[	mood	|	excited	]
[	music	|	White Stripes - dunno the name of the track...	]

I bought a new push bike today. A road bike (I can hear the whispers now ! - "He's joined the Dark Side"). My first ever road bike. It's my N+1 because the correct number of bikes to own is N+1 where N = current number of bikes owned.

Now the boring bit for you non-bike inclined poor sods. It's a Trek 1500 with full Ultegra running gear and some funky Bontrager twin spoke pattern wheels. I got the Shimano Flightdeck computer fitted to it as well and some roadie shoes. I'm gunna look really wierd riding it while wearing my Fox mountain bike gear....

I haven't actually got it yet - all going well I'll pick it up on Friday. First time out should be on Sunday morning with Bill, Tom, Neil and X-Man.

So that brings my current stable of bikes to 3. My first red hardtail, my Giant dually and the Trek. I love bikes :)

Recieved a lovely email from Liz today - I always enjoy conversing with her :)

Unfortunately I missed Erin being online today. I'd really like to talk to her about the Cape to Cape Track.

Bit concerned about Gabby :( Seems nothing I say ever makes her feel any better. I'm hoping she took my advice and speaks to Erin or Megan or other friends. Maybe they can help her feel better.

[	mood	|	okay	]
[	music	|	Hey Ya - Outkast	]

Christmas Day, and I'm at work. Doing overtime. Certainly much less stressful than sitting around chatting to relatives all day :) In the middle of an 8 shift stretch.... Mum & Dad have gone to visit Aunty Myrtle and Aunty Yvonne and they have taken the pooches. We had our family Christmas Dinner last night.
I still haven't gotten around to updating LJ with my Melbourne trip - there is soooo much to write. I'll get around to it shortly I'm sure, hopefully....

A new year is almost upon us and I still feel like I'm behind the game a bit. I sooo want to have a fitness plan up and working by 2004 but I can't see when I'm going to be able to sort it out. I have some time in January that is unspoken for but I would've liked to have had it sorted before now. I'll see what I can do - perhaps if the next few nightshifts are quiet I can work on it.

Yesterday was fairly nice. Didn't actually do anything constructive like clean my bike or sort out bike gear from the trip - but pleasant none the less. My recently re-discovered love affair with E-Bay was paying dividends in the form of some new DVS's, a wallet and a bike video.

I spoke to Liz the day before last as well. She renewed her instructor rating with no problems as all. Good News.

Due to the usual sleeping problems I'm really tired today. I'd like to go up the pub tonight but not sure wether it's open or if I'll feel like it when the time comes. Plenty of beer in the back fridge at home though. No plans for Boxing Day short of sleeping in and watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart before going to work in the afternoon.

Planning a bushwalk down the Coast Track with Anthony. Hopefully just before New Year. One night maybe two. Resurrected my old backpack which should do the job until I purchase a new one. Purchased a decent cask of port. Just need to get some pasta to take and I'll be set. Should be fun.

ANyhow... back to E-Bay and fitness plans.... I mean work....

[

mood

|

excited

]

Bit of a rush this morning taking down the tent, fielding a phone call from Dad and getting Steve to the airport in time. As it turns out his flight was delayed by more than an hour due to the aircraft having a cracked windshield. I managed to get him on an earlier flight and he was on it and heading home in about 20 minutes.
I cruised back to the caravan park for a shower/shave and then headed into town for another look about before meeting Liz. There was the Christmas thing where all the bikeys give toys to kids going on. Traffic was very hectic around the new Federation square building.
Liz turned up right on time and we went to the National Gallery where we indulged in some culture drinking wine under umbrellas in the sculpture garden and looking up at the painted glass on the ceiling. Very cool. Actually had quite a good look around the gallery which is not something I would normally do. Fun fun fun. In the late afternoon we took a leisurely stroll down to the lovely Hotel Charsfield. Very nice room indeed. We had a meal in the in-house restaraunt and a somewhat drawn out game of snooker in the billards room.

24 hour race - details to be filled in at some later point.

Drove down to the race at Resesdale with Steve. Very hot. Windy at the event. Coldest night whilst we are away. Tent set up but left tarp down due to wind.

Another sleep in..... Got a haircut today. Picked up my bike from the shop and put a new chain on. Sorted out most of the stuff I'll need for the race next weekend and Melbourne. Still got a shitload of stuff to do before Friday morning though and not a great deal of time to do it. 3 more sleeps before heading off.

[	mood	|	jubilant	]
[	music	|	Cruel Summer - Bananarama / Ace of Base	]

Slept in till about 11am this morning. Didn't do much all day, just rested up. Put the Giant in for a service. Received the tickets for the play Liz & myself are going to see in Melbourne, Blithe Spirit.

Basketball was a joy tonight. Plan B came together and played well as a team. Fast breaks were flowing and rebounds were happening. Martin was great with a few put backs and Lead-arse was hitting his shots. Besides 3 turnovers I played well too. Especially liked one fast break where I sailed in for a nice layup. I got a few stops and ran all night. This is how it should be all the time ! After game drinks were had with Tobster, Birdman, Leddin and Vicki. Good times.

[	mood	|	happy	]
[	music	|	Long Train Running - Bananarama	]

Long course champs today - held out at Kowen the same as yesterday. It was the longest MTBO course I'd done coming in at over 40km. It was quite warm (29 or 30 degrees). The course sent us all over the forest from beyond the firetower and all the way over to the other side of the map. I just pootled around again and didn't go overboard. A fairly pleasant days riding.
Hungry Jacks was the go on the way home. Mum and dad called and had been boozing and socialising with new neighbours so the baked dinner wasn't going to waiting for me when I got home.

[	mood	|	chipper	]
[	music	|	Love, Truth & Honesty - Bananarama	]

Drove down to Canberra today for the short course ACT MTBO Championships. It was out at Kowen Forest where the 24hr was. Much warmer than last time I was there. I didn't have my bike computer on but I think I rode about 20km with no major stuff ups. Took it real easy and finished a respectable last! My butt was sore almost immediately - probably because I hadn't been on the bike since the Urban Polaris. It felt good to get out off-road for a blat. Only thing I wasn't real happy about was forgetting my Camelbak bladder - left it in the fridge at home. Combined with not having a bottle cage on my bike (took it off to clean it the other day....) I had to make do with using bottles in my Camelbak.
I saw lots of rosellas and a few kangaroos. I'm not sure what it is but I always feel really good when I see 'roos when I'm out riding.

I stayed with Geoff & Brett tonight and we got some dinner at some south american restaraunt in Civic followed by a few beers at the Wig & Pen. All good.

[

mood

|

listless

]

I was supposed to go over to James & Cherie's tonight for a BBQ.... but I was too buggered. I crashed on the lounge instead and watched some telly. Well what do you expect after an overtime shift ?

[	mood	|	happy	]
[	music	|	No Doubt - Don't Speak	]

Yes... i spent a stupid amount on perfume this morning. My brothers work was having a warehouse sale for staff and family. There was watches, handbags and heaps of perfume. All the big expensive brands. I came away with large bottles (100ml or 150ml) of stuff from Victor Hugo, Tommy, CK, Nautica, JPG, Issey Miyake (or whatever), CHristian Dior all for $40 each. Bargain. Good prezzies and I wont have to buy the crap for years to come...

I as about to fall asleep watching a video this afternoon when the phone rang. It was work wanting me to do OT - which I agreed to. Why not ?

ALso recieved my back issues for subscribing to WILD magazine today - just in time to take to nightshift and read. Also got my package from LUSH and gave the 'Rock Star' soap a whirl. very nice indeed. Showers should be fun ! Felt like I was using a large piece of fragrent Coconut ice to wash with !

[	mood	|	good	]
[	music	|	Dusty Springfield - I Only Wanna Be With You	]

Straight after work this morning me and Lead-Arse went of in search of a geocache. Dave has been wanting to try and find this one for ages but needed my kayak to do it. I borrowed dad's double kayak and the next thing you know we are paddling up (down?) the bottom reaches of the Nepean river near the infamous Menangle bridge. It was about a 15 minute paddle down to ground zero and it was a relatively easy find. The cache was hidden in a tree overhanging the river. Dave thought it was the one of the best caches he had found yet. The little black lunch box contained a CD (Avril Lavigne), a DVD (some old sci-fi thing), a pocket knife, an elvis doll, a logbook and some other stuff. Most freaky of all was finding a genuine IBM keyring... That was almost scary.
A nice paddle back (in the rain) came next. We had a quick search for 2 other caches in the area but were not successful. AFter a feed of Red Rooster, I dropped Dave at home and took off.
I really can't see myself gettting into geochaching but if I'm going somewhere cool I might look it up and see if there are any caches in the vicinity...

The search is over! I've found the most awesome job! I certainly wouldn't mind being a tour guide for these guys!

Trivia at Souths Juniors last night was nice. Very relaxing. Quackers, Moibabe & hubby, Tweetie and Sean Connery, their son Dave, Radley and Gemma were there. Dave was a pleasant bloke and Gemma was her usual gorgeous self. She may have still been recovering from a huge night out at after the Rugby World Cup final. Our team (Meaty Cheese Bags) won !!! Good mix of questions, a few beers and good company. It'd be nice to do it less seldomly :)

Planning for Melbourne is going well. My entry has been confirmed for the race. Check. Got a few things to do with Steve - check. Have booked his plane ticket home - check. Accomodation booked - check. Sorted out meeting up with Liz and some stuff to do - check. Full steam ahead at this point. And for the 50 milionth time - yes I'm looking fwd to it :)

I found out today that Brett dislocated his shoulder in a riding incident on the weekend. He was participating in the Triple Triathlon in Canberra and apparently came off. He is dead-set hopeless! Dislocated shoulder, broken collar bone, cracked ribs, sprained wrist, bruised cocyx and massive scrapes are all injuries he has sustained in the last year or so. Poor dude. Of course this means that he probably wont be heading to Canberra again this weekend for the MTBO stuff that's on down there... bugger.

Basketball tonight was mixed. Jumped out to an 11-0 lead but then lots of fouls and good foul shooting by the other team evened things out. Ended up with us up by one full time but one of their players was shooting 2 shots at the charity stripe. He missed the first and got the 2nd. No overtime in C grade... Draw. Not angry about it - if we were the better team then we shoulda never let them recover from the start.

[

mood

|

annoyed

]

Not impressed... the guys are going for a shoot around during their lunch break today and I didn't bring my gear... Just cause I didn't go to dinner last night - it wouldn't have killed them to give me a call. Bastards. And I can't play tomorrow cause I'm leaving work early for the TriviaChat trivia night.

And while I'm having a sook - my married friends are acting very "married" recently... If I hear about another kid being sick or the joys of changing nappies or parents-in-laws coming over or renovating houses I'm going to scream. Feeling very single at the moment. Thinking of doing the typical bloke thing and immersing myself in something to distract myself.

Please dont judge me harshly - I've only just started my breakfast can of Coke and I haven't had my bacon & egg roll yet.... it's on it's way.

On a more positive note - I ALMOST went down the back and started throwing weights around yesterday. I didn't actually do it - but I almost felt like it which is a step in the right direction.

[	mood	|	happy	]
[	music	|	Cruel Summer - Bananarama	]

Yesterday was pretty cool - watched the whole Karate Kid trilogy on DVD. Awesome. Had a chat to the Westerners online and besides that did sweet fuck all.
Having dinner up the Club tonight with Steve - I expect it to be packed due to the Rugby World Cup final being on.....

[	mood	|	good	]
[	music	|	some shit on Triple J .......	]

Today wasn't bad as far as days-in-between-nightshifts go. Managed to get up in time to pick up Birdman and get to the courts for a shoot-around. Torqs & Lead-arse showed up as well and we had a bit of a scrimmage. It was around 30 degrees and i haven't sweated that much in ages. Birdman was dropping bombs from all over the place and my downtown shot was present for a change too :)

No real dramas at work tonight (touch wood) and basketball was ok. SWAT Team played ok and were in the running for most of the game. In the end we only lost by 2 points which was encouraging. Kevin again drove me nuts. Yeah sure he had about 5 steals but the boy has no idea about shot selection. Birdman hit me with some magical assists that thankfully I converted into points. All up an ok night.

It's going to be a harsh turnaround work wise in the next couple of days... I finish work on Friday morning after 2 nightshifts and then I'm supposed to show up on Saturday morning for 2 dayshifts... I'm looking forward to going to a #TriviaChat trivia night with Tweetie, Moi, Quackers and her gorgeous daughter Gemma on Sunday night though. Should be cool :)

After another nights lack of rest, I just managed to get up - albeit over an hour later than I had planned - and went out for a paddle with Brett. We put in at Rose Bay and headed off to South Head. Heaps of choppers and seaplanes flying about. We didn't encounter any real swell until right at the Head. I would've liked to have paddled out the Head far enough to see back down the coast but we had paddled far enough for today and our confidence in the swell was not yet what it could be. Doyle's at Watson's Bay beckoned. And what a roaring trade it was doing - on a weekday. Enjoyed a scrumptious feed of fish, calamari and chips before heading off. We hugged the shoreline back to Rose Bay passing Vaucluse and some other affluent suburbs along the way. Our put-in spot had long since been flooded by the tide so we had to leave our boats a few hundred metres from where we would've liked and went to retrieve the cars. This was not at all bad - a beautiful honey was just arriving and heading off for a swim. She was simply stunning and provided a nice bit of eye candy to complete our days paddle.