Robot Claw

That’s KLS with her avocado breakfast sandwich and enormous latte. The ‘mug’ had no handle and was drunk like a soup. She said it was very good!

So many kumas!

Yesterday it rained in the city and we went to an attraction called Gullivers Gate which showcased insanely detailed miniature dioramas. The faq claimed the display was HO scale (~1:87) but we question that since the figures were only about 10-15 mm tall. It was a tad pricey (its NYC!) but we loved it. To give you an idea, the boat about is <10 cm in length! (And that’s not real water!)

Did I mention we shopped? We did. A lot! So much so we had to buy two large shopping bags just to get everything back home 🙂

And speaking of home – where we are now – we once again booked a cabin on the train. As usual it included a meal but to our horror the full kitchen that once served cooked steak or salmon is now replaced with boxed food similar to airplane meals!! Cost-cutting I suppose, but the cabin was still cozy and the return trip relaxing.

We’re in NYC for a brief mid-semester getaway.

It’s cool but not uncomfortably so, and we’ve been spending the time shopping and sightseeing.

I’ve been to the city many times but not this late in the year and this was the first time I’d seen the Rockefeller center ice rink!

Here’s a local, not too bothered by the tourists gawking at him:

And here’s Times Square at night in temperatures of ~5 C:

No matter the time of year, it always seems to be busy here 🙂

We’ve got a brand new wild bird shop near us and today they had some rescued birds to see. Of course we went for a peep!

That’s a bard owl, a big bird that is apparently becoming increasingly common.

That’s a common crow. He could talk! He didn’t do it on command but we clearly heard him say “Hello who’s there?” It was a little creepy to be honest.

This was the highlight for us, a big beautiful raven. We don’t see these around our place (crows though are very common) but apparently they’re common in the woods just south of here. His feathers were glossy and handsome and his beak wickedly curved. These are amongst the most intelligent of birds, and we still don’t understand how they are able to communicate sophisticated information to each other.

This is a screech owl. He was only about 15 cm talk and motionless. If it wasn’t for his blinking he could have been a statue. As you can see, he was extremely cute!

And lastly a barn owl, which are our most common owl. He was a bit alarmed and kept making a raspy warning sound.

They were all cute and the owls reminded me of the owl cafe we visited in Tokyo. Maybe I should go back there one day…

I’ve seen my fair share of real bad Star Wars merchandise over the years and thought I was immune to excessive awfulness but this product tested my limits:

‘Star Wars Science’ they say, where you excavate alien skulls of beloved Star Wars creatures. Science…

That’s the list of possible skulls to be found, educationally compared to mundane Earthbound examples. I wonder which one I’ll get…?

The contents of the box. I reckon that’s alien dirt waiting to be dug, although since this could be some sort of space shipping container I guess it could be space vermiculite? I was impatient though and upended the whole thing:

Golly gee is that a Zabrak skull I see? Ancient remains of Darth Maul’s noble race that sometimes has the horns growing out of the head and sometimes stuck on as decoration?

Well yes it is a Zabrak! It’s in three pieces no less, so this sucker must have died a wretched death. Cleaning the space dirt off was a chore, and the inch-high skull didn’t go together as cleanly as it should, but I suppose it’s a curiosity if nothing else…?

Nah it’s awful, has zero play value and isn’t close to worth the $6 I paid for it. Even for a SW maniac like me this is terrible, so avoid at all costs…

(Except Bernard, who can expect one for Christmas!)

Yesterday we all piled into our car – KLS, JK, her brother DK, YZ and myself – and went to a new fair! Well not exactly new, since it was the 101st year it’s been held, but for us this was our first visit to The Big E.

This is a megafair that is held in Maine and represents six eastern states. And it’s massive! Too big in fact, in that you couldn’t possibly see it all in one day. We were there 6.5 hours (it’s a 90 minute drive away) and probably only saw half of it. But it was fun, and here’s eleven random photos from our visit…

This dude gave a great talk/demo about sheep shearing! Note the other sheep peeping under the door waiting for their haircuts? A sheep fact I learned is that the world record for shearing an adult sheep is 37 seconds!

Here’s J and D after being turned into incredibly disturbing sheep/human hybrids. D is here on an extended stay from Korea and I reckon he was a bit mystified by the USA culture he saw yesterday 🙂

That’s a butter sculpture. It was stupidly large and detailed and I wonder what happens to it when the fair is done? (Yes it’s all carved from real butter and is made and stored inside a refrigerated room.)

It was a hard decision as to whether I would include the Yoda, the Gene Simmons or the Fizzgig Chewbacca/BB-8 (with actual LED eye) carved pumpkin contest entries but this one won mostly because it pushes the envelope (in my opinion) of what a decorated pumpkin can be.

That’s a pig with babies. It was bigger than me! Nearby there were baby goats and chickens and an extraordinary incubator as well as…

insanely big pumpkins! 1440 lbs to be precise! One wonders if the grower of this monstrosity could have snagged two awards if he’d decorated it to look like Jabba The Hutt?!?

A beautiful display of entrants in the honey contest.

There was so much food to choose from. This stand sold 18 inch corn dogs (Pluto Pups, for the Aussies) for $14 but we didn’t partake instead buying…

Turkey legs, gyros, lobster rolls, fries, roasted corn, grilled pork belly, deep fried battered corn, clam chowder, grilled root vegetables, chocolate/strawberry milk and maple coffee. (In addition to various samples.)

The midway was great, with loads of amazing rides. Alas I knew I’d get sick so I vicariously rode them by putting J and D on a few (they’re riding this Zipper in this shot). Damn my motion sickness ><

And finally, some quality airbrushed ride art. There was loads like this example (on a ghost train ride), but the weird lighting meant many of my photos were too dark.

It was a great fair and I feel there was even more amazing stuff we didn’t even see. We’ll return for sure next year, albeit probably on a weekday to avoid the insane crowds!