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Going The Distance

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

This path is part of the walk from Adam’s to the local shops:

A gaggle of rosella’s lives in and around the trees here, and they always cry at me when I walk past as if I am intruding. Here are a few of them on the roof of one of the apartment complexes (there are at least 7 in this photo… can you see them all?):

This morning they were less worried about me, and more worried about this guy:

See how his mouth is open? He was eating something, or rather trying. It was hard to tell exactly what it was, but it was obvious it was giving him trouble. Then he just sort of spat it on the ground and flew away. I went up and was surprised by what I saw. Here’s what the kookaburra failed to swallow:

Today, dear friends, was a day for the races. So off we headed to Royal Randwick to bet some money on the fillies.

There were 8 races in total today, and each of us bet on every one. Being a scrooge, I bet only $0.50 each way on one horse per race, with Adam betting ten times that. I ended up with two horses placing, and Adam had 2 wins and 2 places. My net loss was therefore $6.10 on $8 total bet, and Adam had a net win of $3.50 on $80 total bet.

Obviously his betting skills far exceeded mine 🙂

And what does a man do with a healthy $3.50 profit? Adam bought this:

This is a $4.50 ice-cream so legendary it actually comes in a box! A mixture of normal and white chocolate, delicately shaped like a moebius strip of deliciousness, Adam’s five word review is “Small treat in good package.”

As for me, well I would realize a bit later that I have actually eaten the same dinner every one of the five nights since I arrived. That meal is pictured here:

Given the caloric input I am experiencing, It’s a good thing I can still get this on my pedometer:

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No-Sun Bears

Saturday, January 1st, 2011

Bears hate sun, even sun bears. And therefore we saw none yesterday. So here’s the bear-iest shot of the zoo 🙂

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous, Pets | 2 Comments »

Happy New Year

Friday, December 31st, 2010

Today, we went to the zoo. This meant a ferry trip across the harbour:

During which Adam wisely avoided the sun and spent the time reading rec.games.mud on his phone:

The zoo was quite different from even four years ago, with many animal enclosures either changed or in the process of being changed. It’s turning from a great zoo into an even better zoo though, and virtually none of the old-type enclosures (ie. concrete boxes) remain. Here is a selection of the beasts we beheld:

Here’s a sleeping wombat:

And a kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree:

And some crazy dude astride an elephant:

As you may be able to tell, the weather today was incredible. As in incredibly hot 🙂

The sky was cloudless, and this was taken advantage of by various factions:

The first is a skywriter in the middle of writing “marry me”. Presumably, somewhere in Sydney a girl was about to be told to ‘look up’. The second is a helicopter (!) dragging a massive banner advertising headache medicine. This was no doubt targeting the numerous revellers already waiting on their boats in the harbour in position for tonights fireworks:

The zoo closed early due to the fireworks, and by the time we got back to Circular Quay the crowds had started to mass. This was a full ten hours before midnight – and in the blazing sun no less. We hopped on a bus and headed home. Both of us had gotten a touch of the sun, it was obvious we wouldn’t be heading back to the city for the fireworks tonight.

Here is some spectacular graffiti on the back of a bus seat. I’m no expert, but this looks like a rendition of Ptilonorhynchus Violaceus to me:

And here, should you be interested, is a number you can call to buy Chicken McNuggets in bulk:

Yep, that’s an ad from the classifieds in todays paper. My guess is only McDonalds lawyers called 🙂

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous, Pets, The Unknown | 1 Comment »

Good-Looking Men About Town

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

The above photo shows a graffiti mural not five minutes from Adam’s apartment. It shows a mural of images from Bollywood films, including one particularly disturbing blue-skinned evil naga zombie girl.

I have it on good authority that the local cats love it.

The weather today was tremendous (as it has been since I arrived). Not a cloud in the sky and 28 C, it was a day to walk and sweat and revel in being a man. And that we did, as we headed into the city for a bit of chinatown exploration.

Our first stop was the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year exhibit at the Australian Museum. It was as impressive as ever, with many remarkable photographs on display. And yet it left us both contemplative and a little saddened by the reality of the effect mankind is having on the planet. It was as if the judges had a mandate to choose images that illustrated the negative effect of man’s actions on the animal kingdom. Many photos were simultaneously superb and disturbing, and with no obvious way to stem the wave of extinction, it is depressing to think that sooner that we hope many of the wonderful animals on display today will exist only in photographs.

At the risk of being glib, all the animal photos made us hungry, which brings me to a photo dedicated to my brother:

What this photo doesn’t spell out is that it was the second time I had eaten Oporto. Yes, good people, it was dinner and then lunch the next day. As it is quite literally the best chicken burger that is not only being made today, but has ever been made or will ever be made, I can assure you I shall happily eat much more.

And then we walked and we shopped. Asian bootleg DVD shops. Cute good shops. Game shops. Arcades. Comic stores.

I bought quite a bit of stuff, and will likely return before I leave Oz to buy more. I did not, however, buy the Japanese Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (which I did see). But I may have bought the hint guide…

Here are the two best signs-in-the-windows I saw today:

Which is your favourite?

And here is an item seen in the window of a store in the Randwick shopping street:

They are each apparently fashioned of old car parts. They are very cool, if a bit pricey.

But then everything here is a bit pricey. Or, to be honest, ‘makes me cry’ expensive 🙂

Tomorrow we’re off to the zoo. Will we both be dead by 6 pm, or will we venture out before midnight to see fireworks? Time shall tell…

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Creepier Than Me

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

So… going back a few days, the trip here was terrible. About 32 hours of no-sleep, loud plane noises, bad food and general discomfort. It seems to have led to more jet-lag than I typically get as well, which I’d prefer not to have. But, I got here safe and sound which matters most 🙂

Adam looks younger than last year, perhaps because his hair is short and his beard gone. He gave me a rather spectacular item for Christmas (a Monster Hunter satchel-bag containing – amongst other things – a book on how to run PBM games!) and took to my MTG decks like Yossie to a tree:

I bought a bunch of candy and other junk at the grocery store the first day (reeling at the sticker shock…) and we just played MTG and watched TV in the evening. I wanted to stay awake until at least 6, which I managed to do. But when my head hit a pillow around 7:30 I was out like a light.

The next morning I woke very early (3:30 am) and was unable to resleep. I slunk out at about 5:30 for a walk around Randwick, including Centennial Park. It was on this walk I spied these fellows:

The one on the left was about 6 cm in length and had made his home above a storm water drain. The one on the right was living under a bush and was tiny – about about 1 cm. It’s so easy to find spiders here, of all sizes. Here’s another:

That’s an old classic – an orb weaver. A big fellow as well, about 8 or 9 cm in length. To get him in focus I had to put the camera very close, and he became alarmed and waved his feet a bit. It was, I must admit, a bit scary.

And here’s another guy:

The cockroaches here are big! Including antenna, the above guy is about 10 cm in length! They have no fear as well. I put the camera very close to this guy and he got interested and approached me. I like the detail on his wings. I saw a lot of them on my walk, just strolling along the ground or on trees. Curious!

And then, this:

I think it’s a cicada season. In the bush behind the Lindsay Gallery yesterday the din was impressive. I look forward to my Newcastle bushwalks.

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