Australian Adventures

I have always believed to see a city, it must be walked.

So this was the way I saw Sydney.

After a few hours in the Hyde Park Barracks, I wondered what was further up the road and went see what I could find.

A short distance later, I came to the hospital with a large bronze boar proudly standing outside it.

Well this sparked my curiosity.

What was it?

Why was it there?

Following a bit of research, I learnt that this boar was in fact called the Il Porcellino meaning piglet.

I also read that if you threw some gold coins in the fountain it stood over, and rubbed its nose, it would bring you luck.

Thinking there was no harm in doing this and that whatever money I gave would go to a good cause, I found my purse to see if I had change.

5 cent.

Ok, this might not be a lot but every little helps right.

I walked up to the lucky pig, stared it in the eye and threw my 5 cent piece and immediately caressed its nose.

I left wondering when my newly gained luck would appear.

Quite by coincidence I ended up going crab racing that night.

A couple of bouts had taken place before I thought, now is my turn to get behind one of these tiny crabs.

The clipboard came round and number 7 was the only one left so Mr Pinchy had my full support.

Suddenly the metal bowl was lifted.

I was going to say the crabs raced quickly to the edge but in fact they’re quite slow.

However, my number 7 was the first out.

He was making a determined assault to the finish.

I was getting more worked up and excited at the chance of winning the first prize.

When he just stopped.

I had bet on the tiniest crab I had ever seen, he so small that he had to take a breather across the small board they were racing on.

This, of course, meant that crabs came past poor Mr Pinchy and I came third.

I did win a hat so not all was lost.

As I was leaving the crab racing venue, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe if I had paid the lucky pig a little bit more earlier in the day my bet may have paid off.