Monkey business

A friend of mine is a little obsessed with monkeys. He was born in the Year of the Monkey. He has a cat named Monkey. He does a terrific monkey impersonation by blowing up his cheeks and searching for nits. He recently got a large monkey tattoo on his chest (a bit of a responsibility for me, who was asked to design it!). He eats at least two bananas a day. He climbs anything that poses a challenge, often forgoing ladders at his work to reach the stock placed up high on storage racks, instead scaling the sheer shelving and fetching it on his own steam. His recent Facebook picture was him up a tree… you get the picture. This monkey kinship is quite selective, however. My friend isn’t interested in Paul Frank merchandise, and is not a fan of the Coco Pops mascot. He would probably sell his left foot to cruise around on a pink cloud like Monkey Magic though.

So what do you get such a friend for his birthday when over the decade that you’ve known each other you’ve already run the monkey-themed present gamut? Imagine my delight when I stumbled across Adventure Parc in the Gold Coast hinterland. Adventure Parc is a developed version of the high-ropes course that used to terrify us at school camps – except this high-ropes course is open to adults, and has a special ‘black’ rated course just for those over 160cm. An access-all-areas pass is now in the mail for said friend, and he can swing like a monkey to his heart’s desire. I’ve also designed him a monkey journal to record his monkey adventures in – heavy gold paper with a wooden die-cut primate. Keeping with this theme I’ve included some other animals in the range. Enjoy! Note – the gold colour is a lot shinier than my scanner can pick up…