Food « Robot Claw

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Crazy Days

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

It’s madness here! They’ve got me performing like an ape:

Although the photo may suggest that my 6-day (so far) long binge of garbage food and nonstop candy may have distended my belly to hitherto unseen levels, I can assure you I haven’t expanded that much, and it’s actually an optical illusion.

Speaking of garbage food, I forgot to reveal what I had for lunch yesterday at the rest stop on the way back from Sydney (Bernard rented a car and we drove):

Yep, that’s a god-damn Pluto Pup! Delicious!

Anyway we arrived yesterday and had a delayed Christmas. Here’s a snap of the giftees receiving their gifts:

And here’s another snap of the giftees checking out their other new gift:

Yep, that’s an iPad. Mum and Dad now have their very own 🙂

So, so, so, so, so. Here’s what today looked like:

If it looks hot, then that’s because it is. All those reports of Australia having unseasonable cold and lots of rain? Damn lies, the lot of them! It’s hot and humid and frankly brutal, but I don’t care 🙂

Here’s a couple of random food shots:

Donut King on the left (don’t think USA donuts; think USA fried dough), Ham and Pineapple ‘pizza’ on the right (actually a flat piece of bread with cheese and ham and pineapple on it sold by a baker).

And here is Bernard shooting a mountain goat:

He was actually very good at it, and at the end of his second game was the new Hunting Hero for the ‘moose’ level. He downed five of them in one round!

And…… then he went and won another $60 (on a $20 bet) on a poker machine 🙂

Tomorrow I’m going to kill myself (and SMC!) with a 32+ km walk in very hot weather. Look forward to the details!

Posted in Family, Food, Games, Trip | Comments Closed

New Year’s Day

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

Later this evening we’re off to see doggies trot. I was my usual hyperactive self this morning, and decided to go for a walk. Yesterday I’d done the Randwick ->The City stroll I’d never gotten around to before, so it made sense this New Year’s Day to walk to Bondi Beach.

I decided to go via the two beaches between there and here, namely Bronte and Tamarama. Check them out on a map!

The sky was blue, the sun was out, I was lathered in sunblock and I set out. It took about 40 minutes to get from Randwick to Bronte Beach, which is a lovely and well tended beach in a cove surrounded by expensive tourist homes.

Bronte was popular with dogs and kids, having both a large field adjacent and an ocean-fed paddling pool. As you can see there were many people out even before 10 am on New Year’s Day. The surf club had a thermometer which said 28 C. I was hot but bursting with energy. My feet hurt but I felt I could walk forever. I think the past three days have gotten me back into form and the limiters have finally been removed.

After a good gander at Bronte I continued along the coast, along the bluff you can see in the above photo, to the tiny and beautiful Tamarama beach nestled between two cliffs:

The top photo is taken from the south looking north, and the bottom photo is vice versa. If you can see through time you may be able to see me actually taking the photos in each of them.

There were quite a few model types at Tamarama. Adam says the suburb is nicknamed ‘Glamarama’ due to the richies that live here, but I’m inclined to think it may be due to the high frequency of ‘glamma’ types jogging and dog-walking and working out in and around this pretty little beach.

Next I continued north along the coast, walking high on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The wind was strong and it was really a wonderful walk (if very hot!). Here’s an example shot of what the scenery looks like:

Look at the colour of the water! Despite the beach and the perilous appearance of this little bay, there was actually a surfer down there. If you look closely you may be able to see him in the picture.

Continuing up and around the cliffs seen in the distance of the above shot led to the world famous Bondi Beach:

Having been here a few times I didn’t linger. Besides, I was hot and hungry (it’d been about 2 hours by now). I had originally planned to bus it back to Randwick, but since I’m young and full of vitality I said to myself “What the heck!” and walked.

Coincidentally, the return trip went past Bondi Junction mall, which led inexorably to the food court and this:

I’m back now, collapsed on the couch waiting to go and see hounds. Adam and B traipsed off to the city in my absence to do some shopping and museuming. I think I’ll take this chance for a little nap…

Posted in Family, Food, Miscellaneous, Trip | Comments Closed

Walking In The Rain

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

I walked into the city this morning, in the very light rain. We had plans in the afternoon so I was spending the morning in the city taking care of some extremely important shopping business. And drinking this weird pineapple thing…

So… I got some postcards! Watch your mail!

Do you know what the ‘HP’ stands for? This was taken just before I got to the CBD, about an hour after leaving Adam’s. We were up late the night before due to the cricket, but I woke at 6 due to some dude beating out his car mats outside the window. Nutri-grain for breakfast, trot into town, looksee in shops. Souvenirs for a few. Then this for lunch:

It was delicious. I’m not saying that lightly – the delicious tenderness of the lamb, washed down with the man’s drink Solo was like heaven in a foil pouch.

Bernard won on his 😮

I bought two blind-packed Doctor Who minifigures today. There’s about a dozen available, and I wanted the Dalek and Amy. Because I had to wait in line and they were on the counter I didn’t have time to feel for what was inside, so I picked randomly. Here’s what I got:

Bernard’s luck is rubbing off on me 🙂

It’s currently about 3 hours from 2012. We’re flipping between three music video shows, talking endlessly about best songs of the 1980s. I’m teetotalling, as I always do, which means I miss out on experiences like this:

That is, of course, a shameless throw-out for SFL 😉

Happy New Year everyone!

Posted in Blog, Food, Trip | Comments Closed

Friday Night Lights

Friday, December 30th, 2011

The above were taken at Bondi Junction mall. They are representative of the sort of sights seen in bakery cases everywhere down here.

I had walked to the mall in the AM for a bit of a trot and to have a looksee. Here’s what I found:

Yes yes, I know – enough with the Oporto already! Point taken 🙂

In the afternoon we headed to ‘the cricket’, specifically a 20/20 game between the Sydney Thunder and Melbourne Renegades. We got there shortly before the start at 7pm, and the sun was relentlessly shining down onto our seats. It was quite brutal. But our seats were very good with a spectacular view.

The game was at the ANZ stadium at Olympic park, which is where the athletic events for the Sydney olympics was held.

I enjoyed a delicious $15 meal of chips, sausage roll and a Lift. I washed it down with this guy, priced at a reasonable $4.60:

A Magnum. It was delicious. I’ll have to try some other flavours before I leave.

Eventually the lights went out and we watched Melbourne beat Sydney in a close game that went to the last ball. This was an upset and there was lamentation amongst my fellows. Or not, especially since Bernard had placed a bet on Melbourne winning and won $8.60 🙂

All in all, a fun night!

…oh, and here’s yesterdays TSV on TVSN (this is for KLS to have a laugh!):

Posted in Food, Games, Miscellaneous, Trip | Comments Closed

Fishing Season

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Yesterday morning I woke up with a bit of acid reflux. I figured it was probably the double-fillet Otropo burger and chips I’d had for lunch. Or perhaps the 2.4 L of Lift. Or maybe the half a bag of licorice bullets, or half a pack of cheese and onion chips. Or Chokito bar, 2.5 fish cocktails and 2 potato scallops I’d had for dinner or maybe the 6 small cherry ripe bars. It must have been one of these.

Anyway the basic cure for reflux – exercise – worked well, and after a brief trot around Centennial park I felt much better. On the way I saw this guy:

Yes yes, I know – always with the spider photos! He’s a classic orb weaver, about 6cm in length from leg tip to tip. He says “Hello!”

Pat arrived late morning, and we set off to the city for a looksee. A couple of items I saw when I looked:

Christmas Rilakkuma says “Hello!” as well 🙂

After some trotting around we ended up near the UFO catchers. Pat & Adam settled in at a pub downstairs to watch the cricket while Bernard and I tried our luck. I was not lucky; he was. Here’s some proof:

Amazingly, this was not his only prize! The other was bigger and greener. I’ll post a shot at some point.

After this I went trotting around again (to look – unsuccessfully – for new and original postcards and to get some cash) while the others watched cricket in the pub. During this trot Bernard’s luck continued as he won $200 on a poker machine!

And then, when the cricket was done, we discovered ‘Fishing Season’.

As you can see, it’s a tabletop arcade game with multiplay where the players shoot nets at fish to catch them. It’s token based, so you have to buy tokens and feed them in to play with, and as you catch fish the game shoots out tokens as prizes. Since there was no way to redeem the tokens, we just fed them back into the machine to keep playing.

For three hours!

Yes my friends. The four of us, on a $20 investment, sat there and played Fishing Season for three whole hours! How’s that for value for money? At one point we were up to nearly three times our original number of tokens, and I reckon we could have played for much longer had we not, at one point, just started ‘rapid firing’ nets just to burn through our credits.

And then, in the evening, there was four player Magic and K-Pop till midnight 🙂

Posted in Food, Games, Miscellaneous, Toys, Trip | Comments Closed

Robot Claw