Robot Claw

It rose to 35 C today, and believe me that is warm!

Early on I went on a bit of a mega-walk, visiting the Newcastle beaches and the streets of Cooks Hill, Merewether and Hamilton. Even as early as 8 am the heat was oppressive.

The above is Nobby’s Beach at about 9 in the morning. I’d walked along the foreshore soaking in the sights but there wasn’t much going on. Turns out everyone was at the beaches.

The left shot is another of Nobby’s (non panoramic), and the rightmost is Newcastle Beach (check Google Earth for details if you are not sure where these are). As you can see the weather was beautiful. If only you could feel the heat!

The above is a shot of the strip of rock connecting Nobby’s and Newcastle. The tide seemed low. Can you see the boats on the horizon waiting to enter the harbour?

The above is a shot of ’round the world’, also known as the ‘kiddy pool’. It’s a round (the panoramic shot distorts it a bit) pool filled by the ocean. Right now – and almost always actually – it is filled with sand. But under that sand is a concrete sculpture of a globe of the world, hence the original name. I found this out from a charming girl probably half my age who apparently knew a lot more about Newcastle beachfront history than I did! The sculpture has been there for aeons, and occasionally the city makes an effort to dredge out the sand and reveal it. But the tides bring the sand back immediately.

I saw many, many tiny crabs on the rocks today as well. Maybe it was the low tide that had them out in such numbers.

Yeah… you’ve heard of how Hollywood celebrities make ads overseas to make a fast buck, contingent on them never being seen in the USA? Even Jerry Seinfeld is not immune to the lure of quick cash apparently…

That’s a storm water drain, part of the network used to divert water to the ocean in times of heavy rain. In 2007 this network failed critically, and most of the Newcastle lowland was flooded. This one is not far from mum and dad’s place, and I couldn’t help when walking past it today but wonder if during the flood 2.5 years ago it was full of trees or cars or even animal carcasses.

Two birds. A magpie and a rosella. The first was resting by a road, but they are extremely common and can be seen everywhere. The second was in a tree at my Uncle Peter’s house. We spent the afternoon there for a barbecue.

There’s Peter himself, holding a guitar he 100% built from scratch!

And there’s mum, holding the dog Pasha (sp?), named after the ship that ran aground during the aforementioned storm.

Today I drank a whopping seven cans of Lift, in addition to a 600 mL and 450 mL bottle. This bring the trip tally to date (yes I’m updating it again) to a frankly disturbing 25.3 L. I bought a case of 24 cans when arriving in Newcastle and doubted I’d drink them all. At this rate I’ll finish them tomorrow – with five days left here…

Met with Sue and Juliet today and sat for many hours in a restaurant by the harbour just chatting. It was wonderful; just great. Lots and lots of old memories resurfaced. I wish I could do stuff like this more often…

Then Sue and I drove over to my ‘first university’. Here’s the building in which I spent so much time almost twenty years ago:

Note to AW: I went into a computer room just down the hall from our infamous haunt. Whilst the computers were (of course) updated… the room smelled exactly the same!

Here’s a shot of an orb weaver spider spotted just outside mum and dad’s place early this morning. It’s bulbous body had a radius of about 2cm. I could actually see his mandibles working to consume the unlucky insect he had coccooned.

And here’s something for Adam!

They’re not as good as I recall. I think they have been changed 🙁

3 cans of Lift today, and 2 glasses at the restaurant. At this point, I doubt there is much point in continuing the tally :V

First of all, here’s a video I promised days ago of us at the races! Watch to the end for Adam’s sage comment!

Secondly… I received new shoes before Christmas, and had basically no time to ‘break them in’ before the trip. They are amazing shoes – supremely comfortable – but due to their newness I developed blisters. One of these was a large blood blister – quite nasty – and as I was walking through garden city mall today it burst!

My thong (flip-flop) was full of blood, and enough ran down the back that I left a half-bloody footprint in my wake. It was revolting, but I bought some antiseptic and cleaned everything up when I got home and now it’s fine. I took a photo to blog but it’s too awful to post!

Here’s Hamilton racecourse, on a very sunny day.

We stormed into our parent’s lives yesterday like a hurricane. Or rather, I did, and Bernard calmly followed. My ludicrous abundance of energy was mostly due to a sugary-food binge that hasn’t been seen in the southern hemisphere since January 2008 that occured the night before. I ate, like, 62 kg of candy and chips and downed Lift like frogs down flies!

My parents you ask? They’re both happy and well! We have a lot planned for the next ten days or so…

Bernard is sporting his new hat & sunnies in the above pic. Here’s a better shot, which brings to mind a certain movie poster…

If you look closely you can see me in the above shot as well!

I’m eating, eating, eating. My shorts are tight today (they were fine yesterday). I’m drinking Lift faster than I can keep track of it as well, so consider the tally at the end of the day a low estimate from this point on.

Two food shots – yesterday’s lunch (Salt & Lemon) and todays lunch (guess what):

And here’s a shot taken at a seafood shop:

And one other taken in the grocery store, as proof to doubting Americans!

Last night we played Yahtzee! Bernard won both games, despite me using some of my special dice-shake and/or throw maneuvers such as ‘the tornado’ and ‘the slide’. I even unveiled a new move – ‘the shark’ – but allegations of cheating arose when it gave me a Yahtzee 🙁

Oh yes! There is lucky! He’s a cat, and he’s fat and happy and cute. Just now he asked I post the following message on the blog:

“Hola Emi, Yossie, Daisy, Mosley and Mitzi!” (Apparently Lucky is Mexican…)

Last but not least, a shot of Paris Hilton, who I now apparently think is cute. (The image, incidentally, is over 3 years old…)