This year's Blacktown Festival heralded the return of the infamous Socog Dodec to this difficult course in over four years. As can be seen the redecoration and repainting of the dodec is now complete, resplendant in it's tricolour two pack auto spray paint job courtesy John Gardner of SWRFM who enjoyed many trips to 391GBR to complete the difficult work. This year we had a great team on board and.. a second Mr Lycra.. with Slash rising to the challenge this year and donning the "uteman" costume to carry the parade marker. This time we were virtually last in the parade which led to a much better and slower progression. A great day had by all, and very regular dousings of Mr Lycra. The photo (here shows Mr Lycra just after a dousing with most of the water still trying to find it's way out of the costume. The dousings are a great crowd pleaser and always raise a holler of cheers and often quite a few "WTF's"..

"the 2008 Gang". From Right you can see Slash in the Uteman costume, Sashi (who is normally behind the camera) and Mr Lycra together with the rest of the SWR crew.

Dodec man "warms Up in the carpark as the hour approaches.

Slash as "Uteman" (Left) and Mr Lycra as "Dodec Man (Right).

Dodecman in the middle of a "douse". This consists of simply pouring volumous amounts of water down the neck of the costume to keep cool. The water runs slowly down the inside and pours out the seams, a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

Pretty typical Dodecman pose - at the end of a difficult pull

More Dodecman butt shots.

Steve provided some greatly appreciated motive power for this roll.

The "after roll" walk was a long one. Over 2 hours mingling in the crowd and at the SWRFM van. Little Kieran can't wait to get his own.

Channel 9 weather lady and personality Jaine Searle visited the van for an interview and posed for a shot with Dodecman and Kieran who was crying loudly at the time. I suspec the top of the "SWR" triangle had earlier caught his leg and given him some pain to think about..

As has been reported regularly now, another aspect of the Dodecman thing is the long time the suit is worn and subsequent difficulty in taking rest stops. Also well known now is the unusual solution.. just pee the suit. Unlike Merrylands this time there were no "problems" and dodecman had little difficulty soaking the dancebelt and innards soon after putting the costume on. Standing there talking to a crowd of people in public or at the shops while letting a torrent of pee gently warm your midsection is such a weird sensation - there's absolutely no way anyone involved can really tell whats going on. Except for the occasional puddle left on the ground (usually after the parade finishes and I really need to go) there's never enough to make its way out of the suit. It's almost totally water and odourless anyway given the amount of water dodecman drinks en route. A good shower and soak of both suit and wearer at the end of the day is all that is needed to set everything back on track, although afterwards dodecman then has to train himself to remember to not just let the pee come out whenever it wants to...