Poncho Finito!

I finished my poncho last week!
Yaay!

I’d post a photo, but I’m feeling rather lazy at the moment…

I Want To Ride My Bicycle…

I want to ride my bike.

I want to ride my bicycle.

I want to ride it where I like.

So I did. As soon as we finished and handed in our group assignment, I was home prepping my bike for the Eastlink Fun Ride. Pumped the tires, checked the gears, tried to figure out how to get it into the car, which required a telephone call to Trev cos I couldn’t remember/figure out how to get the wheel off - had to unhitch the brake. duh!

Sunday morning, up at 7am in order to get to Trev’s place before the ride. Folded down the back seats, stuffed the bike into the boot with relative ease. At Trev’s, we loitered around the fireplace for a bit, before piecing my bike back together. Geared up, and away we go.

Rode along some nice quiet streets to get to Wellington Rd, where the number of cyclists, all heading to the same destination, gradually increased until we approached the Wellington Rd on-ramp — then it just got stupidly crowded. Cyclists were everywhere! They occupied two out of three lanes from both directions and it was all rather claustrophobic.

After an hour of travelling at walking pace amongst a hoard of 20,000 people (or there abouts), we finally arrive at the Start line and we commence the proper ride. People freak. me. out. They are unpredictable, they go too slow, they go too fast, aaarrrggghh! Oddly enough, the fact that Trev was cycling along next to me one-handed and taking photos was quite fine. Go figure.

30km later, I was rather tired to say the least. Add on the extra 7-odd km back to Trev’s place and my legs had had it (or as he puts it, “bonked”). I was quite impressed with myself - over 40km of cycling after about 6 weeks of no exercise, and I didn’t black out. Soooo good!

After a lunch of corn soup with buttered bread (and I do mean butter - yummy yummy butter), it was back on a bike. But not a push bike, a motorbike! Trev’s shiny silver/gunmetal Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird. No peddling required! On goes my leather jacket, along with borrowed riding gloves and helmet from Bernard, and off we went again!

Our route took us through a new estate nearby, then up Lysterfield Rd, to Glenfern Rd, through Belgrave, Selby, Kallista, Monbulk, Olinda, Sassafras, down Mountain Hwy, along some side streets full of fancy houses, out onto Forest Rd, then down Napoleon Rd back to Trev’s place.

During the first 5-10mins I was very much aware of how dangerous this all was. Very very exposed and vulnerable. If we came off the bike, it would be gravel burn for all, and a few fractures to say the least. But any fear caused by this was soon overridden by shear exhilaration. Riding on the back of Trev’s bike is like hugging a warm teddy bear and going fast. Very very fast. So. much. fun!! I haven’t had that much fun in ages! The scenery was absolutely beautiful. Rolling hills in soft winter sunlight dappled by clouds. The forests and quaint little “towns” of Mount Dandenong area are always enjoyable, but zooming along the windy roads through them, leaning into all those corners, was even better.

And the speed. Pure utter joy. I don’t see why people do drugs. Whenever the road ahead of us was clear… wwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! When we overtook a couple of cars… XD. On Mountain Hwy, we got stuck behind a bunch of slow pokes. So we stopped. Right in the middle of the road. “There’s no point going ahead, we’ll just get stuck behind them,” he says…After a minute…”Now we play catch up!” with that gleam in his eye when he gets excited. Awesome fun!

We shortly turned off the Hwy into some residential streets where the views of Mt Dandenong and Melbourne city were breath-taking. As we emerged from the tree lined roads, the afternoon sun warmed us up and the world was beautiful. I was in bliss.

Arrived back at Trev’s house and I was shaking slightly from exhaustion; all that hanging on during acceleration and bracing during braking (so I wouldn’t crush my driver so much). The rest of the afternoon consisted of general chitchat, tea, beer and a warm fire.

Perfect perfect day. ^____^

Let Me Count the Ways I’ve Procrastinated.

1. Blogs.
2. Parkour forum. (including all the offshoots like youtube vids, etc)
3. Piano.
4. Knitting.
5. Tattoo research.
6. Food.
7. Business brainstorming.
8. Grey’s Anatomy.
9. Removing leg hair.
10. Tea.
11. Baking.

Threadless Summer Sale

hmm…I think I could be addicted to Threadless sales.

I don’t need any more T-shirts, but I want more Threadless Tees!

Like this one. It’s just so tragically cute! X)

People at work don’t understand me when I say “innerblags”

Chuck Norris

If you haven’t done this already…

1. Type “find Chuck Norris” into Google.
2. Click ‘I’m feeling lucky’.

Self Reliant

There was a time where I couldn’t really live without my friends. Weekends constantly consisted of training together, climbing together, bumming in front of the TV together, shooting pool together, having breakfast together, drinking tea together. It was a weird experience to go more than a week without seeing them.

Then things changed. Not so much one single defining event, but a bunch of smaller things that accumulated over time: People skipped the country, people moved out of home, people started coupling, I acquired more/different activities, etc, etc.

Now I don’t have to see my friends every week. It’s almost like I’ve replaced them with studying, the internet, and my countless (loner) hobbies.

…And that’s ok with me…I’m not sure why…

Poncho!!

Officially halfway through my poncho!! Yaayy!!

ETA: 6 weeks T.T