To Freaks and Marvels.

After an enthusiastic start here, I succumbed to the flu, then gave myself a dose of food poisoning. It was a chorizo bought from a local supermarket and yes, I should know better. On the other hand, while one expects that meat from a supermarket, as opposed to a quality butcher, will be below par, one does not expect to spend the night after eating said sausage curled in the foetal position on the toilet floor awaiting the next poisonous expulsion.

I did, however, manage to attend the Yungaburra Festival last weekend and can report that:

1. Mocha's pies are no longer distinctively 'mocha' as I remember them to be from my days in Port Douglas. These pies were so uniquely themselves that after moving to Sydney I found myself walking down a city street one day when that familiar mocha smell stopped me in my tracks. 'Mocha!' I thought, adrift suddenly in balmy, blue, pie-munching memories
and, astonished, looked around to find (gasp) a Mocha's right there before me. 'Oh dear', I remember thinking (rather selfishly I suppose) at the time, 'does this mean a franchise?'
I had all but forgotten these pies of my youth until I spied their stall at Yungaburra. The familiar aroma was suspiciously not there but I bought one for old time's sake, and I'm here to tell you friends, that, though as pies go it was quite passable, it was most certainly not the mocha taste of old.

2. Praise be to Lord Krisna. The feast plate from our lovely jingly friends in orange was the highlight of the weekend, and their lemon ginger cooler was a delightful salve for the slight queasiness that always accompanies the second morning of a festival.


And as for the music, I hereby crown Mal Webb, King of the weekend. This man is a veritable freak, a monster, a maestro, funky and geeky all at once.
Rather delicious all around, really.
You may have caught him on 'Spicks and Specks' of late, you may have heard his musical craftiness on 'The Lano and Woodley Show' or you may google him up and catch him where you can.

Other kudos go to the Space Cowboy who did scary things with swords and neon lights and has my daughter hanging round the cutlery drawer earnestly trying to bend spoons.
Thank you, oh bewinged, pierced and implanted one, for recalling the days of Carnivales , and the Wonders and Marvels therein.


All for now.
Bon appetit.