Robot Claw

I went to Burger King Hungry Jacks today and ordered the usual: “Whopper Jr meal no mayo no ketchup” and received a burger with catsup on it. Turns out the stripling taking my order didn’t realize I meant ‘tomato sauce’ when I said ketchup.

I cursed myself for becoming an American, and vowed to never make this mistake again. The burger was good though, once they remade it 🙂

More shopping followed. It was much warmer and the rain had passed, as I happily strolled around (ie. walked for 3 hours) between mums and a game/hobby shop and the local (ie. an hours walk away) mall.

I had my second frozen coke of the trip. My first was shortly after arriving, and I froze my brain so much with that one it left me with PTSD. But I can report that I have regained my skill at frozen beverage consumption, and I don’t doubt many more will now follow.

I didn’t buy much. In fact my sole purchases were a tin of beetroot and a lettuce, which should convince you my diet isn’t as horrible as recent posts have suggested. Alas I should have also bought more Chomp bars, since somehow the twenty l bought since arriving are already gone…

It’s wet and cold cool today and I needed supplies for a craft project so I took the bus to Charlestown for some shopping. Australia is a magical place where treasures like this fill the stores:

“Small single filet Otropo meal no sauce please” is my standard order. I had it yesterday and today and mysteriously it cost different both times. Happily it was equally delicious!

My shopping was a success and it was time to head back. The rain had strengthened and it was fun riding in the bus with it coming down. Of course the walk back to mums from the bus stop was wet, but I enjoy rain so this didn’t bother me.

Speaking of mum she’s doing well. Her apartment is cozy and we’re having fun and laughing a lot as usual 🙂

I’m almost over jet lag, and the remaining symptoms seem to be lethargy. We’re off to Sydney in a couple of days and I’m sure I’ll be normal by then.

Today was also a notably day in my Puzzle & Dragons career. Specifically it was my 4000th day of uninterrupted logins. I’m still enjoying it too, but I wonder how much longer it could last?

I woke yesterday and shrugged off the jet lag like a champ. In an instant my energy levels were back to normal (120%) and I was ready to go:

Look at that picture of health 🙂

It was 6 am when I staggered into Maccas for breakfast. I’d been awake for hours and when I left the hotel I saw no one in the streets of Sydney except for toiling tradies. Maccas breakfast was the usual slop, only pricier than previous years:

Sue came to pick me up mid morning, and we headed to Newcastle. A couple of stops on the way home led to an unexpected charity store purchase of a 70s Conan pastiche paperback (Tark and The Golden Tide) but alas – jet lagged fool I was – I passed on this gem:

Sue graciously drove me to mums, and I was tired when we finally arrived. There’ll be more adventures with Sue this trip so you can look forward to them, but a bit later in the day she texted me about something I had brought her

Remember those wretched Nugget Buddies? Sue had requested them and I dutifully stashed them away. It turns out the sealed one – which had aged in my cupboard for six months – was the rare golden Buddy:

Isn’t that beautiful?

I’m in Australia. This is my 18th return visit since I left and my fourth in the Australian winter. Yesterday included my 60th crossing of the Pacific, and best I can estimate was about my 62nd day of my life spent in the air (I really need to calculate that more accurately one day).

The 31 hour journey was hell of course; here’s a series of photos taken throughout, one on each plane and one shortly after arriving at my hotel:

It appears the stresses of the journey seem to have elongated my very head!

After arriving I wandered around Sydney like a footloose parvenu, drifting here and there and pausing only long enough to buy $187.20 worth of postage stamps (that’s not a typo).

The locals welcomed me as they always do, but alas the rigors of travel were impossible to ignore even with the energy of a Big Mac meal, four Chomps, a bag of cheese & onion chips, a frozen coke, a chicken kebab and – as evidence of how dog-tired I was – a zero sugar Solo:

I went to my bed with the sun high in the sky, and now am fully awake with the moon not even at its peak. Jet lag is fun isn’t it?