Can you guess where I've been?

I've been back in Sydney and this time we stayed for a long weekend. Which was most enjoyable, and also lucky as we missed out on the storms in Brisbane. The only consequence was a wet last day and a very delayed flight, and I'm still getting over the subsequent late night.

So more posts due in the next couple of days....

Not such a bright idea...

Anyone that's had any of my beers will have experienced the joy of a foam snake, a seemingly endless rush of foam that floods out of the bottle when you open the beer. This happens because there was too much sugar in the brew when it was bottled, so instead of just carbonating the beer it amps up the pressure in the bottle to breaking point and when you open the cap it all tries to get out at the same time.

If the bottle doesn't flex when you press it then it's going to be lively (or it's glass, although that should be self evident). Generally the easiest way to cope with this is to let it foam.  Have two or three glasses to hand, gently but quickly open the bottle over the sink and let it foam into each glass in turn - even squeeze the foam out. The foam will eventually abate and each glass of foam will eventually turn itself in to a third-full glass of beer. Which pitched together makes a glass of beer, which is a good thing.

Of course that doesn't always work. I recently opened a bottle of 'bright' Spitfire Saison - beer that I bottled two weeks after the start of fermentation, instead of after another two to three weeks in a secondarty fermentor - and it didn't go according to plan. Those tiles (along with the other walls, the floor and even part of the roof) are not normally stained brown

 and I'm normally drier than this

One night, two showers and one state later I can still smell it on me....

It's all about the bikes. And ducks.

I was in Sydney last week for a few days, staying at a new hotel. I wandered in and the first thing I saw was these above the bar / restaurant area

 A Tomasini, a Leopard Trek plastic wonder and a Cinelli

 A Merckx, a hideous Trek time-trial abomination and an unknown classic old singlespeed roadie

Always a good omen to start the visit. Alas they weren't available to be lent out, and although it was great to see them it was also a shame to think of them just sitting there gathering dust. Especially that old singlespeed.

They also had an in-house coffee roaster, with green beans on racks on the walls. The coffee was pretty good, but we have fresh Merlot beans in the office and it's hard to beat that.

 Cutest of all was in the lake outside, with these blue-tip beaked ducks doing synchronised begging

Do you reckon the the Queensland variety has evolved a maroon tipped beak?

In honour of Lance

The response to the whole Lance Armstrong soap opera has been fun to watch. Before the doping allegations became well known in the mainstream media it was mainly cycling fans that had their suspicions, but half of them didn't really care too much as they accepted it was an integral part of riding at the time. The public at large considered him clean and an out and out hero for bringing it home against the cheaters.

After the USADA report was published the fun bit for cyclists was ticking off the bits you thought you knew and the bits you'd argued with supporters about, although a surprising number of people still clung to his silence as justification for their belief. Those that crumbled were busy burning their Livestrong memorabilia and taking to the internet to attack those that held strong.

Now it's pretty much all over, after a carefully managed 'interview' that exuded heavy scripting on both parts and was clearly done with specific outcomes in mind. The coverage is, as you'd expect, mainly negative and you have to feel sorry for the few people who undoubtedly watched it expecting fiery rebuttals. Cycling fans were keen to deride the whole popularist approach and generally declared 'they would be riding their bike instead', but I bet a fair few tuned in and you can guarantee that there will only be one topic of conversation in the coffee shops tomorrow morning....

 

Keep cool and carry on

Brisbane sweltered over the weekend - the overnight temperature didn't drop below 26 degrees and it was a humid sticky unrelenting 35 degrees during the day. We don't have aircon in our apartment so we try to get through the day with frequent showers and a variety of fans, including some that blow atomised water out into the air stream

 But eventually enough is enough and it's time to try to find ways to cool down in the city.

The easy thing to do is find a shopping centre, although that can be pretty soul destroying

 

Swimming pools are a better option, but the 'City Beach' at Southbank (aka "Brisbanes largest outdoor communal toilet") was packed

 

It's also hard to keep an eye on your stuff on the 'beach' - an unfortunate hangover from living too long in Manchester - so you don't want to be under water for too long

After taking this photo my waterproof camera, which has withstood surfing, snorkelling, mountain biking and even being submerged in a fishtank, died. So I'm not sure what they put in the water but the next day I didn't have a beard.

You can also make the most of the City Cat. It's very cooling to stand out on the front gently drying in the breeze as it hurtles along the river

but after a while the sun forces you to retreat to the cabin to settle down with a book

The most important thing is to make sure you stay hydrated

Cheers :)

Summer songs

The temperature's rising as the summer gets into gear, and whilst Brisbane isn't suffering from a heatwave as badly as the Southern states it's still pretty hot and sticky out there. I've ridden into work three days this week and it really makes you want to go for a dip to cool off. Which is what this video from a local band is all about...could this be the perfect summer song, the perfect summer video?

  

Geeking out

How did you spend your Sunday? I was sitting in front of two old ex-work (and ex-working) laptops, trying to cobble together something that would run.

First it was trying the RAM and hard drives in each chassis to see which combinations would run
Then it was installing Ubuntu 11 from a CD
Then it was upgrading to Ubuntu 12
Then it was trying to figure out why the display kept turning itself off
Then it was finding that the graphics processor on both machines is known for overheating
Then it was trying to find ways of working around that by using different graphics drivers
Then it was finding that it was an issue that can only be rectified by a change in motherboard - not covered under warranty after 3 years
Then it was trying to find ways of cooling down the laptop
Then it was balancing the laptop on two pads with a fan pointing at it blowing at full speed - whilst I sat next to the fan sweltering & getting no breeze
Then it was trying to install a windows application onto Ubuntu via WISE
Then it was trying to figure out how to install WISE
Then it was getting the application installed but not knowing what to do with it
Then it was trying a native Ubuntu equivalent to figure out how the application should work
Then it was trying to figure out why the native Ubuntu equivalent wasn't working
Then it was installing a second native app to check problems with the first app
And again with a third
Then it was trying it on a different site to see if it was a site or application issue
And finally it was success.

When I say 'success' I mean I lost patience with the whole thing and went and had a beer instead....

Time

It's 2013 already and it's hard to not look back over times past - the tides of life keep rolling in, and sometimes it feels like you're caught in a rip. And if you weren't feeling old enough already, there isn't a teenager alive who was born when this was released. They just know it as 'that music my Dad turns up when it comes on the car radio'....

New Years Day

The last sunset of 2012

 and the first waves of 2013

 Although a combination of exercise, lack of sleep and too much sun lead to more of this

 than this!

As you can see I still have a long way to go when it comes to surfing, although I felt a lot more comfortable on the board and was starting to try to get to my feet. It's different to the minimals that I used to ride - because the board is so short your feet are in the water and there's nothing to brace against when you get up, so it's all down to the athleticism of the 'pop'. And fairly obviously I wasn't feeling very athletic.

I also had a valuable learning experience after being caught in a nasty rip that wasn't there in the morning. I suddenly noticed that although I was facing the beach and waves were breaking around me, what looked like a stream of water was flowing towards me and I was getting carried backwards out to sea. My swimming stamina & ability isn't great, but luckily I managed to paddle onto the next wave and ride in to the shore. And I mean right in to shore, staying on the board until it beached and sand washed up my shorts. Lesson learnt, check out the ocean and be aware.

It could have been worse. Bondi Beach in the East of Sydney is a popular New Years Day hangout and the papers reported that they had to evacuate the water for 20 minutes after a 2m great white shark was spotted moseying around the headland. Ah, nothing like a relaxing day on the beach...