Hopdate # 5

The Cluster hops are doing well, and because the other rhizomes didn't take off we've liberated one of the other stakes to give them some more climbing possibilities. I've tried training them, but however many times I've shouted 'sit' nothing's happened... 

 

Can I get a hell yeah?

No real reason for this other than it's a good song and a kick-arse video - which I guess was the point of the Friday music club all along...

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

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...

Drifting along

I dug out my drift / freeline skates this week as well, and tried them out on Burleigh Hill. I forgot how quickly they picked up speed - this may look mundane, but at the time it was terrifying! It's amazing how much I don't bend my knees as well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE6R2VX2Zbc

Views from the 15th floor

When we weren't in the water or sampling local views we spent a lot of time just hanging out on the apartment balcony just watching the world go past and soaking in the views...warning - picture intensive post...