State of Entropy: Long Reef Beach

Just when the long Easter holidays threatened with boredom, a well-timed trip to the beach washed it all away. Well, it wasn't that spontaneous. The beach outing had been planned before quite well by Andy and Michael K, two good uni friends of mine, so when the long weekend came around everything was planned out and we only had to worry about the weather.

I ended driving four people there and probably overpacked and underpacked for the trip. It's a bit of a doublethink yes, but you'll see why. Pretty much everyone except me cut north to Chatswood to avoid going over the Harbour Bridge, maybe in dread of the city streets or seeking safety in numbers. I asked my dad about the route and after some scouting on Good Friday, I felt pretty comfortable driving over the Bridge. You just follow the signs and you'll be right.

Long Reef Beach in near Dee Why and it's a splendid place. The beach is nice and big and isn't very overcrowded. Its got decent parking at reasonable cost, has all the facilities, even has a electric BBQ. On arriving though, we tried the BBQ but it refused to work, no matter no many times we pushed the button. We were in a bit of panic and was about to resort to cooking the meat at a BBQ in another beach 2km away then bringing the food back, when Daniel L got one BBQ working. So we started to cook. The meat was alright, although who bought it probably never bought food for a BBQ. I was expecting steak and sausages, but ended up with frankfurts and thick slices of pork, plus chicken kebabs and chicken wings. You can't really cook frankfurts, usually you dump them into some hot water. The pork was pretty thick and cooking them took a long time. Thankfully, we had all this flavouring and we dumped massive amounts onto the meat to add some taste to its absolute blandness.

Also never ever use raw chicken wings in a BBQ. They are bloody difficult to cook on a BBQ. You usually scorch the outside while the inside is still raw. Cooking them properly takes a very long time on low heat. And I've been to many BBQs where someone decides chicken wings should be on the menu. Oh, you can precook them and then just heat them up on the BBQ, but raw chicken wings just can't be cooked properly on a BBQ. Still, it wasn't that bad. The group quickly split into three groups, the sitters, the cookers and the tasters. Most people would sit and wait for cooked food to come, while the cookers worked the meat, pouring on oil and flavouring, while the tasters would stand near the BBQ and grab all the good stuff. So basically all the people at the BBQ intercepted the good stuff.

But on the whole, it was an excellent day out and I had lots of fun with friends. While I didn't bring a camera, but luckily my friends did and here is a selection.