Robot Claw

At Darling Harbour yesterday I saw a dinosaur. As in, a real life living breathing one!

This is what it looked like:

Confused? This video should make things clearer 🙂

Today, AW and BS had scheduled a “day of rest”. This was of course a good plan, unless you were pushing yourself to a self-destructive limit (averaging 22,000+ steps a day in scorching weather for instance).

So I went out!

I wanted to walk the bridge again. The above shot (can you tell I love the panoramic mode my new camera has?) was taken from near circular quay (the main ferry dock for Sydney). After the photo I walked through The Rocks toward the bridge. It was early – 9:30 or so – but already very hot. Even so, considering it is Saturday, a lot of people were out and about. I made it to the bridge in short order and started the crossing, with my first goal the southeastern pylon – which is the big concrete tower visible to the left of the main span in the above image. The pylon is hollow and has a lookout at the top. For A$9.50 you can climb the 220 stairs to the top (be aware the interior of the unairconditioned pylon is like an oven) and get some spectacular views. It was from this lookout this image was taken:

So yes, it was worth it!

A couple of other random bridge shots:

Here’s a shot looking north over the bridge from the lookout:

The weather looks ominous doesn’t it? Well thats an illusion, because at that point it wasn’t.

I then crossed the bridge itself and about a twenty minutes later reached the north shore. The bridge was covered in small round pieces of cardboard left from the fireworks yesterday, and all the rigging and equipment for the display was still there. It was beastly hot and humid, but there were many, many people doing the crossing today. Here’s a shot of the bridge from the north, looking back towards the Sydney CBD. The toilets are still there from New Year’s:

Next I hopped onto a ferry and headed over to Darling Harbour to go to the Maritime Museum, specifically to see a new exhibit on mythical creatures. Of course I had to stop for lunch first!

I didn’t actually buy any Fairy Floss… that photo is just there so the American readers can chuckle at what we call cotton candy! Incidentally I didn’t eat alone… Jabba the Jabiru kept me company:

That’s a jabiru, who walked into the food court at the Darling Harbour mall. He just kept walking in circles around my table, so close I could easily touch him. We quickly became fast friends, and out of respect for this friendship (and his health) I fed him nothing. He understood, and graciously thanked me.

The mythic creature exhibit was small but high on interesting content, especially the mermaid section. I recommend it if you are in Sydney and it is still on 🙂

Both the above objects are originals. The rightmost is from a US ship (it is a carving of a mermaid for the front of the ship) and the leftmost is a ‘Fiji Mermaid’. In fact it may be the very same mermaid Barnum used to dupe punters out of their money. Google the name for the details.

When I emerged from the museum it was raining torrentially. I was very tired at this point (maybe I should have taken that rest day) so returned home for an afternoon of eating, drinking, TV watching and MTG playing.

[I overdid the Lift today. One 600 mL bottle, two 450 mL bottles, two 375 mL cans and a 1.25 L bottle. That makes my total 11.25 L!]

Yesterday we went to the gallops!

But first… I woke early again and went for a stroll up to the Randwick shops. I perused a map on a sign and noticed that Coogee Beach wasn’t that far away (only maybe 2km). So I walked there!

Even though it was very early, it was already brutally hot. The walk was downhill all the way, and I was a sweaty dog upon arrival. It being New Years Day there were still people milling around, including more than a few still obviously drunk (and some with drinks in hand). Quite a few police as well, although if they were there to control the expected New Years Day crowds or had been there since the night before I couldn’t tell. After a bit I headed home, which was of course uphill all the way… making me even sweatier when I got back! Thus are memories made 🙂

Oh yes, here’s what my breakfast was!

A bit later we headed for Royal Randwick Racecourse, just down the road from Adam’s, for the first race day of the year. Neither Bernard nor I had ever been to the races, but we had an expert with us in Adam (he spent a year working for the TAB after all). The racecourse is gargantuan, and plenty of people were dressed in their finest for race day. There was to be 8 races, 40 minutes apart, lasting from just after 1pm until nearly 6. We would stay for all, and bet on them all.

The shot above was taken during the 3rd or fourth race (make sure you click on these to view them all full sized). Most of the races I watched from down on the rail, and it was quite exhilarating seeing the horse rocket past just before the finish line.

There was much beer drunk, and much (well, a little bit) money spent. It was an enormously entertaining day for many reasons, even though I personally have a narrow view on gambling.

Here’s a video of the first race of the year, complete with sage words from the master himself. (I’ll link the video after I can upload it to youtube)

Now for the results. As I said we bet on every race, and each of us bet on a different horse in each race. So we bet on 24 different horses. Every one of my bets was $1, and Adam and Bernard bet $5 each time. I put very little effort into selecting my horses – in fact I based it on how much their names (Aquatic King, Lyncean Academy) sounded like MTG cards! Bernard and Adam paid more attention to the form, which is a newspaper supplment containing an absurdly mind-boggling amount of information about each horse one can peruse.

The results, over the 8 races:

– RS bet $8 and won $2.10 (won 1 out of 8 bets)
– BS bet $40 and won $11.75 (won 2 out of 8 bets)
– AW bet $40 and won $28.50 (won 4 out of 8 bets)

After the gallops we went over to Fox Studios and sortof inadvertently stumbled into a delicious dinner at a chinese restaurant!

< Dim Sums

And then… well then we saw Avatar!

Now I could spent an entire blog entry on Avatar, and suffice to say we’ve been dissecting the film (and it’s notable flaws) since. But the bottom line is that it was not boring but, in my opinion, it wasn’t really very good either. However, the blue girl is intriguing (<- euphemism there) and ultimately ‘saved’ the film 🙂

It was midnight when we got home from the movies, and I was asleep very soon afterwards. I’ll leave you with two other shots of food I ate at the trots!

[I drunk 2 cans of Lift today, a total of 750 mL. My trip total is now 7.75 L.]