Robot Claw

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 🙂

I got up about an hour earlier than the alarm, and rather than wait around got ready and ended up catching an earlier train than I had planned. The trip was good in many ways:
1) It was cheap! Only A$7.80 for a one-way ticket. That’s about a tenth what a comparable trip would cost in the US.
2) It was comfortable! The ride was incredibly smooth – almost at the quality of a Japanese train. Obviously the Sydney-Newcastle line is kept at very good repair.
3) I read a new Kim Newman novel, er gamebook. It is called Life’s Lottery and Adam graciously lent it to me for the Newcastle leg of my trip. I read/played through two different lives of the protagonist and was greatly entertained.
4) I saw a wallaby! It was small and brown and had a fat tail. It was just hanging around by the side of the track near Wyee.

Eventually, I arrived at my parent’s house. This was their reaction:

🙂

After the divesting of the Christmas gifts, a quick jaunt to Beaumont Street was in order. This led me inexorably to a kebab joint – recommended not even 24 hours previous by Pat. I salivated as the Kebabber sliced the brown beeflike foodstuff into the pita and handed it over to me:

The day was hot, and the sun bright. The kebab was about 1736 degrees when he gave it to me, and as I ate it I could feel my bones melting. Good thing I had a refreshing bottle of beverage nearbye…

After I had finished I stopped into a used bookstore and bought a gamebook. I then lazily headed home, fat with kebab regret and happy to be with my parents again.

Lucky is ambivalent to my presence. He seems to be spending his time gazing into the next world.

Here’s a bit of our dinner:

When it comes to purple food, there is nothing more Australian than beetroot. Even though only three of us were eating, very little (if any?) of this bowl survived the dinner table. I ate mine on bread with cheese, lettuce and tomato. It felt good to finally eat a vegetable again!

After dinner we got down to business.

For reasons that elude me, no-one in the US ever wants to play Monopoly with me. Happily that isn’t the case here, and our game quickly turned into a storm of wheeling and dealing that eventually led Mum to a decisive victory. Next time both dad and I shall have to keep an eye on her deceptively hands-off approach.

Lastly, culled from the files in my dad’s picasa folder, here is a collage of… well, of me! (It’s quite big… click for full resolution…)