Category: Miscellaneous

Ruined

January 7, 2011

Sue and I went to Treetop Adventure Park today. Here is the website.

It’s an obstacle course of sorts, set high in gum trees in the bush. It starts with a safety presentation in which we are taught about our caribiners and our wheel-thing (for the flying foxes) and in general how not to die. We then finished a short practice course before trying the main courses.

Think of it as a bit of a Ninja Warrior stage three but up in the treetops. The four courses are colour-coded and start with green and blue. When we started each of these courses things were a bit hairy (it takes a while to fully trust in the equipment), but after an hour or so it became second nature. There is an enormous variety of different ways to cross from tree to tree, including walking on tightropes, wobbly bridges, hanging from poles or ropes, or just the ever-fun flying fox (that’s an Australian term by the way, click on it if you don’t know what it means).

It’s very hard work. Lots of upper-arm strength and balance is required, and it is probably one of the best workouts I have had in a long while. Also, don’t even consider this if you have a fear of heights!

This next shot shows the start of one of the flying foxes that goes over the carpark. It was, hrm… 30+ feet above the ground?

It took us over three hours to finish to the end of the red course. By this time we were dog-tired, and debated long and hard about starting the black course. One of the attendants told us only about 25% of people who start choose to try the black course, and only 30% of those that start it finish it (the others need ‘rescuing’, since there is no easy way down). I peeped at some of the obstacles, and they included long monkey-bar crossings, very long rope bridges with 2-3 meters between steps (so you’d have to hang from the caribiners between steps) and even something that looked not dissimilar to the globe hang from Ninja Warrior course 3! To be honest, some of the black course challenges seemed to push the limits of possibility!

We piked out and didn’t try the black course. I think we both would have had a good chance at completing it if we had been rested, but given we were both so exhausted I’m guessing success was unlikely 🙂

I want to stress how hard work this all was. It was immensely entertaining, especially because there was quite a rush associated with succeeding. But it’s many hours since I ended, and I still feel like I just had a fight with The Devil and lost badly. Every muscle I have aches and it’s all I can do to stay awake!

I’d do it again though, in a heartbeat. And next time I’d know what to expect and possibly be more prepared for the black course.

Here’s a humorous shot, sure to make some of the American readers chuckle:

And here’s what tonights entertainment boiled down to:

Lastly, today was my brother’s birthday. Despite numerous attempts, we were unsuccessful in reaching you on the phone. So I shall take this chance to wish you a very happy 40th birthday 🙂

Today I Purchased Cyberman Boxer Shorts

January 6, 2011

To start, I’ll compare the weather in the morning with that in the afternoon:

I was actually out walking in that monsoon, albeit not far from mum and dad’s place. I hurried back, but not before my legs and feet (and shoes) were drenched. Today was not a day for walking, today was a dad for the malls.

On the way to the bus stop a bit later, I made a friend:

What you say? The video may explain a bit better.

Although their lifespans are tragically short anyway, it saddened me to think the rainstorm may have been his eventual downfall. I fixed his wing as best I could and put him in a tree. Hopefully he’s out there chirping right now 🙂

So we went to the new Charlestown Square mall, which is…. very big! I did some shopping (see the subject for a hint as to one of my purchases) and took dad to this place:

Because he wanted to know what an iPad was!

After Charlestown we stopped by Garden City (yes, 2 malls in one day) for groceries, and then the afternoon was more than a little bit of this:

Interspersed with a lot of this:

And culminating in this:

The rain is supposed to be around for a few days, which is frustrating because I have a few crazy walks planned.

Buy hey – maybe it means I will be able to actually relax on my vacation!

You Can See Me Now

January 5, 2011

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…)

Robot Claw