Then, after that, I went and met up with Ariff. After our considerably odd manner of meeting the day prior, and the lingering recollection of that ever-present 'oh-crap-you-werent-meant-to-turn-around-yet-ness', all the awkwardness of meeting someone new and so, not having anything to talk about was absent. Today became pretty easy after such a unique way of meeting 24 hours earlier. Piling into the car (yes, the two of us piled into the car...), we made quick haste to Freemantle.
So picture this. We rock up.
Thats all.
Haha, nah but seriously, we arrive, and there is just people everywhere. People crowding the street, and performances all over the place, and I am quite impressed with the ammount of people that are here for our arrival. Ariff was the man. I was really impressed. He would just walk up to people, and snap off a photo whether he was like 2 meters away from them, or 20 meters away. He owned that joint. I'm like, "Thats it bro! These people are here for us anyway! Do your thing!"
I'm glad that I didnt mention this to him, as the Freemantle Street & Performing Festival sign had eluded me until this point, and so consequently, I very quickly changed my stance on the reason as to why all these people were present at the same time as we had arrived.
Walking into the front of the fruit & veggie markets, I was just keen as a mung bean to take some photos. I saw something that has potential to look cool. So, with the slickness of James Bond, I swung that camera off my hip, and snapped a glorious image. I shall name it after the very first thought that I had after taking the photo:
"Why the hell did I just take this?"
Your thought too? Glad we think the same. I can very vaguely remember turning around to Ariff, and I think there was even a little bit of confusion on his face too lol.
As we progressed through the markets, with the wisdom of a dolphin, I put my "find weird looking people" glasses on. And THEN! I spotted this:
I took my "find weird people glasses" off, and Blow me dead! Nothing changed.
Now! It might not be a wierd looking person, but it comes close. That could eat you if your'e not careful. The golem-like foot was different, but such shock as soon to be recompensed with something not unlike a soothing balm. Scouring aorund, to see who was going to fall victim to my stunningly rugged good 'looking through my camera' abilities, I spotted a young man playing his violin, simply making his earning.
So, with the serenity of a canary bird, I captured what my eyes took witness of as this boy played his violin.
I have to admit. I was tempted to ask him:
"Have you been playing for more than 45 Minutes?"
"And whats more! Have you spoken to the Office?!"
But I'm not an ass, so instead I gave him some money cos my lil bro plays violin too, and he looked like a real softie.
Feeling good about myself for good deed that I had just done, Ariff and I began walking out of the veggie market, into the rest of the market. Now, for those that didn't read PT1 of the Adventures of Billy & Ariff, there is a photo of a gentle man attempting to sell me the big issue. I genuinely was not expecting to see two of these salesmen in two days. I was quite taken back. So with the precision of a Gorilla, I slinked into a corner, and waited for the opportune moment.
My Gorilla precisioness paid off.. As I am sure that you will agree, and if you dont, then you should.
For this guy (who was right behind us after taking the photo of the Big Issue dude), I used the intelligence of a mighty ox to plan how I would capture the duo singing thier folk songs. I saw them like 5 times, and man, they were cool. The guy looked like he has some form of aspergers syndrome or something lol. But hey! He was cool.
Just after leaving the markets, we went outside, and the first thing I spotted was this bloke miming. I was drawn to him like a obese child is drawn to a lamington. He was my fav. And so, the intuition of a canadian beaver within me has decided that I will put 2 pictures of him up here. One of him Scaring me, and the other of Him scaring an innocent little girl. His attempts to console her were to no avail, and she ran back to Her dad. Oh well...
Just after seeing this guy, I noticed a substantial crowd all surrounding this area. Ariff & I went and checked it out. You know those performances where all they do is spend their whole time hyping the crowd up, and by that time, nobody cares how many nations this show has been to, and how many thousands of people have heard you recite this memorized speal, cos the fact of the matter is that you are boring as hell. And so, the confusion of a gender-confused confusion animal, (very rare) caused me to spot this picture of this acrobatics chick doing her thing. I have to admit. She was a little manly... Kinda put me off a bit.
After listening to this chick rant on for a while, Ariff & I gave it legs, and just down the street, I mean maybe 50, 100 meters, was this performance. And this was unique... I have never really found a hippie performance that isnt just plain old weird. These guys were dressed munted, kinda prancing all over the street like pitsy horses, and just doin their thing. Which was not doing ANY thing for me. But each to their own... And one who was to their own was that little girl in the back ground. Man! She might have been small, but in prancing the pitsy horse world, she would tear you a new one!
This guy was watching the hippie performance. And it looks like he had the same thoughts as I did lol.
After being engrossed in the hippie performance, Ariff, and his faithful assistant (me), saw this guy just down the road, and he actually was really entertaining. He really was a cool dude, so I got this photo with the serendipity of a meerkat.
Just beside that guy's performance, I saw this dude leaning up against the bus stop, and I used the pretention of a lemur to get this photo. I thought it was cool anyway!
Just across the road from the Stripy Red & Black dress-up guy, I noticed these guys. If you have a look at the guy that was performing, and you can see the Nova banner? Just over the left of that. Anyways... They looked like they were pimps, but with no pimpage-ness going on. They had the attitude, but lacked the style. Sorry guys. But they just looked cool.
After snapping my pimpage guys, who lacked in pimpageness, we wandered down toward the end of the festival, where there was a couple playing some music. So, these couple were some of my favs too. They just played blues, and MAN! They were good! They had a nice little crowd of people surrounding them, and it was just as good as any live entertainment that you could get. The chick was hilarious. It was almost like she couldnt help but just groove when she started playing. She would stomp her foot, and all that other gear that goes with a really cool blues duo. Yeah. She was awesome.
Ok. If you look in the back ground of this photo, you can see the 'Detour Ahead' sign in the corner? On the opposite corner to that (diagonally) was where the Blues couple were playing. Just so you can get a feel for where abouts we are in our little story.
So after noticing this guy, and with the slyness of a triceratops, I slinked into the shadows to get this photo, and found out that this guy didnt like his photo being taken, and told me to "go forth and multiply". First time ever lol. Next time, I'll try the earthworm...
So, we kept walking after we reached the end of the road, we just kept walking, cos we figured that there would be much more to see with everything as it was in Freo at the time. We walked down a few side streets, and on one of these side streets, I spotted this guy (with, of course, the steadiness of a giraffe). See if you can find him:
We wandered into a very life-less train station, hoping that there would be something to be had, and with the grace of a turtle's insight, I saw this guy reading the paper at a train station that was having no trains that day... Go figure...
In the train station, I saw this sign. I saw it as an opportune time to record this phenomenon. (and that one was with the compassion of a baboon).
Doubling back from our wander to the trainless train station, My green tree snake intuition led me to spot these guys sitting down here. And her green tree snake intuition spotted me too? :O
Now just up the road was this kid. He was just chillin. Nothing special. He just looked cool, and looked like he has the ladies under control... Good work Buddy.
We decided that we had been around, and walked far enough for that day, and, as we were leaving it started raining, and I saw this girl, and I was like. "Yeah..." So I took the photo.
Yeah...
So there you have it. I am terribly sorry for my all-over-the-place-ness with this post, but I wanted to get it out there while I had the opportunity to do so, and it ended up taking ALOT longer than I anticipated. I may get back on here, and give a bit more of a clean-up. But we all know that it probably will never happen.
There you have it!
The Adventures of Billy & Ariff.
