A Little of This, A Little of That.

G'day mates! How are ya? Has this winter (or summer) been treating you nicely? Lemme know, eh?

I'm hoping that everyone is now happy again now that I'm posting regularly again --fingers, toes, eyes, legs, ankle, arms all crossed in the hope that I can keep it up!

Don't expect any rhyme nor reason from my posts, one day you may see me running around an alien spaceship, the next you may see an embarrassed koala! Why the flighty-ness? It's not that I don't have a short attention span, it's just that I get ummmmm, side-tracked (yeah, that's it!) more often than knot and then a few days go by as I try to finish up (start!) a post that was a great idea at the time and befour I know it; a month has gone by-BYE!

Well (and that's a deep subject), NO MORE! I'll post whatever darned thing comes to my mind and type whatever darned stuff spews itself through my fingertips, onto my keyboard, onto your screen, into your eyeballs, then the spewed stuff finally comes to rest in some back-corner, unused area of your memory.

I hope you don't mind.

And no, I had absolutely NO IDEA I was going to type what I have typed thus far, I just let the fingers spew forth whatever they phelt like spewing forth.

*screeeeeeeeech* Insert sound of brakes

Changing gears now.

Many of you may or may not be aware that I'm going to have to travel to the US for a coupla weeks near the end of May. The reason is quite obvious as it involves Arlington National Cemetary. I will unfortunately NOT be able to work in a visit to Alaska (seriously grumbling about that), in fact it'll be an East Coast only trip with the exception of an airport or two.

I do not plan on cutting my hair (still no gray and approaching 50!!!!). Haven't cut it since late 1998 so why ruin a good thing, eh? I am not planning on shaving my long goatee (ok, it has a couple of gray strands) which is rapidly becoming a cross betwixt a long Van Dyke type and a short Manchu type. I also have long sideburns.

And to make sure that I'm fairly noticable, I will be bringing and wearing my tie-dye shirt collection!

Ain't they purdy?



Oh, and I'll be wearing one of several pairs of crocs routinely and wearing a black, roo-skin, acubra-style Aussie hat.

And a camera around my neck at pretty much all times. Yes, I'll be the weird tourist from Oz! Anybody gotta problem wit dat?

I have been continuing to play with and learn Vue 10. Great program! Loves it, I does! Check this out mates:


Here it is much more bigger sized:


Pretty good eh? All from scratch from Yours Truly! Vue also renders much faster than Bryce, this only took 6 hours to renders and talk about realistic plants!

Next up, dave makes a lame joke.

I am about to make a joke that may be a major embarrassment to me. So much so that I may go hide my head in shame rather like this:


The joke is a visual one. It's from one of my own pictures too!

You know how some people (not naming names mind you) tend to see phallic symbols everywhere? Yes, it's true some people do, not sure why.

Well, thinking along that "type" of line... What does this next picture remind you of?


I know, I'm a bad, evil, vile person and you don't need to tell me where I'm going cus I already know the way.

Ok, joke's over.

Those of you who know me in real life know that I have a knack for resting. And sleeping. Stay tuned for next time as I tell you ALL about my embarrassing history of sleeping and resting in what *some* people might think are inappropriate places!

2011 Tour Down Under may be canceled

Adelaide, South Oz (via dave's fake news service): The race director of Adelaide's Tour Down Under has just made a startling announcement. There is a very real possibility that the 2010 Tour Down Under in January could be canceled due to weather.

"As many of you are aware, Adelaide has not had our usual, summery, oven-style heat this November and December," stated Mike Tartarsauce, race director for the TDU. "Seriously, visitors and riders from around the world come down here to challenge themselves in the heat in January. If we can't provide the proper furnance-like temperatures then why would any of them show up?"

"We need at least 3 weeks of 40 C and above to pump some heat into the region and hope for 45's during the race, otherwise we may just have to cancel," continued Tartarsauce. "I even tried talking to a local tribal elder about the possibility of human sacrifice to appease their weather gods. Unfortunately he walked away muttering something about 'crazy white fella'."

The reaction from teams and riders has been swift upon hearing the news.

Lance Armstrong "I live to suffer. I suffer better than anyone. It's how I won 7 TDF's, by suffering better than all the other riders. This will be my 3rd TDU and if I can't suffer in blast furnace heat for a week then I'm not sure what I'll do. Maybe just stay in the hotel and flog myself."

Anna Hanson "Tee-Hee, and I was so looking forward to seeing Vienna with Lancey-poo."

Andre Greipel "Ya, da heet. I love eet! Da pansy-boys wilt in da heet as I stomp all ohvar dem. Vat? No heet? How vill I beet da pansy Manxman?"

Stewy O'Grady's "It's been rough mate. I had to wear leggings, jacket, and booties this morning. And that was just to light the fire! No way am I going out riding in that cold weather."

Robbie McEwen "Bloody hell, this is worse than a Belgium spring."

Tom Boonan "Good! I fucking wasn't planning on being down there fucking anyways. Besides, the fuckers down there would actually arrest me if I wrapped my fucking ferrari around a fucking street sign."

Mark Cavendish "Where is that place again? Doesn't matter to me as long as I get to kick some big German's ass."

Alby "As you know mate, I've been in every TDU. I'm proud of it but seriously thinking of not giving it a go this time around. Too bloody cold mate!"

Vincent Lavenu "Sacre Bleu! J'ai pris mon équipe ici chaque année pour durcir mes coureurs français. Que vais-je faire maintenant, les emmener à Sri Lanka?"

ASO "Nous avons essayé de dire McQuaid vieux que cela pourrait se produire par lui tente de mondialiser le vélo, mais at-il de nous écouter? Non!"

Jose Luis Arrieta "Si a mí ya mi equipo no puede pasar el rato en la playa y recoger todos los rubios, bronceados, chicas bikini australiano, entonces no vamos!"

UPDATE

It appears that the local weather gods MAY have taken pity after hearing the crying and whinging from Mr. Tartarsauce as Dec 31th is forecast to reach 43 C in the shade. The South Oz cycling community has breathed a huge sigh of relief!

Random Australia Pictures

I'm working on some new 3d stuff to continue my completely, 100% true story of my alien abduction whilst I was a zombie with a lightning charged sledgehammer. So don't worry, you'll get to see how it all ends!

In the meantime...

Do you think I need new cycling gloves?




Noisy Miner Bird begging for handouts.




The two bougainvilleas out front flower all throughout the years.




It's amazing just how comfy koalas look...




Dunno what it is but it comes up from a bulb 1 or 2 times a year. The stalk the flowers are on was 6 feet tall this latest bloom.




The two Bird of Paradise plants out front are flowering, must be winter...




These are the flowers on one of the types of vines covering the back fence and around the pool. I step on them when I need to get to the pool filter. They flower yearround and there are a gazillion of them.

Photographic Evidence of an Australian Bunyip!

And here y'all thought them's wuz mythical kreechurs!

Nope. Bunyips do exist. One just has to know where to find them, what their sign looks like, what they like to eat, and what they aren't.

And what they sound like! The sound you are hearing right now is an actual recording of a bunyip. There's the occasional parrot screech, of course, but the low level grunting is the bunyip. I think there were two of them. I, However, was not about to go into the bushes to count the bunyips cuz they are very very deadly and are the reason that koalas climb very high into the trees!

The first thing to finding a bunyip is finding a nice, dense, eucalypt forest. There are plenty of them down here in Australia which probably accounts for the reason they live here.

Just look for something like this:




You now need to look for some bunyip "sign". Their sign looks like giant, spiny, hollow, moose nuggets! Here's one I saw that instantly told me I was in bunyip territory!

The spinyness of the "sign" definitely accounts for why they are always so pissed off.

Next, we needed to set up some bunyip bait!

It's not that bunyips like sushi and champagne in the middle of the woods, but they like the way people taste AFTER aforementioned people have eaten the sushi and drank the champagne!


Of course you have to deal with all the other critters that are attracted to your sushi bait.


Punk-Rocker emus LOVE sushi!


This is not a bunyip. This is an Australian magpie --about the size of an Alaskan raven and very territorial!




And wherever you see eastern rosella parrots you'll be sure to find bunyips as the rosella make a nice appetizer for a juvenile bunyip.




I knew I had to be getting close to a bunyip lair! I noticed these galahs were not looking at me but they were instead looking past me into the bushes behind me!




I was thinking of shouting a warning to this bloke as he sped past me. See, I know for a fact that this path dead-ends and it's in the heart of bunyip country!





I hadn't seen the cyclist for well over 30 minutes when I decided to go investigate. I didn't have to go too far to find the bunyip lair!

Yikes! A lair of the dreaded Australian bunyip!!!!!



I found the bike, a torn jersey, mangled helmet and blood and gore nearby. No pictures of that as I was too busy puking my guts out! Just then, I heard a sound from the lair and turned towards it, camera ready!

And

I

saw

an

actual

bunyip!





I quickly jumped on the bike and high tailed it outta there! I think the only reason why I made it out alive is that the bunyip was quite obviously still digesting the cyclist!

True story! *ahem*

Even truer than my ongoing alien abduction saga, you betcha. *wink*

The Most Wonderful Woman In The World...

... just happens to be my wife! Why? Well, if she wasn't The Most Wonderful Woman In The World then I wouldn't have married her. Therefore, she must be The Most Wonderful Woman In The World.

Please don't hate, and please don't feel bad ladies. I value each and every one of you. I suppose that goes for the blokes too.

Why again is she The Most Wonderful Woman In The World? I happen to have a birthday arriving sometime in next month's calender. No, don't panic! This date has been a yearly occurrence for at least the last 5 billion years or so. Now, why can I get away with stating that? Any takers?

Anyways, WP (Wifey-Poo, otherwise known as The Most Wonderful Woman In The World) asked me if I wanted a new bike for my birthday.

I have four bikes.

One of which is a snow bike from Fairbanks, Alaska. It's still in it's box. Not exactly useful down here, buuuuuuut you never know!

My mountain bike (do they have mountains down here in Oz?) is an indestructable Kona, no worries there.

My road bike (Rocket Butt) was bought for me by The Most Wonderful Woman In The World 6 years ago. It was four figures even at half off. There's carbon fibre tubing on it. It's great. It's wonderful.

When I needed new cycling shoes WP (The Most Wonderful Woman In The World) MADE me go out and buy a sweet pair of Specialized. I was forced, I tell ya!

After landing head-first on a tree stump (explains a lot, doesn't it?) I was told in no uncertain terms that a new helmet is in order. The colour of the new one even matches Rocket-Butt.

So when WP asked me the other day if I want a new bike for my birthday, I just KNEW she was wanting to buy me one of them new-fangled alloy things made of Unobtainium and costs around $20,000.

I told her I'd have to think about it...

a

w
e
e
k

w
e
n
t

b
y
.
.
.

I then told WP I've decided what I want for my birthday.

A cutting board.

Now I'm pretty darned frugal in the kitchen and the cutting board I have is an old off-cut of pine that I got for 2 dollars at a hardware shop 8 years ago. It's held up nicely, but lately the cleaver has been putting some serious divits in it and I have to flip it daily to keep it from warping too much.

I want a real cutting board.

Well, you can guess what WP did. She went onto the ole series of tubes and found the most beautiful cutting board that was handmade in Germany from smoked oak. It's normally $1000 and she found one for $600.

Ummmmmmm... wow!

Of course I told WP that it was the wrong size, and that perhaps could she find one *slightly* cheaper. I think she got the hint and found a very nice one that was well under 3 digits.

Isn't she wonderful?

Why she's shacked up with me I truly have no idea. Well, it might have something to do with the fact that I can lick my eyebrows...


Since you've put up with my drivel to this point, I'll reward you with some birdie pics. These are some more reruns as I haven't had time to go through the last few thousands pics.

Enjoy!

Beware The Ides of July

Why? Cus that's halfway through Le Tour and my brain is spacey. Gee dave, why is your brain spacey? Cus staying up all night and then trying to fake like I'm doing something the next day kinda makes me loopy.

And the fact that SBS broadcasts the whole darned thing IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT LIVE means that I just have to stay up for it.

Ok, I'm sure y'all don't wanna here about the Tour so how's abouts we play some games instead? Doesn't everyone love to play games? Or did everyone leave never-land and grow up? Sheesh, idjits.

Ok, first game: Spot the koala!




Ha! I win!


Didcha'll know I've got telescopic eyesight? Well, now you do.

20/15, thank you very much. Course, I do have to put on glasses for various activities... like driving, cycling, watching the telly, spotting koalas, peering into alternate realities, cooking, reading, masturbating (need a wide-angle lens), walking, eating, chewing gum, staring off into space, pruning, counting the craters on the moon's Sea of Tranquility... You know, normal, everyday stuff that y'all do.

Next game: Who or what am I?

This is easy, I'll put up a photo of a critter and you (yes, YOU) try to figure out what it is. And I'll even be nice and put up high-quality pics. Unlike some dastardly bloke somewhere up north who puts up blurry, tiny pics and videos where the critter hides behind an old dock and expects us to figure out what it is.

*Ahem*

No, I'll be nicer than that.

We'll start with two easy ones:






So, get out your googling fingers, start your engines, stoke the furnace, fire up the boiler, and give it a go mates!

Homemade Kangaroo, Venison, Caribou, or Moose Sausages

This sausage was made with roo meat, but any game meat from the title should be very tasty with this. I decided to make it cus we got some venison sausage the other day and the flavour reminded me of reindeer sausage from back in Alaska.

Naturally, I just had to come up with my own seasonings!

Note: This will be appearing on my food blog soon complete with pictures of the process.

I do have to brag a bit though, not only am I two for two for picking stage winners so far in this years' TDF, but I am also an expert koala spotter.

I even have proof! Not only did I spot 10 of them out bushwalking last week, but some were quite distant.

This fella is actually quite a ways away:



Here's how far away:



Does this help you find the bugga?




Then a very pretty lady roo came bounding through the scrub and stopped right next to us.




She didn't stay for long, and I actually got a picture of her bounding away:




Annnnnnnnd that brings us to our recipe today: Dave's Caseless Roo Sausage!

One of the nice things about roo (and most game meat) is that it's very lean. This means that it won't shrink on the barby nor will it drip fat down and flame up and burn itself. Very kind of it, dontcha think?

Here's what you need:

2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp crushed garlic
1 tsp mustard powder
2 tbsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 cup port wine
1 tbsp dried onion flakes
2 tsp powdered sage
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp crushed fennel seeds
1 kilo (2.2 pounds) roo mince (ground roo or any other ground game meat)
1/2 cup of bread crumbs
1 food smoker
1 grill


What you do:

Chuck it all into a large bowl --except the smoker and the grill-- and mix it all together. Just squeeze it through your fingers with your hands for a couple of minutes and it'll all be combined nicely.

Form the mix into sausages. Patties or links, your choice.

Put them in the smoker for 30 to 40 mins. Try to keep the heat low and the smoke heavy.

Let them sit on a plate and cool and "age" for a few hours after smoking.

Crank on the grill and cook em!

Very tasty!

My TDF stage winner for tonight's stage 3 is... The Manx Missle.

Total Incoherence

My normal mental state every July is the title of this post. Yes, yes, I realise some of you think I'm like this year-round, but I gotta tell ya it's hard work to be like this without actually being like this.

Fortunately for me (sadly for WP (Wifey-Poo)) I don't have to work at it during July.

Oh, did y'all notice I'm tweeting now? Just look to the left side of your screen, no worries. Speaking of the left side of the screen, I'm shocked that some of you actually voted for "It sucks and I'm too lazy and stupid to hit the stop button" in my latest poll.

Does this mean that almost half of my readers feel that they are lazy and stupid? Or was is just a poorly worded query. Either way, I don't care! Ha! So there!

Oh, here's some pics showing just how scatter-brained I am...





Yeah, my fotoframing sucks big ones.

But why am I so scattered-brained (more than usual) in July? It's cus some idiot Frenchies schedule a bike race in the middle of the night Aussie time. And some idiotic aussie telly station broadcasts every stage live.

Here's my routine for 4 weeks (I'll start at noon, local time):


Noon o'clock arvo: plan dinner (hopefully it'll be edible, but I don't care)

Noon-thirty: take nap --don't set alarm and hope to wake around 4 pm. For some reason I never sleep past 2pm.

2 pm to 4 pm: stare glazedly out no particular window.

4 pm to 4:15 pm: attempt to blog... fail miserably.

4:30 pm: remove face from keyboard after falling asleep for the fourth time.

4:45 pm: try to hide bleary, bloodshot eyes from WP --fail miserably

5 to 6 pm make dinner --who cares what it is? I sure don't

6 to 6:05 pm: eat dinner

6:05 to 7:00 pm: check the series of tubes for cycling news.

7 to 10:30 pm: Take nap, but be sure to set alarm.

10:30 to 10:50 pm: Hammer the snooze button into submission.

10:50 to 11:00 pm: Hook up 100% caffeine IV.

11:00 pm to 4:00 am: Watch SBS 2 without pause... bladder explodes.

4:00 am to 7:00 am: Track down all the cycling news. And the political news.

7:00 am to 7:05 am: Sneak into bed with WP and pretend to have just woken up --fail miserably.

7:05 am to 8:00 am: Huge doses of caffeine.

8:00 am to noon: Pretend to attempt to get work done. Fail miserably.

8:00 am to noon: wipe drool off keyboard every few minutes.

8:00 am to noon: jerk self awake every 5 minutes and type furiously for no reason.

8:00 am to noon: pretend to need the bathroom regularly... fall asleep on toilet.



And totally Off Topic: I have a roo pic for you! Next time, maybe...

Oi! G'day mate!

Guess where I've been.





Go'an, guess! Ya silly galahs!

A Hot and Sweaty Tour Down Unda

But first, I have a picture for all the birders and parrot lovers who check out my wee corner of Oz:




Now, on with the Tour!

As I'm sure you are all aware, Lance is in town for the 2009 Tour Down Under. Last years' tour was a HUGE success with over 75,000 folks at the kickoff in Glenelg (I was one of them) and over 350,000 spectators throughout the week. This year it's going to be rather larger... The State Premier, Mike Rann, has stated that this will be the largest sporting event ever in South Australia. Very Very cool.

I'll be out taking pics on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday of next week --although I'm hoping to get up to Rymill Park for the presentations and opening criterium on Sunday.

On Wednesday I'll be near the top of Fox Creek Road, with camera and video camera. Why not at the top? Well, just before the top it finishing a nasty section of about 22% for a few hundred metres. I really wanna see just how fast these guys go up it! I then hope to be able to take the back roads through to Stirling for the finishing laps.

On Thursday I'll be at the final switchback on Wickham's Hill, a climb I know quite well.

Saturday will be spent at the top of Old Willunga Hill. They are doing the climb twice this year in this stage so there should be some serious action on the second go before the go along The Range Road.

Anyone wanna join me?

The heat is supposed to start cranking back up next week after a couple of cool days. But the teams got here just as the recent heat wave was hitting.

Lance (from Texas) referred to it as "insanely hot".

Christian Knees (Team Milram, from Deutschland) saw 49 C (120 F) out on a training ride and said, "So this is what it's like riding through a sauna."

Andre Greipel (last years winner), however, loves the heat and refers to the weather down here as "great".

I find Lance's comment about "insanely hot" to be interesting. It was only 105 F or 41 C in the shade when he said that... It got hotter the next two days. This makes me wonder about how they measure temps in Texas... do they measure the temp in the sun?

I was in Austin, Texas in 1998 for the Fencing National Championships and I walked around downtown pretty much every day. I saw temps on the sign boards of 103, 104, 105, and 106. I had no worries. No problem with the heat.

Down here an official temp of 106 F feels to me (and Lance!) a helluva lot hotter than 106 F in downtown Austin.

So what gives?????

Sarah Palin Stole My Sunflower!

And don't you all just HATE it when that happens! Hmmmmm, sorta like how she stole all accountability from her governorship of the State Where I'm From.

The first self-seeded sunflower had been open for about a week, and apparantly the birdses decided to make off with the whole darned thing! I've seen the cockatoos flying around with tree branches before, so I've no doubt they could make off with a small sunflower.

Cus, well, they are suckers for sunflower seeds!

Look! I even have a pic of the criminal Sarah Palin as she throws her arms up in the air and exclaims "But I thought it was Russia!"


I do have a pic of the snipped off stem of the sunflower, but I won't put a bloody, gory, graphic thing like that up on my blog...

I'm off bushwalking today, spring is FINALLY here! No more bloody freezing temps of 60's and 70's! This morning it was 81 F at 8:30 am so by this afternoon it should actually get a little warm :) Here's proof:



And on to other news...

Lance Armstrong is coming to town!!!!!!

I. WILL. BE. THERE.

And in other news...

We have 9 tomato plants in this year. Including a truss. Should have well over 300 tomatoes throughout the summer!!!! Drool...

Punch Up On The Feeder

But before I get to that, sorry for distracting you with my race updates on Saturday. Had I known just how many folks landed on my blog by a google search looking for road race updates I would have actually given out real updates. And then I'dve given them the link to the live coverage via cyclingnews.com as not everyone was able to watch it live on the telly.

I've also found a whole bunches of people show up here searching for miti recipes. So here's the link to that.

Now, back to one of the main reasons people visit: Pictures from Oz! Specifically, parrot pictures from Oz. Fortunately I don't have to go far to get these. In fact, I'm usually still in my bath robe, bare feet, and no underwear when I take them standing in the back yard. Ahem, yes, no underwear.

And now for some purdy burdy pics. How's about a punch up between two rainbow lorikeets for starters?
Nice beak action, eh?

And then the referee tries to break it up:

They do this pretty regularly, I think they are practicing for when Ishmael comes down to visit so they can rip his hair out.

As it's wintertime down here (bloody-well FREEZING!) everything is flowering. Here's a bee working on a flower from the Blue Pacifica bush:

Quite the load of pollen he has there.

This view in the morning signals the arrival of the gang of juvenile delinquent cockatoos:

Good on ya Sammy

In those 6 riders I was sayin either sammy or davide. Ole fabio almost cam eup witht he goods.

In the TT, I think it'll be between fabio, schumi, and mick.

You heard it here first!

Alberto just swung off

Contador, Alberto, has just swung off of the pace setting on the penultimate lap.

I am sorry for not having more regular updates, but it's dinner time down unda and I've got 4 pots on and the grill going for the clan.

The race is back together, it looks like the spanariards have things under contorl and the smart maonty is on Valverde.

Gots to run, more soon.

Oh, the smog SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bleck

Thoroughly disgusted with the road race. Yes, it's a good race. There's a groupd of 24 riders 5 mins off the front with 4 laps to go.

Beijing, however, leaves a LOT to be desired. I was hoping that once they got out of town and into the hills that you could, maybe, knda, like, perhaps SEE SOMETHING!!!! Nope, even in the hills the smog abounds. It's also on highways and not back roads so there's no switchbacks and the road isn't close enough to any "points of interest" to see it from the camera shots. Why? Cus of the pollution. Bleck.

Yeah, that's what dependancy on coal will do for you. Hmmmmm, isn't there some political old fart in the US advocating coal...

My wife and MIL are telling me that's the kind of views you'd see in the Tees river basin back in the UK BEFORE they stopped using coal. And breathing there sucked too.

Thoroughly DISGUSTED With The Air Quality

Holy CRAP! Emphasising the CRAP!!! I can't believe they are riding through this gunk that is called "air" in Beijing. And Phil is saying it's better than the last few days!!! The IOC needs to be taken out and shot for awarding (accepting massive amounts of money from China) these games to China.

Bleck... Ok. Last post about the road race. I'll watcht the rest of it, but the SMOG/POLLUTION is supposed to worse around the fragments of the Great Wall today.

Is it any surprise that quite a few of the top marathon runners and many endurance athletes are saying a big "fuck off" to these olympics?

Watering The Hedges

As I type this, the riders are all tapking a "nature break". Watering the hedges on the sid eof the road.

In other words: taking a piss. Better that than what I was doing two days ago as "taking a puke".

Olympic Road Race Update

We're getting the entire race live down unda. Two blokes (one from bolivia and another south american) have taken a flier on the 80 k run to the base of the circuits.

HLOY SHIT the SMOG!!!!!!! And there's Phil saying how the smog is much less than it has been the last couple of days. BLARF!@!!!!!!

Cadel and company looked relxed at the the start, no worries.

oh, here's a birdie pic for y'all. We'll call this a

FOOD FIGHT!!!!!!

Way Behind

Yes, I'm behind in my posting. I'm sure you've all figured THAT out though. Still writing up my How To Lose the Tour de France post. Stay tuned. On the bright side, I'm over halfway through dubbing the whole thing from the hard drive on the DVDR to DVD disks. I'll have 42 DVDs of this years tour for approximately 73 hours of 2008 Tour coverage. Cool, eh? Widescreen, digital, with Phil and Paul and all the great scenery. Oh yeah, there's a bike race in there somewhere too. Yeah, I can tell y'all are REALLY excited for me.

I just found out that someone found my blog from a site called (you're gonna LOVE this) Planned Parrothood! Isn't that so cool? I like the name. I need to add it and about 20 more sites and blogs to my blogroll. I'll get there in time, no worries. Anyways, at the Planned Parrothood Bird Links you'll see me listed in the blog section with a description of "Exquisite Aussie bird photos". Note to self: take more bird pics, but only Exquisite ones. I've never had anything about me (or that I've done) referred to as Exquisite. Needless to say, I'm tickled pink about that :)

I guess that means I should put up some Exquisite birdie pics. However, I haven't downloaded the latest batch and weeded out the 99% crap ones. So, you'll just have to make do with these three.

The first two are the lorikeets practicing their trapeze act.




Yes, they are very messy eaters.


The next one is FINALLY a shot of a galah looking tough. Remember, it's tough to look tough when you wear pink. Only tough birds can pull it off!


Oh, I just found out that outside of Oz, galahs are called "rose-breasted cockatoos". I like galah better.


Went on a bike ride this morning, nothing new there. But is was the first time in a looooooong while that I atually pushed myself for a bit as it's time to get my lazy ass back in shape. Knee was fine, neither ankle was a problem, ribs are fully healed, back is strong, and neck didn't bother me. I was on Rocket Butt (my roadie) and I actually stood for a bit to test things (myself, not the bike).

Do you have any idea of the amount of mucus, phlegm, and bile a healthy bloke can puke out of his lungs and stomach over the first ten minutes of riding hard? Well... it's a lot. Just trust me. Finally felt good after 14 mins hard so I continued on. But OH MY am I glad I was solo! I'd hate to even begin to imagine how messy the people behind me would've been had I been in a group! No pictures as you really DON'T want to see them.