Me = Commuter Squared

Took delivery of a new car at the end of last month. All of 13km on the clock, just enough to have assembled it it, driven it onto the ship, and driven it off the ship.

Instead of being a public transport person - I am now an evil commuter. One of those single people, in a single car, travelling to work. At the moment I am doing the reverse commute, travelling from the inner suburbs of sydney to the western suburbs. And generally, I like driving. But I don't like driving during the peak hour rush when everyone is aggro and less forgiving.

My compensation for doing this daily commute has been to start up a bokashi box, a sort of indoor pre-compost fermentation system that originated in Japan. I have tried and failed with the worm farm (killing the poor babies twice, so-much-so that the last lot of worms upped and packed themselves to the compost bin next door). Lets see how this one goes.

Degustation at Post, GPO Martin Place

The parentals went to Tetsuya's yesterday with some friends to celebrate a significant birthday.

Jealous as.

By happenstance though, as I was clearing out my boxes from my perpetual-move; I found a menu that I had squirrelled away from two years ago. During good food month 2005, I had a choice between visiting Carribean experimental in Pyrmont; or French degustation. I, predictably, chose the French, although now I wish I had been a little daring.

Anyway, I can't remember much about the actual meal. I think I managed to resist taking photos of every dish. But here is the menu & my scribblings for posterity:

It's Time!

So finally - it was time for me to ride the dirtworks 50km race.

Months of non-preparation, and on-again-off-again riding had brought me to this moment.

The killer hill at the beginning - around 12km was just as bad as it was last year. I had to pause and roll around on the ground for a bit to stretch my lower back out. It was just *so* tiring from pushing the bike up the hill at a 65 degree angle. Urk. I started off the ride with sneakers on, to reduce the number of transitions by one, and also so I didn't have to hike up the hill in bike shoes. I'm really not sure how much time I saved!

For the 50km, they had graded the fast downhill track from rocky, sandy and technical to smooth with a combo of water bars & sand traps to slow you down. I was trying so hard to slow down on this downhill bit that I could smell burning rubber - probably my rim brakes. Top speed for me: 41.5km*, and I was a slowpoke!

The water station at the 28km mark (where the 100kmers split off from the 50kmers) was very good with watermelon, orange slices, 'gu' water. Very good, especially since so many people ran out of water last year. I probably stayed a little too long at this rest point.

Apparently a 100kmer broke their collarbone just past the water station. The hike-a-bike bit got removed, but there was a plank/bridge ride over a creek that a few people got wet in when they tried to change direction when already on the bridge.

Timing chips/legstraps got provided too. Ah - technology!

My time was worse than last year (1min), but my placing was one better.

*Courtesy of my handy GPS unit. If I'm speeding downhill, all hands on brakes, even though I'm the kind of person to scream "go-faster", do you *really* think I'd take my eyes off the trail to see the kind of speed I'm clocking up. Nuh-uh.

On the road again

I have been packing my stuff (again!) in preparation for a move. This isn't a moving-house type move (which in a way I am still in the midst of - beware the way of the procrastinator), but a move of office.

When I last moved office, about this time last year, I had three boxes of stuff, and was accused of moving too much stuff. So this time I am restricting myself to the same three boxes. Of course in a year I have accumulated lots more 'stuff' - thus it is time to cull.

Someone else in another organisation I have dealings with is also under this blight of time-to-move-office.

They hired movers. The movers picked up the boxes, but decided to have a long lunch along the way.
They had a few lunchtime beverages. They indulged in some illegal substances. They decided to scatter the contents boxes to the four winds, and feeling the pressure from the extra liquid consumed at lunchtime, relieved themselves on the paperwork.

So *that* is why we're moving our office stuff ourselves.