Last week, we brought you the story of a big, fat goanna on Bob Skelton’s Minmi property.
Now we’re bringing you the story of a big, fat mushroom on his property.
Bob – also known as the Minmi Magster – said it was a “monster mushroom”.
The Magster cooked the mushy up on his old gas stove.
“I cut it into four pieces. I couldn’t fit ‘em all in my big frying pan,” he said.
But Magster, we said, how did you know it was OK to eat?
“It’s not hard to tell a mushroom. They’re flat. You look underneath. They’ve got the fans in ‘em. They go pink and, as they get older, they go black.
“When they’re dark like that, that’s when they’ve got the strong flavour. Bloody beautiful.
“You can’t mix em up [with poisonous mushrooms] – not if you know what you’re doing. I’ve never had any trouble with mushrooms. I’ve been eating them since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.”
Still, Topics doesn’t recommend mushroom-picking. The Magster is an experienced bushy from way back. He knows his stuff.
In the meantime, we’ll be keeping an ear out for any more stories of big, fat things at Minmi.
Stinky Mushroom
Speaking of mushrooms, we found a weird one in our garden.
It was pink with a strange inky black substance on it. We asked Magster (jokingly) whether it was OK to eat.
“Don’t eat them. You’ll get really crook,” he said.
Actually, nature did a pretty good job of keeping humans away from this mushrooom. It’s called a stinkhorn fungus.
It doesn’t look too appetising and it also stinks. But plants love ‘em. They feed off the rotting material once it breaks down. By all accounts, it’s very nutritious for them.
Celebration Cake
It never rains it pours, hey?
Newcastle Airport had quite a bit of trouble with its first international flights to and from Auckland.
The elements were to blame – a bushfire and a lightning strike caused the flights to be delayed.
Throw the Supercars weekend and Wednesday’s heavy rain into the mix and it’s been quite a week for the Hunter.
With the bushfire threat having past (for now), Port Stephens Council finally found a bit of time on Wednesday to celebrate the “first international flight arriving from Auckland last Thursday”.
“We're glad to leave the bushfire behind us and we're so grateful for the much-needed rain today,” the council said on Facebook.
It’s a worldwide tradition for new airport routes to be launched with a cake.
“Take a close-up look at our inaugural AKL (Auckland) to NTL (Newcastle) cake! It's more than a cake, it's a masterpiece showcasing the greater Hunter Region from the Newcastle 500 Supercars event to Hunter Valley Gardens. How many tourist icons can you spot?,” Newcastle Airport said on Facebook.
Plane Etiquette
Still on aviation, we heard recently that a bloke is suing British Airways for damages after he sat next to a person so fat, he was “pinned to the side of the cabin”.
Stephen Prosser claims he suffered “soft tissue damage” after being squashed by the obese passenger next to him on a flight from Bangkok to London. The obesity epidemic, it seems, is taking the elbow and armrest problem to a new level. In the cramped space of a plane, any personal-space intrusions are clearly a breach of etiquette, don’t ya think? – topics@theherald.com.au
