Give up for Australia

It's Australia Day this weekend and the Winter Olympics start in a couple of weeks, so this seems appropriate. Although for some reason I can't embed it so clicky the linky...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5nJF5MDGJg

Talking of satire, this is an interesting story - watch the vid (but not with the kids around) and then follow the link to the background...

 

Trail dogs

Another animal post - not intentional, I just write 'em as I see 'em!

http://vimeo.com/83947019

As Liz says, I'm getting 'dog-clucky'.

The possum whisperer

We found a baby possum entangled in our back door the other morning - his tail was wrapped around the base of the door and he was on his side, shivering but not otherwise moving. My first thought was that one of the local cats had taken a chunk out of him on the side that we couldn't see, so I got a shovel and told Liz that I was 'taking him to a warm place behind the shed to recover'. But then he moved and we could see that he wasn't obviously injured.

We had a brief panic about what to do but then Liz found the 'Wildcare Australia' website and phoned the emergency number (07 5527 2444). The volunteer on the other end answered within two rings (it was 6.30am) and told us to prepare a small box by punching holes in it, then gently pick the possum up with a towel and put him & the towel in the box with a bottle of hot water to keep him warm. We put the box somewhere dark & quiet and tried not to peek too much whilst we waited for the local vet to open.

An hour later we gently carried the box out to the car and took him to the local vet. By this time he seemed to have recovered a bit and was sitting up & peering out of the top of the box to see what was going on. I handed over the box to the assistant at the vets and she gently took him out for an inspection. Apparently he was badly dehydrated and needed to be nursed back to health before being placed with a volunteer to recuperate & reach an age where he could be re-released. I braced myself for the bill but I wasn't asked for any payment - apparently any vet in Australia will take injured local wildlife for free.

They took our details for re-release purposes, and I have no doubt that in a few months time he'll be back out there eating our plants and keeping us awake at night. I hope so!

No pictures as we didn't want to stress the poor guy out any further, but he looked a bit like this (but cuter)...

So if you find any injured wildlife, don't reach for the shovel. Get in touch with your local volunteer group for immediate action and drop them off at a vet when you can. All  it will cost you is a towel...

Skink Saison

I made up another batch of saison this weekend, much the same as the Saison Wit but with a more traditional grain bill. I mashed 4kg of Pilsner malt at 64 degrees for 90 minutes and I added a kg of Pilsner malt extract and 1/2kg of wheat malt extract at the end of the boil, but apart from that followed the same recipe as before. One thing I did notice was the Original Gravity (strength) was higher - I haven't run the numbers yet but I think the mash was more efficient, either due to the longer standing period or the slightly lower mash temperature. It'll be interesting to see how it differs from the Wit equivalent.

Whilst I was brewing one of our resident skinks (collectively known as the 'Fredlets') came out to supervise

 'No - it needs more hops!'

We have a number of these living both in and around the house and they're the source of most of the slightly unnerving rustlings we hear in the undergrowth.

The ones inside the house hang out in the laundry, and they definitely give you a fright when they scurry across the floor at night when you're on the way to the loo. The fermenters are also stored in the laundry, which is one of the reasons why I couldn't get away with open fermentation right now.

"Can I get a beer brewed by lizards?"

I'm a loser baby...

I've been riding a bit more recently and have also been watching my diet, which meant that I sneaked below 75kg for the first time in a long time today (excepting the time I might have caught Dengue and didn't eat for a week). Very happy, although taking this photo was tricky as the camera weighs just over 200g...

Incidentally 'Radical Brewing' by Randy Mosher is an inspirational book for the aspiring home-brewer, with a wealth of techniques recipes both traditional and 'out there'. Without that results of book I'd probably be a few kilos lighter!

Another classic 90's tune is in order

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSPaXgAdzE 

 

Jarringly cool

One of the cool things of the moment is to use Mason jars as serving implements, and as usual we're surfing the zeitgeist in Mt Gravatt. Perfect for relishing a Summer Ale brewed by a local artisan craft brewer

Although it works equally well holding a gin-based cocktail...

Although to keep true to type these photos should be being posted on Instagram...

Escaping the sky-bully

The forecast for today was worse than yesterday - Forty-one degrees, to be precise. When the temperatures get that high there's only one thing to do - flee to the beach. it wasn't long before we had a tidy little setup which gave plenty of shade

whilst leaving us a decent view of the action

Sadly the surf was pretty messy which made it impossible to catch anything but breaking waves, with the subsequent sand-burn to the knees. A shame, because we now have a 7' mini-Malibu in our quiver

We used this on New Years day and both of us managed to get to our feet a couple of times, for the first time in just under 10 years for both of us. Take that Sky Bully!

Hot in the city...

Thirty seven degrees in Brisbane today, and hotter to come tomorrow. The only thing to do is flee to either air conditioning or the beach. Today for the sake of my surf-battered body I chose the former, hiding out in the city drinking cool beverages and watching the cricket.

By the wonders of smart phone technology I can still update the blog though. There's only one tune that seems appropriate...

Enjoying a Christmas break

This year I had my first Christmas Day on the beach, and it was awesome...

Fresh mango for breakfast

 Hugs on the beach

 Ready to go in

Paddling out

And catching a wave back in

We haven't managed to stand up on the board yet, but that doesn't stop us having a great time in the water

Back for a much-needed Xmas lunch

And after a nap in the air-con, a wander round the Christmas lights put up by the caravan owners in the camp site

Note the (working) trainset at the front of the tent...

I spent the whole of Xmas Day & Boxing Day in a pair of boardshorts. That explains the Christmas link to St Nicholas...

Hope your Xmas was equally enjoyable!

A tale of two hemispheres

I got an email from a friend in the UK who was preparing for his Christmas boarding trip

And we've been doing the same...

 Hope you all have a safe & happy Christmas!

 

Black Dog

Churchill once famously referred to his depressed periods as his black dog, although he was quoting an old Scottish & English expression that's been around for a lot longer. As most people who have suffered from depression will agree it's a stunningly accurate metaphor in a number of ways, although it is a little hard on the many loyal & loving black canines out there. Fortunately public awareness of the scale and the mind-numbing impact of depression is on the rise, which is helping both to assist in the diagnosis of those who are suffering and to inform their friends and colleagues as to what might be going on and what can be done to help. And no, telling someone to pull themselves together doesn't work.

As you may have guessed depression is something that I've had to face up to over the course of my life. I'm in a good space right now but I know that for the rest of my life I will regularly see it out of the corner of my eye, slinking into cover waiting for a chance to pounce again. Which is why I thought this cartoon was beautiful and well worth sharing with those that suffer, for those that have suffered and for those who know people that suffer. Which is pretty much all of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCrniLQGYc

Stay safe & look after each other. Else who will read my blog? :)

Naughty Nigella...

You almost feel sorry for her*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvYmGzIzMs0

 

*Well, you would if she wasn't the smarmy over-privileged daughter of a bloodsucking Tory leech who made his money & reputation by selling off British assets at the expense of the general populace trying to use them.

Single speed Santa

Christmas shopping is never fun, but it's a lot more palatable when the weather's like this. Just slap on plenty of sunscreen and strap on an extra pannier bag :)

 

It's disabeard...

My beard has been getting increasingly irritating over the last couple of weeks, and the recent humidity wasn't helping. I had originally planned to grow it long and weave some beads into it, Vikings style, but after a frustrating couple of hours fooling around with some gloopy hair gel and some slick, slippery beads we decided that the only reason they had the time to do that was because they hadn't invented television in the 12th Century. So it was time to shave. Of course when you shave a beard it's traditional to showcase the various stages of facial hair...

The beard post-beading attempts...

Fluffed out with the gel, bushranger style

 Tidied up a bit at the sides, aka the Hipster

The classic chopper 'mo.  It was tempting to leave it like this and go and heckle at a Movember gathering

 The Egyptian

The Ned Flanders (aka 'The Andy F')

The Adolf

And finally the clean-shaven look.

Liz keeps saying that my head looks really small but I'm loving the fact that that I can feel my top lip again...

Four days, four rides, four bikes*...

Thursday - Taking the tourer into town for some shopping and swinging past the Gabba, where something seemed to be going on...

 Friday - shakedown ride at Daisy Hill for a new build, details to be revealed soon...

Saturday - Solo breakfast ride as the guys were all busy. Their loss as they missed out on an awesome roti murtabak at West End markets

Sunday - dodging storms to fit in a ride at Daisy Hill. Sitting in the car park watching the lightning, leaving ten minutes after the rain stopped, riding mainly dry trails with a backdrop of rolling thunder and getting back to the cars just as the downpours started again... 

 

Boo to the coming working week!

 



*For the bike nerds, four different gear changers too...bar end shifters, rapid fire triggers, brifters and a singlespeed.   

Stone the crows



Magpies are notoriously territorial in Australia and are famed for swooping on passing cyclists, skaters or even passers-by. You never quite get used to having a bird bouncing off your bike helmet and squawking in your ear as you ride along but after a while it becomes more of a nuisance than a danger, once the initial panic subsides that is.

 

What I didn't realise is that crows will also swoop if they feel that their young is threatened. Crows are a lot bigger than magpies, and we have a family of crows living in the tree next to the back garden. Last week I think one of the young tried to fly and failed, ending up in a low tree close to our back fence, and the parents switched to Def-Con One...(this should be displaying as an animated gif)

 

Luckily things have calmed down now, because hanging out the washing or taking out the compost became far more exciting than it deserved to be...

Holidays

We're off to Burleigh Heads tomorrow for a four night break so things may be a little quiet. I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with Liz, and also intend to get back out into the sea again for some gnarley 'repeatedly-humiliate-myself-with-a-piece-of-buoyant-foam' action. Generally when I go away there's always a touch of sadness that I won't get to go mountain biking over that period, which is another reason why I'm liking these storms - a bit of rain isn't going to stop me getting in the water but it does mean that I probably won't be missing any dirt sessions. Sorry guys.

With that in mind, here's an old-skool classic to keep you entertained when BOM starts to get you down....

TheVishfiles 8 on Pinkbike

 

How narrow are some of those bars?

Storm season

After a long dry spell the storm season has finally hit Brisbane. The days are hot & humid but every afternoon the clouds start to build on the horizon and all eyes are on the skies or the weather radars. If you look one way the sky is clear, but the other way looks like impending Armageddon.

When a big storm front rolls over the sky turns a weird, troubled & turbulent green. At this point you just want to get the car undercover, as the hail can dent the bodywork and even shatter car windows.

When you're somewhere safe you can sit back and admire the awesome beauty of the storm. Much to Liz's amusement I've developed a bit of an obsession for trying to take photos of lightning.

The pros use tripods, remote shutter releases and even lightning detectors that pick up the initial flash and trigger the shutter instantaneously. I settled down on the porch steps with an ultrazoom and a couple of beers. I took a lot of photos of the night, but got a couple of reasonable shots too.

It was very relaxing to sit back and watch the storm roll past and try to see patterns in the clouds, although after a while it seemed to be taunting me. Every time I focused on one part of the sky there seemed to be a ground strike in another, and when I finally gave up and walked inside there was a huge flash and a roll of thunder so loud it shook the house.

In light of all this there's only one tune that I can put up today...

 

Some mornings just don't pan out...

The weekend falls on Friday and Saturday in Dubai, so today I had some time to myself. The plan was to sleep in a bit before heading down to the Mall of the Emirates and visit the world's largest indoor ski slope for a long-awaited snowboarding session. Unfortunately sometimes things just don't work out...

I started off waking up early and checking my work email, promptly getting embroiled in a work conversation where I was just trying to help but was dragged into someone else's crisis. After a couple of hours I gave up, left it alone and grabbed breakfast at a local Tim Horton's - a mistake in its own right. Then at around 10.30am I left to go snowboarding and walked down to the local transit station. After walking across the road to the train station it turns out that trains don't run on Fridays until 1pm, so half an hour after leaving the hotel I had to walk back across the road and jump into a cab to get me to the mall. The cab dropped me at the opposite end of the mall to the snow slope but after a 15 minute walk I got to the 'ski resort'

although it looked strangely quiet on the slopes with no chairlifts running

It turns out that the slope was closed until midday because they were running a charity competition, and I was meeting friends at 2.30pm so no boarding for me that day. All I could do was look longingly at the guys that were shaping the snow...

I didn't want to catch a cab back to the hotel so decided to wait for the trains to start running and wander round the mall instead. I get bored shopping fairly quickly, but the architecture was  pretty impressive (in a traditionally ostentatious way)

At 1pm I wandered over to the transit area and joined the rush as the doors opened and hoards of people dashed through the the station, only to wait 30 minutes for the first train to arrive. It was a busy one too...

I looked at the crush and thought 'I'm never going to fit on that', but then thought I'd give it a go. Not only did I get on but two other people pushed in behind me before the doors closed, although the third guy dragging a suitcase that he tried to leave outside the doors for the journey whilst still hanging onto the handle was unceremoniously ejected by the guard. It was an uncomfortable 30 minute journey where every station turned into a moshpit as new travellers fought to get on before the already packed crowd could let people out. Things weren't helped by the unsettling sensation that the guy next to me was enjoying the press against my leg a little bit too much, but I had nowhere to go so I just focussed on not crushing the older lady to my right as the train swayed.

Did I achieve what I set out to do? Nope, nowhere close. But it was an interesting morning nonetheless...

Living the high life

It's been a hard few days in Dubai. Not so much the work, but more the socialising. I've been out later and more often in the last week than in the last year, and I'm suffering from 'age-lag' - my mind thinks I'm 20 years younger than I am. One of the places we frequented was '43', on the 43rd floor of a local hotel. The view from the top was OK I guess...

Note the unfinished tower on the left, a victim of the GFC

 

The seaward side is still awaiting development

and then the sun went down as we drank beer and relaxed

 Of course the thing with Dubai is that there's always someone doing it better than you...

I think you could say that the place is growing on me. Many more photos to come!