Hockey on Ice

Richard's car got ran into in a few weeks ago by a guy in a Hummer, pretty seriously damaging his door (damaged to the point he can't use the door). As a good will gesture, I guess, the guy asked if he liked hockey or basketball. Richard said hockey, so the guy gave him 2 tickets to the New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. Given that he had 2 tickets and only one person, he asked me if I wanted to go along. My interested was piqued - my experience with hockey before then was restricted to Blades of Steel on the Nintendo Entertainment System and also to the epic grand final matchup of Green vs Blue that I watched in person at Warners Bay Ice Skating Stadium. Oh, and a little from the Mighty Ducks documentaries with the kids in them. Richard had been told the seats were supposed to be good, so he read me the ticket details: Section 77, Row A, Seats 1 and 2. I looked at this map:

"Yeah, they should be good seats!" I said.

I left work on Wednesday evening and called Richard from the train. He met me on board and we rode to Grand Central. From there we wound over to the Times Square Shuttle, then onto the 1 train downtown to Penn. We wandered up through Penn Station to the entrance to the Garden, arriving about 15 minutes before play was due to start. After avoiding the guy trying to sell me a ticket while looking at the venue map, we navigated the hallways until we found our gate and went down to our seats. This was what we saw when we sat down:

Checking the tickets, they were valued at $240 each, and were fancy enough that people came and offered to go get us food and drinks. We didn't take them up on it at any stage, but it was cool that it was there.

A few minutes went by and the Atlanta Thrashers, the Rangers' opposition for the night, started to come out. Some of their guys started clambering onto the bench, which was right in front of where we were sitting.

The backup goalie gets onto the bench

Next came the Rangers to loud cheers. Both teams lined up for the anthem. It reminded me of Blades of Steel. I kept getting Blades of Steel flashbacks all game...

The lineups, how they would have appeared in Blades of Steel

The teams got into position, and I could almost hear the 8-bit voice saying "Face off" as the puck was dropped.

The game was underway! It wasn't long before New York were on the offense, and something happened, I don't know the rules because Blades of Steel seemed to have "icing" as the only rule, and there was a face off near the Thrashers goal.

Less than a minute into the game, GOAL!!! Rangers 1, Thrashers 0. It stayed that way for a while until the Thrashers scored. It was 1 - 1 at the end of the first period. Not sure what to expect because Blades of Steel just went straight to the second period, I thought it was cool when little kids came out to play hockey. They would have skated circles around me, even the littlest kid who kept falling over.

The kids looked even smaller thanks to the comparison between them and the adult players.

The zamboni cleaned the ice and it was time for the second period. From what I remember the Thrashers went ahead before the Rangers quickly equalized. Anger threatened to spill over. Please, fight!

The striped shirt guy (I don't know if hockey officials are referees or umpires) broke it up, so I had to imagine it in my mind. Again, it ended up being Blades of Steel style...

Atlanta scored again, making it 3 - 2 and that was how it stayed until the end of the second period. I knew what was to come at this interval, because on Blades of Steel there was the space game:

I pretty sure I used to be able to destroy the big ship...

What?!?! No big space game? A kids penalty shootout competition instead? Fine... the kids didn't get many in, and the goal tenders didn't have to do much work. I kept wanting to call out to them to do the triple deek, because it almost always worked for the Mighty Ducks (that reminds me, does anyone know if Adam Banks went pro?). The penalty shootout ended in a 1-1 tie. I recorded video of it, but it ended up being not so dramatic with the tie and all...

The third period began, still 3 - 2, of course. In about 5 minutes of the third period the Thrashers scored twice, making it 5 - 2. All the Rangers fans started to get disappointed and dejected, including the ginger screaming girl who was sitting next to us. Luckily for my ear drums she was next to Richard. But that sparked something, and the Rangers tried to come back. They scored twice, bringing it back to 5 - 4. They had another chance, but it hit the bar. Both teams were frantic: the Rangers trying to equalize, the Thrashers trying to keep them out. But in amongst it all, one of the Thrashers' coaches still had time to draw. It probably relieved anxiety or something:

Coach (thinking): "What am I going to draw???"

Coach (yelling): "Hey, check it out! I drew a robot! Welch, look at my robot, damn it!"

(as the players/lines change)

Coach: "Check it out - I drew this robot. Yeah, I drew it!"

In desperation, the Rangers pulled their goalie, leaving an extra man on the ice but also an empty net. The puck got away from them and with 23 point something seconds left the Thrashers put the puck into the empty net. Having little faith in their team's ability to score 2 goals in 20 seconds the Rangers fans moaned and turned to leave. Richard and I hung out until the end and then left, timing our runs well to the subway and train home.

It was a fun night. Never having been to a hockey game before I was surprised at how quickly it went. And how warm it was in there, even by the ice. I'd go to another game, but probably wouldn't sit that close again, especially if I had to pay for the tickets.

Rich, if you read this, thanks for asking me to the game.

Now, if only I had a NES and Blades of Steel... an emulator just wouldn't be the same...

Note: Photos were taken by me at the game, all from our seats. The game screenshots came from other websites, including ign I think... and I know the colors of the uniforms keep changing...

Here's what people have been waiting for...

It has been a while, but it's because I've been distracted over the past 2 weeks.

On Saturday Liz and I went to the mall, and I got within 3 feet of Crazy Hat Man. I kid you not, if I hadn't proposed that afternoon Crazy Hat Man would have been the highlight of my day.

Yes, Liz and I are now engaged. I guess I could share the story of it. I won't say everything about it, but here's a trimmed down version.

We went for a walk on Saturday afternoon at a state park we go to reasonably frequently called Huntington. I've mentioned it before, and it's where I took the photo that is at the top of the blog. We went for a walk on one of the trails that we have never been on, and it was nice and quiet, no-one around. There were some very steep up hills to climb up and down, which had some loose dirt on the down slopes. At the top of the last hill we found a large collection of rocks, so we decided to sit and take a break for a while. We were hanging out talking and having a good time.

Liz had 2 wishes about a proposal - she wanted it to be outside and she wanted it to be a surprise. The more I thought about it the more I knew that right then and there would work. So, I asked her if she wanted to come for a walk over some of the rocks. We walked around, me looking for an area where I could ask the question properly, and then we were standing there.

I started my little talk, I didn't want to come out and just say it.

I said some things ("Why is he saying all this?" Liz later told me was what she was thinking).

I kept saying things ("He couldn't be... he doesn't even have a ring" she thought)

I dropped down on one knee and reached into my pocket ("He has a ring!!!" she realized)

I asked "Will you marry me?"

She responded "Really?!"

I already had the ring part way on her finger with the words, so I stopped. "Yes, really" I reassured her.

"Yes!" she said excitedly. So I put it all the way on her finger.

I stood back up and we had a big hug - "Can I look at it?!" she asked.

A few minutes later a family walked past, and we asked if they would take a photo of us. We didn't say why, and the father snapped this for us:

Once they kept walking Liz and I set up the tripod and stood on the rocks that we had been on.

As for the ring, I did a good job from what I have been told - everyone who has seen it has said it was nice, and the important thing is that Liz loves it. I've seen her a few times just staring at it, smiling.

I tried to take some photos, but it's hard and they don't do the ring justice. To get close enough to get detail requires close up filters, and they make the depth of field really shallow (that basically means that it's hard to get a lot in focus at the same time).

You can click on the photos below and get bigger pics.

I really think the easy part is done. Because now, we're planning a wedding.

Australia Trip 2010 - Take 5

What do you mean I haven't finished going over the Australia trip yet? Oh, yeah... I hadn't finished going over the Australia trip yet... better late than never...

Monday September 6th: We woke up with a big day planned - a walk and some fun at Tree Tops Adventure Park. We jumped in the car and headed for Kooragang Wetlands for a walk. We found a map when we first entered the area and decided where to walk. The trail though wasn't what we were expecting - it ended up being wide enough for a car to drive down, and made its way out under some power lines and then to a dead end through a field with nothing to see. We walked back to the car and decided to go further into the park to see if there were other trails. Nope.

A tree next to the path at the Wetlands

It was getting to the time when we needed to leave there anyway, so we drove to a supermarket and got ourselves some provisions for lunch. We drove out to Minmi, which is a small town about 30 minutes from Newcastle. The reason for driving out there was Tree Tops Adventure Park - an obstacle course through the trees. Should be fun.

We found a park that had some tables before going to Tree Tops and ate. It was all good stuff - homemade bread, pb and j and breakfast juice. But the best part of lunch was the entertainment. There were a lot of birds around the park we were sitting in, most notably kookaburras and magpies. The magpies are nesting, so they are very territorial, and when a kookaburra landed on a branch not far from our table a magpie took issue with it. They both sat on the same branch, staring one another down. The kookaburra opened its large beak in warning. The magpie leaned forward and raised its wings, looking bigger and more menacing. They stared each other down, I wish we had had the camera with us at that stage. After the stare down the kookaburra moved to fly away, and the magpie chased it, ramming it in midair. Kookaburra vs Magpie was awesome.

After eating we digested a little and then went around to Tree Tops Adventure Park. It looked not at all like the brochure. Of all the zip lines they advertised we could only see one - not very long, directly over the car park. The "tree tops" were perhaps 15 feet off the ground. We looked at one another and started our discussion. Tree Tops was going to be expensive, and based on this we had to work out if it would be worth it. I consulted a chart in my head that was something like this:

In case it isn't clear... you want something that is above/to the left of the diagonal, ideally, in the definite zone. You may be willing to do something lame if it is also free or very cheap. You may also be willing to pay a lot of money (expensive) if an activity is also high on the enjoyment scale.

Based on where Tree Tops sat, high on the expense scale and in the ever dangerous "Hells No" zone, we turned the car around and went home. It was a nice day outside, so we grabbed a change of clothes and headed to Catherine Hill Bay to walk at the beach. We stood watching guys practicing paragliding off the cliffs and getting our feet wet in the waves. Some bigger than expected waves came in, so we ended up getting more than our feet wet.

The beach at Catherine Hill Bay (Liz photo)

We went back to the car, still with a little daylight remaining and headed for the cliffs at Caves Beach, and were distracted by a cormorant along the way. We stayed until the sun was almost all the way down and then went home to work out dinner.

The view from the Caves Beach cliff (south)

The view from Caves Beach cliff (north)

It had been a long time since we had gone out for dinner together, so we started looking around for somewhere to eat. Places were either closed or didn't have things we could eat, so it wasn't looking good. But then Liz decided to chance it. She called Surtaj, an Indian restaurant we had eaten at before and really enjoyed, and asked them about their menu. They had entire lists of things we could eat. We walked outside to get in the car and looked up at the sky.

The sky above my parent's house

Finally, after almost 2 weeks, a night without clouds. I could see the Milky Way over the house, so we put dinner off for a few minutes while I set up the camera and took a couple of snaps. Hoping that we would come home to more clear skies, we went to dinner and it was fantastic. We had a really good chicken dish, some rice, but I think my favorite was the beef dish that we had. The lady who helped us out was the lady Liz had spoken to on the phone, and she was really firendly and helpful with our menu choices. So, if you're ever in Newcastle, try out Surtaj - they're friendly, have good service and the food is great (if you like Indian food). Leaving the restaurant we were greeted by still clear skies, so we went home and got the camera and went to the darkness of Croudace Bay Park. After an initial blinding from Liz taking a photo I got my dark eyes and started trying a few photos. A while passed, and Liz started to get a bit nervous. There were a lot of noises outside, and she couldn't see what any of them were, so we went home and I took some more photos outside before calling it a night.

Tuesday September 7th: We woke up early with the plan to drive down to a national park just north of Sydney for a day trip and hike. Unfortunately we woke up to some sad news that my grandmother had died earlier that morning. She had a stroke a few days after Liz and I arrived in Australia. We decided to still go to Sydney because the family were going to be busy with arrangements and things like that. Leaving a little later than anticipated because of the events of the morning and Jeb hanging out on the front lawn, we headed for Sydney. After about 2 hours we reached our dstination, Kuringgai Chase National Park. We drove through the park, heading for the visitor information office. Driving along the winding road something suddenly caught my eye, and I pulled over quickly. There was an echidna walking down the side of the road, so Liz jumped out and tried to take a couple of photos. Despite me saying it wouldn't be that fast it ran away quicker than I thought it would, so we kept going to the park office.

The echidna

The park office was in a place called Bobbin Head, which was a nice little area nestled in the middle of the park on the river. We paid our park use fee and went into the visitor center. The lady working there was nice and helped us work out a walk we could take that would chew up the amount of time we intended to be in the park. We ate some lunch then headed out for our hike. Walking through the marina next to the trail head we passed a sign saying to remove leeches before coming back into the marina. Leeches? Fun!

We started up the trail, which was steep but also pretty cool, with rock ledges and trees growing in weird places. Eventually the trail levelled out, but it levelled out onto a dirt access road, where the trail was wide and a bit boring. We passed some roadword/earthmoving machinery, and talked about how we should just drive it down the road. Once past it we lamented that we should have taken photos with it. Our chance to redeem ourselves was just along the road, with another piece of equipment sitting idle. Liz posed next to it, but the easiest way to get down was using the open door. She sat in there, pretending to drive, and it looked like it would have been fun.

Part of the trail going up the hill

Liz in the earthmoving equipment

The road seemed to keep going and going, so we started kicking a loose rock to add to the excitement. We kicked it for a long time, both in distance and time. When we saw a bird we couldn't ID we took some photos and I picked up the rock so that we wouldn't lose it - it had become a big part of our walk.

When the bird left we kept walking, and just before hitting the end of the trail we saw an ant hill. Luckily the walk we were taking was a loop, so no boring service road on the way back. Instead, we meandered our way past a recreation of the Sphinx that had been made by a war veteran who had been gassed. We took some photos with it, and then took some photos of the rock with it. We decided to name him Sphinxy. The walk back to the car was a lot more interesting that the walk away. We went downhill past a lot more interesting rock ledges and along the river. Liz took a lot of photos (all of the ones below) of the walk back.

Liz and I with the sphinx

Sphinxy with the sphinx

I had to stop when we got back to the marina though, to take another photo of me copying a sign. Liz took a lot of photos to make sure one came out, and I started smiling because I could see straight through a walkway to rich people sitting on a marina deck eating and drinking while I'm messing around laying on the ground only 10 yards away from them.

Bobbin Head

The plan from there was to go to my aunt and uncle's house and catch up with the family. Following a long-ish drive that involved getting caught in some peak hour traffic we arrived back at their house in Caves Beach. After catching up with everyone the decision was made to go get some food and eat dinner together. Liz and I went along to help with the decision making/purchasing process, accompanying my cousins, Rebekah, Stacey and Kiri. We went to Coles first and got some salad items. While there I saw a sign, and given my habit of reading signs I confused everyone when I said "For quality Coles is best. - A Current Affair". Looking puzzled, Liz asked "Why did you add 'A Current Affair'?", so I pointed to the sign. Head shakes all round. Coles, despite their apparent high levels of quality, had no quantity of rotisserie chickens, so we had to go to rival Woolworths for those. Rebekah, Liz and I went and did that while Stacey and Kiri walked to some Fish and Chip stores to try and get chips. ("We call 'french fries' 'chips'. Love Ringo" - Simpsons quote). We were back at the car before Stacey and Kiri arrived, chip-less, so I decided to have some fun. While Liz and Rebekah waited in the car I hid. When I saw them walking towards the car I made my move. Rebekah and Liz watched intently, knowing my plan, as I ran and dodged the reversing SUV. When I got to 2 yards away undetected I brandished the bags of rotisserie chicken and yelled "FOR QUALITY COLES IS BEST!!!!" Liz and Rebekah loved it. I loved it - I love scaring people.

After eating chicken and salad we hung out and shot the breeze with the family for a while before heading home - it had been a long day.

Wednesday September 8th: Our time had finished with the Hyundai rental car, and the Beast had been running OK for a few days, so I got up and took it for a run around the block. No shaking or stalling, so I drove it to Charlestown while Liz drove the rental. After dropping it off we headed for another walk at Awabakal Nature Reserve, near Redhead. It was designed to be a smaller, less strenuous walk than what we did the day before. We saw some decent views of the ocean, and on the way back we also saw another echidna! Echidnas are rare enough to spot, so seeing 2 in 2 days about 90 miles apart was pretty cool.

After our walk we hung out a bit and then went and sat under the tree at Croudace Bay in the late afternoon. Liz rued the fact that we didn't have the camera with us, because the tree looked cool with the late afternoon/setting sun on it. We decided we would go back the next day to take photos then.

We went for a drive that night because it was nice and clear again, and not cold, so we went by Matt's place to see if he was up for taking some photos and not being afraid of the dark. He was, so we dropped Liz off and grabbed our camera. We drove around looking for somewhere to set up - Speers Point wasn't the answer, Teralba didn't have quite the angle we needed. Warners Bay might be worth trying out. We settled at the foreshore and started trying some stuff out, taking pictures of the stars with the surrounding landscape. I was being frugal with battery power; given the problems we had had charging the laptop I didn't want to ruin the camera battery charger as well, and we were getting low on juice. It didn't stop me from having fun though and taking a lot of photos, but I can't wait to get out and try some other things with night photos. I haven't posted any in this post because they still need some work... At about 12:15 one of the local bakeries started taunting us by baking, and the whole area smelled with the wonderful aroma of donuts. That was our cue to exit.

Thursday September 9th: Our last full day in Australia, we were faced with the daunting task of repacking our bags and getting ready to leave. Jeef had called the day before to see if we wanted to do lunch, so we picked Matt up and let him have a drive of the Beast. Jeef called while we were heading to town and said that they were held up, so we went and took some photos of the car with the ocean in the background. When we got to where we were meeting Jeef and Mil Humid was there too. So it was cool that we were all heading out for lunch. We went to Beaumont Street, which has a lot of different placed to eat. Liz and I both got chicken satay, as it didn't have anything in it we couldn't eat. Humid was generous and bought our lunch, which was good of him. Thanks for lunch, Humid!

Heading back to the car it was time to say see you soon to everyone. Liz suggested a photo of everyone together, which was when we took the group shot of us on the Beast. We went for a quick drive around, passing Australia's biggest KFC and an awesome billboard:

Sid Fogg's Big Bus! Seats 73 adults or 105 children.

It's effective... now I want chocolate milk

We dropped Matt at his place and it was time to start thinking about packing. But, when we got home, Liz remembered that we still had some passionfruit that we had bought at a Farmer's Market a few days earlier. While I hung out and talked to the neighbors, Jarrod and Luke, she baked up a storm. I love passionfruit, and the vanilla cupcakes with passionfruit icing that Liz made absolutely rocked. It started to rain, which meant that we couldn't go and take photos of the tree. Next time we're there we'll do it.

Smelling the passionfruit and imagining what was to come

It started to get later in the evening, and we all still had to eat, so we started looking for somewhere we could all go. We decided to try an Italian place in Belmont called Selina's, who have gluten free items. I called to make a reservation and then we went. When we arrived they didn't have a table, which was a bit annoying. Eventually they seated us in a room on our own, which worked out for the best. It was a big table, like a dining room table, and there was a fireplace in the corner. Most of us got pizza - the one I had was a gluten free crust with bacon, beef, pepperoni, onion, pineapple and barbeque sauce (no cheese). It was fantastic. Adequately stuffed, I still had space for passionfruit goodness when we got home. Now, though, we had to pack. It took us a while, gathering things up, packing bags, checking weights, but come midnight we were done. Enough time for 3 hours sleep before we had to leave for the airport.

Friday September 10th: We got out of bed and got ourselves ready, much quicker than I thought we would but not quick enough to make our planned departure time. We snapped a couple of pics of and with Jeb and loaded up the car. We said see ya to Kel and jumped in Bil in the dark to start the drive to Sydney. As we got closer we started to hear reports about ferries on Sydney Harbour being cancelled because of fog. Driving through the city we couldn't see some of the taller buildings because of the shroud. We got all the way to within 10 minutes of the airport until the announcement came over the radio that Sydney airport was closed because of the fog. Figuring it would only be a temporary delay while the fog lifted it didn't change our plans much...

Normally you could see the Sydney Harbour Bridge from here, but fog covered it

We checked in for our flights and sat with Mum and Dad while they ate some breakfast. Making us hungry, we went and got the same thing, thanks to Mum and Dad because we were out of Australian money. We did some wandering through shops and then it was time to say bye to Mum and Dad. I'll admit that it was sad, especially with everything that had happened over the last few days that we were there. Clearing Customs and Immigration was easy, and before we knew it we were at the gate waiting to board. They were a little late boarding the plane, probably because of the earlier fog delays.

On the plane we had only been flying a little while before they brought out lunch. Oh, hell... more fruit platters. Neither of us were tired, and wanted to try and wait a few more hours until it was dark outside the plane before attempting sleep, so we watched a movie together, Kick Ass. It was completely not what I expected (I thought it would be comical, and in the end it was comical and violent) but I enjoyed it a lot. We then watched a movie called The Joneses before I decided to try and get some sleep.

4 hours later I was awake and didn't go back to sleep, which is the least I think I have ever slept on a Sydney - LA flight. More fruit platter was consumed and then it was time to land. Immigration in Los Angeles was faster for me than it ever has been, because for the first time I was able to go through with American citizens and residents, which are much faster lines. The trade-off was, though, that we spent more time waiting for our bags. We ended up having to go through 2 lines at Customs because we told them we had food. When we told them what we had they practically waved us straight through. There wasn't much time between flights again, so we had just enough time to brush our teeth and get to the next gate. On the next flight Liz had a window seat while I had the aisle, and we could see some stuff out the window.

I passed the time by watching "The Last Airbender". The movie was OK - I like the premise behind it. As such we have started watching the cartoon series it was based on on Netflix. About 15 minutes from landing at JFK the Manhattan skyline was visible, and I fell asleep for 5 minutes. It was a weird time to fall asleep given how long I had been awake.

Next we had to find out way to baggage claim and to the car rental area to pick up a car. Luckily both were easy to find. The car they gave us was huge, so we had plenty of space for our bags. Hungry after 3 fruit platters we went to Layla's on the way home, and the guy managed to upsell me into buying more than I had originally planned. But it was worth it. We pulled into the driveway and I decided to check the mail. Here's what our mail looked like:

I was a bit pissed, because there were things in there like debit cards we didn't know were being delivered while we were away, so if some of the mail had have gone missing we wouldn't have known and it would have been bad. We ate Layla's, watched some TV and called people to tell them: we were back.

So, that's the end of my Australian recollection. Just a few more random things that I remembered or was reminded of:

On the Thursday when I could remember what we had done we went shopping at the mall with the family.

The first day we were there someone came over to Mum and Dad's place, and Mum asked if they wanted a "cuppa". That means "Do you want a cup of tea or coffee?". The person replied "Yeah", so Mum asked what. They couldn't decide so I suggested they have both: hybrid tea/coffee, but you can't call it toffee. This was the first time the person had met me, so they didn't know how to take that comment.

Australian barbecue sauce is different to US sauce - it is not at all smoky and is sweeter. I got into a real barbecue sauce kick for a few days while we were there and was having it on a lot of different stuff, like steamed rice. People thought I was weird, but I was loving it.

If there were 3 occasions I wish we had had the camera they would have been for Liz at the tree, Kookaburra vs Magpie and the kid we saw that was about 4 years old and had a mullet all the way down his back.

Australia was fun, and it was great to see everyone again. We didn't get to see everything and everyone or do some of the things we had planned. Next trip: The Castle needs to be watched and cricket needs to be played!

Last few days

The last few days have been pretty busy, so I'll go over the more interesting things.

We got some pumpkins! We went to the same place we went last year, and their crop was awesome. Last year they didn't have a good crop, and we went later in October. Those 2 things combined meant that we ended up needing to search a lot to find good pumpkins. This year, walking out into the patch, there were hundreds of awesome pumpkins to choose from. Liz found one straight away, but ended up changing her mind when she saw a better one.

This is Liz with her pumpkin. You can see a trail of pumpkins behind her. I took a photo of the trail of pumpkins as well, which was just one of dozens.

The 2 larger pumpkins at the bottom/front left are the pumpkins we got. After we had finished in the field we took the hayride back (we also took the hayride there) - the hayride is being towed behind a tractor in a big trailer thing with hay. I took a photo with the tractor and my pumpkin once we got back to the main entrance.

After the pumpkin picking we dashed home to get changed for a wedding. Kirsten and Matt were having their wedding reception, so we went along and had a lot of fun. We danced a bit, I felt quite self conscious at first but started to get over it the later it got. They also gave out pretty cool wedding favors (gifts to everyone at the tables): we all got a bottle of Frank's Hot Sauce. I cracked mine open to put on the salad. It was good.

We have been using Netflix since we got back - the most recent movies have been the 3 Ocean's movies. I think I liked Ocean's 13 most, then 11, then 12. I think what I liked most about 13 was the lack of Horseface (Julia Roberts). Next on the list is Shutter Island, which is due to arrive tomorrow.

We also learned what an AFR is. The show Undercover Boss was on, and they were working at a water park. They had an emergency AFR. The CEO asked what an AFR was. It's an Accidental Fecal Release. They then showed the CEO cleaning it out of the pool, but they blurred out the poo (making it pixel poo), so it looked like it had committed a crime.

Right now we have chili cooking - it's a late dinner tonight. Taste tests suggest it is the best chili we have ever made. I might finish it just before the new episode of South Park starts!!!

Also, Clone Wars better start delivering. The first 2 episodes were OK, but since then it's been pretty crap. Last week's episode felt too much like The Phantom Menace, just with different characters and a kidnapping. Next weeks episode doesn't look great from the previews either. The trailer for the third season looked like it held promise, so hopefully something good is coming. At least Ahsoka didn't show up until the 4th episode...

Australia Trip 2010 - Take 4

The next few days were very photo heavy. Some of the photos were taken by Matt or on his camera, so I will give credit where appropriate.

Friday September 3rd: Following the Beast's hiccups of Tuesday, Liz and I decided to hire a car for a few days so that Mum and Dad could still use Bil and we would have something in case we wanted to go anywhere. We called a local car rental place and arranged to go pick up a car. They told us it would be a Corolla. Satisfied with that, Dad gave us a ride to the place, and they gave us a Hyundai. When all was said and done the Hyundai was fine - it was decent enough with gas and got us from point A to several other lettered points.

The first place we went in the car was into Newcastle, to the Wilderness Society where Liz did an internship while she was in Australia. We walked in there to find that the office renovations that had started while Liz was there were finished. Liz told the person working there who she was, and the guy started to go through all the people that would have been working there when Liz was there but had since left. In the end the last lady, the one Liz wanted to see, had resigned the day before. Disappointed that no-one was there, we got some magnets and headed down the street to Al Gator's - a food place that sells falafel. Now, we've been spoiled by having Layla's up the street from us, and they have great falafel. We double checked with the guy first to make sure there wasn't any gluten or dairy in the falafel before we bought anything. He pointed to something that didn't look at all like falafel and tried to tell us it had a small amount of flour, but that it was the tiniest amount. We snuck out while he was serving someone else. We walked down the street, but couldn't find anything that we wanted to eat. We eventually decided to jump back into the car, go to the supermarket and get some basic supplies to take to my grandmother's house and eat lunch with her.

We rolled up to the supermarket and bought some crackers, peanut butter and something else. My grandmother lives 5 minutes walk, if that, from the supermarket; we got in the car and drove to her house. Knocking on the door we heard movement in the house, but didn't see Nan. After what seemed like minutes she finally checked the back door and let us in. Nan hadn't finished her lunch yet, so we ate with her and hung out and chatted for a while. Apparently we made her day by turning up there, which was a pretty big statement. Dad had been there earlier, and he had brought her a potato pie for lunch. If someone had brought me pie I would have found that hard to top.

Nan lives not far from where I used to work, so we decided to drop by there to see if they had a spare power cable for the laptop to test with. They didn't, unfortunately, but I got to talk for a few minutes with the network guy I used to work with. He made fun of how I say "Australia". Bastard.

Next stop for us was where the camera started to get a little bit of use. We went to a park called Blackbutt Reserve. Blackbutt is a parcel of land in Newcastle which has been left as trees and bush. There are also some enclosures there for native wildlife so that people can come and see animals. They have a lot of different types of birds, but what really tends to draw people in are the wombats, wallaroos (a macropod between the size of a wallaby and a kangaroo) and, in particular, the koalas.

A wallaroo

The path at Blackbutt that goes through the enclosures is a circuit, that takes you past the wombats first, then the wallaroos, then into a flight aviary where the koalas are. We stopped for a long time with the koalas, we could only see 2 when we first went in there. As we got closer to the second one, Liz said "What's it holding?". From my angle the koala just looked fat, which, in my defence, is a fair assumption for a koala, so I said it was just fat. Liz swore it was holding something, and when the "fat stomach" moved I admitted she was right. The koala was holding a baby koala. We waited patiently for a while, but the baby didn't poke its head out, so we headed along through the birds.

When we emerged at the end of the birds, we could see the koala in the aviary moving. Figuring we might be able to see the baby now, we ran inside, and there it was, moving around, poking its head out.

Our paid time in the parking lot was about to expire, so we went back to the car and started driving home. Along the way we stopped in at a butcher in Warners Bay to take some photos of a sign that heped me come up with the AIM handle that I use at work.

The Beefprawn sign, with our rental car

Unfortunately, the place has redone the painting on the side of the building, and it just used to say "Beef    Prawn" and then have the prices beneath. Adding the "&" makes sense, but takes away from the effect.

Liz drove home from the butcher, and along the way drove through a police speed trap. There were 3 cops standing on the side of the road, one of them armed with a radar gun (he was probably also armed with his regular gun, but he didn't have that out, pointed at cars). Liz was under the limit and on the right side of the road, so she was allowed to continue on.

Saturday September 4th: Saturday September 4th, 2010 will go down in history as a day of awesomeness. It was a day so awesome, that it needed photos from multiple sources to capture all the awesomeness. It started out like 90+% of days; yep, with waking up. We went to Wicked in the morning and then tackled the mall.

We called Matt to find out what he was up to, and when nothing was his response, he swung by my parents place. One of the places Liz wanted to go back to in Australia was the Bogey Hole. The Bogey Hole is a pool that was carved out in the rock at the base of some cliffs along the Newcastle beaches. It is filled by ocean water, is quite deep, but is also very dangerous. People have been killed or paralyzed at the Bogey Hole, but it looks cool. So Matt, Kel, Liz and I loaded up in the Hyundai and headed into Newcastle.

It was a good time to go to the Bogey Hole - it was very overcast out but there was a slight break in the rain. The ocean was rough and choppy because of the weather, and the water was dark. I thought it all looked angry. We walked from the car park down the stairs to the unused roadway at the top of the Bogey Hole. Heeding the signs to not go any further, we stayed at the top and watched the waves crash into the rocks and cliffs around the Bogey Hole.

Wave crash at the Bogey Hole (photo by Matt)

(Photo by Matt)

Liz photobombs a (photo by Matt)

Kel wipes something off his shoe on the railing (photo by Matt)

Slow shutter wave crash

We stayed for about half an hour before jumping back in the car and heading for the grocery store. The plan for the evening was to have a pizza night. Basically, people come over, bring ingredients for pizza, everyone makes pizza and then eats together. We got to Charlestown and Matt started talking about how he could really go for tacos. A suggestion was made, and it was born.

What do you do when you're having pizza for dinner but have a craving for tacos?

You have both. Combined. To make Taco Pizza.


Yes. Taco Pizza.

We hit the grocery store and bought the items that we would normally put on tacos. Liz got regular stuff, because she didn't want a full taco pizza. All the basics were there - ground beef (aka mince), taco seasoning, cheese (not on mine), corn chips to act as taco shell replacement (I used regular corn chips, Matt and Kel used some form of Dorito), salsa, jalapenos and refried beans. For a while Kel disappeared, but when we found him again he was carrying 2 2-litre bottles of LA Maxi Ice soda. LA Ice is a generic cola beverage that tastes absolutely fantastic, and Maxi ice is the sugar free version. Not liking the list of ingredients on the Maxi Ice I thought my chance to drink the sweet nectar of the cola gods was lost. After some time searching the store though, I found the regular LA Ice and was fine with the ingredients on it. Dinner was starting to take shape - good food, good beverage.

Once back in the kitchen Liz made a dough for the 2 of us; the others were using store bought crusts. I put the LA Ice in the freezer, knowing that the colder it got the better it was, before snacking on corn chips, dipping them in the salsa. My corn chip eating was foiled by the chips being too large for the opening in the jar... I eventually stopped due to a mixture of small opening frustration and to ensure adequate levels of salsa and chips for pizza. I prepared the meat - cooking it in a pan and sprinkling the Old El Paso seasoning over it. Leaving it to sit and soak in its delightful taco gravy juices, attention moved back to what else was going on these taco pizzas.

(Photo by Matt)

(Photo by Matt)

Chip foiled! (photo by Matt)

Jonathan and Terri arrived, bags laden with ingredients, announcing that they had extra brocollini if anyone wanted it. Pfft! There was no, and never will be, room on taco pizza for ingredients like broccolini (but thanks for offering, despite the pfft). I layered a little tomato sauce, then copious amounts of refried beans (why do I keep typing "refriend beans"??). I smeared some salsa on the beans, then dumped on meat. Lots of meat. Between the 3 pizzas made, we used a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of beef. That's almost the same amount of beef that would go into 9 quarter-pound beef patties. Or the same amount as would go into one 2.2 pound beef patty. I threw on jalapenos, which were hotter than I expected them to be, before adding some crushed corn chips. Into the oven it went with its brothers (and the inferior regular pizzas).

"Class. Dignity. Taco Pizza." -Matt Bibby

(Photo by Matt)

Time to serve. Rather than damage the beauty that was taco pizza by attempting a move to a plate, I ate my pizza straight off the oven tray. Sipping the cold LA Ice, we raised our trays and toasted the incredibleness that is Taco Pizza. People who were eating regular pizza were jealous - Liz had a couple of mouthfuls of mine - Jonathan and Terri tried some of Matt's. That much Taco Pizza leaves its mark though - my stomach felt increasingly close to exploding the more I ate. But I didn't stop. I ate it all, and the warm satisfaction of Taco Pizza, or was it jalapenos, stayed in my mouth as I started to digest.

My Taco Pizza

Matt's Taco Pizza (photo by Matt)

Now, with a full stomach, it was time to Wii.

I lost...

Terri got tired after a while and left, but I was wired - I don't know if it was taco pizza or LA Ice keeping me going. Jonathan, Matt, Liz and I kept playing the Wii and listening to music, before it got late for everyone and the curtain fell on Taco Pizza night. But there will certainly be encores - Liz and I have already made taco pizza since returning to the US.

Sunday September 5th: Today was actually Father's Day in Australia, so we celebrated by giving Dad a card and some chocolate. Our big plan for the day was to go to the Jets game. The Jets are Newcastle's team in the A-League, which is the highest level national soccer competition. I had never been to a Jets game - I had only been years ago to either Breakers or Newcastle United games, which were pre-A-league teams. There were 6 of us: Mum, Dad, Kel, Rach, Liz and I.

Photo by Liz

This was the seat that I was holding the ticket to:

Luckily everyone was able to move down a seat. We were in the third row, right near the benches where the coaching staff and reserves were sitting, so we were close to the action. Our focus was stolen occasionally by birds. There were some small falcons flying around and sitting in the construction work taking place in one of the grandstands.

At the end of 90 something minutes it was Jets 0, Brisbane Roar 0 - the kind of game that Mike would say was typical soccer. The Jets had the better chances, but they couldn't score, and Brisbane came close once, but the Jets 'keeper made a good save.

Some highlights from the game were the Jets' mascot, the little kids playing at halftime, and the crowd. I've never been to a live sporting event outside of Australia, so I don't know how biased and vocal other audiences can be, but Newcastle crowds are very vocal. I did watch a World Cup soccer game in a bar in England - they spent most of the game yelling how terrible their own players were and questioning their parents' marital status when they were born. Anyway, the crowd was yelling all sorts of stuff. One guy, a European guy, yelled out "Kick the ball.", while Liz' favorite was when a kid yelled at the ref "Why do you have to be such an idiot?!".

After the game we barbecued some burgers and sausages. The sausages were awesome - Australian sausages are different to American ones (Liz thinks they are more like breakfast sausages), so it was great to have something that I grew up with. I had them with large amounts of tomato sauce (ketchup), because that's the way to eat them. It wasn't just any old tomato sauce, though, it was the good stuff - Fountain. There were also leftover sausages - breakfast for the next couple of days!!!