Vive Le Tour! *snore*

As anyone remotely interested in cycling will know, it's the middle of the Tour De France right now. And it's hard work. The live coverage starts over here at around 10pm - just around the time I'm normally going to bed - so I'll stay up just to watch the summary and discussion over the previous nights events. But then there's a breakaway, a puncture, a sprint stage in 30km time, a particularly nice castle or some over-exuberant spectators and you just get sucked in. Two hours later it's midnight and you're debating how long it will take for the peleton to finish off the last 50km. Before immediately nodding off on the sofa. I just wish they would pedal faster, it can be an exhausting three weeks.

Unfortunately I can't do that tonight because I have a 4am start tomorrow to fly down to Newcastle to give a couple of days of training. Which means I'll probably be too buggered to stay up and watch the Pyrennes stages later in the week either. I'm thinking about going to Fair Work Australia.

Look's like I'm not the only one getting carried away with the Tour in Annerley though.....

Pushies Galore

One of the scary things about writing a regular blog is how quickly annual events come around. This weekend was the second annual 'Pushies Galore' bike show for the bike tragics of Brisbane, and it doesn't seem like 12months ago since the last one.

It seems like the event is getting more popular and this year they introduced a 'BNE' section to the show & shine to highlight bikes built locally - BNE being the airport code for Brisbane. It was funny to hear my mates comparing the bikes on show to similar models in their sheds or garages and swapping stories about their meetings with the frame makers.

 Other classifications included the ever popular track bike section

and a wonderful vintage section which showed that what is considered up to the minute in bike design now was being tried out over 100 years ago

There were also three BMX classifications, for old-school, modern and a phrase I've never heard before - 'mid-school'

Some of the guys I hang out with have been riding bikes in Brisbane for 20 years or more and seem to know almost everyone in the riding community, but that doesn't seem to extend to the BMX scene. The BMX community over here is massive but runs in parallel to the roadie / MTB / track / hipster scene with very little crossover. Some beautiful bikes though

and some great innovative engineering. Although my favourite thing about this bike was that after it had been welded up it was resprayed and the 'Specialized' (sic) brand name on the down tube was spelt correctly.

The event was held at a local Bowls club, which was also providing some fine craft beers in a classically 60's environment that modern pubs will spend thousands of dollars trying to achieve

Although I'm not sure if the guys behind the bar were on top of the beer choice, as when you ordered a specific beer they would ask if that was the red or the blue one.

There was also a 'swap meet' where you could find any number of long-buried treasures

 After a couple of beers Gordy found the perfect frame and decided to invoke the N+1 rule.

Good luck sneaking that home mate - oh, and nice t-shirt :)

All in all it was a splendid way to spend a Sunday morning. I just need a bigger garage!

Cold beers

We're going through a spell of bad weather in Brisbane at the minute. It's been raining on and off for at least four days, and some days the temperature doesn't get above 20 degrees C. Every outdoor cafe and open bar is using patio heaters to save their clients from freezing to death. How can people live like this?
Ok, just one more to let the rain clear...

French cheese nightmares

My second batch of Camembert & Brie was looking great in the cheese cave - I'd left it alone for a few days and the mould was fuzzing over nicely. Tonight it had been 11 days since the cheese was made and it was time to take it out and cover it.

Unfortunately the mould was a little over-succesful and managed to embrace the bamboo mat it was sitting on as well as the cheese itself...

The floor of the 'basement' layer of the cheese cave was in a very close relationship with the cheese and the seperation didn't go well...

 Topless french cheese! Oooh la la!

 Probably curtains for the sushi mat as well...

The cheese itself isn't as bitter as last time but I'm not sure how it will fare after its early exposure. I've loosely wrapped them all in silver foil and put them back in the cheese cave (which is at around 10-12 degrees C), so we'll see how we go. It looks like it will probably take a few goes, but I WILL produce a Briesbane cheese.

In the meantime I can take solace in the fact that my carrot & parsnip kimchi is looking good, enjoying the sun on the window ledge and gives a satisfying fermenty hiss every time I open it....

Match the breakfast to the bike - slight refrain

My last competition post was one of my most popular. So here's the sequel....

Four bikes (apologies for the poor photo):-

• GT Edge with Sushi bars
• On-one Pompino with riser bars & 26" wheels
• Vintage Chesini with drop bars
• Norco Rev BMX

and four breakfasts

• Avocado salso on sourdough with bacon
• 'Hellenic' Eggs Benedict (ie with haloumi)
• Avocado stack
• Salmon omelette

Can you match them?

Tiebreaker - describe in 25 words or less the reaction of the lycra-clad roadie throng at Garage when we stopped off for coffee.....

Starry starry night....

Over the last week in Brisbane the nights have been beautifully crisp, cold and clear. I headed out for a barefoot run a couple of days ago and it felt great to be out again. I ran for just over 1km and although my achilles tendon was hurting for a day or so afterwards it seems to have recovered quickly. I think that it must have been self-chilling.

It's also full moon time and she looks gorgeous up there

I may have discovered a new hobby - trying to take pictures at night. Although I quickly learnt a few things that would help, in particular -

• You need to know where the buttons on your camera are and what they do. It's hard to figure out what does what when it's dark and you can't see them. A torch would also help.
• You also need to figure out what you want the camera to do. Long exposure shots don't work with the moon as it's so bright, instead you need to reduce the exposure as much as you can. 
• Drinking beer whilst standing around taking photos in the cold plays hell with your bladder.

Luckily my camera also has a 'starry sky' setting which takes all the thinking out of it and, as long as you have a tripod, does the hard work for you...

Got to love the Southern Cross.

Home again

We got back to Brisbane on Thursday and since then I've been keeping myself busy.

There's been city rides

 Beer rides

 and dirt rides

as well as another go at making my own brie & camembert (with a more luxurious cheese cave this time)

I was also inspired to make some 'pulled roo' - smoked, slow cooked and then pulled kangaroo fillets

and of course checking on the beer - my Imperial Stout has reached a gravity of 1030, which means that it's around 11% at the minute. It's dark, roasty, hoppy & bitter - the only question is whether to age it as it is or add champagne yeast and go for a 15% brew?

It's also Tour De France time, which means many late nights and uncomfortable dozing on the sofa. Liz has already prepared her Tour De France viewing platform in preperation :)