The Think Tank: holiday

Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts

23 January 2020

Strawbees Hovercraft

I got a Strawbees Hovercraft kit for Christmas. You can find videos online. It's pretty fun and very zippy. I was a little imprecise attaching the main platform to the skirt and it likes to favour one direction and turning that direction heavily, but it's designed for re-manufacture with easy to scrounge junk...so that's OK!!

Like all toys with a price tag, the box ultimately becomes the best part...for kitties.

Jana, Garrick and I went for a brief camp at Warnambool in the van (still in very early stages).

We saw a HUUUGEE ray at the pier, he kept coming to the surface and inspecting the seaweed on the pillars. His tail had been damaged but he seemed unaffected in his travels. He was easily 1.2m or more across. An absolute monster.

We played mini golf as is the custom on holidays. Jana and I got new high (low?) scores scores for our suburb and featured on their leader board! Awesome!

21 May 2019

Flight Luxury, just add one bazillion dollars.

On the 2nd flight back to the states this year I tipped into the lowest tier of frequent flier status of "Premier Silver". The biggest kick-back is that it puts you on a standby list for cabin upgrades if there are spaces available.

I got 1st class on the flight from Des Moines to Houston, and Economy Plus (in an apparently empty plane) from Houston to Sydney. Sweeeet!! Normally the LAX to MEL flights are packed, so this IAH to SYD might be the new favoured path.

"Sorry about the crudity of these *screenshots* Marty, I didn't have time to build it to scale or to paint it!"
"That's OK Doc."

25 March 2019

International Travel

Rockets: check
Computer: check
Hat full of underpants: check.

Well I'm packed and ready to go...

02 October 2016

Kayak beach trolley

I want a small portable trolley to move the kayaks from a holiday campsite to the beach. Generally a few hundred meters. No fun to carry them that far. Off to the hard rubbish pile I go...

I grabbed some kids bikes and took the front forks off. They mount nicely in some of the moulded drainage holes...but dont think it's gonna work out. I also have some nice planks of wood from various smashed up dresser drawers.

So maybe I'll mount the forks something like this.

...and make it look something like that... (upside down)

Boaty hull curves require some sort of shaping for my trolley.

That might work.

I bent some wire to make some hooks (no idea where I found the wire, or even why I had it), and used some ancient camping tension springs. (springs are cool, I've been holding onto these for years)

Works pretty well. :)

17 November 2013

Grampians 2013 Cup Day long weekend getaway.

Our beautiful hut.

Cheeky Cockatoo keeping it's eye on Jana.

Roos in our front yard every morning. An entire mob could be found on the local footy oval each evening munching on all the fresh baby grasses.

Day 1: no cicadas. Day 2: millions of cicadas. They literally came out of the ground en-masse on day 2. Squished all over the roads and footpaths. Birds were having a field day.

Jana before she jumps for it at Chataqua Peak.

She didn't jump, and stuck around to take this shot. :)

We saw perhaps six Blue Tongue Lizards over the weekend. This guy was baking on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere while we were exploring. He didn't move away till I got out to take close up shots. :)

A fun Geocache in town.

Accidental shot. Hiking from Zumsteins to MacKenzies falls. We'd left the bikes at MacKenzies, so enjoyed a long 6km downhill ride down the mountain at the end of our hike. Lots of fun.

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