D'oh!

As I've already mentioned, I didn't ride home yesterday, I left my bike at work and got a lift. Today, when I was leaving work I had this niggling feeling that I was forgetting something but I couldn't work out what it was. About an hour after getting home i worked out what it is. My bike. I had left Smurfy at work. Bugger!

The Milkman delivers

This may sound lame, but I am excited because today I get my first home delivery of fresh fruit n vegies from Aussie Farmers Direct! They have finally updated their site, so I took a look today and I am going to be getting all of this delivered to my house this afternoon.

Now the challenge begins, what can I make to try and use the whole lot and what the hell do you do with Eggplant?!? I've never cooked with it before.

Tomorrow morning I will also get my first delivery of milk, cheese, eggs, bacon and some coffee beans :D

JT is feeling some love!

Tonight I was speaking to one of my cousins and he mentioned that he spoke to my mum for about 20 mins on the phone the other day.... I didn't even get a phone call from her for my birthday 10 days ago. I last spoke to her in August and asked her to never call me again if it was to do with money... looks like she has nothing to say to me, not even a happy birthday wish. People's actions and inactions really say a lot...

In other news, I rode to work twice this week! Although today I got a lift home as I didn't fancy riding home, due North, in 40km/hr+ northerly winds!

So, with my latest injury, I've decided that it is time to break out the old Hybrid, JT! I bought a basket the other day to put on the rear of the bike and I am going to use it to ride to the shops! The beauty of a basket is that the re-usable coles shopping bags fit in it nicely. I'm also going to go and get an occy strap to make sure everything stays in the basket AND I am going to buy some fake flowers to decorate the basket with so that I fit in around Northcote Plaza ;)

R.I.P Uncle John

My Uncle Geoff, who lives in outback NSW, called me tonight and informed me that my Uncle John, his brother and my mums brother, died on Friday and was cremated today. I don't know the last time I saw my Uncle John, probably at my Grandma's funeral 9 years ago. Neither of my mum's brothers talked to her, but Uncle Geoff is going to call her tomorrow to tell her - I told him I was glad it was him but wished him luck! No one in my family wants to talk to my mother, and I don't believe that she even knew that he had cancer, even though my sister and I did know. My Uncle John didn't want anything to do with my mum, his sister. Meanwhile, my sister and I are still in contact with my Uncle Geoff, even though he isn't in contact with my mum, his sister.

I know why Jayne (my sister) and I were told today, it's because they didn't want us to be at the Funeral. I can understand that - we weren't a part of his life and he hated his sister and unfortunately didn't want to know us because of that... I am just thankful that my Uncle Geoff didn't/doesn't have the same view. We weren't a part of his life, we didn't really know him and he certainly didn't want anything to do with his sister, just like the rest of her family. I'm not upset by it, but if I had known I would have gone to the funeral out of respect for someone I used to love and would have liked to have had in my life.

Another long term injury

I've been the the physio a few times in the past 2-3 weeks about my hip and today she told me it could take 2+ months for my hip to get better as the wrong muscles are doing the work and we need to re-train and strengthen my body to use the right ones and to work properly - just like the problem I had with my back. To say I'm not in a great mood now is a bit of an understatement. The good thing is that cycling shouldn't hurt my hip, so hopefully I don't have to go to Sydney again next week and I can actually ride to work a few days a week. I also need to take voltaren 25 for a week or two and continue doing walks every few days to see if it hurts my hip and I need to keep a log of all my exercise, pill popping and how it all feels etc.
Today she used the acupuncture needles in my hip again to help relieve the tightness in the muscles as they were so tender and sore to touch and I have been given more daily exercises to do.

I'm kind of sick of all this, I am sick of injuries, but what am I going to do, give up? Not likely. I just need to get through this frustration and use it in a positive way, instead of thinking along the lines of another year older, another injury... which is how I am feeling at the moment.

I will be positive and it will get better.

BBQ Roast

On Saturday I decided to do my first ever roast chicken and figured I may as well do it in my new BBQ and why not make it a beer can roast chook! While you don't need to use an actual stand, I decided it would make things a lot easier, so I bought a stand for it all from my local BBQ shop. I covered the tray with foil, par cooked some vegies to roast in the bottom of the tray and assembled it all. I put some lemon and garlic under the skin of the chicken and put some extra on the top of the chicken too. With the half full beer can in the holder with some added herbs and garlic in the can, it was time to put it all in the BBQ.

I was warned that it can take 2-3 goes of using the BBQ to roast meat to get it all sorted and figured out, but I think I did a really good job for a first time effort. I'm glad I parcooked the vegies first as they cooked a bit unevenly in the tray, but next time I will spray the aluminium foil with some oil so they don't stick as much -oops-

Here you can see that it was cooking more on one side than the other, so I needed to try to turn it around to cook more evenly



All cooked!


Yum!! :D



Oh and I got this sent to me today - it made me laugh!

Give it a while

I think that most people reach a point in their life when their birthday ends up being a non event and I think I have come to that point in my life. C'est La vie, shit happens and all that kind of stuff I'm sure it's probably a natural progression or something, but for the first time in my life I really couldn't GAF that my birthday is coming up!

I suspended my gym membership today for 2 months. They are going to call me in 2 months time and see how I am going with my hip and see if after a few months of pilates I can start back there. I really do hope by then I can because I enjoyed it, I just couldn't do it because of my hip!

The weather this weekend is going to be awesome! Saturday is going to be an awesome day to be out watching some cycling along Lygon St while drinking coffee - ahh the luxury of it all :D Then Sunday is a working bee for my cycling club. i might not be able to do much more than cook the BBQ - but that at least free's others up for the other work at the velodrome! I'm thinking of making a chocolate ripple cake to take down there... mainly cos I have a craving for one, but this way I can have a slice and then offload it all to other people :D

It's my nieces 4th birthday in a week or so and I've been buying bits and pieces along the way for presents and I am now certain she is going to love one of the gifts I got her! It is a Butterfly mobile that she can hang from her bedroom ceiling. She has all these paper butterflies all over her bedroom walls, so I know she likes them and then today my sister told me that she wants a butterfly cake - sc0re! She is going to love it along with all the other little things I have bought for her.

Not broken

So I got Smurfy back yesterday and I have been told that the Avanti rep said that it is a hairline crack in the material that they use to smooth the join/bump of the carbon and alloy. They also said that they will get me some stickers that I can put over the top of... I told them I didn't want stickers put over the crack as I want to be able to keep an eye on it to see if it gets worse. I have spoken to a number of people and what they are saying seems reasonable, but I will be keeping a close eye on it for any changes and if it does get any worse then I will definitely be taking it back again. I rode it today and it seems ok, so really my fingers are crossed that it doesn't get any worse. Tell you what, riding a freashly cleaned chain and gears really is an awesome feeling :D I love the first ride after a good clean!

I am really loving riding and being on the bike again. It took me a while to get my head around it all again and to be ready for my speed to be painfully slow and the gear changes many, but I am back riding and really really enjoying it :D About bloody time too! I will mostly be riding to work, building up to 3-4 times a week and then maybe a short cruise on the weekend occasionally

I don't think I mentioned that I had put my old BBQ on eBay - well I did and I really really am shocked that it ended up selling today for $76! Sc0re! I started the auction with a minimum price of $20 and as soon as I had that bid I was happy. Someone wanted to pay me $20 to take something off my hands that I didn't want anymore - awesome! I've never sold anything on eBay before and it was quite exciting in the last minute or two and especially the last 30 seconds when the price had several jumps!

I went to the physio yesterday (the one I've been seeing all year) as on the weekend I strained my back a bit when I washed my car. I suspect something to do with the bending forward and the reaching, while cycling and cleaning around the house is OK, clearly washing my car is something I should just pay someone to do - I'm happy with that! She saw that I had seen someone while she was on leave about my hip. I explained it a bit to her and she suggested that I stop going to the gym and keep up with the cycling, so she has written me a letter that recommends my gym membership be suspended. I've read my contract and with this letter I will be able to cancel it. I really did enjoy the gym, but the whole circuit style of it just doesn't seem to be good for my hip. It really is a viscous cycle, if I didn't need to lose weight I wouldn't have joined the gym, and if I didn't need to lose weight it probably wouldn't have been a problem.. bah! Anyway, seeing as I can't even do my walks everyday, I have noticed my back is getting slightly stiffer, especially my upper back so I have a bunch of new stretches I need to do for that as well.

This weekend should be fun, the Jayco Herald Sun Tour is currently on and the final stage is around Lygon St so i will try to head down to watch some of the cycling :D

Waiting game

I really hope that my bike isn't broken and that it is only cosmetic, I really like my bike! Just in case, I've been looking at the Avanti website at their current bikes/frames and if my frame does need to be replaced, it might be a bit difficult as they don't seem to make that sized frame anymore. i would also need to decide if I upgrade the frame or not, from carbon/alloy mix to full carbon. I'm really trying not to think about it too much, but I do want to also be informed and ready just incase. I took a look at the Specialized site too and it looks like the only road bikes in a similar ETT is the Ruby which is women specific which I'm not so sure about, but I don't mind the look of the frame. Tuesday really can't come soon enough to find out what the deal is.

I'm also wondering, if it does need replacing, if I can get the frame back off them. I would really like to be able to keep it, even if it can't be used.

Oh and to top it all off, my back is also sore again. I think it's from washing my car at one of those DIY places, well it's the only thing I can really put it down to as I haven't ridden since Thursday, and if it was from riding, it would have been sore Friday and not Saturday.

Does anyone else have a Nokia 6110 Navigator on Optus and having issues with daylights savings time? I've had to tell my phone that I am in the Solomon Islands to get my calendar appointments to be at the right time. I wonder if it will fix itself come the end of the month

Broken Smurfy?

I woke up with a cold today so decided to not go for a ride and wash Smurfy instead, I kinda wish I hadn't now.

The crack goes almost the whole way around the rear seat stay near the top. I've taken it to Total Rush, where I bought the bike, and they are going to get the rep to come out and take a look at it. It could just be a crack in the paint where the carbon seat stays join the alloy frame. I will know more Tuesday or Wednesday.

I'm a bit upset about the prospect of Smurfy being broken.

Backyard Blitz

I have my new BBQ and its all fully assembled and working great! It is a 3 burner with a roasting hood and room for a rotisserie, which I also have I just haven't put it on yet.





And it cooks a great steak mmmm steak!


I've also taken some photo's of my backyard. This one is of all the leaf litter crap that falls from the neighbours tree, it drives me nuts and I just gave up cleaning it as I wasn't using the backyard, but now that's change it was time to clean it up


All clean!


My table and chairs under the kitchen window:


This is pretty much my whole backyard - pretty small huh! I do have a clothes line down the side of the house to the right of this photo which is also where my vegies are in boxes:


I also cleaned the outside of all my windows! Talk about some spring cleaning! :D

It's true!

I am getting old. I am falling apart. I am sick of injuries. I need a new body, one without injuries and health issues kthxbai

Good, Bad and BBQ

Good news - I only needed a filling in my tooth :D Bad news - I have another two minor fillings required on other teeth, also along the gum line. If I drank lots of softdrink, sports drinks, sucked on mints (tic tacs etc) or ate a lot of sweets then these issues with my teeth along my gum lines could be explained - but I don't, I just have bad teeth. So i'm heading back in a few weeks to get these ones done.

I've also been looking at a few more bbq's and I could get a bigger or nicer one like this one which also has side tables that fold down and after taking the measurements, it would fit quite well! If I got the bigger more expensive one, then I would probably sell off my old one on eBay or something. Decisions decisions!

I got into work at 6:20am this morning to get a heap of stuff done only to find out that what I wanted to do, wasn't working -sigh- Kind of annoying, but I still had other things I could do in the meantime.

At work we have a Change Control Board, or as we call it Change Advisory Board (CAB). In order to make any changes to s/w or h/w on the network, it needs to be approved by the CAB. Anyway, a change came through on Monday that needed approval, it was to upgrade the system we use to manage changes so SP1. It wasn't approved, it was deferred to Thursday's meeting as more information was needed - like I hadn't seen any testing plans and results. Well this morning, the site stopped working. The person had gone ahead with the change, w/out the approval from the CAB and it all went wrong. What a classic example of why the CAB exists! Tomorrow's meeting could be interesting if the site hasn't been restored from backup yet.