There's a time for beer

It's almost Christmas, and a longer bit of Christmas bilge will follow, p'raps tomorrow. Christmas means Christmas drinkypoos, and that means a bit of effort down at the pub. Within the space of five days, I saw Josh at the Metro, had our work Christmas party at SPQR and thence the Clevo, then went to the ResMed mini-Chistmas partay at the Sackville. A summary:

Stella: quite drinkable in large quantities
James Squire Amber Ale: has a strong, dark taste and is good to kick you off on the road to ruin
Little Creatures: also has a strong taste but I don't like it
Erdinger Weissbier: comes in a huge glass and was flat when I drank it. I asked for a bottle of Pilsner Urquell the next time, but only got the Weissbier. Bugger.
Asahi: Fairly drinkable mild Japanese beer, and a good antidote to the Weissbier.
Cascade Pale Ale: Ditto, except it's Tasmanian.

That brings us up to the present.

Lucy and Pete have arrived from Londres and it's good to see them again. They are appreciating the RealSun(tm) that we get down under. As am I, because it stopped raining last week. Lucy seems to have no jetlag, which is good for her!

I'm still getting used to the Giant Advanced LE, which retails for $AUS8500 by the way. I'm not too fond of the integrated seatpost, as you can't adjust it to within 1mm, only 2.5mm. I need to file some of the spacers down because it's just a tad too high at the moment. Better than too low - I had it 0.5cm lower at Heffron last Tuesday and could barely hold on. The saddle also slipped back because the bolt wasn't lubed at all so you couldn't get it tight enough. Other than that, it's a nice bike - very nervous, climbs brilliantly, accelerates brilliantly, handles OK.

On Saturday we had the Christmas Pudding races and it was the hardest club race I've done for a while. 13 starters, but with Graeme Brown (Panaria -> Rabobank), Robbie Cater, Josh Marden (FRF), Jose Rodriguez (Clarence Street), Dave Treacy, who didn't puncture, Shaun Higgerson, Spurge, and a few more.

I felt just a tad under the weather following the work Christmas do on Friday, and the fact that it was really hot and humid didn't help me at all. So after one effort early on to bridge up to Brownie and Robbie, I had no more sprints in me. Eventually, Brownie got away with Josh, Higgo and Jose, and won the sprint with an amazing throw over Higgo. I ended up 7th, but well out of the cash and puddings.

Sunday was the Johnny Warren ride, and you can read about that towards the end of this page. Nice day on the bike!

Yesterday was the Christmas Trophy Race, and we had about 50-60 starters. It was 20 laps, and despite the quality of the field, the pace wasn't really on except in certain sections (main straight/back straight occasionally). We only averaged 42 and I avoided crashing on the tennis court corner where I crashed in the Joe Sunde earlier this year. Ironically, towards the end of the race, I got in a break with Matt Fleming (who crashed in front of me in Jan), Mr Cater and Ben Isaaksen. We got away with 3 to go and hung out there until the St George train mowed us down with 600m left and we were goooooooone. However, I preferred to do that rather than finish anonymously in the bunch this time.