Sunday, March 11, 2007

I Believe I Can Fly...

Ahh..so refreshed after a week hiatus! Not missing blogging at all but since I'm all geared up I might as well start posting again. Many thanks to all of you who left kind comments on my last post regarding my absence.

It's the Moomba Festival weekend here in Melbourne and there's lots of happenings in town along the Yarra River and Docklands all weekend. Moomba is an annual festival in Melbourne where it's just a great excuse to have lots of fun!

There's plenty of activities to see and do at Moomba but the one event I love to see is the Birdman Rally on the Yarra! The rally involves contestants to strap on their self constructed flying crafts and battle it out to see who can 'fly' the furthest.

There's no rules to what craft you want to build, this guy built himself a green dragon. Dragons are known to fly so the stories go...

...but this one ends up in the water like every other contestants! The idea is to have fun and just enjoying the attention you get from the audience with their cheers and jeers!

Then the judges will decide on what points to award the contestant, this one scores a 4.5 which is not too bad. Mayor John So is one of the judges in today's rally.

Some people are really enthusiastic about winning, they'll build a really aerodynamic craft hoping to 'go' the distance and win the first prize which is a holiday package for 2 to Hawaii!

Some believe they are superheroes that can fly without any aid of a flying craft. All they need is their flying capes but they all end up wet.

This guy must've stole his idea from Leonardo DaVinci's flying craft coz the similarity is uncanny. Too bad it didn't make the distance but he scored a 4.5 also!

Then we had Count Dracula himself showing us how it's done since he's very good with flying as a bat at night but unfortunately not during the day and ended up yes, you guessed it, in the water. He scored just a 3.

This guy looks like he has a mattress strap to his back or is that a light weigh aerodynamic wing? Unfortunately not aerodynamic enough and he scored a 3 also. Better luck next year.

The last contestant is also last year's winner and this year it looks like he's made much improvement on his craft, it looks like a glider which means he's bound to 'hover' for a split second longer than the other contestants.

And he made it! Nice landing too, he has gone the farthest than any other contestants with a smooth landing on the water with minimum water splash.

He scored 6.5 and gets to retain his championship for the Flying Birdman of the year 2 years in a row! Now he'll be jetting off to Hawaii soon.

I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away
I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly

9 comments:

Dabido said...

I didn't realise they still held birdman rallies any more. lol
Most other states had them back in the 1970's, but I guess Melbourne [being the sports mad capital of Australia], has kept it going. :-)

Anonymous said...

I think I saw this on tv before
Its an annual event if I am not mistaken
The message is loud and hidden to some
Truly "I believe I can fly"
:)

me said...

interesting. visited serendipity's blog and saw the evening version of the momba fest, hopped over here and saw the morning version. now, i'm as good as having been there.

Anonymous said...

Come fly with me..come fly come fly with me :P

By the way..where is the fly aka lalat anyway?

Anonymous said...

Wo I've seen this on tv. Interesting la!

Anonymous said...

You back from holiday la...? How come you didn't participate in the birdman?

Jonzz said...

Birdman rally? Can they make a long dash before they take off?

Wuching said...

dabido: melbourne is stuck in the past!

zeroimpact: u see the message! i'm superman!

me: no no no no..there's more to moomba than what u've seen!

QV: what? fly in the wall? dunno..haven't seen her for a while now..

che-cheh: u should see it with ur own eyes, its teh happening!

neo: i oredi can fly liao, let others try their luck!

jonzz: of course they can but they all end up straight into the water!

Wuching said...

SA: go for it!