Robot Claw

When I was young, did I think days like today were cold as well? Or was it true, since (as a child) I ‘didn’t feel the cold‘ that I wasn’t as bothered even then? At any rate for me today was glorious, and yet almost everyone else I saw was bundled up and hurrying inside.

I walked the Fernleigh Track today, as I do every time I’m here. It wasn’t busy and the birds were happy to see me, chirping loudly as I walked along.

I navigated the tunnel without being murdered, and exited the track at Kahibah. As I walked the streets toward Charlestown Square I walked past the little shop we used to buy lollies, fireworks and Star Wars cards. A bit further on was our old church, almost unrecognizable now the tiny shrubs have grown into magnificent gum trees. I stopped in at Charlestown library, which is now more computers and multimedia than books (and doesn’t even have a sci-fi section any more) and eventually made my way to the Square and lunch.

Even though I’d been walking almost two hours by now, I had found my second wind! The Square was obnoxiously busy so I quickly departed to walk home. This was madness of course, but I didn’t hesitate in my decision. It was about noon now and the weather was wonderful: about 60F and warmer in the sun with a very light breeze.

I walked past the cinema on the hill, and what used to be the arcade where I once played Snow Bros for hours. Continuing along the highway I walked past the old home of a friend whose name I’ve forgotten, and then turned down the too-steep Madison Avenue down to Kotara. The walk was easier than expected, and I now know that the time GW and I did this 30 years ago was less an accomplishment than I have always thought (except for the fact we used storm water drains).

I had a very brief stop at Westfield Kotara (to buy bread, a snack, and bandaids for my bleeding foot) and continued on. It had been about four hours now and over 20,000 steps but I still had energy in abundance! So I decided on a detour to a local toy/hobby shop and the Maccas across the road.

I neglected to mention I was laden with stuff. I’d made purchases at each mall and at the toy shop and I had a stuffed backpack and shopping bag. I must have looked like a hobo at this point, but it was only a short twenty minutes or so back to mums.

In total I walked for about six hours and just about 30,000 steps. It was a good walk 🙂

I bought one of these:

These have been around since I was a youngling, and were always a special treat when we were kids. Here’s what it looked like out of the wrapper:

First of all we observe the ice crystals and the fact the nose is coming out of the bottom of his right eye, but if we ignore that we concede he’s mostly accurate to the packaging, down to the bullet hole in the top right of his hat. I don’t remember the chocolate backing from when I was a child, but I’m sure it’s always been there.

So how does it taste?

In a word: awful. Even overlooking the fact I dislike chocolate ice cream, I found the texture of the ice-cream to be weirdly soft and dusty and the chocolate on the back tasted hideous. Luckily Sue was happy to eat the chocolate and handed it back with only the strawberry ice-cream left:

Even this was awful. The taste was marginally better than the chocolate but it had the texture of popcorn chicken, which is to say more like tofu or aerogel than actual ice cream. As this point this frozen novelty was pretty much the worst ice cream I’ve ever eaten, but it still had the bubblegum nose and this could turn the entire thing around…

But… it was abysmal. The ball (which seems smaller than when we were kids) was more like compounded powder than gum, and tasted of pez or sweet tarts (ie. awful). I suspect this is that sort of sweet that starts as candy and turns to gum in the mouth, but the taste and impression of eating it was so terrible I had to spit it out. When we were kids this was a bubblegum nose, not a weird lolly that (maybe?) turns to bubblegum after a while!!

Ultimately this frozen novelty was an absolute fail. I hated the taste and texture of the ice cream, the chocolate backing and – worst of all – the nose. I’ll never eat one of these ever again, and perhaps even my fond memories from childhood are now erased. You can guess my score!

I walked and walked today, to and then along the sea.

Merewether was gusty and chill, and the waves roared over the sea wall behind the baths. Only a few brave souls were swimming and they didn’t look comfortable!

The paddle pool was sheltered from the waves and glasslike. It looks quiet and peaceful but as I was standing there the crashing sound of the waves behind me was ceaseless. I like this photo and may one day use it in a lecture on reflections.

I walked on past Bar Beach and Cooks Hill toward Newcastle Beach. The surf was powerful and the beaches were empty of all but a few surfers. I walked past more giant apartment buildings that have sprung up along the coast, and thought about how the Newcastle of my youth is mostly gone. But the beach never changes, and the above photo is virtually identical to others I have made 10 or 20 years ago and probably also identical to those of 100 years hence.

To commemorate my coastal excursion it seemed only right to eat some fish and chips for lunch. This ($10!) serving was much more than I needed and I overate. It’s a good thing I walked and walked today, to burn it off.

Remember all the stamps I bought at the stamp show? Over several evenings I pre-stamped them onto postcards and the above photo reveals just how many I needed! I’ll leave it to you to decide if I went overboard 🙂

Today Sue picked me up and we went for a drive to various locations. I visited dad, we went to Morpeth, we ate some chicken and I even bought some new shoes. And then in the afternoon we drove to Moonee Beach and clambered along the coast on the rocks until we found this:

It’s a cave inlet about halfway between Moonee Beach and Catherine Hill Bay, and you can see in the above pic why it’s became a bit of a sensation recently despite being there for aeons: the pink rock!

The surf blasts in and out of this cave continuously, and at low tides (like when we were there) you can see the rocks that are usually underwater are a distinct pink colour. Hence this place being called the Pink Caves or Fairy Floss Caves or Cotton Candy Caves (obviously that last name was given by an American). The pink is the natural colour of the rock, exposed due to the force of the waves preventing bleaching or algae growth.

The cave itself is fairly deep, and the crashing sound of the waves echoing inside is thunderous. This is inaccessible at high tide and even at low tide when the swell is high this is apparently a dangerous place to visit.

There was something strangely disturbing and creepy about the cave, and how even in the middle of a sunny day the deepest points were moist and inky black. There are a few nearly circular rockpools inside the cave that are deep enough you cannot see the bottom; I dared not look too close. This is the sort of place a Lovecraftian horror would make it’s home.

We didn’t hesitate to enter the cave once we found it, but getting out was a bit nerve-wracking since the ‘path’ seemed narrower and wetter and more perilous. Visiting this place in the rain or evening or when the tide was higher would be a very bad idea!

Considering this has been here since before either of us was born it’s remarkable we’d not heard of it before. It was absolutely worth the visit and I’m very glad we went. Maybe we should follow up that lead Sue got on another sea cave a bit further down the coast…

I walked to the university today. This is no small walk, and with brief stops at two shopping centers (Waratah and Jesmond) it took me about 3.5 hours.

As you can see the weather was beautiful. But it was also very windy: I even got a wind alert on my phone! This hardly bothered me as I swaggered along in my shorts and t-shirt.

At Jesmond post office I was amused to hear some women talking about how cold it was outside. Australians have a very different impression of ‘cold’ than what I’ve become used to, and it seems for some these are the days to stay indoors!

Newcastle uni – my old stomping ground for 3.5 years between ’90 and ’93 – hadn’t changed that much. The buildings I used to take classes in were all there, and the vibe of the place wasn’t far removed from three decades ago. It’s still a very green campus, if an ugly one.

The little shop I used to buy my sausage rolls in is now a Subway. The old video arcade in the student union is now an admin office. The big restaurant that sold fried rice and egg rolls has become a large empty room and overall everything seemed a little more sterile and dour than I recall. I also saw very few students, which surprised me since classes are still in progress. Maybe they’re too cold?

That’s the engineering building where we moved to play our MUDs when maths got antsy, and a bit further along I walked past the ‘bar on the hill’ where I almost got crushed at a Tex Perkins concert. The buildings seemed closer together than I had remembered. Maybe I’ve just gotten bigger?

I caught the train back to Hamilton, a four minute trip from the uni station that never existed back in my day. It was easy and convenient, and won’t be the last train I catch this trip.

At Beaumont street I found the above chalk scrawlings. Call me a skeptic but these – which stretched nearly the full length of this popular shopping street – seemed to be accompanied by bill poster adverts for ‘alien’ t-shirts. Was this just a local designers viral marketing scheme?

The winds had picked up and it was time to get back to mums. By the time I arrived I was a bit exhausted – I’d been walking about 5 hours – but today was worth it for the nostalgia alone 🙂