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Fry Guy

Monday, June 5th, 2023

I ate fries at five fast food places here in Oz. How did they compare? Let’s find out!

McDonalds fries are exactly as you’d expect since they taste the same everywhere. They have a familiar if unremarkable taste but the excessive salt is a distraction from a hint of grease and perhaps even an inkling of regret. Of the five types of fry I tested, these were the worst (and yet paradoxically the ones I ate the most).

Hungry Jack’s (aka. Burger King) served up robust and tasty fries with a slight crispy snap to them. I got these three times and every time they were piping hot, not too salted, and delicious! And yet, I’d only rank these fourth of the five…

The above sad excuse for a fry serving was from Henny Penny, but they tasted much better than they looked. But this review is based on the large serving Sue and I shared a few days prior, which was delightful. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo but the fries were hot as hell, thick and full of potato energy, not greasy at all and dusted with delicious chicken salt. They were fantastic, but still only the third best of the five I tried.

Incidentally I feel obliged to showcase the ‘chicken roll’ I bought at Henny Penny, which was undoubtedly the single worst piece of food ever served to me:

Cold garbage chicken on a stale roll: this travesty was possibly excreted by Satan and I hurled it into a bin at light speed!

I’ve only had KFC once this trip, but it was in the middle of a long walk and I was very hungry at the time. The fries were extraordinary! Crispy and fluffy inside, they were golden brown and drenched in chicken salt. I devoured them in seconds, would happily eat more, and yet they’re still not the best I’ve had this trip.

And so we get to Oporto. I’ve had it several times this trip, and every time the fries were perfectly cooked, served hot, generously portioned (the above is a small serving), chicken-salted and tasted wonderful. And I don’t even have to give them extra points for giving me the longest fry I’ve ever seen! So just as Oporto served the best chicken tenders last year, this year they served me the best fries 🙂

Truth be told though, the fries at all five of these fast food places were all good, and even the worst were tasty. But if you’ve only got time for one fast food visit in Oz, as always my suggestion remains Oporto!

Posted in Australia, Food, Miscellaneous, Trip | Comments Closed

Animals, Again

Sunday, June 4th, 2023

Today I went to Oakvale animal park with Sue, Marina and Ten. I’d been here about six years ago and remembered it as the pinnacle of kangaroo-visiting locations, and today absolutely did not disappoint!

We got there right when it opened and there were tour buses full of Koreans unloading in front of us. Everyone legged it for the kangaroos that were sunning it at the park of the park. As it turns out there were so many kangaroos (more than 37; I counted) which were more than enough for everyone to find one to feed 🙂

The Korean tourists were mad with excitement, and everyone was all smiles as the kangaroos welcomed us and our little food bags! Marina and Ten were equally excited, and kangaroos were the first of many animals they fed today that they had never experienced first-hand before.

We fed kangaroos, llamas, goats, sheep, bulls, camels and even miniature horses. The girls were excited and scared of many of the animals – most of which were significantly larger than themselves – and many laughs were had 🙂

Another highlight was the baby goat feeding. Small bottles of milk were distributed to the crowd of visitors and then a pen of hungry baby goats was opened and the little goats went berserk running around drinking from the bottles. It was hilarious!

The park is beautifully kept, with well-maintained enclosures and a healthy animals. The weather today was ideal – not too hot or cold – and we saw lots of activity even amongst animals that are usually quite sedentary.

Marina and Ten are studying English at Newcastle University and both are fairly fluent, so we had no trouble communicating. Of course I was full of questions about Japan and it was fascinating getting the perspective of ‘locals’. I think they were amused by my otaku qualifications, which were similar to Marina’s dad!

As you know I love kangaroos, and I could happily visit them any time. It was a lovely day 🙂

Posted in Animals, Australia, Trip | Comments Closed

Save The Whales

Thursday, June 1st, 2023

Today Sue and I went to a place called Norah Head lighthouse, about a half hour south of Newcastle on the central coast.

It was a lovely and picturesque spot, and below the lighthouse was an expansive area of rockpools. Since it was low tide, we were free to explore them at our leisure.

We saw some brave souls fishing from the edge of the rocks. Fools, some may call them, since they ignored the many warning signs and many fisherman are lost every year from being washed off rocks.

From up on the cliffs near the lighthouse, and only minutes after we arrived, we saw out to sea many sights like this one:

Can you see the little black dot? Here’s a zoomed-in view:

It’s a breaching humpback! The east coast of Australia at this time is ‘humpback highway’ since whales are in the middle of migration north from Antarctica. I had read it was ‘easy’ to see whales off the east coast at this time of year but we were unprepared for just how easy it was!

These are extremely zoomed-in snaps of different whales, but we spotted them dozens and dozens of times in the hour or so we were on the rocks. It’s hard to saw how many different whales we saw, but at one point there were clearly four surfacing at once in different spots. Sue says we saw fifty, and far be it from to suggest that’s an exaggeration 🙂

Afterwards we had some fish and chips for lunch and headed to a lookout further south that we had read was a better whale-spotting point… but saw none there! No worries though, since we had been so lucky before lunch. It was a remarkable experience in a beautiful location 🙂

Posted in Animals, Australia, Trip | Comments Closed

Antipodean Bricks

Wednesday, May 24th, 2023

As you know, Australia is a land of ancient mystery and dark secrets. Often on my trips to this Great Southern Land I try to uncover some of these, but I wasn’t prepared for what I found yesterday.

I speak of an entire range of officially licensed and absolutely not bootleg LEGO kits based on popular brands. I was slack-jawed as I stumbled upon these; why aren’t these in the LEGO store in my local mall?

I speak of such things as Deformation Armor:

And Dinosaur Crossing:

And New Hero:

And even Marvelous Aengans:

Note that a couple of them are from a company called ‘666’, which must be some sort of southern-hemispherean LEGO shell company ~~managed by Satan~~.

Anyway I was trying to decide which one to buy when I found this hidden at the back of the shelf:

Holy Moses it’s Ultraman! I purchased it faster than you can down a small frozen coke and scurried out of the store. This, I knew, was a find of the century!

Obviously this is an officially licensed and not at all bootleg LEGO Ultraman kit, and specifically one of four available:

But what’s the subtitle under the ultra logo?

Ah yes, it’s obviously based on the ~~obviously nonexistent~~ ‘Star Body Sucking’ series. This may explain why the included minifigure is a weird hybrid with the head and chestplate of Ultraman Taro, the body design of no existing ultra, and who wields the Sparklence from Ultraman Tiga!

But this is a trifling distraction since I absolutely love this little bugger! Surely he’s now risen to the very top of my collection of officially licensed and absolutely not bootleg LEGO minifigures 🙂

Oh and there was a ‘spaceship’ in the kit as well but it was absolute trash so I binned it immediately.

Posted in Australia, Toys, Trip | 1 Comment »

On The Beaten Track

Wednesday, May 24th, 2023

I walked the full Fernleigh Track today. I’d wanted to do this for years, since I’d only done it once before (in 2012), but the logistics of getting home were always an obstacle. Thankfully, Sue came to the rescue!

She picked me up on her way to work and dropped me off at the Belmont end of the track. My plan was to walk the entire track home with a break at Charlestown for some lunch.

I started the track at 7:21 am. The first mile or so is heavily shaded by trees, which kept the temperature low. I was wearing shorts and it was quite chilly (8C/48F) but thankfully my rugged Australian constitution kept me going.

For the first third of the walk the birdsong was raucous and nonstop. There were no other walkers and a few cyclists so perhaps they were squawking at me? I loved it, especially the bellbirds, and occasionally found a sunny spot to pause and enjoy the sounds.

I was curious as to how long the walk would take so kept careful track of time (and steps) as I walked. The Belmont to Whitebridge leg is about two thirds of the track, and took me almost exactly two hours (and ~13000 steps). I wasn’t even tired yet, and it was time to divert and head to Charlestown Square for lunch.

This was no small side-trip either, since the walk to the mall from Whitebridge (and back) added 2.5 hours (and ~14000 steps) to the expedition! I ate some maccas, bought some magic cards and then had a nostalgic walk past old places we’d lived before rejoining the track in the early afternoon.

By this time the sun was high in the sky and I was in shirtsleeves, and maybe even getting a little sunburned? I’d done the Whitebridge-Adamstown leg many times and freshly refueled with frozen coke I knocked it out today in only one hour (and ~7000 steps). Once again I completed the entire track in one go, and I’m probably good for another decade or so! In total the track (alone) had taken me almost exactly three hours and a tad over 20,000 steps.

Of course I still had to walk back to mums, and it was this final leg of the trip – only a half hour or so after many hours of walking – where I started to feel the burn. But (of course) I made it, and when I finally reached mums I had been walking for 7.5 hours and 40,010 steps. My legs were spaghetti, but it had been a good day.

But I bet I’ll be feeling it tomorrow!

Posted in Australia, Trip | 1 Comment »

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