Robot Claw

I awoke before dawn with a man’s hunger and at 5:30 am was in the 24-hour George street McDonald’s. The place was full of villains, wastrels and people that had clearly made bad decisions, myself included. A man washed the floor half-heartedly and I felt a twinge of guilt as my footsteps ruined his work. I ordered my breakfast and stood somewhere my back was protected. A particularly scurrilous rogue watched me intently while trying to appear as if he wasn’t. His gaze grew keener when I got my ‘food’, and I ate under a stare not dissimilar to this:

The bacon was thin and gamey, the egg almost tolerable and the cheese dry and cracking. Worst by far was the muffin, which I suspect had been used for some weeks to prop up a table leg. The hash brown tasted of regret and the watery Diet Coke was barely enough to wash the mess into my stomach. All this under the covetous glare of a starving reprobate, who wandered off after my last bite. I should have given him the food, which ultimately required two 6 am chomp bars to erase the taste. It was a miracle they weren’t themselves chased by an entire bag of cheese and onion chips.

Today was more shopping with mum in the morning (lots of books) before she met her friend for a cuppa and I took off by myself to whirlwind tour my usual spots.

I wandered down to Darling Harbour (which worsens and improves every year) through to Paddies where I saw the above astonishing set of action figures (Red Batman? Zorro? A luchidor?). Paddies is absolutely in decline, and I wonder how many more years it can survive.

After reuniting with mum and making sure she was safe and sound in the hotel I headed down to circular quay and on a whim hopped on a ferry for a brief jaunt back to Darling Harbour. As you can see the weather was wonderful and it was a lovely little cruise. I should ride on more boats!

We’re in Sydney! The drive down yesterday (we hired a chauffeured car) was so comfortable I even napped in the car.

It’s been five years since mum was here, and the purpose of this trip is mostly shopping. We did a few hours of that yesterday, and filled a bag or two with goodies.

Of course we also visited the cathedral. The above shows us learning a new spell from The Pope. The weather here is nice, and as you can see I’m conspicuous in my shorts when even the hardest Oz dude is long-trousered. I guess my cold resistance is at maximum?

I had a kebab in mind for dinner but then remembered the ‘baby’ chicken sushi so I shoveled that in my gullet as I crushed my thirst by slamming down a can of Solo. Mum had the biggest salad roll I’ve ever seen.

Tomorrow we’ll shop more, and mums meeting a friend for a cuppa. I’d like to investigate the new Darling Harbour, but I’ll only have a short time so I may have to scamper down there like a mad ape. As if I’ve not done that before.

Went to Adam’s for the annual card flop fiesta. He had graciously secured all these (and boosters of a fifth set) to play:

This is a lot of magic, and in about 7 hours yesterday we played through Eldraine, Ixalan and Ravnica Remastered. Neither of us had played with any of these before so it was a lot of fun seeing the new cards and systems, and we managed to make half-decent decks with the limited cards we had.

As usual Adam ‘won’ overall (I won Eldraine, he won the other two) but there’s two more sets to play so it’s anyone’s game! Highlights of the games would be the following two cards, both of which won the games every time they were cast (I won two games with the green one, Adam won three with the White/Black one):

We’ll finish the other two prereleases next week, and I’m particularly looking forward to them since they were the first sets with the new booster type (called ‘play boosters’), which may make the games a little more unpredictable than usual.

Tomorrow mum and I are heading to Sydney for a couple of days. My jet lag has (mostly) passed so I’ll be able to explore more than I did the day I arrived. I wonder what I’ll find?

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?