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Archive for the ‘Trip’ Category

Vivid

Tuesday, June 6th, 2023

Yesterday Sue and I went to Vivid, the annual light festival in Sydney.

It’s a bit different this year with more attractions, including some that cost extra. We started with one of these: an underground installation called ‘Dark Spectrum’.

This was a series of 8 rooms in an old set of train tunnels under the city. Each room was themed to an emotion or mood (such as ‘pressure’) and the eight light installations – all of which are paired with music – were all very different.

We both enjoyed this immensely! The green laser room in particular was extraordinary, since you had the impression the beams were real physics things and many times I wanted to touch them. The use of darkness and mirrors in this room made the space seem enormous, and we (wisely) went earlier in the day and there were hardly any people in there with us.

It took about an hour in total to pass through the eight exhibits. The work that went into it was impressive, and we saw such things as moving laser projectors, industrial robots, and rooms full of thousands upon thousands of LEDs all synched to the music. Dark Spectrum far exceeded my expectations and based on what I saw yesterday is probably the best of Vivid this year.

The lights for Vivid itself went on at 6 pm and the highlights – as they were last year – were probably the bridge and opera house. Crowds were much smaller than last year though, which was nice, and we were able to walk lazily to enjoy the lights.

But it was a long day, and even when we started Vivid we were exhausted. About halfway from circular quay to Darling Harbour we got a taxi back to the hotel since we were both absolutely knackered. In particular I suspect I’ve overdone it a bit, and will take today off to rest before my flight tomorrow 🙂

Posted in Australia, Trip | Comments Closed

Fry Guy

Monday, June 5th, 2023

I ate fries at five fast food places here in Oz. How did they compare? Let’s find out!

McDonalds fries are exactly as you’d expect since they taste the same everywhere. They have a familiar if unremarkable taste but the excessive salt is a distraction from a hint of grease and perhaps even an inkling of regret. Of the five types of fry I tested, these were the worst (and yet paradoxically the ones I ate the most).

Hungry Jack’s (aka. Burger King) served up robust and tasty fries with a slight crispy snap to them. I got these three times and every time they were piping hot, not too salted, and delicious! And yet, I’d only rank these fourth of the five…

The above sad excuse for a fry serving was from Henny Penny, but they tasted much better than they looked. But this review is based on the large serving Sue and I shared a few days prior, which was delightful. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo but the fries were hot as hell, thick and full of potato energy, not greasy at all and dusted with delicious chicken salt. They were fantastic, but still only the third best of the five I tried.

Incidentally I feel obliged to showcase the ‘chicken roll’ I bought at Henny Penny, which was undoubtedly the single worst piece of food ever served to me:

Cold garbage chicken on a stale roll: this travesty was possibly excreted by Satan and I hurled it into a bin at light speed!

I’ve only had KFC once this trip, but it was in the middle of a long walk and I was very hungry at the time. The fries were extraordinary! Crispy and fluffy inside, they were golden brown and drenched in chicken salt. I devoured them in seconds, would happily eat more, and yet they’re still not the best I’ve had this trip.

And so we get to Oporto. I’ve had it several times this trip, and every time the fries were perfectly cooked, served hot, generously portioned (the above is a small serving), chicken-salted and tasted wonderful. And I don’t even have to give them extra points for giving me the longest fry I’ve ever seen! So just as Oporto served the best chicken tenders last year, this year they served me the best fries 🙂

Truth be told though, the fries at all five of these fast food places were all good, and even the worst were tasty. But if you’ve only got time for one fast food visit in Oz, as always my suggestion remains Oporto!

Posted in Australia, Food, Miscellaneous, Trip | Comments Closed

Animals, Again

Sunday, June 4th, 2023

Today I went to Oakvale animal park with Sue, Marina and Ten. I’d been here about six years ago and remembered it as the pinnacle of kangaroo-visiting locations, and today absolutely did not disappoint!

We got there right when it opened and there were tour buses full of Koreans unloading in front of us. Everyone legged it for the kangaroos that were sunning it at the park of the park. As it turns out there were so many kangaroos (more than 37; I counted) which were more than enough for everyone to find one to feed 🙂

The Korean tourists were mad with excitement, and everyone was all smiles as the kangaroos welcomed us and our little food bags! Marina and Ten were equally excited, and kangaroos were the first of many animals they fed today that they had never experienced first-hand before.

We fed kangaroos, llamas, goats, sheep, bulls, camels and even miniature horses. The girls were excited and scared of many of the animals – most of which were significantly larger than themselves – and many laughs were had 🙂

Another highlight was the baby goat feeding. Small bottles of milk were distributed to the crowd of visitors and then a pen of hungry baby goats was opened and the little goats went berserk running around drinking from the bottles. It was hilarious!

The park is beautifully kept, with well-maintained enclosures and a healthy animals. The weather today was ideal – not too hot or cold – and we saw lots of activity even amongst animals that are usually quite sedentary.

Marina and Ten are studying English at Newcastle University and both are fairly fluent, so we had no trouble communicating. Of course I was full of questions about Japan and it was fascinating getting the perspective of ‘locals’. I think they were amused by my otaku qualifications, which were similar to Marina’s dad!

As you know I love kangaroos, and I could happily visit them any time. It was a lovely day 🙂

Posted in Animals, Australia, Trip | Comments Closed

A Review In Three Photos

Thursday, June 1st, 2023

Posted in Food, Trip | 1 Comment »

Save The Whales

Thursday, June 1st, 2023

Today Sue and I went to a place called Norah Head lighthouse, about a half hour south of Newcastle on the central coast.

It was a lovely and picturesque spot, and below the lighthouse was an expansive area of rockpools. Since it was low tide, we were free to explore them at our leisure.

We saw some brave souls fishing from the edge of the rocks. Fools, some may call them, since they ignored the many warning signs and many fisherman are lost every year from being washed off rocks.

From up on the cliffs near the lighthouse, and only minutes after we arrived, we saw out to sea many sights like this one:

Can you see the little black dot? Here’s a zoomed-in view:

It’s a breaching humpback! The east coast of Australia at this time is ‘humpback highway’ since whales are in the middle of migration north from Antarctica. I had read it was ‘easy’ to see whales off the east coast at this time of year but we were unprepared for just how easy it was!

These are extremely zoomed-in snaps of different whales, but we spotted them dozens and dozens of times in the hour or so we were on the rocks. It’s hard to saw how many different whales we saw, but at one point there were clearly four surfacing at once in different spots. Sue says we saw fifty, and far be it from to suggest that’s an exaggeration 🙂

Afterwards we had some fish and chips for lunch and headed to a lookout further south that we had read was a better whale-spotting point… but saw none there! No worries though, since we had been so lucky before lunch. It was a remarkable experience in a beautiful location 🙂