Aug BBC ride & other cycling matters
The monthly BBC ride was the first time on a bike since the prevoius Saturday because of illness. And that’s about as many days in a row off a bike as I’ve had since starting cycling last Dec. So I was itching to ride because the weather was nice during the week but I just didn’t have the energy to ride…
Maybe the mini-break was what I needed though because it made me really appreciate the ride (not that I don’t always enjoy my riding). I rolled up at the BBC at 7.30am and found probably the biggest BV forum group ever! It was an awesome site …There was even a tandem in the mix (complete with 2-way radio and headsets)! Exactly 10 seconds into the ride someone does a horiztonal trackstand (failing to unclip shoe and falling) at the lights and we were still just outside the BBC!! Haha. I could laugh because I had just done my first one last weekend, except I wasn’t in the front row with 50 riders behind me!
I had already mentioned in the forum that I was going to take it easy and it turned out that I ended up doing the slowest Black Rock ride ever. But that’s exactly what I needed. I met a newish BV forum member and BBC debutant vidman and his lovely wife polka dot lisa along the way there. I rode with one or the other most of the way up to Black Rock. I must apologise to Lisa for causing her to be yelled at by a pedestrian because I decided to take a short cut at the ped lights and told her it would be OK.
We were told that Kenny and vidman had stopped about 1-2km’s before Black Rock, and so everybody started the journey back to the BBC. At this stage, its usually every (wo)man for themselves as people sprint for waffles. So I started on my way and soon joined Kenny and vidman. We took is slowly all the way back and I was able to enjoy the view like never before and have a chat. I think we arrived just after 9.30am and the place was already quite full and a long queue was forming for waffles. By the time I found a table (a rough count found that BVers took at least a quarter of the tables) and got to the front of the long queue there were no more waffles left. Croissants and multi-grain bread with chocolate sauce is just not the same! After a bit of chatting I decided to give it another go. I get to the front and again I just miss out!!! So in defeat I got some muesli, yogurt and fruit. Right towards the end I saw some more come out but I was already full. But then I thought, I didn’t do all that cycling for nothing. So I stuffed two pieces down even though I wasn’t hungry.
As I was leaving someone noticed my brake pads really needed replacing. Its amazing how I never notice these things and its quite dangerous when I think about it. My back ones had pretty much worn down to nothing. I went to my LBS to buy some new pads and they were able to put them on for free, which was nice of them.
All the talk of bikes with people and seeing the many, many nice wheels sitting on the racks at the BBC made me really want to get a roadie again (well, more than I normally do anyway). I love my flat bar, but with the distances that I do on weekends I think a roadie would be better (so everyone says). And I want to expand my riding to beyond Beach Rd and also maybe do some time trials. I started eyeing off road bikes about a month after buying my flat bar. I even tried a few out but in the end couldn’t decide. Now I’ve narrowed down the search to a couple of Avanti bikes and also a Melbourne Bicycle Centre branded bike. These fit into my “budget” of $2000. Well, its not actually money I have. It will have to go on credit but its an amount I can live with having to pay off.
The bikes I like are:
Avanti 07 Giro
Avanti 07 Carbonio 1.0
Perhaps I’ll go into these bikes in more detail in my next post. The bottom line though is that SWMBO is against the idea of me getting another bike because of a number very logical reasons, such as “no room in the flat”, “we need to save money” and “your bike is perfectly fine and not even a year old”. But since when does N+1 have to be logical?
Dock of the bay – CrazyTalk style
I’ve been at it again!! I really should be doing my thesis proposal but I felt like a bit of a chirp…
Long Weekend
I’m over being sick now, thank you.
I caught some bug (proly the same one that many people have gotten recently) last week and by Fri night my nose was all runny even though there were no other symptoms. I woke up Sat morning with a really sore throat but and generally not 100% but I went for my ride to Frankston anyway and actually enjoyed it. That physical exercise whilst under the weather proly pushed my body over the edge and I deteriorated during the day.
I was supposed to go to a friend’s place in the country for her farewell do. My body said no but I still went. 2 hours drive later I was in Guildford, home of the famous “Big Tree” near Castlemaine.
A little bit of food, a codral and a couple of wines later I was ready for a “nap” (at 8.30pm!). I went to lay down in my car, which was parked away from the house so I could be left in peace…or so I thought.
I was having a fairly pleasant, if not a little chilly, sleep when I suddenly awoke to a glaring bright orange light in front of me. When my groggie eyes focused I realised that it was a 15ft bon fire…and it was only metres away from my car! Someone decided that the nice little fireplace inside the house and the fire buring in the steel drum just outside was not enough. So they piled on a truck load of flammable items onto a pile and stood back (it was still smouldering in the morning). By now nearly the entire party (except for a few oldies) had moved to this new and exciting location.
After the initial shock of it all my exhaustion put me back to sleep again. However, I woke up again an hour or so later again to the sounds of a guitar and a chorus of drunk girls singing something that may have been the chilli peppers. After that point I really couldn’t sleep again. When it was time for everyone to bed up for the night I was forceably removed from my car and put into a room to share with missus and a few others. I had wanted to stay in the car in fear I would pass on whatever bug I had to someone else, but they said I’d freeze to death if I did that.
The sleep inside was not much better either, but I won’t go into that. The next morning I got up at 7.30am and wondered outside to take a few pics. I’m glad I listened to them and didn’t sleep in the car.
Everything outside had a layer of ice or frost over it. After a hearty country breakfast we said our goodbyes and detoured to Vaughan Springs for a stroll before coming home around 2pm. All the driving, exercise and cold weather made me completely wrecked and as a result I haven’t wanted to ride to work the last 2 days. I’ll proly stay of until the BBC ride on Saturday. Glad I got away though, even if it was only overnight and I missed half the party.
Couple more pics.
Frankston Ride
The numbers:
distance: 89.32km
time: 3hr 24min
max sp: 54km/h
avg sp: 26.2km/h
Where we went:
Stop 1 Mordi
Stop 2 Top of Hopes Rise
Stop 3 Franger visitor centre car park
Stop 4 Mordi
Stop 5 Lying flat on the ground at Sandy!! I couldn’t unclip and fell over at the traffic lights! How embarrassing!! Managed to rip a brand new shoe cover…
Stop 6 Cafe Boy Racer for coffee
Couple of the photos (first 2 taken on my new Nokia 6110 Navigator):
Freaky!
Yesterday in the work lunch room I was chatting with a colleague about getting cramps and how sometimes I get them in the middle of the night whilst asleep. I then mentioned that on a few occasions I had gotten either a thigh cramp or calf cramp whilst cycling. After saying that I went to stand up to wash my dishes. As I did I got a thigh cramp!! It didn’t last long but it hurt…
Co-incidence or what? Lucky I wasn’t talking about something worse…who knows what would have happened then
First official work ATB training ride
I have become my work’s ATB training leader and it didn’t get off to the best start. Nobody came!! That’s enthusiasm for ya! I went for a ride anyway and had a great time. I was always going to be riding this weekend so no skin off my back. Got a bit wet on the way up to Mordi, but so glad I have my Ground Effect Doc Smock though otherwise it would have been worse!
I posted about it in my work blog
New Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
I haven’t been eating breakfast regularly recently. And when I do its usually a couple of bits of toast and some juice if I’ve got it. I get bored of eating the same thing and so sometimes I have cereal instead. I bought some muslie and a box of new Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. Its corn flakes but with rice in it as well. For some reason I thought it would taste the same, but even looking on the box the flakes are a different colour, with the rice ones a greyish, white sort of colour. Not the most enticing cereal…
Now, having tried them this morning I reckon they’re not bad. They taste more like wheaties than corn flakes. I am a little disappointed that the taste is quite far removed from the orignal corn flakes. So I probably wouldn’t buy them again. I’m just a sucker for new things and advertising!! I mean, really, if I’d wanted rice in my cereal I should have just bought rice bubbles. And its not like I don’t eat enough rice. I mean, c’mon, I’m Chinese!!!
World’s biggest procrastinator
What is wrong with me?
I had two weeks to flesh out a two page draft proposal for my thesis. My supervisor asked for about five pages. Shouldn’t be too hard.
That was three weeks ago. Last week when we were supposed to meet I emailed saying I didn’t have anything to show him. I didn’t try to give him any excuses because I didn’t really have any. So he emailed me yesterday asking me when I can show him my work. I didn’t reply. Why? I haven’t touched it. I had one more week but couldn’t bring myself to actually start.
And I spent all day today (my day off) surfing the web, checking work email (MY DAY OFF!!), going back and forth to the the kitchen. Its been a year now since I was a full time student. I took second half of the year off for personal reasons. The thesis is the only thing left to do but it never got off the ground. All the meetings I’ve had with my supervisor have been not much more than brain storming sessions. So he quite rightly said I needed to get a move on.
I’m so bad at starting something. And its not just with the thesis. There’s been work jobs where I’ve taken heaps longer than projected because I started late. I know I just have to “get back in the groove” (to use my dad’s record and needle analogy, which I get sick of hearing) and things will just happen. But its I have a fear of starting…
Even now, by writing this post I am procrastinating. Then I’m popping down the street for dinner because we don’t feel like cooking. I am a responsible person generally, but I feel I’m disrespecting my supervisor by being so tardy. This may also go with my continuing trend of not finishing studies.
started accounting at uni long ago: dropped out after one and a half years
started two year IT tafe course: dropped out after one and a half years
started different two year IT tafe course: finished
started uni IS course: finished
started honours: to be continued, but sometimes I feel like giving up…
I’m just feeling sorry for myself.
End of rant.
So sad!
I read this article from The Age newspaper that said the Yangtze River Dolphin (or Baiji) has officially been announced to be extinct. It was a very unique animal because it was a fresh water dolphin and only found in the Yangtze river, China. Its demise was attributed to China’s rapid industrialisation, in particular the three gorges dam project. And it looks like the dolphin is not going to be the only victim.
I guess I have a particularly strong feeling about this because 1) Its the only animal I can think of that has become extinct in my lifetime (that I can recall) 2) Its a dolphin and they’re cool! 3) Not many people know, but I have some abstract dolphins tattooed on my arm (e.g. people know I’ve got a tatt but when they ask I just say its a random pattern).
This story really puts into perspective the impact humans are having on the earth. Who, knows how many more animals will become extinct in my lifetime. And lets not even go into the plundering of the earths forrests and other natural resources…
Bye bye flipper of the East!! ‘~’
And now…presenting
As I’ve mentioned I like my YouTube. I was getting ready to go home today and I thought, “I want to make a music video, too!”. So I did. And so armed with the work webcam I recorded myself singing over the top of one of my favourite songs (whilst finalising my cycling gear).
