All hail the Tiger Pie!

INGER and I visited the famous HARRY'S CAFE DE WHEELS pie cart in Wooloomooloo at lunch today.
I enjoyed the iconic SYDNEY dish, the TIGER PIE.
It includes:
1. A beef pie
2. Mashed potatoes
3. Mushy peas
4. Topped with gravy.
It was wonderful.
I've had three pies since arriving in AUSTRALIA. I've got such a taste for them now, I will need to get some (admittedly inferior) pot pies when I return to the States.

Top 5 animals at Sydney's Taronga Zoo

My TOP FIVE ANIMALS at the world-class TARONGA ZOO.
1. TASMANIAN DEVILS -- Never stopped running around... Always seemed to be having fun... Terrifying when they open their fang-filled mouths to yawn.
2. GOLDEN PHEASANT -- Name doesn't do justice to this multicolored southeast Asian bird. A rainbow of colors.
3. FRESHWATER CROCODILE -- Appears so content with life. Probably because of the razor-sharp teeth.
4. BLACK-HEADED PYTHON -- Fun fact: The black head heats up quickly in the sun, helping their brains work quicker and more effectively.
5. LEOPARD SEALS -- The villains of every penguin film.

Sydney: First impressions

Take parts of LONDON and graft them onto SAN FRANCISCO. Take all that and drop it onto SAN DIEGO, and that's my first impression of SYDNEY. INGER and I spent the day walking around The Rocks, the Circular Quay area and the Central Business District. In between, we drank some beers, photographed the Opera House like crazy and I managed to eat a CROCODILE PIZZA as well. What will day two have in store? Stay tuned...

Here I go

I think I'm ready. I hope I'm ready.

I just have a few last-minute tasks before I can head for the airport -- beginning a lengthy journey to SYDNEY.
Of course, I didn't sleep very well last night. I tossed and turned and eventually woke up well before my alarm was set to ring.
No worries. I listened online as ST. GEORGE ILLAWARRA beat the NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS, 26-18, to seal the NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE'S minor premiership for the Dragons.
Hard to believe, but I'll be in the midst of rugby league territory when this journey concludes.

Tooheys New in my future

Did I mention I want to wash down an ICED VOVO with a TOOHEYS NEW when I get to AUSTRALIA in 11 days?

Preparing for my trip, I've spread VEGEMITE on my morning toast, I'm nibbling a VIOLET CRUMBLE I've been saving in my freezer for two years and I have been sipping FOSTER'S.
I know: The latter is a poor approximation of the beer I'll sample in SYDNEY.
That's why I want to wash down the Iced Vovo with a Tooheys New!
You just can't get good Aussie beer here in Dubuque. I wonder why that is...

Another iconic bridge in my sights

I have strolled across the BROOKLYN BRIDGE (on a shockingly cold January evening).

I have marched across my hometown GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE numerous times (I have a commemorative brick there, don't you know).
I now have plans to add another iconic bridge to that list.
I want to walk across the SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE in less than a month or so.
Here is how the brilliant BILL BRYSON described the bridge, in his Aussie guide "IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY:"
"The Opera House is a splendid edifice and I wish to take nothing away from it, but my heart belongs to the Harbour Bridge. It's not as festive, but it is far more dominant -- you can see it from every corner of the city, creeping into frame from the oddest angles, like an uncle who wants to get into every snapshot. From a distance it has a kind of gallant restraint, majestic but not assertive, but up close it is all might. It soars above you, so high that you could pass a 10-story building beneath it, and looks like the heaviest thing on earth. Everything that is in it -- the stone blocks in its four towers, the lattice work of girders, the metal plates, the 6 million rivets (with heads like halved apples) -- is the biggest of its type you have ever seen. This is a bridge built by people who have had an Industrial Revolution, people with mountains of coal and ovens in which you could melt down a battleship. The arch alone weighs 30,000 tons. This is a great bridge."

All creatures great and small and DEADLY

I read the BILL BRYSON book "IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY" years ago, before my upcoming AUSTRALIA trip was even a glimmer in my eye.
I am reading the book again, with less than a month to go before the trip.

I was always struck by his memorable, introductory paragraphs about the country, particularly about the dangerous animals found Down Under.
Bryson writes:
"It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world's 10 most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures -- the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick and stonefish -- are the most lethal of their type in the world. This is a country where even the fluffiest of caterpillars can lay you out with a toxic nip, where seashells will not just sting you but actually sometimes go for you."
I seriously doubt INGER and I will encounter any of Australia's dangerous creatures. Indeed, I probably run more risk of eating a PIE FLOATER and getting heartburn.