the birm*

Fight the battles that are set before you…

Halloween party.

Well we had a bit of a get together on Sat night with some dancing and some nibbles at Cam and Taryn’s place. The theme was Halloween, not because it was, but just because… it was. So there were a few freaky and weird costumes/disguises. As I got home quite late afternoon (after all shops were closed) and didn’t have anything to dress up in, I made myself some bullet holes and stuck em on my face and neck. The results were pretty good. I should have the shots up on Flickr soon if you wanna have a look.

How does it know???

So it was “daylight saving” yesterday (the time of the year when the (European) trees are getting all green and when for some reason clocks get put forward an hour). I changed my clocks, watch, phone and so on (thus having less sleep last night than usual). Today I went to change my computer and…it had changed by itself. How did it know??? It’s not like it’s a world wide thing…it’s not even an Australian thing, since some states don’t do it. Freaky!

Bargain of the century…or at least since Tall, Cratt and Dorge found 4L of “Daily Juice co” for 50c…

For those of you who live in Australia, you may have seen “Nudie” juices in the refrigerated section of your local supermarket. You probably have never had one because you balk at the price tag ($7 for 750ml). Doorbell was randomly walking the aisles of a not-so-local Coles supermarket the other day in search of some specials, when he spotted that little green “REDUCED” sticker on a bottle of “not so limited edition Fire Fighter Nudie”. At closer inspection the label said 50c.

Because, at the time, Doorbell only had 2 arms and there were only 5 bottles left on the shelves, he only bought 5. Needless to say we had our recommended daily fruit allowance for next few days (each bottle containing 15 servings of fruit!!!).

These particular “Fire Fighter” ones were a beautiful fuchsia colour and each contained 3 apples, 1 banana, 82 raspberries, half an orange and 44 cranberries. Yum. Having read the contents, it is actually WAY cheaper to buy the juice form than to go out and buy the contents in fruit form. Good work, Doorbell!

The Departed.

Doorbell, Bec and I went to see it last week. smokes. Talk about V-I-O-L-E-N-T!! it definitely deserves it’s MA15+ rating. There’s no warning about any of it either, it just happens. Then there’s the language. But if you can put up with the language and the violence, I would say it’s the best plot, the best casting and the best thriller I’ve seen. From beginning to end it’s “edge of the seat” material. I also think the casting was amazing. You totally HATE Matt Damon (which is weird, cause most of the films I’ve seen him in he’s been sweet and loveable or at least hard-done by) and Jack “eyebrows” Nicholson. For about 40mins in the middle of the movie I was nail-biting, stressing and almost sweating out of expectant “oh no” kinda fear. If you can bear the language and violence, I definitely recommend you check it out.

Jas is a machine.

I know what you’re saying, nothing new! He calls me yesterday and suggests we go riding sat. he has a PE teachers’ meeting in newie for 2 days (hence he’s here), “so it will have to be early”. We agreed that it would be, hail or shine (the weather’s been a bit how’s it going lately…). When the alarm went at 5:30 this morning I thought it was playing a prank on me (see post “mystery”), especially since I’d got to bed very late (1 am) having played pool for 4 hours the night before. When I saw the weather (wet and grey) I was ready to text him I wasn’t coming, but I didn’t. I got to his in-law’s place at 6:15 and we (Jas, his mate Chris and myself) went off into glenrock for 2 hours. It was fantastic. Great weather (cool, wind, cloudy but no rain), great tracks (I showed him heaps of “new” ones and all were dry and cmooth) and great company. We rode pretty solid and did 25kms off road, bringing my total to 41kms by the time I got home at 8:45 (before Doorbell had even woken up). It felt kinda weird, the day was just starting and yet I’d already ridden 40kms!

Mystery…

I woke up to the sound of my alarm the other morning and thought “wow, it’s dark”. I turned the alarm off, surprised that it read 5:50. why was it still dark outside? I looked at my watch, it read 3:50. how could the alarm clock be exactly 2 hours in front? Amazing! I put the clock to the right time and set it again. I also set my phone to ring 10 minutes later, just in case the clock did something crazy, and went back to sleep (after going to the toilet, since I couldn’t ignore the urge once I was awake!...see the post below entitled “mind over matter”). 2 hours later the clock rang with the usual “bebebebeep…bebebebeep…bebebebeep…”. This time it really was 5:50. the alarm clock has been on time ever since. Weird!

Great and varied time in the “mountains” (the BLUE mountains) last week end. I picked up Adski in Blacktown at 3 and headed into the hills. My car didn’t like the heat and the hills, so we decided to stop at the edge of the mountains and go for a dip, an ice cream and a ride (we had bikes and climbing gear in the car for a multi-sport week-end). We pulled into Glenbrook for a Weiss bar and rode down into the national park. We rode a FANTASTIC section of the Oaks trail (about 9kms of undulating and fairly flat single track) up and back down, followed by a dip in the river at the bottom of the hill. Oohhhhhhh, so refreshing! Back in the car direction Blackheath (after filling up the boar with some radiator coolant). We camped at “the big top” after a cold-pasta-salad-capsicum-rocket-and-tomato-wrap, which was delicious.

Up at dawn and into Katoombah for a CLASSIC multi-pitch climb in the view of Echo point Look out. Very enjoyable, easy and exposed climbing! The guide book labels the route as a 3 star “must do” 200m grade 12, which sums up the climb nicely (except there were a few 16-18 graded moves!). I guess grading has got softer in the last 20 years?...

Back to the car at 11am and off for some scenic brunch overlooking Narrowneck (the “men’s convention” lookout, I think it’s called Hilda’s). As it was a hot day (too hot to ride) and we were a little tired from 4 hours climbing, we decided to head for Emperess Canyon/Valley of the Waters, in Wentworth Falls (I think). We headed into the cool, dark gorge with shorts, shoes, singlets, harnesses and a rope. The temperature was very enjoyable but the water was absolutely FREEZING!! Thankfully we moved very quick and were in and out (finishing by abseiling down a waterfall) within an hour.

We drove to “the Glen”, a hot weather (shady) crag where some buff boys and girls were pumpin’ steep routes. We caught up with Jacques and chewed the fat for about an hour or so. When the temperature dropped we bolted back to the car and drove to Mt Vic where we rode a section of Cox’s trail. This was AMAZING! The sun was setting and we enjoyed some sweeeeeeeet single track ridge riding and amazing single track “freeriding” (at which point we rode/pushed the bikes up the other side of the gully to the look out). This track (Adski’s favourite) would have to be one of the most fun tracks I’ve ever ridden. Good variety, great lines, great terrain and fairly long. If you’re in that part of the world, do it!

Back to blacheath for some potato and sweet potato wedges and a few cold ones and off to bed fairly early (twas a pretty big day!).

After a well earned coffee in the Blackheath the next day we headed to Beronia point for some sport climbing. I hopped on a 14, 17, 17, 19 and adski spent ages on doing the moves of a 27! Very amazing!! We left at 2 ish and after a great 3-4 hours of chatting were back in newie. What a week-end! Thanks Adski!

The Boar is no more (for now).

Well it all happened very fast on the way to Stump, on the first Friday of the holidays. Bon, Bec, Doorbell and myself were driving down through Sydney when BANG!

I got out of the car and went to check the damage. My boot was caved in, broken locks, lights… I looked at the guy behind me and he said “I just saw ‘em, they drove off”. Amazed I hopped back in the car, ready to call the cops, but they turned 10 seconds later up and immediately chased down the culprits. We got the car off the road then were escorted by an unmarked cop car to where the cops had pulled over the smashers. It appeared that the girl driving, a learner, had panicked and didn’t know what to do…I guess we’ll give her the benefit…

We exchanged details and drove to stump. The boot is now held down by a bike inner tube.

Unfortunately, the punks haven’t got back to me yet and my car has just run out of rego, which means that until they get back to me (and get my car fixed or replaced) I’m on the bike again…

It’s a hassle and I’ve called, texted and written to them. If nothing happens after this week end I’ll have to get more serious. To put things in perspective, though, my flatmate Cam just got his new car broken into, 20 CD’s and his girlfriend’s handbag (which was hidden at the time) stolen. The window and damage will cost him $500+ and the cost of replacing cards and locks was even more than that for his girlfriend. All that for noithing!

 I was able to drive my car to Canberra for a race and to the bluey’s last week end (even though I had to park with the bum up against a tree or wall to prevent bike theft from the boot…). It’s all relative and I praise God that in none of this anyone of us was hurt…

Here’s a short VDO of the 24hr race if you’re keen!

DUST would be the one word summary for the biggest 24hr endurance race in the world: the 2006 Scott 24hr MTB championships.

As for last year, I was part of a team of 4 including Damian (my 8hr race partner for this year), his brother Tony and an old mountaineering club friend Claire (replacing Sarah from last year).

This year the course was a bit longer (20kms) and much, much dryer. As the hours passed and the 3000 riders rode the track the DUST got thicker, the ruts and bumps bigger and the dirt more powdery (it had a weird texture, kinda like white flower).

As always at 12pm on Saturday, the start was CHAOS, as over 500 riders run 800m to their bikes to start the race. Being at the front is a real advantage, as you don’t get held up by the masses in the sharp and fast single track. I didn’t manage to get in a great position this year but still came in to get my bike in about 30^th place (with 500 or so riders behind me…). My lungs have never burnt like that before. The run/stampede kicked up so much DUST (and I was towards the front, I can’t imagine what the back of the pack was breathing!) it was hard to see or breathe. Getting on the bike was tough and even tougher still was trying to go hard for the next hour. At times, due to the DUST, I couldn’t see the track and just had to follow the rider in front round the turns, hoping for no ruts, roots or rocks… I passed the baton on in just under the hour in about 50^th position (which we were very pleased at, since there were hundreds of riders still spread out on the course). Damian was next, followed by Tony then Claire. Our times stayed pretty consistent for the whole 24hrs, which was great and helped to transition smoothly (if you know your team mate is coming in 1:10, then you’ll go and wait at transition for a few minutes before hand, ready to go as soon as s/he gets there).

Riding in a fairly competitive team of 4 meant that each rider had a 3 hour break between laps to eat, drink and rest. When night came, we followed the same pattern as last year (thanks Damian!). Rather than ride in the same order as in the daytime (1,2,3,4), we did a 1,2,1,2 then 3,4,3,4 sequence. This allowed the riders not riding to get a bit of a well-earned sleep, before getting out of the warm sleeping bag and jumping on a hard seat to ride for an hour or so.

The 20km course was a very well designed with (what seemed like) minimal climbs and maximum flowing and winding single track. It was amazing, they managed to cut out the big fire road climbs of last year and incorporate some single track climbing (much more enjoyable). It also seemed like most of the climbs were in the first half of the course, making the last 8-10kms very fast flowing and comparatively flat. One of the scenic highlights was the view from the top of the ridge, on a cleared plateau, exposing the neighbouring Canberra hills. It even made you momentarily forget the pain and DUST for a minute and just got prettier as the sun went down…

A lot of bike manufacturers and stores were represented and offered gear to test (bikes, lights. Lubes, tyres…). I was able to take a Haro Mary 29inch hardtail (a rigid frame bike, as opposed to having rear suspension like my NRS and most endurance focused mountain bikes these days) out for a lap (for those who don’t ride, mountain bikes have 26inch wheels, while road bikes have 700mm wheels (or 29inches). Manufacturers have started making mountain bikes with 29 inch wheels with endurance riding in mind. A bigger wheel means that the riding is smoother (over bumps and holes) and that it will roll longer). It was fantastic!! So fast, smooth and comfortable. It put the fun back into riding a hardtail on a bumpy track! I hope 29’s become readily available and not just an expensive boutique bike like they have been…

Night riding was, as always, unreal. Going out from the noisy and well-lit race centre, where DVDs were playing on big screen, giant flood lights were lighting up the place like daylight, where stores were selling food, bikes and gear and where hundreds of people were camped, into the dark and dusty forest is amazing. Had I not been part of a constant stream of white HID, yellow halogen and red flashing LED riders, I would have been a bit spooked (going out on a 20km forest track in the dark). Due to the DUST again, I found that, contrary to usual night riding, the light on the bars worked better than the light on my helmet (it lit up the track and cast shadows rather than light up the airborne and stagnant DUST). With about 8kms to go the track came out onto an open fire road overlooking the forest (the same part where that became amazing at sunset). The full moon was spectacular and allowed lightless riding (for a short time). It was breathtaking (and not just cause it was at the top of a short climb!). Because of our rider sequence and having done the first lap, I only did 2 night laps: one at 9:15pm an one at 11:30. I then went to get my eyes washed out with saline, had a hot shower (which was an UN-BELIEVABLE feeling!!!!), put some clean (and DUST-free) clothes on (which only remained DUST free until I stepped out of the shower van), woke Tony up (who would ride when Claire came in) and tried to get some shut eye.

The morning laps are always great (especially the sunrise lap, which Tony did), as the end is in sight and because, as a 4 person team, you only have one or 2 more laps to do. At 7am I went to pick up a Specialized stump jumper (I think) test bike, complete with FOX forks and the famous “brain” rear suspension regulator (which only cuts in when you hit bigger bumps) worth $3500. It was a very enjoyable lap due to the comfortable ride and the knowledge that I only had one more lap to do after that one. We swapped the order around a bit, allowing everyone to do 5 laps and me a 6^th lap (thanks guys!) before the cut off time of 12pm Sunday. What a great feeling it was to finish! For the last lap, being just that, I gave it all and came in at a competitive 1h03, which I was very satisfied with. I think we came 5^th or 4^th (depending on how well the other teams performed in their final lap) in our category, which was very rewarding and much better than last year.

Mind over matter, not matters…

You know how sometimes when you wake up in the morning and you want to sleep in you can ignore things such as light, noise, cold, needing to bolt to the toilet, having to do things or the fact that it’s well time to get up; and other times when you can’t? I have a theory (I know what you’re thinking: another one of weeksi’s crazy theories…but hear me out on this one).

I reckon that, no matter how cold you are, how noisy it is or how much you need to pee, you can ignore pretty much anything if you put your mind to it. AS LONG AS there is ONLY ONE thing bothering you. As soon as there multiple things (like being cold AND needing to pee) you can’t ignore all of them and have to get up. I’ve thought about this one for years and don’t think I’ve blogged it yet. After sharing it with a friend on the week-end, I thought I’d share it with y’all. Certainly I find it’s true for me. What about you?

Dreams.

I haven’t had ‘em for a while, or at least not ones I remember or that seem real or make sense. I watched Cinema Paradiso last night. If you haven’t seen it, grab some tissues and watch it (especially the Italian version with English subtitles, I dunno what it is, but it’s so much better). I’ve seen this movie about 6 times and have cried in it the last 3 times (and bawled for 20 minutes last night). It was unreal to just sit there, knowing the story and the ending and still just crying. I don’t know if the movie has anything to do with the dreams I had, but they were realistic and kinda sad. I kept seeing people I love and miss and I was back in places I love. It was one of those dreams in which, even once you have woken up, you can go back to sleep and carry on where you were up to.