Sydney, Australia (Day 2)

Technically speaking I'm posting this on the same day as my previous post, some fifteen hours later.  My blog thinks otherwise.  Time zones are just so much fun.

I have now been awake since 12:30 am local time.  Currently it is nearly 6:00 pm local time.  I'll be here for at least another half-hour, if not a whole hour, working to get these pictures up.  Slow internet is a killer.  Hopefully you enjoy all 36 pictures.

We set out around 9:30 am local time with the intention of walking through the Botanical Gardens to the Sydney Opera House.  We certainly took our time about it, as we didn't arrive until about 1 pm.  That and it was a pretty long walk.  We had our lunch at a point across a bay from the Opera House, at Mrs. Macquarie's point.  From there we could see the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge all in one beautiful panoramic view.  After spending some time there we walked along the shoreline to the Opera House and lay in the shade of it for a while (see pictures below).  The rest of the crew started singing "opera", so I slipped away to take pictures while they sang.  After they were done with that we started walking towards the bus as there is a free bus circuit that goes around right past our apartment building, and that's when the real fun began.

Just in front of the bus stop there was a pair of street performers just starting up, so we got a front row seat to this.  After the preliminary acts, consisting of "Psycho Sam" doing the robot (and very very well, I must say), and name-escapes-me, a contortionist, who managed to twist herself into some very painful looking positions.  Then they started getting the elaborate set-up started.  First they nabbed two likely looking men from the crowd to hold up a ten-foot ladder simply by pulling on some straps attached to the top, one on each side.  After some antics with these two guys Psycho Sam started casting about (pun maybe intended) for a younger child.  He goes through two kids before coming to Patrick, who, much to our surprise, stepped right up without hesitation.  Normally Patrick would be perfectly willing for stuff like that in a family setting but out in public, even with people we know, he shy as a mouse.  But not this time.  Psycho Sam, after getting Patrick's name, pulled out a ten dollar bill and explained that if Patrick did as he was told he would get this ten dollar bill at the end.  He then told Patrick to show how excited he was at the prospect of getting the ten dollars by jumping for joy.  Instantly Patrick starting jumping up and down waving his arms in the air, without waiting for Sam's lead.  Then Sam started moving to slightly more complex "jumps", the next one involving the kicking out of the legs in the jump.  Patrick imitates perfectly.  Then, Sam gets down and starts doing a little break dancing.  He then started moving on to the next part of the show, as he was obviously joking around, but he was interrupted by Patrick who had started imitating the break dance!  The crowd started cheering loudly at this point and the look on Sam's face was priceless.  Both he and the contortionist were in shock; they evidently do this routine a lot but Patrick was probably the first kid to follow through with the break dancing.  After getting over the surprise, he then started to ask Patrick to do increasingly ridiculous things.  After the dancing bit Sam led Patrick over to the ladder and told him that once he got to the top of the ladder he could have the ten dollars.  Remember, this is just a straight up ladder with no support except the two guys holding it with the straps.  Patrick instantly starts climbing and is about halfway up before Sam yanks him off the ladder as he probably didn't intend for Patrick to start climbing.  Finally, Sam pulls to the centre of the "stage" his juggling implements that have been lying in plain view the whole time, namely a juggling club, a large knife, and a torch.  He then tells Patrick that he is to throw him (Sam) the knife once he gets to the top of the ladder.  He demonstrates the proper throwing technique and carefully explains how not to throw it.  He then begins to hand Patrick the knife, which he reaches for right away, but then Sam yanked it away saying. "Not a chance."  He then gives Patrick the club and climbs up the ladder, and gets the crowd to count to three, at which point Patrick threw the club....straight up.  He recovered quickly enough and partially caught it on the way down, and then threw it right to Sam on his next throw.  Finally he got his ten dollars and came back to us quite proud of himself.

Also, as there were several people filming this performance I'd expect this to turn up on YouTube at some point.  If I come across it there I'll be sure to post the link to it here.

And finally, Patrick's street performance.  Unfortunately I didn't catch the actual break dancing.