Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Condensed new year bilge

All things must come to an end and so it is with my 2008 Australian odyssey. Mostly it has been good, although I could have done without being deliberately knocked off my bike. More on that later.

Christmas was excellent. A family affair with much feasting and festivity. Immediate family members L, P, M+P healthy and expecting (not all of them though). AJ has found a new role as ex-premier Bob Carr's research aide, which seems to involve informing him what various cool sounding Latin phrases mean. S+N are overseeing the growth of H+N, who appear to be doing just fine. NJ is scraping by on the smell of an oily rag after his employer went belly up. Other members of the family are slightly deafer but are still possessors of considerable intellect, making for interesting conversation.

Joneses, mostly
© Jeff Jones

A small child's perspective of Christmas
© Jeff Jones

Capturing the crucial post-flame pudding moment
© Jeff Jones

N vs H celebrity deathmatch
© Jeff Jones


On the other side of the Family, J+J are happily ensconced at Fingal, and J is determined to ride his bike again. M, also up at the Bay, is much better than she was at this time last year. J+L are tops and are gettin' married. J+K are good, although I needed to talk to them a bit more. J+N are overseeing the growth of Z+I, who are also doing just fine. D is currently car-less in Tassie, owing to a minor problem with the transmission.

Mains (some)
© Jeff Jones

N+Z+J
© Jeff Jones

An echelon of snags
© Jeff Jones

Mains and Joneses, mostly
© Jeff Jones


I also caught up with J, A, D+S and we had an aborted swim at one of Sydney's northern beaches. Bit choppy but. And it rained after 20min so we had to have F+C and listen to the travesty that was the second test. Still, the chicken curry was tres noice.

Swimming was much better the next day darn sarf with J, who actually went for a ride with me. It was also nice to catch up with JV, who is pulling up stumps and moving a long way sarf west. And JC down from oop norf (but not that far norf).

Actual names are left as an exercise for the reader. Did I leave anyone out? Compression necessary because of the sheer number of relatives/relatives I saw in such a short space of time.

I almost hit 20,000km for the year - 2000 more than last year but 12000(!) short of my '99 record - and would have done had I not been assaulted by a couple of idiots in a car on Tuesday. Princes Hwy at the Wolli Ck lights just before Cooks River (heading north). I'd pulled up at the lights, sitting in the left lane, but not the left turning lane, behind a couple of cars. As I set off I noticed the car behind me was very close, but it had plenty of room to pass.

That wasn't his intention. The driver slowly drew up beside me, still very close, and all of a sudden I felt the bike pushed hard left, presumably by someone in the passenger seat grabbing the seatpost, and I slid off onto my arse into the left turning lane. I had a bag on, which cushioned some of the fall, and got off relatively lightly, taking some bark off on my right hand side but not ending up too bruised. The bike was fine. Of course I had to get off the road and by the time I did, the arseholes who committed this brave deed were too far away to get a good look at the number plate or who did it. The traffic was solid but not heavy and of course no-one else stopped.

There was a girl waiting at the lights who saw me come off and I asked her if she'd seen what happened, but she hadn't. I rode home, very pissed off, in half a pair of shorts, patched myself up and reported it to the cops. All I could remember was that the car was black, looked more like a commodore than anything else, it had a black and yellow number plate possibly with 8 O in it. I knew they couldn't do anything much without a number plate but it may help if something like this happens again. And I'm sure with Sydney's yobbo car culture that it will.

I rode a couple of hours the next day, just to get things moving again, but I'm not relishing 32 hours in planes, airports and trains tomorrow. It'll be good to get back to a less yobbish place though.

Anyway, on a more positive note, 2008 has actually been an amazing year for me, so I can't complain too much. I hope it has been for the readers of this bilgespot. And if not, then may 2009 be a good 'un. Merry New Year.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Saturnalia odyssey

Yeah
© Jeff Jones


Sun, sun and more sun. But not too much hot sun, which is good. That's the way it is in Australia, the country that has elevated taking the piss to an art form with the critically acclaimed Shane Warne: The Musical.

Thankfully, there was no repeat of last year's Royal Brunei Airlines induced disaster. The main problem was that it rained the night before I left, meaning that both the Bath-London line and the bloody M4 were cut. So no direct trains or buses. I ended up going via the south circular, which meant I had a total of 40 minutes to run home from the station, finish packing, run back and get the train.

The Air China flight was long but it worked. Even allowing for the fact that Beijing airport is as modern as it is dysfunctional. Note to Chinese: please put departure boards in more places. And please swap the 'International Transit' sign (which was the wrong place to queue up) with the 'Apec electronic business card holder' sign (which was the correct place. Obviously).

It was all good, really.

Besides seeing the family (about to grow by one) and not getting sick, the most important appointment was meeting up with Josh for an actual bike ride. He was primarily responsible for getting me into this cycling lark but it's been approximately 12 years since we last rode together. A two hour loop through the back blocks of northwestern Sydney was just the thing for renewing that bond and getting rid of jet lag. That was followed by a 'surf' at Palm Beach and beers at the Beach Hotel in Collaroy. An ideal way to spend a day, if you ask me.

Enjoying the warmth but wishing I'd brought another bidon
© Jeff Jones

Josh in climbing mode
© Jeff Jones


Pete and I also managed to get down to Heffron for the Christmas Pudding race. Initially I wasn't going to race, with excuses ranging from "I did 80km on the way down here" to "I've just started training again" to "my weird geometry bike is not suitable for the corners of Heffron". I was most worried about the latter, although given a few runs around the track, I could probably adapt to its strange handling. I'm starting to like it now.

In the end I pinned a number on and rode the B/C grade handicap, my first proper crit for three years. It was nice and steady but I made sure not to do any turns and not to contest the sprint. That would be poor form. Still, it was better than watching and I clocked up 130km for the day. Pete took some fine pics of the occasion here, none of which have made it into the CN race report. I took some dodgy ones here:

Spurge, Willo and Sutto on the start line
© Jeff Jones

Graeme Brown (Rabobank) wins the Randwick Botany Xmas Puddin' Race
© Jeff Jones


Training has been enjoyable and I feel quicker than I did at this time last year. Thinks: I was sick in bed at this time last year.

Happy Saturnalia.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Ice ice baby

I was going to start with the statement "It is happening again" but I already used that in May. There just aren't enough words to go around any more, especially ones related to Twin Peaks. What I do know is Julee Cruise sings as flat as you can get without actually changing key. Falling is an appropriate title for this song.

<hits pause on YouTube. There is silence>

That's better. What possessed me to do such a rash thing?

I'm attempting to get my phone line fixed after a couple of months of to-ing and fro-ing between TalkTalk and BT. There is apparently a short circuit somewhere, either from water getting in (I can't imagine how that's possible in Bath's arid climate) or some physical damage somewhere. If it's the latter, then it may explain why the heating doesn't work either. Fortunately, November and December are the warm months here, otherwise I might freeze to death.

I've resumed training after a lax November. Five days a week, working up to six or seven by January. I've decided to start a little steadier than last year to hopefully avoid getting sick. I also want to start racing a little later: April rather than March, although I'll probably still do the Chippenham hilly in March. Still haven't figured out what events to aim for, but I'll get to that in due course.

Given that it's typically 0°RĂ© in the mornings and the roads tend to be icy or muddy, or both, John has suggested lunchtime rides - just get into work earlier and take a longer lunchbreak. I think this is a sensible plan. The other sensible plan is going to Oz for a few weeks. It is happening again.