Long Day/Week

Long day. Got up, fought with Marge, ate guatamalien insanity peppers. Wait, that's not my life... :-)

Got up, pottered with Deb, went to the post office to pick up a package (panniers bought on Ebay! Reminds me, must go leave feedback.... done) Did some work from home on a virtual machine, nice. Then I hopped on my bike and rode to my office. I probably looked a sight. My bike is black, my helmet is black, my jacket is black, my new panniers are black, and I was wearing my sun glasses.

Popped in to the noodle place near my office and had a prawn dumpling soup noodle - yum! Then I ducked into my office for... Well, I was there from 2.30 till after 7. One of them projects which is going pear shaped, as IT projects tend to to do, damn it.

Then I met up with Geoffrey the Mad Cyclist. There was a bike pub crawl on, which happened to start in South Melbourne, near where I was. I caught up with Geoff and some other late comers, and chased the bike crawl to the Great Britain in Richmond. From there we went to the All Nations on Lennox Street in Richmond. There as a bunch of kids hanging out the front, several of them on BMX's, who were very impressed with us. Had dinner - note to self, the "entrée" size really is quite tiny. Then we set off for a bar called Kent Street on Smith Street (go figure), then from there to the Napier. The Napier more-or-less chucked us out because someone parked their bike in a tree, and someone else on a light pole on the town hall!

Then we headed off to a pub called the Curry Family Pub (or some such) which just happened to be on the corner of Easey Street and Wellington in Collingwood - in other words, right on my way home via my favourite bike route. So I took my leave and headed home.

I really must get a bike computer, so I can work out how far I've actually gone... Also did that thing of getting all excited about panniers and then loading them with too much stuff :-)

Earth From Space

You live on this tiny blue marble.

Somewhat Delayed Gym Entry

Hey, some weeks back I promised to write an entry about my now decade-long dedication to being a gym bunny. So here goes.

As of June/July, I have been lifting weights for ten years. Although it was really only in about 2000/2001 that I started going really routinely. Before that it was once or twice a week, all a bit haphazard. Then, I broke up with a woman called Leigh, who I had known since high school, and found myself with more spare time. So I decided to head to the gym three times week, some of that just cardo.

But backing up a little. The first gym I ever joined was at RMIT in 1998, which was well after I should have graduated. I kept working out there while I worked in the city at Ticketmaster, until I eventually decided that the gym in the Brunswick pool was closer to home.

In fact, in that ten years, I've only actually been a member of four gyms. RMIT, Brunswick Baths, Northcote, and Southport, which was on the sea shore in Port Melbourne, when I lived down that way in 2004.

I tried to take some photos of my biceps etc. (Vanity? I don't know what you mean :-P ) but they came out crap - pictures of hairy spotty arms and even hairier pecs! So I'll spare you the sight of them. Suffice to say, I do have biceps, I swear.

OK, can't quite remember where I was going with this. So I'll just make a random list of all the other gyms I've been to, in no particular order:

* The gym in the Melbourne Aquatic Centre.
* A gym in Newcastle, possibly "Kings", when I was there for work once
* Newtown gym in Sydney, still remember the faux pas I committed when I said I wasn't going to be in town for Mardis Gras!
* A gym on a park in Adelaide
* Another Gym, on the seventh floor of a building in the centre of Adelaide. Might have been there twice.

I've been a member at Northcote on two separate occasions. I was going to look for a new gym, but recently they've more than doubled the size of it, and bought a whole pile of new equipment.