Fully laden brekky

Some of the guys are planning to go touring around Tasmania over New Years and others (myself included) have more general plans to 'ride out somewhere for a night or two'. This means setting up a bike with racks & panniers, and before you embark on a multi-day epic you need to do a few test rides to make sure that everything fits OK on the bike. And to show off your racks to the world

It was like a two wheeled roadtrain rolling through West End 

 

but luckily we found somewhere to park the bikes

 Gordy had his Salsa

 Pete his Orange

 And Graham his Surly

 I felt a bit under-racked on the Roadrat

I couldn't help think that the guys should get a 'wide load' sticker though...



Kick out the JAMS

Last weeks Friday Music Club tune had a sampled Van Halen riff, so this week I thought push out the sampling boat. In 1987 the Justified Ancients of MuMu put out this riot of samples, rap & beats.

They followed this up with the album  '1987 - What the Fuck is going on?'. Unfortunately they didn't get permission from any of the artists that they used - and they used a lot. Eventually lawyers representing ABBA forced the destruction of all unsold albums, so the JAMS hired a van and drove over to Sweden in the hope that ABBA would get involved in destroying the albums. ABBA unsurprisingly refused to be involved, so the JAMS hired a couple of prostitutes that looked a bit like the ABBA girls and drove out to the countryside around Stockholm to light a vinyl funeral pyre. They were chased off the field that they used by a farmer waving a shotgun.

Somehow I can't see One Direction doing that.

Incidentally when the JAMS grew up they first put out 'Doctorin' the Tardis' as 'the Timelords' before forming the KLF...

Five go rad in Newstead

It was Graham's birthday on Friday so we decided to organise a beer ride in his honour. It was a beautiful day to be out on the bikes with temperatures hitting 29 degrees. Not bad for about the third week of Spring!

We had a variety of bikes - two On-One Pompinos, a Roadrat, a Salsa touring bike and a beautiful looking Colnago. It may look like we're in the bush but we're actually just at Bitter Suite

 where Graham enjoyed a hoppy birthday with an IPA

After that we rode out to the Breakfast Creek hotel - not a craft beer pub but their 4X 'off the wood' (ie poured from a barrel, not a tap) is tasty

 After the Breakfast Creek we relocated to Kerbside in the Valley for some overpriced bottles ("Because it's imported")

and after that the Yardbird Alehouse to enjoy a Torpedo IPA & laugh at the hipsters, then the Ship to watch the world go past and finally Scratch to enjoy their fine craft beer range. I'd given up taking pictures at that point (and in retrospect should have taken less of the bikes and more of the people) but I did manage to pause on the Go-Between bridge to admire the sunset on the Spring Equinox

 Thanks lads!

Changes in the air (and water)

Our little Rex had been hiding himself away for a few days and I was getting worried. But this morning he was out and about larger than life - literally, as he'd shed his shell and grown a new and larger one

It's amazing when they do this, they shed everything including the outers from their antennae.  That must have been a relief for Rex as he had one snipped antennae from his time in the pet shop. It hasn't grown back quite as long as the other one but it's definitely closer. We won't mention it around the tank of course.

Initially when you take photos he gets very curious,

But he quickly gets tired of the flash, and so after wiping his eyes with his front legs he headed back to his hidey-hole to recuperate

Crayfish only grow through change, and with changes on my horizon as well I think I can learn from that...

Apollo 440

The Friday music club this week is dedicated to my idiot boss, who in response to a comment about a lack of resources suggested that we watch Apollo 13 to 'learn how to confront adversity and to work together as a team'. Way to go boss, that will help us learn how the plant module works now the expert has left. Which episode of The Office are you from?

It did get me thinking about other Tom Hanks films that may be appropriate - "Catch Me If You Can" if we need to do a runner, "Cast Away" because that's what they could end up doing to the software or "Forrest Gump" because we'll be standing in front of them looking like a bunch of slack-jawed idiots. It also turns out that a large IT corporation uses the same concept in its leadership training courses, so he didn't even think of the idea himself.

Anyway - I was going to include something from the Apollo 13 soundtrack but when I was hunting around I found this and it reminded me of time hanging out in Manchester in my late 20's and made me smile. And smiling is always better than cynical whinging. Enjoy!

 

Make your own cider - pt 1

U-Suck Brews have had a few requests for some cider, but to quote a traditional Chinese proverb instead of giving you a fish I thought I'd teach you to catch your own. No, I'm not suggesting fish cider (although there's a thought) but showing how anyone can make cider without any specialist equipment*.

In the directions below I'm using bottled apple juice, but make sure you get juice with no preservatives added as the preservatives can prevent the yeast from doing its job. Reconstituted juice is fine. Aldi juice works well and is also cheap. Fancy organic cold pressed juice from a deli would give a better result but costs more than buying Old Rosie cider.  

Better still is freshly juiced apples. You can experiment with different types of apples and of course don't be afraid to chuck in other juices such as pear, strawberry, mango and carrot. If you're using very watery juice like watermelon then you may need to up the sugar content though.

So - you need

1 4l water container
1 funnel
1 clean handkerchief
1 elastic band
1 patient partner
Around 4l of apple juice (not all required at the start)
A few hundred grammes of honey
Brewers yeast. You can get some yeasts at supermarkets (Coopers is best) but it's much better to visit your local homebrew shop. Alternately give me an email and I'll post out a sachet to you*

First off sterilise your water container by filling it with 'as hot as you can get it' tap water and giving it a shake. This isn't perfect but will almost certainly kill anything in there. Don't use boiling water as the plastic will deform. If you're worried about contamination, get a full 4l bottle and transfer the water to another bottle / kettle /etc. You can be sure that the new bottle is sterile.

Next warm a litre or so of the apple juice on the stove and dissolve in the honey. Don't bring it to the boil though.

 Let the honeyed apple juice cool a bit and then pour into the bottle along with another litre of juice

When you're sure the mixture is around body temperature or below, sprinkle in about half a pack of the yeast. Don't use the funnel as the yeast will stick to the wet sides, pour it directly into the bottle

Cover the top with the handkerchief and secure with an elastic band. This acts as an airlock which stops any nasties getting in but allows the carbon dioxide that will be produced to escape without exploding the bottle (which is a bad thing). Thanks for the hankie Liz :)

Leave somewhere at room temperature. After a few days there will be a bit of a scum forming on the surface, kind of like below. This is normal so don't be alarmed. This is also one of the reasons why you don't initially fill the bottle at first - if you're brewing with malt this can foam up a few inches or more and dribble out of the top.

If you look at the bottom of the bottle you'll see little volcanoes of yeast drub rising and falling as the yeast gobbles the sugar to create alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide rises and carries yeast particles with it in little lava-lamp style geysers.

After a few days it's time to add more juice. If you're using a juicer then add the extra juice in three or four batches over a week or so. If you're using bottled juice just top it up, unless you're patient and have room in the fridge to store the spare juice.

And that's it for part 1. After this all you do is leave at room temperature for a couple more weeks, strain it, bottle it and let it age. I'll cover those steps in a couple of weeks.

*I know that only about 5 people read this blog but just in case I should add that the directions above should only be followed by those old and responsible enough for the consumption of alcohol, and I'll only post out yeast to people I know!

All your spice do belong to us

We went out to a Portuguese / Goan restaurant in Wooloongabba last night and one of the dishes was advertised as 'including 18 spices'. The food turned out to be ok but as is often the case when we go out I thought that we could cook better. It got me thinking about the range of spices we have sitting next to our stove

 All in all we have around 30 spices, some pre-powdered or in leaf or bark form

and some needing a touch of grinding

I fried up a sliced onion and a few cloves of garlic for a few minutes, added the spices, a few large diced tomatoes and some stock and let it boil down to a gravy

After letting it simmer for 30 minutes or so I added diced chicken thigh and some cannellini beans - I had to use the can that I'd dented the day before by slamming it onto my finger. That may sound daft but it was in the context of explaing how to snort vodka, so it made sense at the time.

 Let it simmer for another 30 minutes or so and just before serving add diced coriander

Serve over rice, and it was lovely

What's in your kitchen? 

Dedicated to Rex

An classic oldie this week...anyone spot the connection?

 

The pitter-patter of tiny....pincers

We have a new kitchen friend who'd like to say hello

Meet Rex, our new crayfish and quite possibly Brisbane's cheapest pet (at the princely fee of $1). He's a rescue cray, taken from the feeder tank for a new, longer and hopefully less stressful life than what was intended.

If you want to see frustration, put a crayfish in a small clear bag into a large tank

 Once he was out he lost no time in exploring his new tank

 

He is crayfish resplendent!

 

All your bass belongs to us

It's been a busy week, with the promise of a few more to come. I'm pretty bad at leaving work at work and regularly snap awake at night worrying about things that might go wrong and how to fix them if they do. It seems that if I advise against initially committing the company to a choice of action that will have a significant cost but only marginal benefit, then I'm considered negative and counter-productive. If a salesman ignores me, promises the impossible and I work my arse off and make it happen anyway then he gets the plaudits for his far-sighted vision, but if I can't make it happen then I get the brickbats for my lack of commitment.  Sadly I seem to have become a corporate whore and worse still someone else is pimping me out at a discounted rate. I know it's very much a first-world problem and I try to not let it get to me but I think I'm some kind of professional masochist, constantly trying to find ways to prove myself but always knowing that the harder I work the more crap I inherit. If anyone has any possible solutions let me know!

Anyway, that kind of dribbled out when I wasn't looking. Sometimes it's good to relax to some mellow peaceful tunes to help sooth the troubled mind. Sometimes it's easier to turn it up and blot everything else out.

Gorillas in the bush

New tracks have been seen alongside the tyre trails in Daisy Hill tonight

as I'd finally plucked up the courage to do a trail run in my Five Fingers

It was great to be back out in the bush at dusk again. I only covered around 2 1/2 km in 20 minutes or so (with some breaks for photos) but when I got back I felt that I could have run for longer - always a good sign. My average speed was the same as for my old trail runs, although obviously the distance was a lot less so you can't compare directly.

I was expecting all manner of knee, shin and achilles pain as I'd also done a 2km barefoot run around Southbank two days ago but I feel remarkably good - I may rewrite this tomorrow though. The Five Fingers worked well as the 2mm Vibram sole protected me from the worst of the pointiness but still let me feel the texture of the ground, and at times harshly reminded me that I need to bend my knees more when jumping on to or stepping off of logs and rocks. I did go for a small walk barefoot once I'd got back to the car as my feet were feeling a little hemmed in, but I think I'll not be running barefoot out there. For a while at least :)

Kurilpa Derby

On Sunday the local suburb of West End held its annual Kurilpa Derby. This started off as a 'take back the streets for the comunity' style march focusing partly on wheelchair access but over the last five years has expanded out to be a street festival celebrating all things wheeled.

Initially there's a parade featuring a variety of wheeled transports - we want to see wings Gordy!

 accompanied by local bands

 and the occasional beer

 Just don't overdo it - yellow furry droop can be an embaressing condition

 After the parade finishes the kids get to race along the closed roads as the crowds alongside cheer

whilst we retreated to a chinese restaurant for yum-cha, beer and a ringside seat for the action

My partner, beer, bikes, yum-cha - how could life get better? Oh yes - dancing girls from the local Latin dance studio!

Further down the road was a roller derby bout and a bike polo arena

Bike polo is becoming a fairly big thing in the hipster cycling world at the minute but to be honest it's never appealed to me. I'm not a fan of ball sports and anyway I'm way too old, too unstylish and my tattoos are all hidden. Still, the bike skills on show were impressive and I'm a touch envious - just don't tell anyone.

The final event of the day was the squid relay - relay teams of two had to carry a raw squid in their teeth and transfer it without using their hands. It looked like fun - if you like raw squid that is

It's easy to be dismissive of West End as a well-off suburb that is fighting hard to keep it's exclusive status whilst pretending to be a Bohemian hang out. But it felt like there was a genuine sense of community there on Sunday - I think that every suburb should have a day where they open the roads up to the kids and just let people play. After all a community should above all else be a collection of people, not just a postal district or the location for an aspirational purchase.