The new iPhones are here! The new iPhones are here! Wait, this is a blog about the kids. The kids are fighting over my old iPhone!, the kids are fighting over my old iPhone! There, that makes it about the kids.
Yes, I went and got a new phone on the first day they were out. Not that I am a big fan of phones or Apple or anything, I have just needed a new phone for about six months now and have been waiting for the new iPhone so I could upgrade to it. I have heard good things about the new Samsung Nexus Prime, or whatever they are going to call it, but I could not wait any longer. Had this phone for almost three years and it was time for a new one.
The kids haven't done anything and there is no other news to report, so bye, see you next time.
Ok, I will make some things up and write about them. No one knows the difference anyway, so why not.
William has been back in school for a week. Got in trouble every day apparently, or so the teacher is telling us. I am guessing she wants us to do something about it. He finally had to sit in his room yesterday. No TV, no games, no computer (which really kills him), no fun at all. And to top it off, Igor was on TV last night and of course, Maeghan watched it and had the sound up loud enough for him to hear it. So, he was really feeling sorry for himself. Not that anything he did was his fault. There was always someone else to blame for everything, mostly his friend Liam. I am not sure Liam really exists as I have never seen him, but most of the things William gets in trouble for he says Liam told him to do it. I am sure Laim is the real bad guy here and William is just an innocent bystander as he never does anything wrong when he is at home with ... ok, not even I could finish writing that sentence. Guess we will just have to be a little harder on him until he starts to get it right.
He did do homework the other day. He used to be happy when he could say he had homework because he was jealous of Maeghan always having homework. But now, we found several pages of supposed homework he was to have done in the past and he never mentions having any. Usually, he just denies having any homework and since he is in Kindy, we tend to believe him. But, he pulled out a page of words he was supposed to read and write and along with it came some other folded and crumpled up papers that were stuffed into his bag. A lot of them he had already done at school, but most of them were blank and we can only assume they were given to him in the past as homework and he told us he never had any.
He did do good on the words list he had. He was able to write most of the words and it was even legible, something you could probably not say about my writing when I was a kid. He cannot read and the teachers tell us that all the other kids can read but I am a bit skeptical about that. He did recoginize several of the words, not really reading them but I am sure just recognizing the patterns and saying what they said. As much as he plays on the computer and navigates to all the different pages where his games are, he must be picking up some reading skills but again, we need to get him doing more.
Maeghan is still practicing her dance routine. It changed from last time when it was a play to a dance number to some song she cannot remember. She is always wanting to perform it for us but when she starts, she immediately forgets what she is supposed to do and what the music sounds like. I have no idea how long they have to practice this but she does not really seem to be ready. Then again, maybe that is what all the other kids are doing and they are no better than she is. We do not get to see the tryouts so we do not know what others are doing or what they might be wanting to perform. We only get to see the show when it is performed. I suppose it is because they do not want parents lobbying for their kids based on the tryouts and thinking one kid is better than another. Then again, maybe I have no idea why we are not allowed to see the tryouts.
To bring this back to the main subject of this blog, food, I had a conversation about some hot sauces on facebook that made me realise some things. That chile that I was talking about, the one that is now the hottest. Well it seems the second hottest chile, the one that the new one replaced, is used in some curry eating contest in Scotland where several people were hospitalized after eating the curry that was made with the chile. Just a minor detour from the normal talk but I did find that there are a couple of sauces based on this chili, both of them expensive and one I have already mentioned. I did discover the other one is actually a curry sauce and is used to flavor curries. I thought it was a mustard based sauce and had not tried it but will now go and get a bottle and put it in my next curry.
Ok, back to the kids and this will be short as William is now in trouble again. He is talking back to his mother and blaming everything on Maeghan. I am going to have to go and intervene soon. He is just digging himself deeper.
So, a short entry and not much news and no really good news but there it is. Maybe I will be more entertaining next time. Right now, I have to go speak to William, and play with my new phone. By the way, I don't really like the form of the new iPhone. I know it has been that way for a while but I preferred the curves of the old 3Gs I had. This one appears to be a bit harsh when you hold it. Too many sharp edges, but I am sure I will get used to it and I need a case for it anyway, so I will probably not notice once I get one.
How did I start talking about the phone again. Doesn't matter. You don't really have a choice in what I talk about anyway, just a trapped reader waiting for this blog to start getting good again. Might be a long wait.
So, until next time
Talk to you later
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
MWNews 111
Kids are back in school now. They don't like it, but its good for 'em. It'll teach 'em a lesson.
Not sure if we did anything in that last few days. I think the last thing we talked about was going to Terrigal. We stayed home the rest of the week. Then again, I might remember something while I write this so you can probably ignore that last statement.
William is looking forward to his birthday. And by looking forward to it I mean his first words each morning are, is it my birthday yet.
We kind of made the mistake of asking him what he wanted for his birthday. Whenever we have asked Maeghan that, she always says I don't know. William is still listing things he wants and we asked him at least four or five days ago. He keeps adding to the list. I think he thinks if he asks for it, he will get it. His latest thing is he wants and Xbox. He went over to the grandkids house and they had a new game they were playing on their Xbox so he decided he wanted that game.
It might have been a good idea to get him one but Juanita has already bought a new one for me for Christmas and he does not know that. Maybe I will give him my old one. Then again, probably not. Mine is one of the original Xbox 360's. Probably four or five years old, maybe older. I am not sure when they came out but I know I got one soon after that. I use it mostly for watching TV and movies I have downloaded to my PC. Using media center is great, if kind of hard to get everything to work correctly. Once I set it up, I can download and watch anything on the TV. It's great. Kind of cuts into my game playing time as I have a huge backlog of things I have downloaded and have yet to watch but maybe I'll get around to it. Have a couple of games I got for Christmas last year that I have never played, so I don't get to buy any new ones until I play the old ones.
She got the Xbox for the new Kinect that came with it. I am sure I will have tales of us using that sometime after Christmas, but then again, probably only last of couple of months. We have the Wii and we play some games together on that, but not very often and not in the past year or so. William still plays it but we never seem to find the time to do it together.
Maeghan just got back to school and she and her friend are already planning on entering the talent show with something they have made up. They are calling it a play but I am not sure what kind of play it is yet. She only knew a couple of the things they are going to do so I am not sure if it is her idea or her friends.
They tried to do this a few months ago. Apparently, the school has this a few times a year. The kids have to audition for it and make up their own routines or whatever they are going to do. Last time, I think Maeghan and her friend had some kind of dance they were doing but they did not make the show. With this new thing, I am not sure they will make it this time either, but they love trying so that is the important part.
Maeghan has a few friends at the new school. She had friends at the old school but as they got older, they tended to run around and play games that Maeghan cannot keep up with, so they would leave her behind most of the time. Her friends at the new school have not done that yet and I hope it does not start to happen again. Her physical limitations keep her out of a lot of things she wants to do but just can't do as well as the other kids and they tend to leave her out of it. She has been trying a lot harder. The doctors told us to get her more exercise so we do some kind of walk almost everyday and we do not bring her wheelchair with us so she cannot sit and ride when she wants to.
She is slow and it takes a long time to get anywhere but she tries really hard and we are really proud of her for trying to do her best to keep up. We walked up to the shops the other day, her, William and myself. It is about a half hour walk for a normal person but we did it in about and hour with Maeghan. William got more tired that she did but we did take a few breaks that William did not take. He just kept running around instead of stopping and resting with us. By the time we got there, he was the one complaining the most. Of course, as soon as we got to the shops, he was running around again and trying to get me to buy him everything for his birthday.
Juanita came up later and picked us up in the car so we did not have to walk back. Not sure if they would have made it or not. Maeghan would have tried to make it but William would have complained enough to make it and unpleasant experience. We did get to get ice cream and chicken sandwiches while we were there, so they enjoyed that. William did get in trouble because he would not leave me alone when I bought them some lollies (candy) for later if they were good. He kept nagging me about them and trying to get them without me knowing until I told him he was not going to get any. Of course, I finally gave them to them anyway but it was getting close for a while.
Maeghan and I were going to go to some other shopping mall on Sunday, or I was going to go and Maeghan said she wanted to go but William said he didn't. Somehow, William got the impression we were going to Mingara and he decided he wanted to come too. After we got in the car and did not go towards Mingara he realised his mistake and wanted to go back home but we were already on the way so he had to come. Had to return something for Juanita at one of the shops that did not take the security tag off of it before she left. I got there and told them it was not my size and could I return it. Ok, it was bra's but the cashier got a kick out of it.
William and Maeghan got everything they wanted. Frozen cokes, play in the play area, chicken wings from KFC, so they were happy. Juanita also asked me to get her three face washers (I don't remember what we called them in America but I don't think it was face washers. Been here too long). I am not sure why three was the number she wanted but when I got to the place to buy them, they had three packs of six for $10, so I got her three packs. She didn't think that was funny when I gave them to her but now she has lots of extras.
We went for a walk after school yesterday and I used my new iPhone app that keeps track of where, how far, and how fast you are walking. It did really good, or I think it did. Today, when I used it, it was going good until I doubled back on where I had been because the coffee shop I usually stop at on my walks was not open yet and I had to go back to a previous one. The GPS got confused and said I had walked 10k when I had actually only walked about 2k. Not sure why it got confused but Juanita is coming over to go for another walk in about an hour and I will see how it goes then. It will post to Facebook if you want it to but I am not sure I want it to do that. Maybe after I get all the kinks out of it. It is supposed to be used for running but it says you can use it for any exercise, even stationary ones, to keep track of what you are doing.
I know, another fitness app that does not work or I will never keep up with, but if I don't keep trying, I will never be as healthy as I should be for a man in my condition. I am approaching 39 years old and that is getting just a little too close to 40 for me. Plus, I have the heart thingy, so any little bit helps. Which again reminds me to put the heart attack story in here. The kids weren't around back then so I am sure they will appreciate reading about it in later years. Alas, I am through typing for today so it will have to wait for another time.
I am going to be going now. Have to pretend to do some work or something that looks like I am working. Not sure why, I am at home by myself so no one knows if I am working or not. Then again, someone from work might stumble across this blog and find out what I am up to so I better say I do this on my off hours and not while I am supposed to be working. I think that covers it up for me.
So, until next time
Talk to you later
Not sure if we did anything in that last few days. I think the last thing we talked about was going to Terrigal. We stayed home the rest of the week. Then again, I might remember something while I write this so you can probably ignore that last statement.
William is looking forward to his birthday. And by looking forward to it I mean his first words each morning are, is it my birthday yet.
We kind of made the mistake of asking him what he wanted for his birthday. Whenever we have asked Maeghan that, she always says I don't know. William is still listing things he wants and we asked him at least four or five days ago. He keeps adding to the list. I think he thinks if he asks for it, he will get it. His latest thing is he wants and Xbox. He went over to the grandkids house and they had a new game they were playing on their Xbox so he decided he wanted that game.
It might have been a good idea to get him one but Juanita has already bought a new one for me for Christmas and he does not know that. Maybe I will give him my old one. Then again, probably not. Mine is one of the original Xbox 360's. Probably four or five years old, maybe older. I am not sure when they came out but I know I got one soon after that. I use it mostly for watching TV and movies I have downloaded to my PC. Using media center is great, if kind of hard to get everything to work correctly. Once I set it up, I can download and watch anything on the TV. It's great. Kind of cuts into my game playing time as I have a huge backlog of things I have downloaded and have yet to watch but maybe I'll get around to it. Have a couple of games I got for Christmas last year that I have never played, so I don't get to buy any new ones until I play the old ones.
She got the Xbox for the new Kinect that came with it. I am sure I will have tales of us using that sometime after Christmas, but then again, probably only last of couple of months. We have the Wii and we play some games together on that, but not very often and not in the past year or so. William still plays it but we never seem to find the time to do it together.
Maeghan just got back to school and she and her friend are already planning on entering the talent show with something they have made up. They are calling it a play but I am not sure what kind of play it is yet. She only knew a couple of the things they are going to do so I am not sure if it is her idea or her friends.
They tried to do this a few months ago. Apparently, the school has this a few times a year. The kids have to audition for it and make up their own routines or whatever they are going to do. Last time, I think Maeghan and her friend had some kind of dance they were doing but they did not make the show. With this new thing, I am not sure they will make it this time either, but they love trying so that is the important part.
Maeghan has a few friends at the new school. She had friends at the old school but as they got older, they tended to run around and play games that Maeghan cannot keep up with, so they would leave her behind most of the time. Her friends at the new school have not done that yet and I hope it does not start to happen again. Her physical limitations keep her out of a lot of things she wants to do but just can't do as well as the other kids and they tend to leave her out of it. She has been trying a lot harder. The doctors told us to get her more exercise so we do some kind of walk almost everyday and we do not bring her wheelchair with us so she cannot sit and ride when she wants to.
She is slow and it takes a long time to get anywhere but she tries really hard and we are really proud of her for trying to do her best to keep up. We walked up to the shops the other day, her, William and myself. It is about a half hour walk for a normal person but we did it in about and hour with Maeghan. William got more tired that she did but we did take a few breaks that William did not take. He just kept running around instead of stopping and resting with us. By the time we got there, he was the one complaining the most. Of course, as soon as we got to the shops, he was running around again and trying to get me to buy him everything for his birthday.
Juanita came up later and picked us up in the car so we did not have to walk back. Not sure if they would have made it or not. Maeghan would have tried to make it but William would have complained enough to make it and unpleasant experience. We did get to get ice cream and chicken sandwiches while we were there, so they enjoyed that. William did get in trouble because he would not leave me alone when I bought them some lollies (candy) for later if they were good. He kept nagging me about them and trying to get them without me knowing until I told him he was not going to get any. Of course, I finally gave them to them anyway but it was getting close for a while.
Maeghan and I were going to go to some other shopping mall on Sunday, or I was going to go and Maeghan said she wanted to go but William said he didn't. Somehow, William got the impression we were going to Mingara and he decided he wanted to come too. After we got in the car and did not go towards Mingara he realised his mistake and wanted to go back home but we were already on the way so he had to come. Had to return something for Juanita at one of the shops that did not take the security tag off of it before she left. I got there and told them it was not my size and could I return it. Ok, it was bra's but the cashier got a kick out of it.
William and Maeghan got everything they wanted. Frozen cokes, play in the play area, chicken wings from KFC, so they were happy. Juanita also asked me to get her three face washers (I don't remember what we called them in America but I don't think it was face washers. Been here too long). I am not sure why three was the number she wanted but when I got to the place to buy them, they had three packs of six for $10, so I got her three packs. She didn't think that was funny when I gave them to her but now she has lots of extras.
We went for a walk after school yesterday and I used my new iPhone app that keeps track of where, how far, and how fast you are walking. It did really good, or I think it did. Today, when I used it, it was going good until I doubled back on where I had been because the coffee shop I usually stop at on my walks was not open yet and I had to go back to a previous one. The GPS got confused and said I had walked 10k when I had actually only walked about 2k. Not sure why it got confused but Juanita is coming over to go for another walk in about an hour and I will see how it goes then. It will post to Facebook if you want it to but I am not sure I want it to do that. Maybe after I get all the kinks out of it. It is supposed to be used for running but it says you can use it for any exercise, even stationary ones, to keep track of what you are doing.
I know, another fitness app that does not work or I will never keep up with, but if I don't keep trying, I will never be as healthy as I should be for a man in my condition. I am approaching 39 years old and that is getting just a little too close to 40 for me. Plus, I have the heart thingy, so any little bit helps. Which again reminds me to put the heart attack story in here. The kids weren't around back then so I am sure they will appreciate reading about it in later years. Alas, I am through typing for today so it will have to wait for another time.
I am going to be going now. Have to pretend to do some work or something that looks like I am working. Not sure why, I am at home by myself so no one knows if I am working or not. Then again, someone from work might stumble across this blog and find out what I am up to so I better say I do this on my off hours and not while I am supposed to be working. I think that covers it up for me.
So, until next time
Talk to you later
Thursday, October 06, 2011
MWNews 110
It's been a busy few days. Traveled around and see the sights. Mostly, sites we have already seen but we spent money so that counts for something.
Monday, we went to Cessnock. I thought maybe they had improved or expanded some things, but as Monday was a holiday, almost everything was closed. Not sure what holiday it was but even those things that were open closed at around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Not much there anyway. It is just a small town on the way to other places but it is kind of out of the way so we never travel through there anymore.
It is on the way to Hunter Valley Gardens and if I had gotten an earlier start or noticed that they had something going on there, we might have made that our destination. But as it turned out, everything at the Gardens was ending at 2 and we did not find out about it until 12, so we decided not to go.
We did decide to go here.
This is the tower at the park I have previously described. A huge endeavour to try to climb and then slide down. William ran to it first. He loves the slide. I am not sure how many times he rode down it but he went up the metal side the first time and it was crowded at the top. So he decided to go up the rope ladder side the second time. He forgot that he is not that good at climbing. It took him twice as long even though there were about half the people on that side. But he had fun. I have a picture of him coming out of the slide, but since you cannot see when they get it, it is hard to judge when they are going to come out. I just got the top of his head as he emerged so I did not include it here.
Maeghan has still not been down it. She still thinks I will slide down with her at some point. Maybe after I lose a few pounds, which might be never but might be soon. Have not done a lot of walking this week so I am not sure if I am still
getting thinner.
Walking with the kids is kind of a waste as they do not move very fast and it is just not that effective. I suppose we could walk a very long way but the kids get tired of doing that pretty quickly. I have just noticed that this entry is doing something strange to the text so I am going to jump to after the picture to keep typing. I think I may have fixed it but you never can tell. I will jump to the end anyway, just in case.
I am not pleased with the way this is letting me put the pictures in. It will not let me put them side by side. Maybe if I did it separately, it might work, but for now, there is that huge gap on the side.
Monday, we went to Cessnock. I thought maybe they had improved or expanded some things, but as Monday was a holiday, almost everything was closed. Not sure what holiday it was but even those things that were open closed at around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Not much there anyway. It is just a small town on the way to other places but it is kind of out of the way so we never travel through there anymore.
It is on the way to Hunter Valley Gardens and if I had gotten an earlier start or noticed that they had something going on there, we might have made that our destination. But as it turned out, everything at the Gardens was ending at 2 and we did not find out about it until 12, so we decided not to go.
We did decide to go here.
This is the tower at the park I have previously described. A huge endeavour to try to climb and then slide down. William ran to it first. He loves the slide. I am not sure how many times he rode down it but he went up the metal side the first time and it was crowded at the top. So he decided to go up the rope ladder side the second time. He forgot that he is not that good at climbing. It took him twice as long even though there were about half the people on that side. But he had fun. I have a picture of him coming out of the slide, but since you cannot see when they get it, it is hard to judge when they are going to come out. I just got the top of his head as he emerged so I did not include it here.
Maeghan has still not been down it. She still thinks I will slide down with her at some point. Maybe after I lose a few pounds, which might be never but might be soon. Have not done a lot of walking this week so I am not sure if I am still
getting thinner.
Walking with the kids is kind of a waste as they do not move very fast and it is just not that effective. I suppose we could walk a very long way but the kids get tired of doing that pretty quickly. I have just noticed that this entry is doing something strange to the text so I am going to jump to after the picture to keep typing. I think I may have fixed it but you never can tell. I will jump to the end anyway, just in case.
We spent about an hour at the park. They went on the swings for the first time and they played on the bike track. It has been raining a lot lately and parts of the park were under water. They have made improvements, though. All the picnic tables have roofs over them. Not sure how much protection they will provide since unless the rain is coming straight down, they will still get wet. They are really tall and not very wide. I am not sure they would even provide shade except maybe at the middle of the day.
The BBQs were working and several people had them going. No fences around them and lots of kids running through, so I am still not sure how safe that is. I guess it might work if someone stays close to the BBQs to keep the kids away.
After the park, we went to a bar. Ok, so it is actually a club, and RSL which stands for something but I am not sure what. It is a military club, they have lots of war memorabilia and they have a nightly moment of silence. Lots of them around and anyone can join or come in. This one is fairly big. Mostly, they are used for pokies but most have restaurants in them also. We went to have dinner and let Juanita play the pokies. It wasn't bad and if you get the special, it is really cheap. We did not get the special and Maeghan wanted spaghetti. They did not have any so she had to settle for sausages and chips. She did not like the sausage, it was kind of strange and the chips and sauce had a funny taste also but she ate them. William had the kids pizza, pineapple and ham. He did not realise the pineapple was on it until he had already eaten half. That's when he decided he did not like it. He ate the chips though, or most of them. They got ice cream with theirs also, so they were happy.
While Juanita played, we were going to go outside but it was too cold and windy by then, so we went back in. Normally, I have a beer and play Keno while we wait, but this time, I had to take care of the baby so I never made it to the Keno window or had a beer. We left after that and went home.
Tuesday, I am trying to remember what we did. I got it, we went to Terrigal. Another local little town on the ocean, about 30 minutes from here. It is a nice touristy place. I know most people do not like touristy places but I like to walk in the the shops and stuff. Terrigal does not really have good shops but it is a nice walk along the beach. They had paved paths so you can stay out of the sand if you want to. The kids didn't. They immediately went for the sand and played around in that.
Terrigal also has this place.
This is the big hill. Maybe a hundred or so meters high and very steep. Maeghan and I climbed it. It used to be just a grass hill but they have put in steps and a walkway all the way to the top so it makes it easier to climb. I had to rest halfway to the top but Maeghan kept on climbing the whole way and was not that tired when she got to the top. She did not take the pathway, she climbed all the way on the old grass part. Not sure why but she made it. She said before we started that she was going to climb as far as she could and them stop. William was asleep in the car, or he was when we got there. He said he did not want to go but of course, when we got back, he said he wanted to. I was too tired to take him so we will have to save it for another day.I am not pleased with the way this is letting me put the pictures in. It will not let me put them side by side. Maybe if I did it separately, it might work, but for now, there is that huge gap on the side.
We spent most the the day in Terrigal. Went around the block twice, I think. We walked along the beach and that first picture in this entry is from the rocks as you go around the corner on the path. It you are brave enough, you can go all the way around to the park where the big hill is but we are not that brave. It requires you walking along slippery rocks and at some point, you have to get wet. Maybe we will save that for another day, also, but I doubt it. It looks kind of dangerous. Not that a lot of people don't do it anyway, but with the waves coming in, if you slip, you are going to fall onto rocks and then have waves crashing over you, so we will probably pass.
We went to a bar while we were there also. This time, it really was a bar. Juanita and I have been there before and we have probably taken the kids before but I can't remember. It is an outdoor seating area where you can order drinks and they have bands there at nights and on the weekends. During the day, it is just a nice place to sit and look at the ocean.
It is in the huge hotel that dominates the town of Terrigal. When we come into town from the ocean side, you have to go along the rode that is high up above the town. When you look down, you see this huge building that is about ten times the size of anything else. There are lots of houses and even the square where all the shops are, but this hotel is what you see mostly. The kids all call it the castle. Not sure why. I guess it vaguely looks like a castle but since I am always driving, I have never looked that close. If you come into town from the other side, it is just houses and such and looks like just another place along the way. We go that way all the time to go to one of the shopping centers but we rarely turn into Terrigal. It is not big but as I mentioned, it is nice. Very crowded during tourist season. So much so that we avoid it if we can. No place to park and it takes forever driving around the square because of all the foot traffic. I have heard they are going to close on side of it and make it an open air market, they have already closed it to one lane of traffic, but I am not sure that will ever happen.
Yesterday, we went to another bar. This one is Mingara, I might have mentioned it before. It is more of a club that a bar but it has plenty of bars in it. We are trying to get the kids drinking early so they can enjoy sitting there watching TV while they have a beer. I think it is a good plan, not sure why.
Actually, there are lots of things in the club. They have the pokies area, biggest one outside the casinos in Sydney. They also have a coffee club restaurant, where we pretend we are just there to have coffee but we are really there to gamble. They have a burger restaurant and a noodle bar and some type of Chinese restaurant. There is also a big restaurant type of thing that has good lunches but I am not sure if it is supposed to be an upscale restaurant or just a local sit down eating place. It is nice and either way, it has some good lunches. Never been there for dinner but the signs for it look nice.
The reason the kids like it is they have a huge kids play area. It costs money to put the kids in there but not a lot and the kids love it. Play castles, and computer games and a big TV. Some dancing machines and other stuff for the kids to do. They go in for three hours or so at a time and always hate it when we come to get them.
Mingara is where I won the $640 on Keno. Now that I am writing this, it seems like we might have a problem. We seem to go a lot. I think it is just lately, we have been a lot. Normally, it is about once a month or so.
The real reason we went there was because next door, but still part of the club, is a huge swimming pool. I think I have described this before. Probably many times. But we actually went there to go swimming for a while. Spent about two hours in there before we moved over to the club part. They also have a fitness gym there but we are not members.
Outside, they have a bowls club and a putt putt golf course. A really nice putt putt golf course but very expensive. $18 a game. We have only done that once, right after it was built. Now, it has trees and bushes and walkways all the way through and has really grown up around the course. It goes up and down a hill also, so the course is really hard. Not like a normal putt putt course. Maybe we will do that tomorrow, on our last day of vacation. Have to wait and see.
Well, this entry has gone on for a long time again. I never seem to write a quick note. Guess I will have to keep trying. I think this one is so long because the pictures take up so much room this time. Probably keep it to just one picture unless I can figure out how I made the multiple pictures work before.
So, until next time,
Talk to you later
Sunday, October 02, 2011
MWNews 109
We went to Fiesta yesterday. The 20th annual Sydney Fiesta in Darling Harbour. Now, maybe I am biased having come from Texas where they have Mexican Fiesta's all the time, but having seen what passes for a Fiesta in downtown Sydney I am not really sure how this has lasted 20 years.
The procures and web page are all nice but the reality is this is a small time affair with maybe a couple of thousand people visiting and it is in Sydney where there are eight million people.
I mean, there were lots of people wandering around but there is no way they were going to this fiesta. They were there for Darling Harbour. The main part of the fiesta itself had maybe 2000 people sitting on the grass and watching people dance and play music and this was surrounded by food pavilions, I think there were eight, and a huge bar area where you could get drinks. We didn't actually go into the bar part, it was just a bunch of tables and chairs on the grass, but I waited in line for some food.
If what I had was typical of what was at the other places, then these people are really starved for some real Latin American food. I had some paella. Had to be one of the worst paella's I have ever had, bland, tasteless (or does that mean the same thing, but saying it twice puts more emphasis on how unimaginative this stuff was) rice and a couple of pieces of seafood, like one shrimp, two mussels and a lot of squid. Several people came up to me while I was eating mine and asked if it was worth the wait in line. I had to tell them no, it was not. I wished I had gone to the line next door which was charizo on a bun. That might sound strange to my American friends, or Tex-Mex friends, and family as charizo in our part of the world is a fatty, crumbly, floating in oil type concoction but Spanish charizo and apparently most of the charizo's in the world are actual sausages that you can cook and eat like any other sausage. It has taken me a long time to get used to it and I still want some old fashioned, Tex-Mex charizo and eggs. But, alas, it is not to be.
The other food pavilions had things like, well, I don't really know what they were like. Supposed to be different foods from different parts of Latin American, but, for example, at the Mexican pavilion, they were serving fajita. Again, biased opinion here, but what they were serving were soft tacos, and not very good ones at that. I smallish sized really think tortilla with some kind of loose meat in it covered with lettuce, tomato, sour cream and capsicum (bell pepper). No cheese that I could see nor was there any hot sauce or avocado anywhere to be seen. I didn't have one but it would seem kind of strange that they were calling this a fajita. I know I am picky when I say an actual fajita is the kind of meat you are using, skirt steak, and the way you cook it. I know, these days, any thing can be called a fajita, like chicken fajitas, shrimp fajitas, and any kind of meat or even ones with no meat, but to call this concoction a fajita just defiles all the memories I have of real food.
Now how did this turn into another food blog. I was talking about the Fiesta and what we did while we were there. Let's just say the food was uninspiring and the rest of the entertainment was even less so. Maybe it picks up after dark but we didn't see any evidence that it might happen anytime soon.
We did go to the IMax theater. We saw the flying dinosaurs. It was entertaining, if somewhat short but what really made it and what was also the worst thing about it was the 3D effects. Sometimes, they look really cool, to the point that you would get dizzy from all the flying around and flying past huge trees and things. But a lot of the time, it was out of focus. I kept thinking it was just me, but Juanita and the kids said the same thing after we left. It was enough to give you a headache while you were watching it. I know I have seem some movies in 3D but I don't recall any of them being out of focus for long periods of time.
William really loved the movie and Maeghan wanted to see something else right after it. We didn't stay for a second movie but the next few movies would have scared them I am sure. They had one on Tornado's and one on a zoo or something. After that, they were going to show Transformers 3 but it did not start until 7 that evening and we did not think we would be there that long. Turned out we were but they had forgotten about that by then.
We spent a couple of really long walks trying to find a decent priced meal around the Harbour. Every restaurant we came to seemed to be some kind of luxury resort dining. Really expensive and nothing we really wanted to eat. And, with about 40 restaurants around, there should have been some that were cheaper. We could have gone into the mall and sat in the food court, but I did not want to drive two hours one way just to eat in a mall food court. The kids weren't really hungry anyway, they just wanted to eat in one of the cool restaurants.
There is one that is an actual ship they have converted to a restaurants. It is docked on one side and I say docked but I am pretty sure it is never going to go out to sea again. But, it does sit on the water and I think it is floating, so maybe they could take it out someday.
Juanita and I have had coffee on this ship so we knew that the kids would be disappointed with it as once you are inside, you just sit a tiny tables and it seems just like any other restaurant. Not a whole lot to see or do and if you did not know it, you would never realise you were on a boat.
We ended up leaving at about 8:30 that night. Long drive home in which everyone fell asleep. I think the kids had fun, they got to play in the new play park but that was so overcrowded with kids, you had to wait in line to do almost anything. And, of course, there were lots of water type things to do but we did not allow Maeghan and William to get in the water. The only really fun thing they got to do was the big slide. Not a real big slide but a decent one, Maybe 7 eight meters but to get up to it, you had to use a rope ladder to climb what amounted to a rock climbing wall. William barely made it a few times but Maeghan would have never made it if I did not help her. The footholds were very slippery and in no way were they at any kind of regular intervals. Plus, as William proved, if you did not manage to get all the way to the told and had to get back down, you ended up taking a lot of kids with you in the avalanche.
They also got to ride the flying fox but that was a 20 minute wait to get on and it was not very long. Maeghan and I waited in line and when William saw us, right at the top where you get on, he came running up and cut in line ahead of all those people so he could have a turn. Several people gave me dirty looks but they knew I had been looking for him the whole time we were waiting in line so it shouldn't have been a surprise when he showed up. Besides, I was not going to wait in that line again so he could have a turn.
Since we spent the day in Darling harbour, we will not be going back this week. We did the theater and the playground was nothing to write home about, although I seem to have done just that. The new restaurants they have along the playground might be good, but from where they are, you cannot see the actual playground to watch the kids. They put this great big kiosk thing right in the middle and it blocks the view to the play area from the restaurants. So that is a no go. I guess we will have to find something else to do this week.
Guess I will be going now. Don't know if I managed to make this entry shorter but it seems like maybe it is a little smaller. Then again, by the time I finish writing bye, it will be just as long. I am making myself of shrimp and sausage gumbo which I had planned on making yesterday but we went into town instead, so I am making it today. I tried to follow a recipe but did not manage to do very well with it. And, since I have been working all day and have not had anything to eat, I am about to go get some as I think it should be ready by now.
So, until next time
Talk to you later
The procures and web page are all nice but the reality is this is a small time affair with maybe a couple of thousand people visiting and it is in Sydney where there are eight million people.
I mean, there were lots of people wandering around but there is no way they were going to this fiesta. They were there for Darling Harbour. The main part of the fiesta itself had maybe 2000 people sitting on the grass and watching people dance and play music and this was surrounded by food pavilions, I think there were eight, and a huge bar area where you could get drinks. We didn't actually go into the bar part, it was just a bunch of tables and chairs on the grass, but I waited in line for some food.
If what I had was typical of what was at the other places, then these people are really starved for some real Latin American food. I had some paella. Had to be one of the worst paella's I have ever had, bland, tasteless (or does that mean the same thing, but saying it twice puts more emphasis on how unimaginative this stuff was) rice and a couple of pieces of seafood, like one shrimp, two mussels and a lot of squid. Several people came up to me while I was eating mine and asked if it was worth the wait in line. I had to tell them no, it was not. I wished I had gone to the line next door which was charizo on a bun. That might sound strange to my American friends, or Tex-Mex friends, and family as charizo in our part of the world is a fatty, crumbly, floating in oil type concoction but Spanish charizo and apparently most of the charizo's in the world are actual sausages that you can cook and eat like any other sausage. It has taken me a long time to get used to it and I still want some old fashioned, Tex-Mex charizo and eggs. But, alas, it is not to be.
The other food pavilions had things like, well, I don't really know what they were like. Supposed to be different foods from different parts of Latin American, but, for example, at the Mexican pavilion, they were serving fajita. Again, biased opinion here, but what they were serving were soft tacos, and not very good ones at that. I smallish sized really think tortilla with some kind of loose meat in it covered with lettuce, tomato, sour cream and capsicum (bell pepper). No cheese that I could see nor was there any hot sauce or avocado anywhere to be seen. I didn't have one but it would seem kind of strange that they were calling this a fajita. I know I am picky when I say an actual fajita is the kind of meat you are using, skirt steak, and the way you cook it. I know, these days, any thing can be called a fajita, like chicken fajitas, shrimp fajitas, and any kind of meat or even ones with no meat, but to call this concoction a fajita just defiles all the memories I have of real food.
Now how did this turn into another food blog. I was talking about the Fiesta and what we did while we were there. Let's just say the food was uninspiring and the rest of the entertainment was even less so. Maybe it picks up after dark but we didn't see any evidence that it might happen anytime soon.
We did go to the IMax theater. We saw the flying dinosaurs. It was entertaining, if somewhat short but what really made it and what was also the worst thing about it was the 3D effects. Sometimes, they look really cool, to the point that you would get dizzy from all the flying around and flying past huge trees and things. But a lot of the time, it was out of focus. I kept thinking it was just me, but Juanita and the kids said the same thing after we left. It was enough to give you a headache while you were watching it. I know I have seem some movies in 3D but I don't recall any of them being out of focus for long periods of time.
William really loved the movie and Maeghan wanted to see something else right after it. We didn't stay for a second movie but the next few movies would have scared them I am sure. They had one on Tornado's and one on a zoo or something. After that, they were going to show Transformers 3 but it did not start until 7 that evening and we did not think we would be there that long. Turned out we were but they had forgotten about that by then.
We spent a couple of really long walks trying to find a decent priced meal around the Harbour. Every restaurant we came to seemed to be some kind of luxury resort dining. Really expensive and nothing we really wanted to eat. And, with about 40 restaurants around, there should have been some that were cheaper. We could have gone into the mall and sat in the food court, but I did not want to drive two hours one way just to eat in a mall food court. The kids weren't really hungry anyway, they just wanted to eat in one of the cool restaurants.
There is one that is an actual ship they have converted to a restaurants. It is docked on one side and I say docked but I am pretty sure it is never going to go out to sea again. But, it does sit on the water and I think it is floating, so maybe they could take it out someday.
Juanita and I have had coffee on this ship so we knew that the kids would be disappointed with it as once you are inside, you just sit a tiny tables and it seems just like any other restaurant. Not a whole lot to see or do and if you did not know it, you would never realise you were on a boat.
We ended up leaving at about 8:30 that night. Long drive home in which everyone fell asleep. I think the kids had fun, they got to play in the new play park but that was so overcrowded with kids, you had to wait in line to do almost anything. And, of course, there were lots of water type things to do but we did not allow Maeghan and William to get in the water. The only really fun thing they got to do was the big slide. Not a real big slide but a decent one, Maybe 7 eight meters but to get up to it, you had to use a rope ladder to climb what amounted to a rock climbing wall. William barely made it a few times but Maeghan would have never made it if I did not help her. The footholds were very slippery and in no way were they at any kind of regular intervals. Plus, as William proved, if you did not manage to get all the way to the told and had to get back down, you ended up taking a lot of kids with you in the avalanche.
They also got to ride the flying fox but that was a 20 minute wait to get on and it was not very long. Maeghan and I waited in line and when William saw us, right at the top where you get on, he came running up and cut in line ahead of all those people so he could have a turn. Several people gave me dirty looks but they knew I had been looking for him the whole time we were waiting in line so it shouldn't have been a surprise when he showed up. Besides, I was not going to wait in that line again so he could have a turn.
Since we spent the day in Darling harbour, we will not be going back this week. We did the theater and the playground was nothing to write home about, although I seem to have done just that. The new restaurants they have along the playground might be good, but from where they are, you cannot see the actual playground to watch the kids. They put this great big kiosk thing right in the middle and it blocks the view to the play area from the restaurants. So that is a no go. I guess we will have to find something else to do this week.
Guess I will be going now. Don't know if I managed to make this entry shorter but it seems like maybe it is a little smaller. Then again, by the time I finish writing bye, it will be just as long. I am making myself of shrimp and sausage gumbo which I had planned on making yesterday but we went into town instead, so I am making it today. I tried to follow a recipe but did not manage to do very well with it. And, since I have been working all day and have not had anything to eat, I am about to go get some as I think it should be ready by now.
So, until next time
Talk to you later
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