Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

Wombat Hugger

Monday, January 7th, 2013

Let’s cut right to the chase:

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Yep, that’s me and a wombat. It’s a nine month old female, who was placid and soft and loved to be hugged right under her arms. It was awesomely cute πŸ™‚

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Today I visited the above with Sue and her two kids. It’s an animal park about an hour south of Newcastle featuring a good collection of Australian animals.

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Going to the shows alone would fill your day. We saw several: venomous snakes, alligator feeding, dingo feeding, croc feeding, Tasmanian devil feeding.

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There were many opportunities for animal photos, including snakes, alligators, wombats, koalas and devils. In addition, free roaming animals included emus, geese, ducks and…

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Beautiful beasts they are. There were two types there, Eastern Grays and Kangaroo Island Kangaroos. As I said to Sue, how many other animals can you think of with the same word in its name twice?

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Inside a reptile house was the above statue. It periodically breathed smoke and spoke what sounded like the language of Mordor. As a child, I would have loved it. As an adult… well I loved it still πŸ™‚

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Much fun was had by all; adults and kids alike. Especially the old guy that hugged a wombat πŸ™‚

I’ll Rest When I’m Dead

Sunday, January 6th, 2013

Dad and I got an early start. Our destination was the first Broadmeadow farmer’s market of the year, and even at 8 am it was a hot and sweaty walk. On our way, we saw a swimming horse:

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The market was good, with plenty of fresh food and drink to be purchased. Dad bought olives, potatoes, mushrooms, grapes, eggs, tomatoes and avocados.

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One stall even sold livestock, in the firm of chickens (several breeds), rabbits and these guys:

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Afterwards… well things got a bit complicated. I’ll spare the details, but the bottom line is that I ended up with an appointment at a clinic to see a doctor, since I’ve been ill over a week now.

Walking to said clinic took me through dangerous territory:

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And past nostalgic locations:

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Happily, the doctor gave me a ‘your sick but you don’t need antibiotics’ bill of health, which required a celebration:

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And then an old dear friend picked me up for an evening of happy memories. But more about that later…

Dazed & Confused

Friday, January 4th, 2013

The title refers to the fact that, once again, I am trying to write this after taking my ‘night time drugs’. Please excuse any brevity or incoherence.

And since many have emailed/texted me, the drugs seem to be working and I’m optimistic for a full recovery within a few days!

Now on to the business I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s entry. It concerns this man:

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Just a few days ago he won a Letterpress game by playing the word ‘gromwells’. Yesterday I innocently asked him what it meant. Not only did he not know, he didn’t even remember playing it! Turns out that this clever shark was utilizing a dictionary while playing the game. I ask you readers, is this fair play?

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Sue picked me up this morning, and we spent a few hours driving around the city and visiting Blackbutt. The shot above is the Pacific Ocean view from the Newcastle cliffs. We also went to see the newly renovated ‘Bogey Hole’ (a colonial ocean bath):

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As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

Blackbutt is a free nature reserve in the heart of the greater Newcastle area. It’s changed a lot since we were kids, but I’d not visited since the last major renovation after the Pasha Bulker storm.

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That’s a pair of Emus. As in ‘eem-yous’! They’re big and scary, and at Blackbutt you can buy food in an ice cream cone to feed them. Here’s proof:

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Look at that! It’s almost as big as Sue!

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Although I am the image of bravery in the picture, I’m not afraid to admit I was a little bit scared of the big bird. This is half because I’ve always been leery of emus, and half because of:

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That’s a bush turkey. It’s not very big, and when I spied him on the way to the emus I felt generous and offered him some food. Moments after this photo was taken he hammered down on the cone, knocking all the food out, taking off a chunk of the cone and nearly making me wet myself with startlement! And then he walked away from the food scattered everywhere. Silly turkey!

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Some of the new displays at Blackbutt include a nocturnal quoll house, some frogs (as shown above) and an improved wombat house. They also retain their great Koala habitat, which also houses many birds including the tawny frogmouths:

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The afternoon was a mixture of resting, used bookstore shopping (including finding some gamebooks I didn’t have!) and my eternal favorite: window shopping the weird and wonderful Australian produce and grocery stores. For instance, this was at a butcher today:

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I can’t think of anything that would make me eat that!

Last but not least, a photo for my brother. Do you recognize this place?

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Quite different, isn’t it?

Going Home To _______

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

On the train from Sydney to Newcastle, which I caught today, the views can be like this:

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In other words the country is far less flat and outbackey than on the Canberra trip. In the above shot it’s not raining; it’s just a dirty train window.

I saw, amusingly enough, one kangaroo only. However I saw many rabbits. They were small and black and in the grass along the track running from the outskirts of Sydney all the way to Morisset. I couldn’t get a good shot so this artists impression must suffice:

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When I got to Newcastle I looked like this:

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And a few hours later… Like this:

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What happened? crazy Aussie drugs happened! Or perhaps it was the case that pharmacies can dispense the ‘good stuff’ without a prescription here which led me to getting some serious drugs which punched my cold back to Hell.

I hope πŸ™‚

Here was lunch:

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Ah, beet root on bread! Here’s lucky the aged cat:

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And here’s a guy I met outside on the door when I arrived:

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After dinner we did some of this:

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And then I took my ‘night time’ drugs which have already rendered me ruinously tired.

The ‘Gromwell Incident’ will have to wait for tomorrow πŸ™‚

Wreck-It Robert

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

Let me get this out of the way, this is me right now:

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Yessir, I’m still sick. Putting aside the fact I may have tried to look as miserable as possible in the above shot, the truth is I’m still fighting off an evil Australian bug. And you know what they say about Aussie bugs!!!

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I had a dilemma yesterday. I discovered that both pairs of shorts I brought with me to Australia were splitting! Since (I assume) it’s illegal in Australia to stroll around with one’s wedding tackle visible, I needed to buy some short pants!

OMG clothes are expensive here! As in $100+ for a pair of name brand cargo shorts, and ~$75 for something normal. I settled for ugly Chinos that were on sale at $30 πŸ™‚

Here’s the smallest cinema in the universe:

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Only 61 seats! This is in the local independent Randwick cinema, and it was in this tiny room we saw Wreck-It Ralph yesterday. What a delightful film! If you have even a passing interest in video gaming of any kind you’ll love this movie, so go see it!

Dinner was an Australian rip-off of Chipotle Grill:

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And then during the evening I consumed criminal amounts of cheese & onion chips and mini cherry ripes. This was because I felt better at the time, but I’m paying for it now (the next morning).

Adam says “Starve a cold; feed a fever.” I should listen to him πŸ™