Blog Wars: The Return of the Candy Van

Previously, on Blog Wars:

“The top of Whistler was intensely foggy …"

“We also had Beaver Tails, at Whistler."

“Suddenly he pitches forward, goes head-over-heels, twists to the side, gets his skis utterly mangled and twisted off his feet, then hits the ground face down and slides down a bit, ending up lying with his face in the snow. "

And now, the thrilling conclusion ...

Harley lay face down in the snow, perfectly still. 

Dave chuckled briefly at Harley’s spectacular fall, then paused. Harley still hadn’t moved. 

Surely it wasn’t that bad? Nothing was bent the wrong way; there wasn’t any blood. How hard could he have fallen?

Dave slid down the slope towards Harley, feeling somewhat concerned … 

To be continued, after the break … 

*     *     *

Poo Poo Point

This was another hike. There was no poo at the point, but there was a dunny.

The description said ~7 miles roundtrip, and an elevation gain of about 1800 feet. 

I was thinking it would be a moderate hike. 

It turned out to be pretty hard on the way up, cos it was rather steep, and my goodness, was it humid. 

Yuck. 

When we finally got to the point, after the discussion going every which way, this was the view:

Hey, a cricket pitch at the top!

How ‘bout that.

The mountain was also in lockdown:

No one can steal it now

On a more serious note, you should never launch from here whilst horses are present. 

DO NOT

Seriously. 

Lachlan imagined someone launching themselves on a paraglider, and then seeing a horse coming up behind them, which conjured up an image in my head of someone flying through the skies on a hanglider, and a horse following them, with glowing red eyes and screeching like the winged mounts of the Nazgul. 

Needless to say, we did not launch from there. 

*     *     *

“Harley!” Dave called out as he slid downwards. “You alright man?"

*     *     *

Matt. He does food reviews.

Matt’s Food Reviews #2

Eye of newt, tail of beaver ...

Reese’s Pieces Beaver TailAfter the nasty initial experience I had with Canadian food, I was still determined to continue on my quest to unofficially become an official Canadian. My next goal was to eat a beaver tail, and even though I was disappointed by the fact that the dish was not the meaty tail of a beaver as I had initially thought, the idea of a fried pastry smothered with chocolate hazelnut spread, peanut butter, and Reese’s Pieces on a wintery Canadian night was still highly appealing.
The pastry lent a surprisingly delicate and aromatic flavour, complimented with the richness of the chocolate and peanut butter. As it was cold outside, the heatiness of the beaver tail was surprisingly more than welcome. Throughout my slow savouring of the beaver tail, the pastry had remained delightfully crispy.

Rating 3/5

Based on that review Matt, I would try it, and I probably should have cos I was there, but hey. 

*     *     *

“Yeah, I’m fine,” replied Harley.

[Sorry, but it literally was that anti-climatic in real life, too]

Basically, Harley’s skis ended up like this:

and his pants ended up like this:

Best crash of the weekend, I say. 

10/10 would crash again.

Border Crossing, Season 2

We returned to the US, and Harley swore he’d kill anyone who made a terrorist joke whilst at the border. 

There is a longer tale here, but I won’t go into it. 

One highlight of our thrilling adventure at the border was that when the officer was checking our passports, he was standing at the side door, and I was sitting in the seat at that door. Thus, he handed me passports to pass to people deeper in the van. He also checked things with me, like: 

Officer [holds up Shay’s passport, looks at it, then faces it to me]: “That guy?"

Me [pointing to Shay, sitting directly behind me]: “Him"

Officer [does the same with Frank’s passport]: “That guy?"

Me [pointing to Frank, sitting next to Shay]: “Him right there"

Mate, they’re both in front of you. They have easy-to-pronounce names. 

Sloppy effort.

1/10 would not cross again.

The Return of the Candy Van

Sadly, the Candy Van had to be returned. 

Harley mourns his loss ... and then celebrates cos he doesn't need
to drive that thing ever again.

This signaled the end of our Whistler adventures. 

Harley thoroughly enjoyed looking through available cars to rent next, although was not allowed to choose a Dodge Challenger. 

He settled for a Cruze, which is yet unnamed.

Australia Day Part 1

This was fantastic. 

Beautiful sunny winter’s day, classic Australia. 

Beautiful view from Beth’s swanky apartment, where we could see the Olympic range and Mt Rainier:

This is Mt Rainier. It looms. It is enormous.

Seriously, if this thing had a pointy top it could be the Lonely Mountain.
Or if there were dark storm clouds, Orodruin.

The Olympic Mountain range behind Seattle

Sunset over the ocean .... behind a city. 

We had Tim Tams and Caramello Koalas:

A little taste of home

And Fosters, whatever that is:

Seriously, what is this thing? Anyone

And what’s more Australian than tacky Australian flag tattoos?

Karl may not be the prettiest lady, but he can act fairly
Aussie for a French-German-Vietnamese-... for an international person

Someone out of Beth, Zoe and Andrew burnt the pavlova, and the others turned it into a salad:

It did taste good

Meanwhile, at Microsoft we played backyard cricket on Australia Day, but without a wheelie bin:

What a boss.

And in my home town of Engadine, people held a thong-throwing competition.

We’re an excitable nation. 

The best part of the Australia day cricket match (other than Tony Abbott setting a record for Most Comedians Put Out Of A Job) was that all the Americans held the cricket bat like a baseball bat, and tried to catch the ball like a baseball. 

This was hilarious. 

Will and I, just standing there shaking our heads at the person who brought along a baseball glove, and is trying to catch the ball backhanded.

It might work in baseball, but in cricket, the only way to catch is to dive for it.

Portland

This hasn’t happened yet, but it will soon … 

Two great forces, colliding head to head … 

American unipiping goes head-to-head with Australian bagcycling … 

The biggest showdown of the decade ...

I’m missing the SuperBowl for this, and you know what?

I don’t give a damn, cos I’m playing the bagpipes on a unicycle!

I’ll miss the final match in an overly large, stupidly hyped competition, between two teams throwing a ball on and off for five hours, and I don’t care, cos I’m playing off against the Unipiper!

Seriously. 

Which would you rather watch? 

Something that has happened every year for the past far-too-long?

Or a duel between two legendary foes?

Yeah. 

Thought so.