MWNews 178

Sitting in front of the computer I find myself with nothing to do. Then it occurred to me that I could type in here. So here I am. Hope this will be a short one because I don't really want to type right now. It is kind of hot and more importantly, humid, so I want to go back into the other room with the fan. Plus, this is the computer and I am not used to the keyboard so I am making a constant stream of mistakes that I have to go back and correct. Rather annoying. But lets get into it. 

We went to Dreamworld yesterday. Dreamworld and Whitewater water world. It was raining. Most of the day. Sometimes really hard. But we went anyway. We could have changed it to today and missed most of the rain, but they had the Street festival yesterday and the park was scheduled to be open until 8 pm. Every other day, it is only open until 5. So we thought it would be a good day to go even with the rain. Probably a big mistake, but lets see where this takes us.

We started at Whitewater world. Or, actually, we started at the brand new Coomera mall. I think I mentioned it before but on one of my trips on the train to the Gold Coast, we go to a station at Coomera. I saw there was a big shopping mall there. Never seen that before. I think I have mentioned the ability to take the train and then the bus to Dreamworld in the last entry. You can see Dreamworld from the station.

Turns out, we left way too early and got to the park at 9 am. It does not open until 10 so I decided we would go have a coffee at the shopping center. It is just around the corner but not really walking distance. Maybe if you are really energetic. It is about 3 kilometers away. I don't really know how far but it is not far but not exactly close either. When we go there, we had adventures in parking as they apparently do not know how to drive in that part of the town. Several false starts and waiting times as people would just stop in the middle of the driving lane and wait for the perfect parking space to open. No room to drive around them and lots of others waiting behind us so we just sit there until the person in front decides to move on. I was pissed. But, determined not to start the day off wrong, I was patient and waited. Had the same problems getting back out but that's enough about the parking.

Turns out the mall is pretty big and has a lot of shops and stuff. Biggest advantage I saw was there was no McDonalds, which is always a plus. We didn't actually drive all the way around the mall, so it might have been outside somewhere. The problem I have with McDonalds is that if there is one there, we usually end up going to it. Kids like it and William is a picky eater so there are only a few places he will go that he actually likes. The kids wanted breakfast as they ignored me when I told them to eat before we left. Juanita and I both had breakfast but we had to find something for Maeghan and William to eat. Normally, it would be McDonalds but since there wasn't one, we had to find something else. They walked past all the places I wanted to try and ended up getting Subway sandwiches. For Breakfast. That's just weird. 

Juanita and I had coffee and a cookie from some cookie place. Not what I wanted either but she ordered it while I was getting the Subway so I had no choice. It wasn't bad but a soft gooey cookie was not what I had in mind to have with my coffee. But it worked out. While we were waiting, Maeghan took a tour of the mall. She has her chair so she can scoot around really fast, especially when it is not that crowded. She came back and reported what she had seen. Nothing special but there are a lot of shops so we will have to plan on going there next time as part of the trip. They decided we they had to go to Kmart to get William some new shorts because he said the ones he was wearing were too small. He hates wearing shorts. I have no idea why. Once we had the shorts, we were set to go. Already mentioned the frustration of getting out of the parking lot so I won't go into it again. 

It was really raining as we made our way into Whitewater world. We had umbrellas but they were not working well and the parking lot was one big puddle so it made the walk a little uncomfortable. Once we got to the gate, everyone kept telling us they have water wheelchairs, basically, wheelchairs that can go in the water. We had to explain a dozen times that we did not need one as Maeghan can walk and she cannot push herself around in one of those so it would not have done her any good anyway. But each person asked about it and we had to explain each time.

We kind of walked through the park first. I did not really remember anything but William insisted it was exactly the same as he remembered it. I remembered what was there but it seemed to be in different places to me. Not sure how they would have moved anything so I guess William was right but it just seemed backwards to me. The biggest issue was the chairs. Since I or Juanita were not going swimming, we just wanted to find a place to sit and wait. All, or most, of the chairs are under cover but the cover either leaks or it is so high that the water just goes around it. None of the chairs were dry and it was getting wetter all the time. We used one of the towels to dry a couple off and it was not raining too bad at that time so we could sit there and watch. Then it started raining hard again and we had to move Maeghan's wheelchair somewhere our of the rain, so we ended at the back of the little kiddie area where it was relatively drive but there were only benches to sit at. I knew from the start that this was not going to last long.

We were there for about an hour, until about 11:30 and then decided to make our way back to the front of the park. The kids eventually found us and they were tired so we decide it was time to switch parks. Plus, it was lunch time and we wanted to get food from the festival and not the water park. So we left. William and I took all the swimming stuff back to the car. When we got there, it really started pouring so we waited in the car for a while until it slowed enough to allow us to walk to the other entrance for the other park. We were actually closer to that entrance than to the water park entrance so it wasn't far. Maeghan and Juanita had just arrived at the entrance when we got there. They had waiting in the exit building while the rain was so heavy.

First thing we did was they all sat down at a dry table and I walked around in the rain to find out what they had at the booths. A lot of it was under cover but a lot of it wasn't, so I had to run from cover to cover trying to see what they had. They had some fairly decent stuff but they wanted a lot of money for it. $17 to $20 dollars and that was without a drink. And, of course, everyone wanted something different so I had to make four trips to get everybody fed. William wanted a hotdog. I got him one that had fries on it and bacon and cheese and tomato sauce. He said it was cold. Maeghan wanted chicken wings so I got her some with teriyaki sauce on it. I got the big order, $22, expecting her to share them. She didn't and she said there was hardly any sauce on them.

Juanita said to just get her something. She wanted calamari or a hotdog. I got her a Cubano sandwich, or an Aussie version of one. It had beetroot and egg on it. She said it was good. I didn't look, it had beetroot on it. I had a BBQ Brisket sandwich. The brisket was delicious but they used what they called a damper roll and it was not suited to the sandwich basically because it was not a damper roll like they advertised. I was just too soggy and the sandwich fell apart. But the brisket was good.

All up, it cost around $100 dollars for lunch. Not too bad for a theme park but not that great either. It rained most of the time so we sat at our dry table. Other people were having to run around in the rain to try to find a dry spot. At one both, they had what I think was real ice tea but it was $7.50 a glass and I did not want to take the chance it was just the stuff they serve out of a bottle and they call ice tea. That's the problem with trying to get ice tea over here. First, they think you are weird and then they try to give you Nestea in a bottle and call it iced tea. That stuff is so full of sugar that I don't think there is actually any tea in it. I try to avoid it whenever I can. Another place had dumplings but I didn't try it. Lots of good food around but too expensive to just try things.

I am trying to think what we did while we were there. The first ride we went to was the Sky Voyager. Think Soaring from Disney. I have been on some cheap copies over here at other parks, Movieworld has one, but this was the real thing. Strap you into the chair, lift it up in the air towards a giant screen and fly around like you are really doing it. They also have a wind machine that blows you around and they spray water on you while you are above the ocean and rivers and they tilt and swirl the seats around so it feels like you are about to fall all the time. I was scared. It was too high and to far tilted forward and it looked like we would fall out of the sky at any minute. We definitely wanted to ride that again. Juanita did not go on it with us and that is a good thing. It would have been too real for her. It was too real for me. Maeghan loved it. Not sure how much William liked it. He was probably bored. In all, it took about half an hour but only because we missed out on the first group by one person. We were three and they only had two seats left so we had to wait for the next turn. It was worth the wait though. I would have liked to go again but we will mention why we did not get to later.

Next we went to the candy store. It was right around the corner. I sat outside. We were going to ride the train next but it was not running and we were told it had not been running all year. No idea why. So we walked down a long, long walk, around the Big Drop and past one of the roller coasters trying to find the old timey cars to drive. It is all the way back behind the animal pavilions. Don't remember it being so far away. We did walk through about half the animals to get there. We saw dingoes, and kangaroos and emus and a wombat and a giant eagle. That was all pretty cool. They were all walking around and not just sitting on a rock on in the cages so it was interesting. The eagle was just sitting there on a branch, about two meters away. We have no idea why it did not just fly away but it didn't just sat there and looked at us and it was huge. Biggest flying bird I have ever seen. The wombat was walking back and forth from one end of its enclosure to the other. They were walking the dingoes by while we were there and you were allowed to pet them. They all brought them over to Maeghan in her wheelchair so she could pet them so that was good.

We finally made it back to the old timey cars. We were just about to get on when they halted the ride. I couldn't see what happened but one of the cars, we think someone was sick in it. They closed down the ride so they could get a cleaner to come down and clean it. That was about a twenty minute wait. Since we were at the front of the line, we did not want to leave so we stayed until they got it clean. The guy running the ride kept telling us he did not know how long it was going to take but we waited. Only a couple of groups left. 

Once we got on, it was the typical car driving experience, except that I seem to recall that there ride, you can actually steer the cars. Not off the track but you could affect them going from side to side. Now, the steering wheel does nothing. The cars are attached to a track and they cannot move at all. The wheels do not even turn. It was disappointing as Maeghan wanted to drive but it was really just a sit in the care and hold the gas pedal down. I still acted like we were going to crash around each turn but they didn't think it was that funny.

After that, we went and saw the rest of the animals. Maegan and William got to feed the kangaroos by hand. As we were sitting there watching this, Juanita and I noticed something strange. They were closing the gift shop in that area. It was around 3 and we though that was a bit early to be closing. We thought maybe it was just closing the part where you could get your picture taken with the animals but they were closing the whole thing. There is a bird sanctuary area behind it and it was closed off too so we didn't get to go in there. We thought it was strange, especially when they started telling everyone to leave. Just a bit weird.

It was a long walk from there along the other side of the park to get back to anything. We passed what used to be the buffet restaurant back there. It was closed and looked like it had not been open in a while. It comes out in the kids area where they have all kinds of rides for little kids. Normally, Maeghan and William will get on them but as they are much older now, they are really too big and not really allowed to ride on them. This is where the Big Red Car ride used to be but now, it is just the big red car sitting out the front so you can get in and take your picture. It is not a ride anymore and it was one of the good ones. Think Mr Toads Wild ride or something like that for kids.

You come out of there into the medium thrill rides. This the area where there are several rides that Maeghan can actually ride. She is too big to fit in most rides that have the overhead cage system to lock the rider in. I am way too big to fit in them and William is generally too tall to fit. They did ride them the last time we were there but that was many years ago. There is one, not sure what it is called, but you sit in a car like vehicle like a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car. There are several of them all on different huge arms. What happens is, they whole ride spins around but the cars are then spun upside down on the huge arms. So as you go around in a circle, you are swinging up and around in the air. Both Maeghan and William said they did not want to do that. But the ride has a tame version where the cars to not go upside down but only go about halfway up and then back down to the other side. Maeghan wanted to try that and William went with her. The problem was going to be whether Maeghan would fit under the bar and would it lock in place to allow her to ride. We asked but all they could say was they would try.

She managed to get into the seat ok and the lap bar did pull down over her head but for some reason, they had to call someone to ok her riding on the ride. I am not sure how it came up but they asked her if she had back problems. She said yes, a mistake I guess, so for about fifteen minutes the operator talked to someone on the phone. Eventually they approved her going on the ride. I am not sure what the conversation was or what they were asking Maeghan during it but she was allowed to ride.

They loved it. William complained the whole time as he said the bar was crushing him on the shoulders, he was too tall. He said he would still ride but he is still complaining about it today. Maeghan said the they were almost upside down most of the time. I didn't tell her they weren't but she said she wanted to ride that again too.

There are some other rides in the area, specifically a kids roller coaster that they had been on the last time. Oddly, they rides were closing. It was around 4:30 at this point and we were confused. The ball pit/ball fort was open but I told William it was for little kids to play in. He went in anyway and took turns throwing and shooting balls at all the little kids. He had fun while Juanita went into another shop where she had bought a mug before. She still drinks coffee out of the mug. 

I didn't mention the tiger exhibit we went past on the way from the kids area to the ride area. It is a big deal at Dreamworld but we had just missed the last show which was at 3:30. We thought we could come back for a later show but there wasn't one. We thought maybe it was because they do not do it at night. I only mention it because I remember I had to buy Juanita a stuffed tiger at the gift shop. We did see the tigers and they were playing but we did not see the show.

Anyway, we are back to it being 4:30 and all the rides are closing. By this time, we were back at the food trucks but we had not been to the big thrill ride part of the park yet. Juanita waned something to eat so we stopped and had some more food. When we got to the area, a lot of the food trucks were closed. We asked about it and they said they usually close during the afternoon but would open up again after five. Fortunately, the calamari truck was open and the chips truck too. Juanita had calamari and William had chips with cheese and bacon on them. Maeghan went around the corner and came back with mine pancakes with Nutella on them. I didn't have anything except a piece of the calamari and some chips. Maeghan wouldn't give me any of her pancakes because she said I did not like Nutella. She is probably right.

While we are sitting there, we noticed they were putting ropes closing the paths to the rides. We thought this was strange. We walked over the the Sky Voyager ride and it was closed. We went to the coffee shop next door and asked why the paths were closed. We came that day just because the park was supposed to be open until 8.

Turns out, the park was not open, only the food trucks area was open. This upset me greatly. Again, we had only come that day, braved the rain and took our time going around because they were open until 8. They didn't seem to see the problem. They said it was understood that the park was not open, only the food area. I showed them their own advertising that said come on April 9 when the park will be open until 8pm. They said that is not what it said. I showed them that is exactly what it says. I think I was close to being banned from the park at that point so I stopped complaining and we left. Nothing I can do about it but I am not happy. We missed a whole section of the park and we didn't get to ride our favorite rides a second time. Not happy, Jan.

Anyway, I am really tired of typing. I might even make this two separate entries, but I doubt it. My fingers hurt. I am going to go to bed. It is after nine and I have to leave for work at 4 in the morning. But I am not going to get started on that story.

So, until next time

Later

 

MWNews 177

 

Been two weeks. Had to work at another job last week so I skipped this one. Now that I am here, I have not done anything except catch up on paperwork. Maybe I can type, maybe I can't. I will try to type quick before someone notices that I am not doing anything.

Been doing a night time install in the city the past two weeks. From 5 to midnight, although we have yet to work until midnight. Usually leave around 10. One of the good things is they provide dinner. rice paper wraps mostly, along with some type of sandwich. The rice paper rolls are very good. The sandwiches are hit and miss. First night was ham and cheese, wasn't bad. The next night was some kind of sandwich that had beetroot on it. I do not eat beetroot, so I missed out on those. I did take one home to Juanita. Should have taken more as there were several left. Then we had roast beef sandwiches with the rice paper rolls. They were very good. Last night, we had sushi. I do not like sushi and it would appear no one else did as there was lots left. I don't like it because I do not like the nori (seaweed, they can't fool me by changing the name). I like all the stuff in them but not the wrap itself. And I think they all taste like they have nori in them even if they do not. Not that it is too bad, I will eat it if I have to, but not my favourite.

Have to go back again tonight, after working here all day. Doing a new building where they have a lot of old equipment so I expect lots of problems over there. We have a list of allowed equipment to upgrade so any that do not meet the requirements will not be done. No one seems to have any idea how many of each so we will find out when we get there. The most we have done in a night is 40 but they think there are 100 at the new site. We were supposed to do them on the weekend but since we have gotten through them so fast, they cancelled the weekend work and will try to get them all done in one night. I worked all of last weekend, all day during the day, so I was glad to see them cancel it. I have made plans for the weekend so if they change their minds again, I am not sure what I will do.

By the way, last week was our anniversary. 21 years, I think. It is disputed as to when the wedding took place. My calendar has always said the 5th but Juanita insists it is the 7th. The wedding certificate says the 7th so we go with that but I am not that sure about it. I thought it took place two days after Anna's first birthday, which would make it the 5th. I guess it doesn't matter but I secretly am still holding out for the 5th.

We didn't do anything. I had to work that night and if I don't work, we don't eat, so I never turn down work. I have to reschedule several doctors appointments in the next two weeks and they were supposed to be heart scans so it is not good to cancel them. I have an appointment after the scans to see my new heart doctor but will probably have to change that one also.

I think I might have mentioned that I got us all Dreamworld tickets. Ostensibly, I had to make that our anniversary present as I spent all my extra money on it. I don't know if that was accepted as a present or not. Juanita got me a whole bunch of cooking things which I really like. Not sure how often I will use them but I have always wanted something like what she got. I needed a bigger pan to cook pancakes on and she got one that sits across two burners. It is big enough to cook three small or two large pancakes at once, so that is good. She also got me a new spatula for pancakes because she said I wanted one. I didn't but it is good to have. She got me a tortilla press which I had apparently said I wanted some time ago but I had changed my mind about that as how often will I make my own tortillas but she got it anyway. The best thing she got was my bacon smasher. It is one of those heave weights with a handle that you put on top of the bacon so it cooks evenly and with less shrinkage. Gamma used to have several of them and I told her I had always wanted one. She found them somewhere by mail order and got me one. It is nice. I can also use it for smash burgers, which I told her was another reason I wanted it. I have been using the bottom of a small pot to smash the burgers but now I can use this.

I have been making smash burgers lately. I always poopooed the idea but I tried it once and it does make a better burger. I have no idea why but they just seem to taste better when you do it that way. I think it might be just the toasted buns I make when I do this and any type of patty would do but now that I have the proper tool, it will be much easier, and since I have the new long pan, I can make them all at once and not have to make one or two at a time. You see, when you make smash burgers, it only works if you eat it immediately. You cannot make the patties and leave them on a plate while you make the others. You have to take them off and give them to someone to eat as soon as they are ready. So we do not all get to eat at the same time when I do this. I can make three at a time so it is not that bad but with the new pan, I can make five or six at a time and then most can eat while I make another batch for people to have seconds. And everyone wants two, some want three. I usually only have one, but I make it a double so I get a big burger out of it. Sometimes I have two but only one is a double.

I used to make extra balls of meat so I can easily make one for breakfast in the morning or for lunch the next day but since I only have a couple of extra, everyone wants one the next day so I would have to make a lot of extra for that to happen. So I miss out on the early morning burger. Since I do them inside, it creates a lot of smoke and smell so there is no sneaking one when I wake up. I still wake up several hours before anyone else so I have time to cook for myself in the mornings and not worry about what everyone else wants. Lately, I have been making migas, or what I call migas and yes, this is telling me I spelled that wrong but I don't know how to spell it or even if its the right word so I suppose it doesn't matter. Basically, it is just potatoes, eggs and whatever meat I put in, usually bacon. It also has pieces of tortillas in it which depending on when you put them in the pan, some are fried and some are just warmed. I then put whatever else I have on hand, cheese, hot sauce, onion or leftover vegetables. I like it but no one else does. They think the tortillas are weird. Since I get up early before they get up, I can make what I want.

A recall to the smash burgers, the secret is to not put anything in the meat before you cook it. No salt, no worsteshire sauce, no egg, nothing except meat. Once they start to cook, I put salt and pepper on them. You can then add anything else you want but only after they are half cooked and not before they are cooking. It makes them not fry correctly or something, I am not sure what. I normally put all my spices and stuff in the meat before I cook it. Like onions or garlic or whatever, but I have seen lots of people say that it is a mistake to do that and I have to agree. It just works out better if you do it while they are cooking. I have no idea why.

Now that I have gone on about food again, it is a food blog, I will get back to this weekend. We are planning on going to Dreamworld tomorrow. It is the annual street food festival. Actually, just a bunch of food carts they let in for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow, they are open late so it is the best day to go, I think. Might be that everyone else thinks the same thing and it will be very crowded but since we have season passes, we can just leave and come back another day if it gets too bad. Our tickets include Whitewater world and the sky tower on the gold coast so we can go there if we have to. Whitewater world is right next door and the sky tower is on the gold coast near the beach. Not a lot to do at the sky tower, it is just a observation deck but it is worth going at least once a year. Coffee shop at the top so you can have coffee and look out over the ocean. I don't go near the railing but I can sit in the middle and have a look.

We plan on being there all day, from 10 to 8 at night. Might not make it at 10 but we will probably stay until late. They normally close at 5 on other days but for this, they are open late. I did just read a review of the parks on the Gold Coast and they said Dreamworld was beginning to show its age. They did say that it is probably because of the Covid and no one is visiting any of the parks, but they said there are never any lines there and everything is old and dated. They did open a new roller coaster but since I don't fit on them, that is not an advantage. They took out the big red car ride, Wiggles. No one seems to know why. We used to ride that all the time but that was when we had Sydney and she enjoyed it a lot. We would still enjoy it but it might look strange for a group of grownups to be on the ride so maybe it is best they removed it. 

Dreamworld has a built in animal park and the tiger show is always a highlight but from the review, they have let the back of the park where the animals are fall into dis-repair. The animals are still there but there are leaves and branches and other clutter everywhere and it is just not as nice as it used to be. We will still go back there but maybe it is not as good as it used to be.

Dreamworld took out all of their water rides back when they had the accident. There were only a couple, log ride and raft ride but when they had the accident a few years ago, they took them out and have not replaced them with anything, so it feels kind of lacking in the number of different things to do. When I looked the other day, the train was closed but I think it was just for maintenance. Not a real fun ride but it did take you around the park so it was worth riding a few times when you are there. They still have the old timey cars to drive but Maeghan said she thought they had closed it. When I looked, it was still open so that is something she can do. They took out one of the shows that used to show old cartoons and replaced it with another soaring type ride. It would have been nice if they had both but we will see what they have when we get there.

That is one of the complaints about the park is that they do not have any shows anymore. Just the Madagascar show which I am told does not run all the time. They said there were street performers and they were really good but nothing where you can go sit down and watch something. I think there used to be three or four shows to watch and rest at when you are there but they must have taken them all out or they do not have the performers after the covid stuff. I guess we will see when we get there.

I am thinking we will do what we used to do, which is go to Whitewater world in the morning and then go to Dreamworld in the afternoon. The problem with that is Whitewater world closes next week. Won't open again for six or seven months so that plan is not good for us. It works out well when the weather is really hot but we will have to wait to do that again.

We will probably only go a couple times during the winter, they have a couple of shows during that time. Winterfest and something else. Have to wait until it all opens up again to take advantage of what we like to do. One thing I have found is that we can get there by train. I took the train to that area the other day and found that there is a stop with a shopping mall that is about 5 minutes from the park. You take a train to the mall and then a bus to the park. You can see the park from the train station. You can't see the station or the mall from the road so we never knew it was there. The good thing about that is we can just take the train whenever we want and save a lot of money on petrol. It is less than $5 to take the train and it cost about $60 to drive the car. Since there are four of us, it only takes about $10 to get there. It is a long ride, about two hours, but the drive is an hour and a half so that's not too bad. We will definitely have to do that soon. Tomorrow, we are taking the car but that kind of savings is worth the extra time.

I have just scrolled back and noticed that I have typed a lot of stuff and not really said anything once again. It was fun though. Not funny, but fun. I think I will have to be going now. Have to do some work while I am here and before I leave for the other job. Since the kids are on vacation, I might have lots to report next time, but I wouldn't count on it. I will try to take more pictures as we have not taken any in a long time. Don't know why but we just don't take pictures anymore. But I am out of here for now.

Until next time,

Later