Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Brief Pelican

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

Here’s a preview of two of the souvenirs I have purchased on this trip:

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Will you be the lucky recipient?

Yesterday we went for a drive here and there. We visited a big mall about an hour south, and then stopped at The Entrance on the way back. Here’s one thing I saw there:

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And here is another:

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The Entrance is famous for its Pelicans, and as you can see feeding is quite popular. They are big aren’t they?!

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That’s a lovely photo isn’t it? As you can see it was another fine day, and very warm as well. When we got home the two brothers were hot and bothered, and had to take some time to cool down:

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And have a beverage and a snack:

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For which we were joined by mum and dad:

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Can you see the interloper in the back of that photo? I’m going to classify it as a ‘manlike cryptid’….

And then, at night, a meal at the club with family that ultimately ended in a bit of this:

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Dad Playing QWOP

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Ever played this game?

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Here’s a video of dad playing:

Two Days In The Sun

Sunday, January 8th, 2012

I lifted a TV the other day and broke myself. I’ve been recuperating on a (sheepskin!) heating pad in the evenings, but I’m not 100% better yet.

Yesterday I went for a drive around ‘the lake’ (Macquarie) with SMC. It was fun and nostalgic, but I didn’t take many photos. However we did have a go on this at Speers Point Park:

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Not bad for a free slide (the design, by the way, is based on an old piece of coal mine machinery), but it would have been more fun had it been a waterslide.

Oh yes! I had a McOz for lunch! Note the beetroot:

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In the afternoon Bernard and I walked to Merewether beach, along a nostalgic route that went past where he used to live. The sun was out and it was warm, but an ocean breeze kept us from spontaneous death.

The beach, as always, was scintillating:

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It was a tiring walk home, since the wind was gone and it had seemed to get hotter. Here’s what we looked like collapsed on the couch when we got back.

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The photo above is why the comments section was invented 🙂

This was dinner last night:

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And then today, mum and dad took it easy while we headed north. First stop was the Stockton breakwater (one of the two walls designed to protect the entrance of Newcastle Harbour). Here’s the view looking out along the breakwater to the open ocean:

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Here’s a shot of me at the end of the breakwater, looking across the harbour toward Nobby’s and the southern breakwater:

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And here’s a panorama of Newcastle taken from the breakwater:

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In the last century, many ships have sunk near the entrance to Newcastle. There are markers along the breakwater showing where they once rested, and one of them (the Alphonse) is still half-way along the breakwater; a ruined wreck. In addition to the ship markers, it seems to be a tradition to paint memoriums of the dead onto the stones of the breakwater. There are dozens of them, dating back 20 years or so. They are strangely moving to read…

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After Stockton we drove up to Anna Bay, where Bernard had lunch (a re-run of the night before, mostly) before we headed down to the beach to have a looksee.

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That’s an olympic village made in the sand, complete with pyramids, a castle and a football field. Here’s me climbing up a big rock in the surf:

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The tide was low in this picture, and when it is high I expect much of this barnacle-encrusted rock is under water. Here’s what the surface looked like in close-up:

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And here’s another rock down at the water’s edge:

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If there’s one mistake I made on our little trip today it is to ignore this important piece of advice:

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Yep, I got a bit burned 😮

Random Musings

Friday, January 6th, 2012

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Today is Bernards birthday, and we went to see War Horse. It’s a shmaltzy film about the brotherhood between a horse and a man. Although expertly dialed-in by Spielberg, we all found it quite enjoyable 🙂

Later on we had a lovely meal of Chinese food.

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For the rest of this post, some random images collected throughout the trip so far…

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That sign is for a restaurant in Sydney. Look’s a bit dodgy doesn’t it?

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Two different bread products. Note the last sentence on the rightmost one.

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This is a child’s toy vehicle believe it or not! It’s about 4 foot tall in total.

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The selection of fresh hound food in grocery stores is impressive. Some of it looks good enough for men.

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Beautiful stencil graffiti seen in Mayfield.

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I’ll keep you guessing about this last one 🙂

The Worst Ever Meal I’ve Eaten In The Southern Hemisphere

Friday, January 6th, 2012

Three pictures, in this case, tell 3,000 words:

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Of course I’m exaggerating here. I personally liked the sausages (although I think I was the only one), but the fries were abysmal, barely cooked even after 80+ minutes in the oven. Most of them ended up in the trash.

We all had a good laugh at the awfulness of it. And then I ate a lot of lollies to get the taste out of my mouth 🙂