the birm*

The world is smaller than you think...

So I was chatting to Tezza last night at Adski’s (just after a wee bouldering session) about bands and which ones he’d seen while in his years in the UK. “Doves, Sigur Ross, Athlete…”. I told him I’d seen Athlete as well, in Bristol…he said that’s where he saw them as well…in 2002 or something like that…and at the same time we both said “October”. So there you go, I was only in Bristol for a few days (hanging out with Em and Claire, two friends from norn iron) but it appears we were at the same small Athlete gig. How weird is that!

If you think you’ve been everywhere there is to go, try this

All I can say is stop your floccinaucinihilipilificating!

So after a great Saturday morning of kayaking in the surf with some new rodeo and big volume boats (so much fun!), I drove down to the southern highlands for the second 8hr race of the working week series. I got to Penrose forest and registered. My team mate Damian turned up and we went for a ride in the dark (he had great “stadium” lights while I had my minimal LED head torch). Fantastic track! after sleeping in the wagons (first time for the poo-brown cort) we raced the next day with another 420 riders. The course was two thirds sweet, windy single track and one third gruelling fire road. This track is absolutely awesome, pity it will be destroyed in a couple of weeks due to logging! We came 21^st (out of 45 2-men teams), which we could’ve improved if I hadn’t snapped a spoke and punctured my tyre all in one smooth landing… I went as hard as I could all day, which was pretty rewarding. How the pros go harder and longer I have no idea! The drive home was good and fast and thankfully I wasn’t too tired (though my eyes were bloodshot due to 8hours or dust and tiredness).

Come on over!

In reply to a comment I received, you would certainly be welcome up here! I love receiving visitors from norn iron (and other parts of the world as well). You can call me or text me on +61 423 363 816 and if you know someone with my email address, you’re quite welcome to use it!

Amazing.

My cousins Melissa and Amanda invited me to an irish harp concert last night at the con. I was kinda thinking “yeah, yeah…” but I turned up anyway cause I like doing things with them and I thought Amanda was playing. She wasn’t. we went in and sat down in the front row and an older lady (Claire Roche) in a gold and orange medieval style celtic dress walked on stage and I though “oh no…”. she started playing and singing and immediately I was back walking in the mournes, strolling in the hills of Donegal, looking at the sea in gallway, driving through the forests of kerry, admiring the surf on achil… it was unbelievable! A younger girl (Bernadette Lannen) sang a few songs with her and she had the sweetest voice ever. I had my eyes closed for most of it, smiling to the music and thinking about the emerald isle. As a result I dreamt of Ireland and friends from norn iron last night. It was great!

Rot

As an avid Australian reader of NGM, I love the stories, the articles and especially the photos. I was intrigued when, over my bowl of cereal, I started reading Joel Achenbach’s article the origin of life through chemistry. I was intrigued to see how someone obviously with a certain status (to be published in NGM) could get mixed up between evolution and natural selection. While natural selection (as its name indicates) is a natural observable selection process, evolution, a theory whereby nothing turns into something then turns into a fish and eventually into a human, holds as much weight as helium filled balloon at the local county fair. It aggravates me that obviously learned individuals base their interesting theories on something unproven and improvable. It aggravates me even more that quality magazines such as NGM are ready to publish such rot. I guess admitting that humans didn’t come from monkeys, birds, lizards or fish would be admitting that there is more to life than what we see, which is not a very trendy view.

Where’s that track Adski?

I went for a huge ride last week-end, I wanted to go for 3-5 hours for training for the 8hr race coming up next week-end. I left from home, loaded up with water, food, tools, spares and 4hrs of music. I rode on some of my favourite access tracks towards sugarloaf mtn. I passed stockrington and went up a nice track adski and I had ridden last year (one, which I’d tried to find previously but never did). Half way along this track you cross a road. I couldn’t remember where to go after that and spent the next 30-40mins looking for that track, going deeper in the bush, down, down, down and getting to dead ends. I got quite scared, since I was in the middle of no-where, on bushy grown-over single-track. I had a phone, but if I got knocked out… eventually I found a track that went up and up and up (obviously it was the last one left to try!). I got to the top after riding and pushing up the steep rocky bits and came out onto the track I was supposed to be on!

I rode up the “mountain” via the road then onto the ridge for about 6kms before some sweet downhill and some more huge climbs. I got home 4hours after I started, having done 78kms, absolutely stuffed! I hopped one the scales for interest sake, having drank more than 4litres of water on the ride: 78kg. odd, considering that when I hopped on immediately after getting up I weighed in at 81.5. smokes! So in effect I lost 7.5litres of water over 4hours!!! After a couple of litres and a few hours of chilling I was back to 82 before going to bed J

We watched a couple of movies sat night: Fargo and Veronica Guerin. Both interesting, both fairly hard hitting and both true stories (or based on true stories). Fargo was interesting, thrilling and very gruesome! Especially considering it’s a real story. Kinda one of those ones you see and you liked it but it disturbed you and you wonder if it was worth it. Veronica Guerin was a Irish journalist who wrote about crime, especially drug related crime, in Dublin. Cause she got too close to a lot of big boys she became quite popular with the people and very unpopular with the Criminals, which resulted in her murder. Having read her story last year it was great to see the movie (some good work I must say). I enjoyed both of them, despite the language and disturbing elements, but having said that, none of these movies are ones which you’d nececelery take your girlfriend to see on a “first date”…

Good bye for good…

Well it happened. I dialled a few wreckers and got one who would pick up the bomb and take it away for $70-80. so after calling around and not getting any offers above $50, I called him back and he came the next day with his trailer (and wife and kids).
Doorbell and I had earlier managed to start it(!) but then stalled it at the worst spot: half way up the driveway, the bulbar only a foot from the steel panel fence. We spent 20mins trying to push the scumbag up the slope than put a brick under the tyre (hard to do, even for two strong men and a light van!). It was hopeless. We almost lost it into the fence but thanks to God I stopped it short and I managed to start it reverse back a few feet before it stalled. The dude came, we rolled it up onto the trailer and he was away, fairly happy with his purchase and me with 75 bucks in my pocket…

Wow! I just bought some liquorice tea (after I had some at Mel and Amanda’s the other night). It’s unbelievable! It’s caffeine free and contains liquorice, fennel, aniseed and peppermint leaves and leaves a fantastic after taste in yer mouth. It’s incredible! I recommend going to your nearest grocery store (I found it in the health food section) and getting yerself some! The brand I have is “Black Adder”, from Red Seal in New Zealand.

Time warp?!!

Is it just me or do you have a time warp in your life? It may be morning, lunch, evening or night. Mine happens at 9pm. Every week night I try and try to get to bed at 9:30, leaving me plenty of time to reflect on the day, talk to God about the future and read a book (which usually only lasts a few minutes before I drop off, still holding my head up, and wake up a few minutes later with a very sore neck…but that’s another story!).

As soon as the clock hits 9pm, the time warp starts. I usually only have to brush my teeth, have a shave and get to bed, but rarely do I hit the sack before 9:40…why? I have chatted long and hard about this with various friends (who look at me awkwardly) and my flatmates (who know exactly what I mean). How or why can/does time speed up at 9pm? Last night for example, I was in the kitchen with Doorbell and Adski, chatting and washing up. I looked at the clock: 8:50pm. We kept chatting and washing up. A few minutes later I looked again: 9:35pm?!! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

All I can say is that there has to be a time-warp where minutes go quicker or something. If you don’t believe me, think back of a time you were in the cold and wet, waiting for a bus to turn up (like one late at night for example). I will call this the “reverse time-warp”…

Afternoon coffee: a plethora of sensations

   Nibbling on the crunchy delights while savouring the smooth sweetness of the caramel coating a biscuit contrasts with the almost offensively rich, dark and deep aroma of the espresso. The battle raging on my tongue slowly disappears only once distracted by the sun setting to soothing grooves coming from my room.

At lunch a while back, at school, we were talking about weight and diets and so on, when one of the other “younger” teachers looked puzzled and said to us:

 “but…hey…if you eat a kilo of chocolate, you can only put on a maximum of a kilo of weight…right”?

 …profound!

I want to be a fundamental extremist…

To return love for love is natural. To return hate for hate is human. To return hate for love is evil. To return love for hate is unbelievable.

A wise man once said “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. You can’t get more fundamentally extreme than that.

Maybe from time to time we should put in practice what we say we believe…

The man comes around

Well we went to see I walk the line last night, quite a show. Didn’t really cover Cash’s entire life, but what film could. As Charlie said, it would take all day! Very hard hitting and definitely shows his background and influences on his music. Great to see him “come around” and change his life. I really enjoyed it having read a biography about him and look forward to reading and listening to more (listening to someone’s music after you get to know them, or about them, really makes the music more intricate). The performances of Reece and Joaquin were amazing, great casting! I went home and looked at the photos of June and Cash and they looked pretty close!