29.59 km.
Ride time: 1:41:08
Av. speed: 17.58 kph
Max speed. 41.34 kph

And I found an extra hill by trying a 'short cut' along a track (cross country track near the lake) and came out in the next suburb/village at the bottom of a hill. Duh!

Backing up for 1 hour swim class in an hour's time.

Yes, I do need the time on the bike.

It was a week and a day since I last rode, and, yes, well, I could feel it.

Plan for Wednesday. Further.

***

No "after" shots of clean up yet. Just discovered the camera battery was flat. Bit of a problem this camera battery actually. I think we need to do something about it before the Ride. It's on charge and I will oblige for those that have requested.

I must also actually take the big bags and boxes of stuff out of the house and to appropriate places.

***
Something that made me laugh today:

This letter to the editor (Sydney Morning Herald, today)

Why is Dick Cheney coming to Australia? Is he planning to buy us? Is he planning to steal us? Is he planning to take our PM on a hunting trip?

Tony Turner Tuross Head

That last one is what you call wishful thinking.

***

Something that made me nod my head soberly:

This letter to the editor (first one on this page - though tomorrow I will probably have to change the link when it is no longer the default url for the letters page.)

What a way to start Valentine's Day: at 7am blissful sleep is shattered by the door buzzer. Open the door to be find four guys looking like Shrek's brothers, all wearing pink singlets. The boss sports a gold necklace as thick as rope with a diamond-encrusted chainsaw attached. "Move yer car, mate, we've got a tree to remove."

Not the three-storey-high river gum, more than 50 years old, that is home to thousands of native birds, probably the last "great" tree left in Randwick?

"Yep."

I stumble out of the house and around the corner to a scene out of a Spielberg movie: a pink leviathan the size of a house fills the street while half a dozen pink-singleted loggers stare at me and my little car that is in the way. "No @$#&ing way!" I exclaim loudly.

One of the pink singlets snickers as if he has heard and laughed at this powerless exclamation before. "Yep," says the gold chainsaw man, "council orders, mate."

"See up there, the big ears?" We both strain to see the very small swelling around one of five major limbs. "Yep, big ears, gotta go. Could maybe in a big wind possibly fall."

Fifty years to grow, 50 minutes to go. Why?

One phrase, one crummy little twisted phrase that has come to represent everything that is causing the cancer of mediocrity to eat out the heart of our society: occupational health and safety.

Occupational health and safety, a well-intentioned piece of legislation, was designed to rein in the yahoos or eradicate the cowboys from high-rise building sites. But it has become a bureaucratic excuse to cover butts because of the increasing propensity of Australians to follow our American cousins' vexatious litigious behaviour. A job-creation scheme for dodgy lawyers and spineless yes-men is a more accurate description of the way it has turned out.

If OH&S had been with us from the start, the wheel would not have come around, the Wright brothers would never have taken flight and Neil Armstrong would never have taken a giant step. With OH&S, there should be no trees, nobody could use a beach but everyone's safety would be ensured.

But what is the point of safety when life on Earth no longer exists?

Ian McLoughlin Randwick

***

Oh and a link for all of you with tantruming toddlers out there (and all of us who once had tantruming toddlers!)I think you'll enjoy this. I love the pseudonym for the kid. "Lets call her Vesuvius." LOL.

***

I found something else that was MIA in the house! One of the vacuum cleaner attachments - the round brushy one that is good for cobwebs, and walls and stuff. No excuse now. Another one for the 'it'll turn up' methodology that I tend to operate under. If you wait long enough...

***

I have a busy afternoon ahead of me - swim squad - probably 2km worth of laps of varying intensity. Taking youngest to a tennis lesson tryout after school. Picking up eldest + others from netball training in town. Dumping her at home and racing on to a netball committee meeting. And in the middle of it all buying and feeding my poor children something easy.. probably frozen pies. (Well, der, I'll heat them up of course.) They won't mind... I'll just feel bad for giving them not-so-healthy, convenience meals. Again.)

Labels: bike riding, daily, linkety link