Get your pump on

Last weekend I went out to Blue Nurses jump park to have a play on the BMX. There's been a lot of development at the park, and now instead of just being a series of jumps a pump track has evolved in the centre.

For those that don't know, a pump track is a series of bumps, undulations and banked corners (berms) 

The idea (initially at first) is not to use the ramps as jumps but to 'pump' the downsides, using your body english to push the bike into the ground and pick up speed.

It's possible to roll the whole of the pump track without your wheels leaving the ground and without pedalling - sounds easy but it's incredibly hard work, you end up out of breath after every run.

So why do it? Well first of all it teaches you how to keep your speed, and how to gain speed without pedaling. Pumping the trail means you can stay evenly balanced on the bike and concentrate on cornering and flow. Roadie Rob calls it 'free speed', but given the way I felt after a few runs it's anything but free.

It also teaches you bike handling and how to rail the berms, taking you from this (Debs first time on a pump track- she's a little nervous but she has great positioning, she's looking at the exit and she's still confident enough to not wear gloves)

 to this - lower looser body, more speed and using the angle of the berm to support the bike

 After a while the show-ponies got bored of the pump and started getting air

 

It's a funny thing, taking photos of people doing this kind of stuff. You're focussing on that one point when the rider is in your viewfinder and you don't really pay much attention to the befores and afters.

About a third of a second after this this shot I heard the clattering of a bike hitting the ground, the impact of a body doing the same and a faint groan. When I head it I instinctively jumped sideways, but then looked back to see Nikko on the ground. I was right next to his impact point but have no idea what he did or why he came off. Luckily Nikko is one of those guys who bounces (or at least knows how to fall) so he got up covered in dust but with no injuries.


Unfortunately I'm not one of those people. I tried to add some style to my ride by manualling over a roller and went over the back of the bike
 

Nothing major, just a bit of bark off and some bruising. I was in more pain the next day from the tightness in my shoulders and upper back - note to self, next time do some stretching afterwards.....

Abduction

I followed up on the reports of black helicopters the other night and something suspiciously war-of-the worldsish happened....First there was a strange glowing orb pulsating out of the river, protected (or attacked?) by lancing beams of light from the local buildings

Soon strange squid-like creatures coalesced out of the haze, rippling and undulating with the cosmic wind

Soon they were attempting to simulate our DNA by sucking the genetic history out of passing boatmen

Before leaving a chilling reminder of the impending death of the plant, in the form of a skull &crossbones (which only I have seen so far...). Or maybe it was in homage to 'Talk like a pirate day'. 

 

Fog

One of my pet hates is people driving around with foglights on on perfectly clear days for no reason*. Yesterday every bloke under 30 that owns a V8 ute or a rice burner and every businessman with a BMW M-something will have woken up and given a whoop of delight at the peasouper that awaited them outside.

I'm trying to make myself get up to go for a walk before work every morning - the idea being that I'm getting up for something other than work, which should thoeretically perk up my mornings and also give me some time to think about how my life is going (I like to think of it as a 'powerless walk'*). It was a beautiful morning to be up & about.

*Yes this is very much a first-world problem

Don't panic - I made it back from the gigs intact (if a bit blurry the next day) and I wasn't abducted by mysterious flying machines. It's just been a busy time, with days flying past seemingly without pause. Work has been pretty hectic and I've had to pick up the slack from one of my more useless colleagues as well as doing my own job. This means long days, tired nights and a blurry brain. I need to put evenings and the odd weekend into my work and I begrudge that - it's not something I should have to do, it's not because of my mistakes, my inabilities or my ambitions but just the fact that I'm sometimes able to get things done when other people can't. I put the time in because I hate doing a bad job, but in reality I'll get nothing more from the company than if I just follow the 9-5 of some of my colleagues. So I end up begrudging myself for begrudgingly working late, and that's just a downhill spiral......we saw this the other day at the Surrealism exhibition in town and it seemed appropriate.  

 

In reality my days are pretty mild and my job is pretty cruisy compared to a lot of people and I do know how lucky I am. But the urge to keep going at the turnoff to the office and stop at the south coast is sometimes almost overwhelming...

Anyway - time is flying past and Spring has officially sprung in Brisbane. The temperatures soared to over 30 degrees over the weekend (with accompanying heat stroke after a mountain bike ride), duvets have been tucked away and replaced with blankets, fans have been dug out again and our barbecue 'Mark' (it's a Weber) has been sparked up again.

Sometimes it seems like the whole of Brisbane has dug out the barbecues as a haze of smoke is hanging over the city. In fact it's just the backburning that they need to do at this time of year to reduce the fuel that's on the ground before summer and the fire season. 

A little later....

The Cairos were disappointing, a small sound not living up to their expectations. Worlds End Press were horrid, not even worth staying for a beer. The Medics were good but very busy, something to look out for as a gig. And Evil Eddie is proving to be a good and varied performer , although you can feel that people are waiting for 'figjam' (google it if you're brave)

How long can I stay awake?

Big sound

I'm in brisbane city (on a weeknight!) to enjoy ' big sound' - a kind of music festival without the festival. Around 10 venues in the valley have teamed up to host short sets by up & coming bands. It's actually a great idea. A music festival is basically a bunch of bands playing in a field rigged out with several temporary stages, so why not make use of the stages already available in an urban environment?

So I'm in the valley with my wristband. The first band I saw (and my reason for coming down) was The Laurels. These guys are a fantastic shoegaze style band, channeling Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine. My new favorite band


the only problem with the festival is that's essentially a media outlet, which means that any band comes complete with an outrigger of photographers


The fact that the guitarist is channeling kurt cobain probably doesn't help. But please - you may have a camera, but don't stand in the f*cking way!



I wanted to get a cd from The Laurels, but although I waited around I didn't spot them after their set. I did check out the sound check of the following band, which had a bloke on his knees banging a recycling bin and a piece of steel as someone did a soundcheck on an ipad



I ended up staying around and in the true traditions of festivals it turns out that the following band were also fantastic. Jackson Firebird are like a crossbreed of the White Stripes and the Revolting Cocks - funny, talented, ready to rock and well work a look.

The big question is, how long will I last tonight?

Black helicoptors over Brisbane

Something odd was afoot in Brisbane over the weekend, with unmarked helicoptors conducting sinister mission over Brisbane city centre

In fact it was Riverfire - an annual celebration of all things ignitable, with a mini-airshow thrown in. First off there were Blackhawk helicopters

 and then flypasts by an F18 Superhornet - Australia's replacement for the much-loved F-111

The F-111 used to open and close the evenings forework display with a 'dump & burn' (where it dumped fuel and then lit it's afterburners, creating an awesome fireball that lit up the sky). The Superhornet, whilst impressive, sadly lacks this essential combat feature, but it didn't stop the crowds coming out in force. This picture was taken at around 4.30pm - the fireworks didn't start 'til 7pm, but pretty much everyone who was down there will have stayed to the end. There was some impressively territorial spot-hogging too.

We went home after the planes and I rode down to watch the fireworks later. It was the perfect opportunity to play with the 'fireworks' setting on my camera, and I learnt a lot. Mainly that it's really hard to take pictures of fireworks without a tripod

and you should get to the front of the crowds - that's if you prepared to be down there from early afternoon

Still had some fun with the camera though

After half an hour a haze of smoke hung over Brisbane. The event felt a little flat without the F-111 to finish it off, but Riverfire is always a fun day and it's amazing how many people are jealous about us seeing the plane & helicopters!

Blackpool Beach

The other day at Mt Joyce we hit a sandy section and I said something like 'all we need is a couple of donkeys & it'd be Blackpool beach'. This caused a bit of confusion so I thought I'd clear things up. All pictures scavenged off the 'net, so thanks to the providers but they may disappear without notice. 

Blackpool is one of the premier holiday destinations in the North of England - think of it as the Santa Monica of Lancashire - and with a low tide there's a lot of beach to go round. It may seem odd that such a large beach is so empty, but remember that it's probably about 10 degrees in this picture.

You have to be careful dozing off, 'cos at a high tide there's not much scope for sandcastles 

One of the traditional attractions of the beach is donkey rides - the dirty smelly creatures have been plodding on the sands for the last 200 years.

I never rode the donkeys at the beach, although I did use to ride them at Markeaton Park in Derby when we visited my grandparents. Think I can still smell them now.

The pains of pilsner

My lager is slowly driving me nuts. Like the lager drinking southern softies of the UK the damn thing needs to be mollycoddled. It has to ferment at a certain temperature. Then it has to secondary ferment at a different temperature. Then it has to lager at a different temperature again, by which time all the yeast has fallen out of solution. So when it's bottled you need to add more yeast else you don't get the in-bottle fermentation and hence no fizz. I've done my best but with no locals caves to keep the beer at the right temperature and no local monks to dedicate their lives to maintaining it, I'm not sure I've done a good job. You can only go so far with wet towels, ice and eskys, especially when you can't clip the lid on the esky because the containers don;t quite fit. I could get a fridge and mount a thermostat on it so it stays at a steady temperature, but that goes against the idea of brewing with the seasons and adds a degree of artificial control I don't like. Plus we don't have room and every time I bring it up Liz gives me a disbelieving look. To get that in I'd need to give up a bike, and lager just ain't worth it.  Even if we could use it to mature cheese in too*.

Anyway - today I put on another brew - exactly the same ingredients and exactly the same procedures as the lager, but with ale yeast and with no temperature control, just the springtime weather conditions. No pictures this time - how many pots of bubbling brown stuff can you post on the web? - but it smells great. Will be interesting to spot the differences...   

*Although it would mean we could make our own brie & camembert - now that's an angle worth trying....