Petro Heads

When we first decided to come down to Australia, I think the last thing I expected was the 1981 Road Warrior mentality to still be running full throttle down under. It is. For some reason every person I talk to or see down here is obsessed with cars, gas, and going real fast. Its like Ricky Bobby and Danica Patrick has some sort of massive reproductive experiment over here. Not that there's anything wrong with that....

The only problem is that everyone assumes that I know about stock cars and drag racing. The conversation has come up several times where people ask me what I drive back home then start hammering down questions about 1/4 mile times, engine size and exhaust manifolds. Not to mention the way (and this is going to make me sound old) the kids drive around here. The streets are caked with skid marks and donuts in all directions. Its not uncommon to see some beater come flying out of the bush, covered in red dust, landing on a paved road, spin a 360 then scurry off into the bush again. The "feral" (as they call them here) creatures driving like this usually have mullets, often dyed black on top and sides and bright blonde on the back.

Two nights ago I was over at the bikey Beno's house looking at the cover of a biker magazine. On the cover was his bike with a girl in a bikini straddling it. Under his bike it read " Beno's bike is pure intimidation." I agreed with the cover. He built it himself in his garage and it was sweet. This was only one of about 4 harley's he has. He is building one right now with a 900 Horse power engine for drag racing. He also uses NO2 and all those bells and whistles. He likes to go fast. Real Fast. As I was leaving he showed me his suped up doom buggy. It was black with a huge skull and crossbones airbrushed on it by his tattoo artists. "oh mate, we are taking this out in December with the shotguns!" "We can just tear through the bush and shoot roo's mate," "no worries, whatever you wanna do, you let me know mate."

Not sure I can see myself riding "shotgun" next to Beno shooting beautiful creatures that I have only seen for the first time 2 months ago, but I was not about to tell him No Thanks either.....

Pitches, Pigs, and Pals

This past Sunday was one of the longest games I have ever played in, and definitely the most I have ever pitched. I threw 16 innings, 202 pitches, and the best news...we won. I am pretty sure that after 4 hours and 16 innings if we would have lost my arm would have fallen off. However, a win always makes your arm feel pretty good. I think I set a record with 27 strikeouts as well, which was just a little icing on the cake. I probably should not have stayed in that long. If you call any baseball coach in the world they will tell you that I should not have, except maybe the team we were playing. Their pitcher threw 206 pitches. Ha! My ego would not let me come out until he did. Anyway it was a well played game by both teams and it showed me my team has a lot of heart.

After the game we went over to Jacinda's house for a BBQ where we hung out with a few Kiwi's (New Zealanders) and I finally met her dad who is the ex SAS-Deep sea diver- Special Op's- Bad Ass. Their house was very cool and had a Shed all done up with a bar, bbq, flags, decorations, and several David Tua (proffesional boxer) memorabilia items on the wall. I looked closer and saw that there were pictures of Mike, Jacinda's dad, with Tua's belts. I asked about these and found out that he was his personal body gaurd for two years. Ha, add that to the list. He walked him into the ring when he fought Lenox Lewis in vegas and lost.

From then I looked over to see a mounted wild pigs hind quarters on the wall with the tail up and facing out. I again asked Mike about it and he got very excited and said I had to go get Liz as it was a tradition for all females that enter the shed. I agreed and drug Liz into the shed where she was forced to open her mouth up the the pig's poop shoot where Mike pulled a lever and a huge shot of vodka ran out. It was priceless and pictures will be coming soon (not our camera) . After that we ate several diffent kinds of meat and huge salads and veggies until my body pleaded for a bed and we drove home. I woke up several times that night hurting in just about every connection point in my body.

Two days later Liz had a full day at work because of a major horse race here called the Melbourne Cup. This is like the super bowl back home. Everything stops, work is called off (unless you work at a pub), and the nation tunes in to see if there bets pay off. I was invited by the Kiwi's from sunday night to go watch horse racing in Perth and having never gone I was into it. It was a site to see. 35000 People. All of them Dressed in the suits, dresses and of course giant hats. It was the Kentucky Derby with an accent. Turned out to be a pretty fun day. The day ended with Mike driving me home in his bright yellow Rolls Royce. Pretty sweet ride. We stopped and had burgers at Alfredo's with his wife Deb. Picked one up for Liz and continued up Great Eastern Hwy into the hills. There was something classic about rolling in a Rolls with two huge brass balls hanging from the back, listening to Mike in his bright white suit, see threw shirt, fully tattooed, cowboy hat, telling me about his times working with the Delta Force from the states. Nice tuesday.