Questioning my sanity (this seems to happen too much for my liking these days) as I rode to work, being passed by sleepy drivers leaving less than a foot between me and their 1.5 tonne steel boxes I was still feeling slow and not in the zone. I wasn’t even close to the zone – I’d need a bus pass before I made it to the zone.

“What the hell zone are you referring to you crazy hippy?!”

I’m talking about the smooth, fast, “what cars?” zone that makes most commutes a doddle.

Taxi drivers would question my sanity if I asked them to take me to the zone, I was that far from it.

Shit.. the point of this wasn’t to talk about the start of the ride it was to talk about the end. 7/8ths of the way in I found my groove, my speed lifted and I felt good to be on a bike again. The sky behind me was a brilliant shade of pink (80’s fluoro? Hypercolour t-shirts?) and the Melbourne skyline as I rolled down Burwood Rd. was (what’s that word all those wanky artists use?) “surreal”.

Outside the CBD was a light dusting of pink cloud “fur” and then as your gaze moved further towards the city centre it suddenly changed form to become a thick white umbrella, just covering Melbourne. It was like the city hadn’t taken its hat off! 🙂

(15min passes)

Now the pink fur has disappeared and has been replaced with the typically-Aussie blue sky along with the typically-Melbourne patches of cloud 🙂

The “umbrella” over the city has shifted into a hue of brilliant orange, the top of which now resembles real clouds – a large mass of rolling orange that will turn white as soon as the sun has fully risen.

What the hell has all this got to do with bikes? Nothing! But it’s my blog so piss off the lots of yaz! 😉

Google Search: stuff

I have lots of “stuff”. 25 years of accumulated “stuff”. I have to move it all somewhere other than my house. It is mega-painful. Throw this out, keep that – but where to put it? On and on it goes, the same questions asked. Will I use this in Europe? Will I use this if/when I return? Is this something I want for sentimental value? Is it really that significant to me that I can’t bin it? What is this? Why do I have 20 of these? I’ll want this in the next few days, but where can it go for now?

Some “stuff” has to be moved before Friday when the bedrooms get painted. Anyone want some “stuff”? I think my most hated word has changed from “work” to “stuff”.

“Australian men (and women; let’s not be sexist) in general, and Victorians in particular, are some of the world’s worst drivers. Unskilled, uncharitable and just plain uninterested, they adopt a standard of driving that falls well short of the mark.“

Take it away cfsmtb:

cfsmtb.blogspot.com – driving us wild

Direct article links:

www.theage.com.au – How to drive like a Melburnian

www.theage.com.au – Driven to despair

I found this link on cfsmtb’s site and thought it was well cool.

“Secrets and surprises among 330 photos as a 90-year-old walks every street in 134 suburbs of Sydney, Australia.“

Link: Walk Sydney Streets

Free ticket to the Thursday session..

Fast cars, nice cars, loud cars, tricky bikes, tricky Roulettes, hot women (literally – the weather was very nice!), waay overpriced food and drink ($3.90 for 600ml water WTF?!?) and a day spent outside rather than in the office. Not a bad day for the price of a train ticket.

Skull & Crossbones stencil art, found on a footpath in Croydon.

Illuminated using my smouldering fingers.. (Click image for more detail)

www.cyclingnews.com

Hanka Kupfernagel strikes a pose

Photo ?: Luc Cromphout

Modafinil – the time-shifting drug

“enables you to stay awake for 40+ hours with close to full mental capacity with few side effects”

Yeah.. I’ll believe it when I see it. Nice thought though – sleep is such a waste of time!! 🙂

“Fit co-ordinated humans can jump higher than five feet and people have been known to get nearly 8 feet of air using the aircraft-grade aluminium Flybar.”

the flybar – think of a pogo stick on steroids

I thought my neighbor had dropped off some mail at my doorstep. Picking it up I notice an envelope from my uni.

“That’s strange!” I thought, considering that I had graduated a few years ago.

“Must be some alumni crap..”

Just before opening the letter I happened a glance at the postmark date.. 23rd of Feb.. nothing unusual about that.. 23rd of Feb, 2001.

I quickly sifted through the other four envelopes: phone bill, insurance bill, flatmate’s payslip, strip club flyer – sure enough, all of them were postmarked either Mar or Feb 2001. Two thousand and ONE! No fscking wonder my insurance expired without me realising!!

I checked them all again – all of them were correctly addressed. I reasoned that were from a lost mail bag, or had fallen behind a sorting desk.

I called Australia Post and asked about the matter. The girl that answered said she hadn’t be there all that long and she was shocked! She spoke to her supervisor about it and her supervisor was shocked!

“I’ve never heard of something like this happening before..”

Personally, it wasn’t an issue for me (it would’ve been had the house burned down and I was unpaid!) and I just wondered what had caused the ‘slight’ delay. We had a laugh about it but they couldn’t offer an explanation so I left my details and if anything is discovered, they’ll let me know.

I’ve heard of mail circulating for 30 years and stuff.. but it’s usually wrongly addressed, or for a deceased person, or a person who’s moved.. these were all correctly addressed and I’m living at the same place to this day!! Life goes on.. 🙂