Category: Pets

Not Much To Say

January 9, 2011

Today I saw my old friend MM for the first time in over half a generation. He’s married now, with a lovely wife and two lovely children. He only recently moved back to Newcastle from Canberra so the timing of my trip was fortuitous. Cheers MM, for a good catching up!

Foolishly, and for reasons not well understood to me (since I am in a ‘blog everything’ mindset) I didn’t take any photos of him. So all of you wondering what he looks like after all this time…? Well he hasn’t changed much at all 🙂

Here’s a shot of Horseshoe Beach in Newcastle, aka. ‘the dog beach’:

We took MM’s dog Harry Harrison (not pictured) there for a run and a splash. This is truly a place for dogs to enjoy the surf, but my dad tells me it used to be more a beach for horses. People would drive them right up to the beach in the horse-trailers and walk them into the surf for a cool paddle. I’m not sure if anyone ever does that anymore, but it is a nice thought that they may.

Here’s two shots of another friend I made today:

I’m beginning to think my love of cicadas exceeds that of most people.

Tomorrow I was to go on a day trip to a very special location with Sue and her kids. Sadly, she has stood me up (and by that I mean delayed a couple of days) so my schedule is now open. Therefore I plan on undertaking the approximately 20 km walk from Hamilton South to Jewells via the newly extended Fernleigh track. This will require an early start, and quite a bit of willpower since I sunburned today. I’m also still sore from the monkeying around of Friday, so time will tell how successful I will be with tomorrow’s endeavour…

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