Orstraya Day

My fellow Australians... Oh wait, that's probably not the best way to start. It's Jan. 26 today, approx. 218 years after the poms dumped a whole lot of convicts in the environs of Sydney harbour. If they'd actually dumped them in the harbour, then Sydney might be a better place. Then again, maybe not.

I've just finished racing in "The Sunde" (the Joseph Sunde Memorial) at Heffron Park, in near perfect conditions. Negligible wind, 25 degrees, overcast and humid. Thus, a 44 km/h average didn't even seem that fast, especially as I did only one turn during the 50 km race. It was easy to sit on, but tricky to move up, as when there was space to do so, the speed would pick up. No matter, the object was to stay on the bike, and that goal was achieved. I was a little nervous after last year's pedal / corner incident.

The winner was Jeff Hopkins, of Jittery Joe's, who is the only rider to have won it twice. Chris Sutton turned up in his Cofidis kit but was a little off after flying back from France after a couple of days ago. I think he ended sixth.

The aim now is to go to Manly, where Willo (Hopkins' teammate) is having some quiet drinks at the Wharf Bar. Then to Balmain for a dinner with Sullo and friends.

The TDU ended on a positive note, with Gerrrrrrrroo winning from last year's winner Luis Sanchez, after some superb team riding on the second last stage. There was a break of 20 with two of Gerro's teammates in it, and two of Sanchez'. On the deciding climb, Sanchez attacked and put 10 seconds into Gerro, who was a bit isolated until first one, then the second of his teammates dropped out of the break and towed him back to Sanchez, who it seemed didn't quite get the same benefit from his own teammates.

That day was over 40 degrees, and a few of us (AT, Les, Sullo) decided to go down to Glenelg (a palindrome) beach late for some cool. Nup. Still 37 degrees on the beach, with a hot wind blowing. It was extremely bizarre.

I ended up having 3 hours sleep then going for a ride early Sunday to "beat the heat". Well it was still 36 at 7am so it was a bit pointless. Then I punctured going up Greenhill road, changed it, punctured again over the top of the hill, and had to repair my first tube because I didn't have any more spares. Quelle annoyance. Adelaide does have some great hills though - all 7-10 km and 5-7 percent.

It cooled down in the afternoon of the last day, which made the post race BBQ somewhat bearable. I didn't drink too much because the (free) beer was once again watered down crap and the (free) wine was for laying down and avoiding.

Also raced on Tuesday at Heffron - wet and windy. There were only 10 of us and I did turns until halfway but I was a bit nervous in the wet, especially with the crap tyres on the bike (swapped 'em now to Conti GP4000s). We didn't catch C grade, despite a 43 km/h average. We really need a smaller handicap.

I return to Belgium on February 21, just in time for Het Volk.

Adelaide still life

An update from Adelaide, where it's still hot and getting hotter. 38 yesterday, 37 today, 41 predicted for tomorrow. Hence the sunscreen, pictured in the composition below. The Jacob's Creek sparkling rosé counter balances it nicely. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.

Adelaide still life
© Jeff Jones

My hotel room in the Hilton is good, as usual. Except I'm on the sofa bed and my roommate Anthony Tan scored the double bed. But his back is buggered, so I'll give him that. Love the view of the hills:

It's a good view from my hotel room
© Jeff Jones

Speaking of hills, I've been riding most mornings, apart from the first day when I suicidally went out in the heat of the day. It's quite nice when it's only 25, and I've done a few good climbs. Rode up a valley today with a cool creek running down it...very relaxing.

More, anon.

Adelaide

I'm back in sunny Adelaide again, and it's January. It's also 35 each day. Ish. Went for a ride up into the hills and didn't beat my record up Norton Summit. Not bloody surprised as it was so damn hot.

Now I am drinking Coopers after the opening stage of the Tour Down Under. I am steering clear of Jacob's Creek this year.

The end.

Quo?

As promised, some pics of Christmas and Nina's birthday party thrown in for good measure. The latter was during my weekend frenzy of BBQs, which was mixed in between a fair bit of work. It was a tough weekend.

Saturday: work, rode up to Wyong for Nina's birthday, a fun time was had by all, including Nina. Ant, dad, Pete, Nina, Astrid all had gos on my bike. Well, Nina and Astrid's dolls did. The swing collapsed, much to Lucy's chagrin. We had nice cake and whatnot. End with more work.

Sunday: Work, short ride, Dave's BBQ at chateau Langles in Marsfield. Nearly met the vendors of our flat, but they left before I was introduced. Maybe a good thing. I had to cut the BBQ short so I could get to a BBQ at our place. Cousin Jus, Nick and Zoe (I have many cousins) came over, along with Uncle Jeff, Michael (also a cousin) and Mary, plus us five. We had two huge Atlantic salmon, courtesy of Cousin Dave (bro of Cousin Jus and son of Uncle Jeff), as he works on a fish farm in Tassie. We cooked the salmon on our brand spankin' new BBQ and it was good.

Two BBQs in one day. I was hammered. More work.

On Monday we settled on our flat at last, so we officially own the thing. Well, the bank does. Woo hoo! We celebrated with a coffee at the local cafe in Wilson St, which I've been meaning to check out ever since I saw it. Then took a stroll around the block up King St to check out the amenities: Thai, Vietnamese, African, Italian, Chinese, Lebanese restaurants + various cafes all within half a km. Also cinema, hardware shop, church, bakery, funeral parlour, clothes, newsagent, train station, 7-11, and more cafes. This place has got everything, trust me.

Was gunna race on Tuesday but we had a meeting, so I couldn't :-( Next week is TDU so I may race Saturday, but otherwise maybe when I return from Adelaide. The Giant is faring well. Broke a few climbing records on it.

I can also relate to the "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" South Park episode, after I joined a site called Where Are You Now? recently. It's a "global community" site with about 3 million members, and it's a good way to meet different people if you're travelling around. So I put up my profile and I keep getting all these instant messages when I log on (unlike Cartman, fortunately not from older men). Not even spam, which I'm quite surprised at. It's pretty funny, given the amount of time that I can't spend chatting online. But it could be handy.

I'll be back in Belg on the 21st of Feb or thereabouts.

And now for the photos:

Ant, Piers and Alec discuss matters of import at Xmas
© Jeff Jones

Lucy gets crankin' on the presents
© Jeff Jones

The Christmas table...
© Jeff Jones

Cousin Nina at Christmas
© Jeff Jones

Getting stuck into it
© Jeff Jones

Failing to light the brandy
© Jeff Jones

The table at Nina's birthday in Wyong
© Jeff Jones

Cousin Nina gets ready to blow out three candles
© Jeff Jones

Cousin Nina at her birthday
© Jeff Jones

Cousin Ant on my Giant
© Jeff Jones

Cousin Nina and Cousin-in-law Nik check out my Giant
© Jeff Jones

Lucy and Pete gambol on the swing, watched by Astrid (no cousin of mine)
© Jeff Jones

The obligatory Wyong group shot on the step
© Jeff Jones

I lied about the Christmas blog

Mainly because I haven't got the digital photos developed so I can post them here. My memory is fading, but I guess a fair bit has happened in the last week and a bit. So, with a great deal of further ado, I should wish the blog reading public a Happy New Year before someone else does. They've probably done that already so I'm buggered.

I'm also buggered because it was 45 degrees here in sunny Sydney today. It was the hottest New Year's Day ever, and 2005 was the hottest December ever and I think the hottest year ever. It must be all those polluting trees...

I, er, got up too late to go for a ride, so I started the New Year with zero kilometres. We (Lucy, Pete and I) started our NYE celebrations on the rooftop of Nick Riemer's flat in Kings Cross. Nick wasn't there, but Cousin Ant was, so we didn't have to break the lock. The roof afforded a great view of the dual fireworks over the harbour, and an even better one of the party on the adjacent rooftop, which we didn't get invited to.

Not to worry, because Lucy's friend Louise had a do on at hers and Anton's place in Chippo, so we saw in the New Year then, courtesy of Channel 9, Richard Wilkins, and Steinlager, which is a Kiwi beer. That shocked me, but then I also learned that Kylie has breast cancer and that Martina Hingis was making a comeback. We ended up fairly relaxed.

We also played SingStation.

Scroll back to Friday, December 23, where we celebrated Lucy's 30th birthday at the Australian Youth Hotel, which is one of several pubs managed by her friend Karen. We were in the Nude Bar, which was full of paintings of nudes. Surprisingly, our moderately sized group was the only one there. Normally it's packed. A good night was had by all and I stuck to safe beer.

Christmas Eve was another warm one - 38 or so - so I limited myself to a two hour ride in Centennial Park without suncream. Amazingly, I didn't get burned. That can't be good for you.

Christmas was about 30, so 100 km was possible, followed by much eating and Christmas cheering and cleaning up. We had about 15 people over at our joint and they were appreciative of our new pond and garden in the shape of a fish feature. I did receive many good presents, most of which were readable, some were edible, and one was an Einstein action figure given to me by my uncle. How cool is that?!?

From Boxing Day until the 30th I went up to Nelson Bay and visited Jim and Joan, which was great as always. We only had 10 of us there, so it wasn't quite as crowded and there was less cleaning up to do. It was very humid so I limited the riding a bit, but managed Lily Pily Hill once (900m, well over 10 percent grade). Swimming too - some half decent surf at One Mile Beach enabled me to catch a few waves and generally have fun.

I was gunna go up to Bluey's Beach on the way back to see Janelle and Tom, but the way was stopped by an inkblot. Actually it was more serious than that: a four car pileup near Buledelah had traffic banked up for kilometres. I waited an hour before the police told us to go back and go round another way. But by then it was too late so I headed back to Sydney, sans aircon, on a very hot day.

That more or less brings us up to the present, which is not actually the present because I've already written this.

Movies: Good Night, and Good Luck, with George Clooney and David Strathairn. About a TV journalist speaking out against McCarthy in the 1950s. Very good, topical, and I could relate to it too. Four and a half stars, or nine, depending on how you want to measure it.

Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Loved the books as a kid, and this wasn't a bad movie version. It had extra humour, which was good because the kids were a bit painful at times. The white witch was a bit insipid, I thought. But seeing a snow covered landscape when it was 41 outside was nice. Three and a half stars or seven.