Dear diary, today was very uneventful.

With it being Thanksgiving Day here in the USA, most shops etc. were closed, except until late in the afternoon. Tomorrow is Black Friday, which is renowned for massive sales across the country with some stores being up to 40% off everything. Some shops decide to open at 5am on Friday, and others are now opening late on Thanksgiving Day to get in early. Others have decided to have their sales over a week or two given the chaos of hundreds of people waiting out the front from midnight to get bargains. I’m sure tomorrow news will have plenty of footage of the worst offenders.

Anyway, there are some real bargains to be had, including a semi-automatic tactical rifle (with a 30 round magazine) for only $499 USD, and a Lowrance Sonar GPS for $549, nearly 50% off. They also have a great range of meat and fish smokers and food dehydrators (especially ones for jerky) at less than $200. Thank goodness I don’t live here as I’d go crazy in these sales. Don’t worry Dad if you read this, I’m not buying anything. I’ll be out on a tour tomorrow thank goodness.

So basically all I did today was browse through the local newspaper, which instead of the usual 5mm thick was around 40mm thick, the balance being shopping catalogues for Black Friday sales, read the rest of the latest Lee Child novel – I enjoyed it, and watched a bit of TV. Mainly a couple of interviews with Donald Trump, and some shows going on about his nominations for various roles. Apparently some of the jobs go through automatically, but around 400+ have to be confirmed by Senate committees. I never knew it was so many, and I reckon at least a quarter will not get through. A lot of the pundits are going on about why various nominees shouldn’t be nominated as they don’t have much experience in their areas, completely missing the whole reason Trump got elected.

There was one moment of excitement this afternoon when the fire alarms went off in my hotel. So I got up, grabbed my shoes, and walked down the hall and out through the lobby. I was the only one. All the other people just stood around in the corridors looking at each other and asking what to do. And half of them were staff! So I exited the building and then the alarms switched off. So glad my mandatory training comes in useful sometimes.

My meals today were those I bought as takeaway yesterday from Ginger Restaurant. Definitely worth a visit. For lunch I had a small serving of macaroni and cheese with chilli and cherry tomatoes for entree, followed by a Thai green curry,  and for dinner I had pork egg rolls for entree and beef curry for main.

This was dinner. They have these great cardboard boxes that are able to retain liquids, and just need heating up in the microwave. I guess they are more environmentally friendly than the foam versions.

The beef curry was very tasting but had a relatively strong nutty / satay flavour which I was not expecting .

I had a Twinkie for dessert after lunch and a cupcake by the same company for dessert after dinner. I had originally decided only to try two of each and throw the rest away, but they are surprisingly addictive. They are both made of flavoured light spongecake (lemon and orange respectively), with the latter having an orange icing on top. And they are both filled with extremely tasty cream. So in the end I have had four of each, and have thrown the rest away. They are somewhat unhealthy! And they differ from anything in Coles or Woolworths. I did say whilst in the USA and Canada that I would try their cuisines etc. But I still want to look after myself.