pushies,pasta&protest

Ten days since last blog. Getting slacker. Spending more time talking crap than typing it. had an amazing weekend up at Fox Creek. We hired the Thomas Hill Study Centre from Forestry SA ($40 for two nights, sic mate), and had a party. Clocked up over a hundered k's of trail, ate lots of vodka soaked strawberries, and ate lots of non-alcholic food too.

Less than ten days till the Kona24hr. Feeling good. Really started nailing the single track at fox creek; log hops, tree root covered uphill switch backs, rock drops, you name it, I can stuff it up at high speed.

Must be off, have to find a good price on a rental van.

I love it when it rains. Makes me feel really stupid riding round the city. Going to get a big waterproof sign that says "don't mention the weather". Normal day normal people ignore me, get the odd "you must be fit riding all day.." but not much more, soon as the rain comes down, everyone has to mention it. Fact of the matter is, yes, it is hard riding around in the rain, other fact is, it's the crazy pedestrians and impatient drivers that make it hard. Visibilty down to three metres, braking distance up to five, and everyone has there head down and are too worried about getting wet to wait till there's a break before jumping out into traffic.

The Eleventh of the Eleventh, rememberance day, thank you to the current members of the Australian Defence Force, caught wearing Ku Klux Klan outfits, classic way to show respect. And congratulations to the US, that hospital must have been a hard target.

Getting slacker and slacker with this. once again 7 days between blog sessions, guess I must be actually doing things with my life.

Tuesday last went to launch of an excellent book, "conform", chokkas with prints of stencils and other non-commissioned art works from the east coast. During the week spent a bit to much time in Dan's scarcophagus. Did a co-oip shift at clarence park Saturday and had a nice ride on Sunday with the Anderson kids.

Last week the weather was really pushing the limits of endurance, wet, windy and wild. Had fun though, used my XC bike instead of my usual roadie/tractor, relished in the warm dryness of my booties while everyone else's feet were drenched.

Did a Bob trailer run on Saturday for the shopping, didn't put my booties on, wore cotton shorts... boy did it rain. Combined with the night's sleep lost to Ellie's thesis solidarity
action ended up too tired and grumpy to go to party at TIm, Tim, Simon and Jethro's; apols to people who I'd arranged to meet up with.

Sunday rain was much more intermittant. Hooked up with the Anderson kids, Brett 16 and Tim 44 (guess which is the bigger kid). Went up to Fox Creek and then cruised across to Mt Torrens to take part in the working bee on the new tracks. The XC track is long, windie, techie but fun. The downhill track is sopmething else, big road gap, massive berms, and some very cool original north shore-esque elements.

Once again I'm finding life too interesting to be fully documentable in the time available, must add more later....

In solidarity with Ellie who is wrestling with her laptop trying to get her her thesis to sit properly on the page, I'm staying up banging away on an Adelaide Uni machine. We just saw "OutFoxed" the new documentary about Fox News and the slight lack of balance and fairness in its "fair and balanced" reporting. I'm glad I don't have cable, it must do bad things to your brain.

School does bad things to your brain, Ellie's so stressed right now. Her thesis was meant to be at the binder's tonight, but she's having problems with the desktop publishing software she has to use to get it all in order. It's crazy, allthe thinking, writing and editing has been done, but now getting it to sit on the page has became a gigantuan task.

I'm so tired. Longish day at work. For some reason management just don't realise the sheer magnitude of a certain radio operator's incompetence. At least today it all exploded while there was people in the office and his instant blaming of a very competent staff member was quickly squashed by sane voices. It pisses me off. He earns more, doesn't have to risk his neck and still expects us to keep an eye on the things he's being paid to do. I'm on the minimum wage, not being paid enough to think, so why should I have to do my jobs while keeping an ear out to make sure all the regular work is being seen to and no jobs are being left for over an hour. I could insist that I get the fat idiot's job, but I can't stand the office environment and (not blowing my own trumpet) am almost irreplacable on the street. Guess I should do the Oz-trailer-ian thing and just not give a rat's arse about our customers.

Raced on Sunday. Tungkillo Rocky Paddock. The most feared of all AMTBC cross country tracks. Warning to all cross-country cyclists, if they are holding a trials event at the same place as a cross country event, consider borrowing some armour of a downhiller. Two collarbones, one broken hand, one mushed face, who knows how many cuts, grazes and bruises, an internation level cyclist DNFing and a host of busted chainrings and pinch flats. At least it wasn't boring. I finished fourth in Sports Men, still no podium but my best finish in a short race. I really have to push it harder at the start of each race. Still finishing way to fresh, don't know what to do, I ride so much harder on social rides with mates. Hopefully I'll get the hang of short races next season.

Wicked session at Jupiter Creek on Saturday. Almost a whole day of blasting the XC track forward and backwards, a lot of eating, getting vague and a short historical trip to the old gold mines.

Ellie's allegedly almost finished. I think all the other midnight nerds are sounding quite exhausted too. I feel like an imposter, not studying this semester yet sitting in the Huxley lab listening to Biol students agonising over results. Glad I'm not doing it this year but know it's inevitable that I finish my degree one day. Making a mental promise to myself to try to avoid having to do too many of these all nighters in the computer suites. This is how crazy things happen, reoprts get deleted, results get screwy, impossible theories seem so sane.

I used to be an all-nighter. One of the reasons I don't have internet access at home. I'll just sit up and bang away. Last time I had an unlimited dial-up account it took over my life, I got down to three or four hours sleep a night. Non-stop emails, more passwords than I could remeber and this bad habit of volunteering to do almost anything for anybody. Taught myself HTML basics, downloaded a million viruses and lost all contact with the world of humans. Guess that's why I like courier work, it's so real. The wind racing around my helmet is real, the pressure in my legs as I work the pedals is real, the sweat pouring of me in summer and the stinging shardes of icy rain in winter are real, the buses bearing down on me are real.

The four hours of sleep I'm hanging out for will be real...