Robot Claw

I’m back home. My suitcases were stuffed like never before, and actually slightly overweight. I get 50 lbs/case, and combined the two were about 104 lbs, although the check in lady let it pass. Many many things came back with me, and here I’ll showcase a few.

I discovered LOZ bricks in Australia, and have been amazed by the quality of these LEGO competitors. I invested heavily, and eight sets came back with me. If you see these in shops, pick one up!

Sydney now has (at least) 5 Gacha machine stations, and as you can see I partook. My usual modus operandi for these is to keep them closed until I return home, lest I keep sinking money to get the particular item I wanted. We’ll open these over the next few weeks.

A couple of figures came back with me, both won from the same machine (at a cost I won’t discuss…) at the ufo catcher shop in Sydney. I’ve already opened them and both are high quality and look good on my shelves.

Yes I bought two Star Wars figures! I was surprised by the high cost and easy availability of these in Australia. While they’re considerably cheaper here, they’re almost never found in shops and the two above I’d never seen. The main reason I bought them though is that the elimination of plastic from packaging ensures the future of these figures is clouded, and the above may well be the last I ever buy.

I love the manga series Quintessential Quintuplets so when I saw an entire box of ‘wafer + card’ sold at the anime shop on Pitt Street I jumped at the chance. This was one of my most exciting purchases in Oz!

If you’re glancing over the photos so far and thinking ‘But wasn’t he in Australia?‘ then I’m not surprised. Much of my cases were full of Japanese stuff or old magazines (thanks AW!). But rest assured I have left the best for last, and the majority of the weight in my cases was this:

Behold chocolate! This isn’t even all of it, but can you believe all that candy?!? There’s even more:

Astonishing I brought back about 40 pounds of candy! Some of it will be gifted, but the remainder is for me and Kristin to enjoy over the next few months.

Other stuff not shown here: money (collectible coins mostly), coffee (for kls), kitchen goods (plates, tea towels), books, shirts and probably other stuff I’m forgetting due to jetlag. 🙂

I slept in today, and when I finally got up on this, the last day of my trip, I started the tedious chore of packing. I’ve bought or acquired too much, and as always I’m concerned I’ve exceeded my weight limit. I suppose I’ll find out tomorrow.

Mid morning I headed to The Powerhouse Museum to see the microcar exhibit. Seventeen tiny vehicles were on display, all working and most original. Many were from the 1950’s and 1960’s and I learned several were born from novel ideas on how to repurpose WW2 aircraft factories such as the Messerschmitt above, which is built around a modified plane body.

The above shot shows the legendary Sinclair C5 from the 1980s alongside a similar vehicle from only a few years ago. Tiny electric cars seem like a great idea: why aren’t we there yet?

I also had a look at the electronic keyboard and synthesizer exhibit, although I found it lacking. The pieces were simply displayed (with no context or even information), and it would have been great to be able to hear example sounds from them. Don’t just tell us the Roland shown above was responsible for the iconic sound of Eurythmics Sweet Dreams, let us hear it!

Afterwards I did some more exploration (I found a fourth Gacha station) and lots of last-minute shopping before it was time for final packing and locking the bags.

I couldn’t decide what to eat for dinner, and ultimately went with my own hybrid I’ll call McPorto, which ended up being just right.

My flight is early which means I rise before the sun. It’s been a fast and exciting and busy and memorable month, and after 2.5 years it was wonderful to be able to do this again:

610,000 steps in 30 days means a daily step average of over 20,000. I’ve sent an insane amount of postcards (which take time) and done 30 daily blogs which I’ve never done before. All this left very little time to relax and I fear I’ve pushed myself perhaps a little too far.

I’m going to need a vacation!

Did some more shopping and exploring the city:

Before taking a break for packing and eating ‘chicken for babies’ for lunch:

And then in the evening I went out to see the rest of Vivid:

That’s a tiny model; the umbrella was maybe an inch wide. It was part of a series of detailed models in boxes that all used light creatively.

Central Station was spectacular. It’s a massive building and the projection was extremely colourful and very crisp. It animated through various scenes and didn’t repeat in the several minutes I watched.

I also visited The Convergence, which was at the end of a dead-end street. There was a long line when I arrived and since it said the wait was 15 minutes I joined it and amused myself by watching the slow motion projection of a dancers feet that was on a nearby building.

But the 15 minute wait got longer and longer and it wasn’t until almost an hour later than I entered the installation, which was a long tunnel full of lasers and smoke.

It was mildly insane, and at times dazzling, but so full of people I had to get creative to take photos. At the very end the line turns but the tunnel cleverly seemed to continue into infinity:

It was like being in a mad hybrid of The Matrix and Frankie’s Relax music video and while not worth an hours wait was another of the best Vivid installations.

I think I ended up seeing at least 45 of the 47 official Vivid attractions, which means I got my moneys worth (it’s all free)! If I’m ever in Australia during Vivid again, I’ll absolutely make plans to be in Sydney because I think it was great 🙂

Returned to Sydney with Sue. I’ll head home in a few days but before then it was time to do more shopping and check out the majority of the Sydney Vivid festival.

We shopped around the Asian districts which get more impressive each time I visit. It feels like Chinatown, Koreatown and Japantown are a large chunk of Sydney now, and there’s lots of shops selling nifty stuff that I’ll need to take a second look in before I go. It’s a shame I’m not more adventurous with food, because the wealth of different restaurants is amazing (should I get a pork katsu tonight?)!

Vivid was amazing. There were light displays everywhere, including spotlights that lit up the clouds! The bridge and the opera house were obviously centerpieces, and they didn’t disappoint.

All around Circular Quay and The Rocks there were installations, ranging from small and cute (like fake walk signals displaying emojis) to massively impressive (like multistory buildings with animations projected onto them). The crowds were massive as well, but well controlled and always moving so it was easy to see and enjoy everything.

All the light shows were animated. The bridge cycled through many colors (and video was projected onto the supports) and the opera house saw a dazzling display of colours and faux 3D effects projected onto it. Virtually everywhere you looked there was something to see, and even the skyscrapers were lit up in a rainbow of colours.

You could go walk up to many of the installations (like this mega music visualizer cube) and most of them incorporated sound or music as well.

A couple made use of the harbour itself, like these ‘soap by bubbles’ or several ships going back and forth advertising the event.

We walked for several hours from the Opera House all the way to Darling Harbour and still probably didn’t see everything. I’ll probably go out again tonight to see the offerings down at Central Station.

By the way, although I’d never think it or even admit it, it’s possible all this activity (another near 30k steps yesterday) is catching up to me. As usual I’ll need a vacation to recover from this trip!