Thrice Odds & Ends

  • June 12, 2022

Spent the morning cleaning and the afternoon going for a stroll around the neighborhood. A good chance for a few more catch-up photos.

We played memory the other night. Of the 54 pairs, I won 25-2. Lots of laughs were had 🙂

The farmers markets are held at the showground, and this sign brought me all the way back to visiting ‘The Show’ as a kid. It’s still the best fair I’ve ever attended, and I’d love to go again.

I’ve been sorting mums postcards into binders, and filled 4 large ones with just cards sent by me! Should I do a blog post on some of the earliest ones?

This slightly less than life sized bust is at a local antique shop. Alas, I doubt I’d have the weight in my luggage to bring it back with me…

  • Posted in Australia
  • Robert

Ramen 17: Chicken Down Under

  • June 11, 2022

Please understand I’m trying these chicken ramens so you don’t have to…

Coles Chicken Flavored Noodles (1650 kJ, 16.6 g fat, 1316 mg sodium)

Without a doubt I prefer cup ramens to bricks these days, so this store brand had a steep hill to climb. And it barely tried: the noodles were weirdly sticky and the ‘taste’ was just herby salt.

I’ve formed a theory that the Australian ‘chicken’ taste is quite different from the US one, since none of those taste anything like the ones I eat in America. To me they taste more of earth and beef and, in this case, something I don’t want to eat: 0/10

Simple Chicken Noodles (1300 kJ, 13.3 g fat, 1100 mg sodium)

At this point – with five antipodean noodles under my belt – I was beginning to despair. I eat a Gefen cup almost every day back home; would nothing down here even attempt to come close to the glory of that pristine taste?

‘Sinple’ is the Aldi store brand, and to cut to the chase, I hated it. Once again I tasted soil and ash and burned toast. Do they even know what chickens are here in Oz???! Score: 1/10

Fantastic Chicken Noodles (1600 kJ, 17.1 g fat, 1890 mg sodium)

This is a larger size of the Fantastic one I tasted last week, which I proclaimed as one of the worst ramen I’d ever tasted and scored it a generous -8/10. I’ll give you one guess how much I enjoyed eating it again.

Let’s put it this way: My ethics and honor mean that I buy every (plain) chicken ramen I ever see and taste them all. Even if I know or even suspect I won’t like one I’ll still give it a go. Last week I bought both Fantastic ramens at the same time, and of course had no idea I’d hate them both. I’ll say now, hand on heart, that if I found this second one after I’d eaten the first I would have pretended I hadn’t seen it and walked away. An easy -10/10

Between these three we have an average score of -3/10, and I despair for Australians that are sold this dreck. And yet I’ve got three more to try so all hope is not yet lost. Stay tuned…

  • Posted in Australia
  • Robert

Odds & Ends Again

  • June 10, 2022

Went with Sue today again, to visit another sea cave. Unfortunately, the tide was too high:

The cave leads to other caves, and they are all apparently somewhat dangerous even at low tides. It’s a lot taller than the photo suggests: three or four times my height. It was a shame we couldn’t explore, but the water was quite deep at the entrance and the waves surging.

There’s another shot of Adam from my second visit last week. We played magic again all day, and he won again overall, although it was closer than the first time. I wish I could play magic with him more often 🙂

On the last morning in Sydney (with mum) I took a walk out to the end of Mrs Macquaries Point to snap this lovely shot. This was perhaps the coldest I’ve felt on this trip since the wind off the harbour was icy, but away from the wind it was sunny and nice.

I’ve eaten loads of the above! In fact I’ve eaten 24 pies so far, and I’m sure there’s another dozen going into my gulliver before I leave. My limit is four in a meal now, and I can hardly believe I used to effortlessly eat twice that.

Speaking of limits, due to excessive over-buying of stamps (remember the stamp show?) I’ve sent a silly amount of cards. I wager most of you have received some by now. Watch your mailboxes: there will be more!