but they sliced open the side, practically ruining the box I needed to keep my bike pretty during the rest of my travels through Oz, and back to the US. I yelled at them, and they told me there was no need for profanity. I disagreed. Then they took my bicycle to be washed, and searched each of the 10 suitcases my family brought (we were 6 people traveling). We were stuck in customs for an extra couple hours. Whatever. Free bicycle cleaning.

First stop was Melbourne and a hectic week of family parties, the wedding, and 110 degree (f) heat. It was awesome. My little brother's friends did all they could to make sure my unmarried siblings, our cousin, and I were having a great time. It was a very busy family filled week but after convincing my Mother that I would be just fine riding on the other side of the street, I took off on my bicycle to meet up with Macca for a minute as he painted a wall. On my way over to meet him, my beautiful Campagnolo left toe cage broke. I was bummed, but no major deal, because Melbourne is flat. We rolled over to his studio that he shares with a bunch of other amazing artists where I met messenger-artist Rick. Rick had hung out with some of my friends in NYC when he was there a few months ago, and he and his roommate rode part of the way home with me. On the way they gave me a mini tour of a certain art filled street (you can see the photo's on my flickr page). Melbourne is filled with good street art. Although I was slowly getting the hang of riding on the left side of the street instead of the right, I still kept looking the wrong way before turning or crossing. It was very sketchy especially when tired and/or drunk.

I have an old friend living in Sydney who I know from when I lived in Israel 10 years ago. I hadn't seen her in about 6 years and we had barely been in touch. She's married now, with two adorable kids, and when she found out I was coming to Sydney, she invited me to stay at her house in Bondi, right near the beach!

I got into Syndey on Australia Day, Thurs night, and went to my friends house. We had a great barbique, and caught up on all sorts of stuff.

I met up with Joe and the rest of the messenger gang on Fri night, right around after work. On the way over, my other toe cage broke. So now I was riding a track bike with both cages broken, with no brakes, on a gear ratio I'm used to riding on flat streets (read: too heavy for the Sydney hills which bring Seattle and SF hills to mind). It made me nervous. But Macca, who had come in with Rick that morning from Melbourne, told me he'd rig something up for my pedals.

Along with the Melbourne crew was a whole slew of messengers from Adalaide. We rolled over to a bar, where I met a bunch of people, got beer spilled all over me, and found out that I would most likely be the only girl the whole weekend since Kate, who I think is the only girl working in Sydney right now (I could very well be wrong) had a wedding to attend back in Adalaide and was leaving Sat morning. That kinda made me sad because I love hanging with the ladies, especially awesome ladies like Kate, but I knew the weekend was going to be super fun no matter who was around!

Joe told me I was staying at his parents house with him. I was a little sceptacle, because I didn't want to impose on his parents, especially after he told me that his Grandmother had just passed away the night before (may she rest in peace). I told him I had absolutely no problem with finding another place to stay, and could very well go back to my friends house in Bondi beach, but he assured me it was completely fine and insisted that they were expecting me. We got back to his house and I saw that his Mom had set out sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, and even a foam mattress for me! In the morning when I woke up, his Mom Libby made me coffee and told me to help myself to toast or whatever else. I can see where Joe gets his warm, sweet personality from. I couldn't believe that he brought me, some random bike girl he met at the Worlds in NY this past summer, back to his parents house at all, let alone given the circumstances! And I wasn't the only one he brought back - over the course of the weekend there were about 6 other messengers that stayed there too! That's Australia for ya - hospitality like no other place!

Joe had a bunch of stuff to do Sat morn, so we met up with the Adaliade boys, Macca, and (the one and only) Jimmy James. We rode around hot hot Sydney, and with the Sydney harbour waters beaming out at us from every side, a few of the boys decided it would be great to jump off the Pyrmont Bridge into Darling Harbour. So they did (again - pictures on my flickr page).

Now if 4 boys were to jump off a bridge in a very populated, touristy, part of NY, there would be cops waiting to arrest them I'm sure and I did hear one security guy say into his radio "4 guys just jumped off the bridge" but then noone did anything! The boys simply swam back to shore, put their shoes back on and we left. No one batted an eyelash in any serious kind of way!

The Poker Race, first race of the weekend, was in a couple hours. We rode to the starting point, a park that I forget the name of, and on the way Macca and I stopped at a bike shop. Of course they did not have the cages I needed but Macca rigged up some plastic cages inside my metal ones using lots of electrical tape. They definitely worked better than what I had. I rode the race with a Melbourner whose bike was also in mishap function, and we picked up a Japanese messenger somewhere along the route. We got a little lost but not much, and had fun, and made it back to the finish line at the same park. Then there were skids competitions. The skids were great because it was all bike inclusive. You could skid on whatever bike you were riding, whether track, road, mountain, or BMX. There was even a little kid on a super small BMX bike who competed! The smell of burned rubber filled the air, and there was more than a few scrapes and bruises. Next we had a mass ride to a little park with a nice big blacktop over in Newtown. We killed the remaining daylight hours with trackstands, backwards circles, and bunnyhops competitions, as well as a few games of bicycle polo which turned into footdown which turned back into bike polo and back into footdown.

At some point during all these competitions I looked up and saw (oh my god!) another girl!! Now don't get me wrong, I was having an awesome time with all these awesome guys, who were so very sweet to me, and made sure I was taken care of and never left behind, and waited while I found real bathrooms, and gave me sunscreen, and beer, and smoke, but seeing Catt was beautiful! I walked up to her and introduced myself and as it turns out, she had just moved back to Sydney from London, and knew a bunch of my London friends. We hung out as her man took the title for most backwards circles and bunnyhops.

Then as it got dark we were off to the amazing Gallery Jack in Surry Hills for the grand ACMC party!


(anyway - I'll write the rest later)

# posted by Red Riding Hood : 4:58 PM