Archive for the 'Travel' Category

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The Best Licorice…

March 30, 2007

The best licorice (or if you prefer liqorice) I discovered on my recent trip to Australia.  It’s a brand called Darrell Lea.  My favorite is absolutely, the Strawberry Soft Licorice.  I can buy it in the US from this distributor, MyBrands, but it’s not cheap.  It’s actually cheaper at Amazon.com.  Overseas it was about half the cost!

So here’s my rankings of the best licorice…

  1. Darrell Lea Strawberry Soft Licorice (they’re #1 for a reason)
  2. Red Vines (after eating a ton of these, you know they aren’t very good for you)
  3. Harry and David’s Filled Red Licorice (very addictive)
  4. Twizzlers (my college standard… good, but too greasy)
  5. (no others are even worth mentioning)
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First Visit to Sydney, Australia

February 24, 2007

We just got back from a week long visit to Sydney, Australia.  We had a great time, and I look forward to my next visit.  I told Alice that when we get to the point of being wealthy enough to have multiple homes around the world, I’d seriously consider having one in Sydney.

I’ll revise this post over the coming days… with more text and photos.  Here are some of the highlights in short:

We flew a combination of American Airlines and Qantas Airlines. Our other option was to fly United all the way.  We made the right decision I think.

We stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney.

We visited and toured the famous Sydney Opera House.

We did an exhilarating Bridge Climb to the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge.

We used the popular Australian cookie Tim Tam to do the Tim Tam Slam (it’s a cookie thing).

We visited the Blue Mountains and saw lots of Australian wildlife - including kangaroos (even a joey), koalas, cockatoos, kukaberras, crocodiles, dingos, emu, and casowary.

We found out what some Australians think about the late Steve Irwin (crikey this and crikey that…).

We did quite a bit of souvenier shopping and opal shopping.  We visited several well known markets - The Rocks Market, Pitt Street mall, and Paddington Market.

We had lots of “interesting” Australian cooking.

We celebrated Chinese New Year by having dinner with friends in Sydney’s Chinatown.

We saw enough kangaroo scrotums to last a lifetime…