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Solo Tastes Better Than Lift

Monday, January 10th, 2011

My big walk was delayed by the threat of rain, which turned out to be a good thing since we ended up tweaking the plan a bit (which you will find out Thursday).

At any rate, today I went and hit three other used bookstores in search of the elusive gamebooks. Details at the end of this post.

There’s my lunch. I’m starting to realize how weird it is I always eat at the most marketed fast food joints. Why don’t I stop in one of the uncountably numerous cafes and get a sandwich for instance? I can’t answer that…

I observed two things over lunch:
1) Popcorn chicken isn’t chicken
2) Solo tastes better than Lift

Each of those is groundbreaking – scary even. I’m going to ignore both though and move on with my life.

My walk through ‘lowland Newcastle’ led me through Hamilton, Broadmeadow, Islington, Tighes Hill, Mayfield, Maryville (a suburb I never knew existed by the way), Wickham and Newcastle before arriving back in Hamilton. I somehow managed to walk almost 18 km today, and it took me about five hours. So much for no big walks on a rainy day. (The rain never came either, as it turned out).

Amongst other things I walked along Throsby Creek to the mangrove catchment. Along the way I ran into this little guy:

That is a legless lizard! It was about 15 cm in length and moved very, very quickly (like a snake). I think these guys are quite uncommon (based on a childhood of digging up creepies in the garden) so it was a surprise to see him slither across the path right in front of me. I took some video as well, in which he miraculously disappears 🙂

Further up the path on Throsby Creek I saw this very large bird perched on a sunken shopping cart:

I have no idea what is it. A species of cormorant perhaps? It was very large (compare the size to the cart) and had a mean looking beak. If you know it, please identify in the comments.

The mangrove catchment at the north end of Throsby Creek (one of the waterways that feeds Newcastle Harbour) wasn’t much to speak of. I saw no crabs or fish, but many, many very large orb weaver spiders (including some with webs across the raised walkways) and heard the din of zillions of cicadas.

The day was quite hot (27 C apparently) and where there was no breeze the humidity was excessive. Last year I experienced a very dry summer, this year it is a humid one it seems. I hadn’t had a drink outside my lunch for the entire five hours of walking and when I finally got back to mum and dads I downed two cans of lift in a minute.

And for once I am not exaggerating.

That’s a bonus shot of Lucky right there. He’s a very old man now and spends much of his time sleeping. He’s so gentle and sweet. He’d fit right into our house at home in Albany.

The nights entertainment was cards again, and I won in a most convincing manner:

If you’re not familiar with the rules of Rummy, that hand on the left that I was dealt is more or less an “I win” hand (although I got a better one a bit later, with three jokers in it!). Dad was not amused 🙂

Now onto the gamebooks!

So, today I obtained no less than four more gamebooks that I did not previously own. Here’s a photo of two of them:

These are two books in a series called Crossroads based on popular works of fiction. Apparently a total of eleven of these books were printed, although I’d never heard of it. One of mine is a US imprint, the other UK. The books are designed (but not written) by Bill Fawcett, who worked on a few other gamebooks of US origin including the (quite good) Swordquest series.

But what I love about each of these is the rules section preceding the actual gamebook. Obviously intended for an audience unfamiliar with RPG’s, Bill goes into some detail about what each of the statistics mean and includes real-world examples of what the numerical values may mean. Here’s a photo for example:

I was reading this over lunch and having a great chuckle. It’s so quaint and dated and geeky it warmed my heart. I mean who on Earth these days would list ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ as an example of someone with Dexterity 17???

Further howlers include Lee Iacocca as having a Wisdom of 13, Leonardo da Vinci with Intelligence 18 (no Einstein?), and Magnum, PI as having a Charisma of 14.

Not to mention ‘Dr Who’, with his Charisma of 18 🙂

Posted in Family, Games, Miscellaneous, Pets | Comments Closed

Not Much To Say

Sunday, January 9th, 2011

Today I saw my old friend MM for the first time in over half a generation. He’s married now, with a lovely wife and two lovely children. He only recently moved back to Newcastle from Canberra so the timing of my trip was fortuitous. Cheers MM, for a good catching up!

Foolishly, and for reasons not well understood to me (since I am in a ‘blog everything’ mindset) I didn’t take any photos of him. So all of you wondering what he looks like after all this time…? Well he hasn’t changed much at all 🙂

Here’s a shot of Horseshoe Beach in Newcastle, aka. ‘the dog beach’:

We took MM’s dog Harry Harrison (not pictured) there for a run and a splash. This is truly a place for dogs to enjoy the surf, but my dad tells me it used to be more a beach for horses. People would drive them right up to the beach in the horse-trailers and walk them into the surf for a cool paddle. I’m not sure if anyone ever does that anymore, but it is a nice thought that they may.

Here’s two shots of another friend I made today:

I’m beginning to think my love of cicadas exceeds that of most people.

Tomorrow I was to go on a day trip to a very special location with Sue and her kids. Sadly, she has stood me up (and by that I mean delayed a couple of days) so my schedule is now open. Therefore I plan on undertaking the approximately 20 km walk from Hamilton South to Jewells via the newly extended Fernleigh track. This will require an early start, and quite a bit of willpower since I sunburned today. I’m also still sore from the monkeying around of Friday, so time will tell how successful I will be with tomorrow’s endeavour…

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous, Pets | Comments Closed

Saint Shark

Saturday, January 8th, 2011

That is a wound I incurred yesterday. When I awoke this morning my body was in a state of advanced decrepitude, especially my abs (which I don’t even remember using yesterday) and the anonymous muscles just below and behind my armpits. It was a good day for a rest, so I didn’t waste time planning a lengthy walking tour of Newcastle and the surrounding suburbs.

Dad and I started the day with a walk to the maritime museum, which has newly opened on the redeveloped foreshore. Although small and a little bit rinky-dink, I found the attractions interesting and ended up learning a lot about Newcastle that I’m not sure I knew. For instance, it remains the world’s largest coal port, and one time was one of the world’s leading shipbuilding cities. So many ships sailed and steamed in and out of Newcastle that it even at one point had a reputation for shanghai-ing!

Here’s a shot for KLS, showing me consuming a delicious cheese + bacon roll:

And here is dad’s lunch. You can imagine me holding my Oporto chicken sandwich in one hand whilst taking this photo with the other!

After lunch we split up, with dad heading back home and me heading toward the beaches. It was beastly hot today, and I started thinking about this time (midday) that I may not have put enough sunblock on.

The beaches (I went to Newcastle and Nobby’s) were very popular, with a great many people of all ages enjoying the sand and surf.

The tide was very high, and Nobby’s beach had a great deal of seaweed in the midst of being washed up. The stench was quite strong!

While I was at Newcastle beach the surf lifesavers put a message over the PA. Apparently the helicopter had spotted a large school of fish just offshore, being trailed by dolphins and “one or two sharks”. So he sounded the shark alarm and called everyone in, and then sent out a few lifesavers on jet skis. I started chatting to a girl there who said she has come to the beach every weekend for a few years and never seen this happen! I was quite surprised by how quickly everyone – including the surfers – got out of the water. But then I suppose no-one wants to take a risk with a shark 🙂

This monstrosity was in the foreshore park:

That must be the world’s largest inflatable slide? I mean it towered over all the other attractions (including a mini ferris wheel) and required no less than 13 air pumps to keep it inflated. It was colossal! I loved it; it looked like fun to slide down!

This next shot shows something I always enjoy seeing: bad art on carnival rides:

Now I ask that you only briefly observe how terrible the Yugi is at right, and more or less ignore the shamelessly ripped off Grand Theft Auto girls. What makes the above so sublimely awful – even perhaps the best worst art I have ever seen – is that I strongly suspect the hideously deformed character to the right of the staircase is supposed to be Ash Ketchum (of Pokemon fame). I was actually laughing out loud when the above photo was taken.

I then walked down Hunter Street (which, to be honest, seems a little less derelict than I remembered) visiting 3 used book stores and finding an astonishing 5 gamebooks that I did not own (see link on right)! I was strangely happy about such a haul, and was able to ignore for a while the relentless oppressive heat beating down on me 🙂

That’s a stormwater drain. I’ve blogged about these before on previous trips because they hold a strong fascination for me. In fact I could probably manage an entire entry on them alone. So I shall leave it at that and move on.

About 4 hours after parting ways with dad I eventually stumbled back to their apartment. It was no small miracle that my sunblock not only lasted the entire day, but that I was also more or less complete in my coverage. Today was by far the greatest direct sun exposure of my stay, and yet I’m pleased to note (now, some hours later) that there is no evidence of sunburn. We’ll see if that has changed by morning…

Here’s a peek at what tonight’s entertainment was:

As she has with the other games played so far, mum won!

I will end today’s blog with a most mysterious pair of images:

What you are looking at is a very unusual item in the possession of my mum. It is a holy relic: a fragment of Saint Therese. More than that I cannot say, since the letter (from the Vatican) is in latin! I suspect either the flower is fashioned from clothing she once wore, or even perhaps the tiny dot in the center of the flower is some relic of her. If you can read latin, please translate in a comment.

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous, Otaku | 1 Comment »

Ruined

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Sue and I went to Treetop Adventure Park today. Here is the website.

It’s an obstacle course of sorts, set high in gum trees in the bush. It starts with a safety presentation in which we are taught about our caribiners and our wheel-thing (for the flying foxes) and in general how not to die. We then finished a short practice course before trying the main courses.

Think of it as a bit of a Ninja Warrior stage three but up in the treetops. The four courses are colour-coded and start with green and blue. When we started each of these courses things were a bit hairy (it takes a while to fully trust in the equipment), but after an hour or so it became second nature. There is an enormous variety of different ways to cross from tree to tree, including walking on tightropes, wobbly bridges, hanging from poles or ropes, or just the ever-fun flying fox (that’s an Australian term by the way, click on it if you don’t know what it means).

It’s very hard work. Lots of upper-arm strength and balance is required, and it is probably one of the best workouts I have had in a long while. Also, don’t even consider this if you have a fear of heights!

This next shot shows the start of one of the flying foxes that goes over the carpark. It was, hrm… 30+ feet above the ground?

It took us over three hours to finish to the end of the red course. By this time we were dog-tired, and debated long and hard about starting the black course. One of the attendants told us only about 25% of people who start choose to try the black course, and only 30% of those that start it finish it (the others need ‘rescuing’, since there is no easy way down). I peeped at some of the obstacles, and they included long monkey-bar crossings, very long rope bridges with 2-3 meters between steps (so you’d have to hang from the caribiners between steps) and even something that looked not dissimilar to the globe hang from Ninja Warrior course 3! To be honest, some of the black course challenges seemed to push the limits of possibility!

We piked out and didn’t try the black course. I think we both would have had a good chance at completing it if we had been rested, but given we were both so exhausted I’m guessing success was unlikely 🙂

I want to stress how hard work this all was. It was immensely entertaining, especially because there was quite a rush associated with succeeding. But it’s many hours since I ended, and I still feel like I just had a fight with The Devil and lost badly. Every muscle I have aches and it’s all I can do to stay awake!

I’d do it again though, in a heartbeat. And next time I’d know what to expect and possibly be more prepared for the black course.

Here’s a humorous shot, sure to make some of the American readers chuckle:

And here’s what tonights entertainment boiled down to:

Lastly, today was my brother’s birthday. Despite numerous attempts, we were unsuccessful in reaching you on the phone. So I shall take this chance to wish you a very happy 40th birthday 🙂

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous | Comments Closed

Today I Purchased Cyberman Boxer Shorts

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

To start, I’ll compare the weather in the morning with that in the afternoon:

I was actually out walking in that monsoon, albeit not far from mum and dad’s place. I hurried back, but not before my legs and feet (and shoes) were drenched. Today was not a day for walking, today was a dad for the malls.

On the way to the bus stop a bit later, I made a friend:

What you say? The video may explain a bit better.

Although their lifespans are tragically short anyway, it saddened me to think the rainstorm may have been his eventual downfall. I fixed his wing as best I could and put him in a tree. Hopefully he’s out there chirping right now 🙂

So we went to the new Charlestown Square mall, which is…. very big! I did some shopping (see the subject for a hint as to one of my purchases) and took dad to this place:

Because he wanted to know what an iPad was!

After Charlestown we stopped by Garden City (yes, 2 malls in one day) for groceries, and then the afternoon was more than a little bit of this:

Interspersed with a lot of this:

And culminating in this:

The rain is supposed to be around for a few days, which is frustrating because I have a few crazy walks planned.

Buy hey – maybe it means I will be able to actually relax on my vacation!