On Sunday Monster Noggin and I decided to accompany Mystical Roo on a trip to Bondi where he would be running the City to Surf. Being a good hour and halfs drive and with the race actually starting at 08.30, this led to my being awake at an ungodly hour of the day. Yuck. I'm not really a morning person...or a late night person for that matter. I like my sleep. What can I say, I'm a bit koala like. So I stumbled out of bed, threw on some clothes, stole Mystical Roo's jumper and ambled to the car. No breakfast, no make-up, no nothing. I did brush my teeth though. When we got to Bondi we let Mystical Roo out and agreed to meet at the "meeting point". Yes, the meeting place, the place where people meet, how hard can that be. You remember Stalky, the place we met last time. Yes, last time. Meeting place. Anyway, Monster Noggin and I then went in search of somewhere to park, which isn't easy when 80,000 people have descended on Bondi to do some running. Crazy folk. We went round numerous streets and roads, being lazy and trying to park as close as possible before we came across a big P sign, indicating parking was nearby. Worth a try I suppose but we were doubtful seeing as how everywhere else was packed. The sign led us down a narrow road into a dubious looking area but sure enough there was another sign indicating underground parking. We drove down the ramp into a completely empty car park. Highly suspicious. Why is it empty? What's the catch? We read the parking sign multiple times just to make sure that we weren't missing anything. Free parking? Check. Time restrictions? 2 hours, hmm we'll risk it - I've yet to see a parking inspector the whole time I've lived here, car park open? 8am to 10pm. Public parking? Why yes indeedy. Surely this is too good to be true. I imagine that the door to the underground car park will suddenly rumble shut, trapping us with some crazed troll bent on stealing handbags and possibly shoes. But the door does not rumble shut. We check the sign one more time before happily heading off in the direction of the beach feeling might pleased with ourselves. Yes it's a spooky-ass car park, but it may not be one of doom. We figure we'll find out when we get back. If the car is gone then we know it was a car park of doom. Anyway, Monster Noggin and I grab a spot of breakfast and then take a place in the crowd to try and spot Mystical Roo. He's wearing a pink bandanna so hopefully we'll spot him but there are a lot of people running and it's surprising how many Mystical Roo doppelgangers there are out there. Monster Noggin has seriously dodgy eye-sight so I guess she has an excuse but I live with Mystical Roo so I should really be able to recognise him. The first few runners come through, looking sweaty and exhausted and then a few minutes later the hordes arrive. I'm scanning the crowds with narrowed eyes and Monster Noggin has the camera poised for an action shot. When we do spot Mystical Roo we both whoop and cheer, wave and Monster Noggin gets a few shots. Then we head off in the direction of "the meeting place". At first we're unsure of how to get to the other side of the road seeing as how it's being blocked by runners. One things for sure we're not going to try and cross the flow of people. Imagine if you got in someone's way and like wrecked their time. The guilt! I know that if I tried to cross I'd stumble or get distracted by something and then cause a 17 person pile up. It would make the news and I'd be known as that stupid pommy girl who wrecked the run. I shudder at the thought. So we make our way around the runners and not through the runners in search of the Mystical Roo. So the meeting place eh? Meeting place? Oh yeah the meeting place. Monster Noggin assumes I know where this is. I assume Monster Noggin knows where this is and then I remember that Monster Noggin wasn't with us last year. Oh crap. Little Stalkys are not known for their navigation skills or their paying attention skills or their organisational skills. It'll be fine. We'll just walk in this direction and we'll bump into each other. How hard can that be amongst 80,000 people.......Half an hour later there is still no sign of Mystical Roo. He has nothing with him apart from the running clothes he's wearing and my i-pod. I have his jacket. He must be freezing. Oh poor Mystical Roo, I've let you down again. Me and Monster Noggin wandered the crowds for maybe and hour and still found no sign of Mystical Roo. When we finally did discover the "meeting place" it was so jammed with people that we actually couldn't move. Maybe we should have tried a bit of crowd surfing at this point but I'm not sure how well that would have gone down. Especially as most of the crowd was made up of runners who'd already knackered themselves out. We decided to get to higher ground, that way we could survey the crowds whilst making ourselves obvious. I wished I'd bought a fluorescent jacket with me or something. So we made our way to the skate board park, Monster Noggin becoming only slightly distracted by the lifeguard tower we passed. We stood randomly atop the skate park for maybe ten minutes before deciding to return to our original spot. Trying to think what Mystical Roo would do we figured he might return to the place he'd seen us last. Turns out he'd seen us standing atop the skate park and had cut through the crowds to find us. When a hand went to grab the jacket I was holding my first instinct was to run away but then I realised it was a Mystical Roo hand, attached to none other than Mystical Roo. I was so relieved! He got a big cuddle. I then had to admit to both Mystical Roo and Monster Noggin that I had no idea where this so called "meeting point" was. But I gave you a leaflet. There was a leaflet? Hmmm. Happy to have located Mystical Roo we go back in search of the car. When we arrive back at the spooky-ass car park of possible doom we discover the car is fine. Just where we left it. Phew. So it was less a spooky-ass car park of doom than an excellent car park of happiness. The three of us headed home to the sound of triumphant music and the sun setting over the hills. Actually it was lunchtime and there was loads of traffic. I got a bag of jelly beans though and Mystical Roo was on TV so it's all good!
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