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.

A post in leiu of a post

I'm working on my Tour de France post. However, I have a hard time stringing coherent thoughts together for more than a prargraph or two. But only when typing. See, if'n there was a thought analyzer that kinda dictates your thoughts directly to your blog, then there'd be NO stopping me! In fact, you may remember from perusing my archives that I actually invent that in a few decades. Those of you from the future who are reading this post (as an old archive) to write your PHD dissertation on the bloke who revolutionised the world of blogging (and got stinking rich) then you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. For the rest of you... well, you just need to go trawling through my archives and you'll see what I mean.

Ahem...

Pretty damned logical, eh?

As per usual, I'll toss up some pics for you. Heck, if it wasn't for pics from far-off, exotic, hot, Australia I doubt I'd even have one visitor! Well, ok... my wife would probably stop by and hit the reload button a bunch to make my counter turn over, but that'd be about it.

This first pic is for Fishmeal, that cranky bloke in Kodiak, Alaska. He wants to know if we really eat roo. Yes, we do.


Roo meat is one of the healthiest red meats you'll find. 98.4% fat free. Loaded with iron. Roo burgers don't shrink on the grill, and they also don't flame. Why? Cus there ain't no fat! Teriyaki roo burgers are great, btw. However, this kilo (2.205 pounds) of roo mince (ground roo) became the filling for burritos. Turns out roo meat really takes well to Mexican seasonings (I just HAD to try!) and you don't have to drain it like you do with beef. It is a little gamey (not as much as moose or caribou though) so if you are one of those who don't like lamb cus you think it's gamey smelling, then you definitely don't want to try roo. However, for any Alaskan Sourdough it'll seem pretty bloody-well awesome!

I buy the stuff that's packaged just up the road. No preservatives, no antibiotics, no growth hormones. Just roo. The packages freeze well and the company (Macro Meats) say it's exportable too.

Here's another pic for Fishmeal. See, it turns out that these little birdies give him the willy's. Evil eye, or something like that. So I thought I put a pic of one staring right out of the screen at him :)

I'll get you in your dreams, Ish!

Next up, the natural pose of yours truly (that'd be me):


And lastly, two gratuitous birdie pics. One is of a galah landing in a tree, and the other is two lorikeets watching another about to land. Enjoy!

More About...

... the Tour will be coming soon to this blog. I'll basically explain why Marc Sergeant lost the Tour this year. Who? I'll explain soon. For today though, I've got a few pics for you.

This first one is for Ish, that cranky bloke in Kodiak. I'll bet he'll believe me if I say I was checking the brisket for tenderness...



Next is proof that cool looking bird pics don't always turn out to be "great" photos.




When you're pink and not very tough, ya gotta stick together!



Winter's can be very cold here. I mean just LOOK at this poor bird of paradise flower! Can't you see it's practically shivering?

Koalas and Cockatoos

Yep, another lazy post from yours truly (that'd be me). Only 3 more late nights/early mornings with the Tour and then life be be back to normal. Or at least as normal as it gets for me.

I'm even too tired to think of funny captions for these 4 pics, so if any of you think of some good ones drop me a comment and lemme know so I can add it to the pic. Thanks!

The first two are some Greater Sulfur Crested Cockatoos doing what they do best (eating). And the other two are koalas doing what they do best (sleeping). All are wild animals that hang out around here.

Goodnight, he said at 1055 am...

No Time!

Yes, that's right: there's NO time! It doesn't exist... so hurry up and wait. Actually, we just got back from a movie (my friend will be reviewing it cus he writes much better than I) and I have to go finish up the chicken dinner. The stuffing is homemade with my own breadcrumbs from my own homemade french bread... *sound of dave's arm breaking from patting himself on the back*

Nap after dinner cus it's another day in the alps for the tour riders. My sleep cycle is rather wierd after two weeks of the tour: Get up around 530 or 6 am (I'm a morning person), read race reports and blog till around 8 am, have brekkie, work a bit around the house till lunchtime, take 2 hour nap, play around on the computer with cool 3d stuff (work!), make dinner, sleep from 7 pm till 958 pm, watch tour stage till 2 am, stay awake for the next hour or two from being wired, then take a nap till around 530 or 6 am. Lather, rinse, and repeat!

Well, since you all come here for some cool pics of exotic wildlife from Oz... Heck, how am I to disappoint my loyal viewers?

This is an eastern rosella parrot. They don't hang out in the suburbs, ya gotta go bushwalking here to see them.

Ever seen a cockatoo with an inner ear problem?

I like koalas. They have the right idea with all the afternoon naps they take! Very wise. This bloke was about 20 feet up the gum tree.

T'was A Cold Winter's Day Down Unda

...and so go the winter days of our lives...

Ha! Just kidding! This ain't gonna be one of them introspective type posts cus I'm not exactly an introspective type of person. I think it may have something to do with the presence of a Y chromosome.

The tour rages on, the Alps loom, and Cadel's team had better support him in the mountians! Ok, enough about that. Lemme put up a few pics cus after all they are the reason you visit my little corner of the world.

This first pics shows you just how horridly cold the winter can be down here:

See???!!!?!? Isn't that just so visibly cold? I mean, the vines are growing and flowering, the hammock chair is still up, the cockatoos are around, the gum tree (branches in the foreground) have already flowered and the gum nuts have formed, and if you look closely you'll see there's 5 inches of ice on the pool! How, I say HOW, can winter get any bleaker... I've turned into such a wuss...

Look! Even this bloke is all fluffed up cus it's so cold this morning:

However cold the winter may get, we take it all in typical aussie fashion though:

"Oi mate, it's winter... What time's the footy on tonight?"

"7 pm. Pass me another tinny mate."

*snore*

Too Tired To Write

Ugh... It's only the first rest day... This is a loooooooong Tour! I just wish the French were a little more considerate of us down here in Oz. Why do we have to the Tour on in the middle of the night? Cadel just got the yellow jersey (hey, one second counts) so should the next stage be run for viewing in his home time zone? Huh? SHOULDN'T IT???!!!!

At least I'll get some sleep tonight on the rest day. That means I might actually be able to write a logical, thought-provoking post. Oops, that damned sarcasm wasn't turned off.

Here's some more pics of cockatoos, galahs, and rainbow lorikeets. Cus I'm all nice like that. 

I really like the shading of the galah's wings. 

On the count of 3, everybody scratch. 1... 2... 3!

Like my wife says, size really does matter.

Busy, busy, busy

I think the title says it all. Busy! And tired! But I'm not above putting up some pics to keep y'all happy while I get my shit together for a couple of long posts:

This is a typical sunrise down here

I know this sunset doesn't have anything in it for reference, but trust me when I say this looked really cool.

I personally like this shot of the cockatoo. It may not be much, but since it's my blog I'll post whatever I want.