Goodbye 2010.

It's 3 in the afternoon and I'm about to go to sleep (I'm on holidays, mmm'K?).

Before I do, I thought I'd whack up some picks from out little snow ride a coupla days ago. Fun.


Thanks for reading (and for commenting).

See y'all next year.

Holidaze

Wow. One never really realises how tired one is until one takes the time to allow one's body to relax (or, like last week, one catches the cold-from-hell and said body decides itself to shut down for a few days).

I'm in that happy holiday fug where I neither know nor care what day it is. It's officially the middle of my time off.

And Sleeping 10-12 hours a night is wonderful. Yes, Sleeping with a Big S, because when you sleep that long two nights in a row it's worthy of respect. Yes.

Silly season was quiet but fun - personal higlights being getting the kids' Xmas presents right, and riding great singletrack with a good friend (in almost freezing but dry conditions). Rode Saturday and Sunday, ride today, will ride tomorrow.

Bikes are fun.

Oh yes.

Yes, I'm single.

Can you tell? Is it the weird, glazed look in my eyes? The way I salivate for no apparent reason?

Or is it that, like Tom Hanks in Castaway, I name inanimate objects?

Meet Woody.
Woody is the latest creation of my OCD. On Thursday night I saw a small super-trick looking foldable titanium wood stove for hiking, and came "this" close to buying it. I was held back by the price - about a hunnerd denooleys. For once I reined in my impulses, went home and did some googlin' to see if it was the real deal. Mixed reviews. Phew.

I found out that there are many kinds of hiking-friendly wood stoves, and most of them require either an engineering degree to build or at least a longer attention span than I possess. Long story short, Woody is a hybrid of my own ideas and impatience with some designs created by smart people on the interweb.

I did a little field-test late this arvo in about 5deg conditions in the local semi-secluded park, and this thing ROCKS!!! I had 500ml of water boiling in less than ten minutes from arriving at the park, and I only had to use a piece of paper napkin and a handful of sticks. Win.

Having wasted many an hour trying to build home made ultralite cooking systems in the past and never being able to solve the 'fuel problem' this stove is a revelation. If I ever find myself somewhere there aren't any (dry) sticks, it can run on fuel tablets too and then doubles as a wind screen. I have a little tin that fits right inside to hold hexamine or Esbit tablets, and the mug also fits inside when the handles are folded in. Compact.

Oh yeah, the weight: 92g.

The cost: Whatever the electricity bill is for about four hours of running my computer to search the subject and work this out. I estimate 6.4yen. I already had the coffee can.

Mid Week Sneak Ride

I got out for another "MidWeekSneak" ride today after school - an hour bash around the park again, and as we're just days away from the shortest of the year, lights were mandatory, but the upside is that I had the place to myself. Was cold - only 5 degrees with a chilly wind blowing, but that's still manageable, and I seem to have acclimatized to winter now, not feeling any signs of a cold. WooHoo.

In other bike geek-ish news, I yesterday continued the hunt for the source of my squeaky rear brake - and found it.

Cheap brake pads. Back to time-proven Shimano (XTR, gotta use it while I'm here and can afford it!) and the quietness is BLISS! It's that semi-ecstatic feeling you get when that chronic toothache is finally gone. Or something like that. Whatever, it's good.

Oh yes.

Tuesday. (Warning: Thinly veiled and un-veiled expletives below)

Is finished.

Crap day at school today. Kids weren't too bad for Grade 6ers, but some d@#$%^bag of a teacher really got under my skin. I left a flachcard on the photocopier, later couldn't find it anywhere - except finally in the garbage bin.

So this is an A4 sized colour printed card on special glossy paper that is obviously IN USE as it was on the photocopier; what's more it has ENGLISH on it and I'M THE ONLY ENGLISH TEACHER yet some rude prick of a teacher knowingly THREW MY CARD IN THE F*CKING BIN!!!!!

I'm so over that friggin school. To that remaining-nameless Elementary School, you suck.

/rant off.

I DID sneak out for a fun little night ride tonight to blow off some steam - screamed around the local walking tracks for an hour under starlight - was fun. Came home and then fixed my squealing brakes. My order of action sucks. But it was still fun. These days I feel very lucky if I can get out on the bike mid-week.

Photo Friday.

This picture explains what I've been doing with my free time this week (which is a lot less than it used to be).

This twisted hunk of metal should not, obviously, look like this; rather it is the aftermath of the massacre that was involved in removing said small but critical part from a bike that I am about to sell. The great news is that all the damage inflicted was upon this small, stubborn and (ex)stuck part, so the actual bike itself is still fine. Quite relieved about that.

No riding this week, as it is too damn cold and dark most mornings and evenings and I stuggle to drag my weary carcasse out of bed at seven even now. I'm back to lame workouts and reading on the internet about other people riding during the week, but tomorrow is a different story.

One late bit of good news today is that I scored a new part time gig for my last three months here, which is worth quite a bit of money. It will also use up my remaining free weeknights so I am going to be a busy little bee as THE DAY comes closer, but is well worth it. I figure I can sleep once I get home.

That's all. Time to go back to the beer.

My legs hurt.

I smashed myself in the Alps d'Asuke today. 72km with two big climbs, and I had new toy passion running through my veins so what was intended to be a lazy, cruisy Sunday afternoon ride turned into (a bit of) a hammerfest.

New toy? kinda - new rear wheel. Kinda. James gave me a wheelset back in February to throw out in the metal garbage (after he left) as his awesome power had untimely ripp'd the rim from the spokes. Well, nine months later, I got the bike shop to slap another rear rim in there, and presto! I have a (for me) light, racy road wheelset. Best wheelset I've ever owned, that's for sure. It's gotta be good, I mean, it says RACE on it!

Anyway, attention spans and all that, here's a photo.
Exciting, isn't it?

There were more switcharoos of parts but I'll spare you more excitement today. I have to think of liability. Last bit of news, I also scored some cyclocross tyres for a bargain at the bike shop last night, I think they're gonna be even better than the new wheel, as they say PRO on them (I'm pretty sure that 'Pro' trumps 'Race'). Stay tuned for e-reviews soon...

Bikes are fun.

Kids Rock.

Had I posted this on Tuesday night, it may have been "Kids are awful, heinous, evil little @#$%s" however today is a new day, and two (actually three) great things happened today to make me smile.

1. I taught Grade 5. This is my favourite age of kids - old enough to have some intellectual interaction in class, but still without that "We're kings of the school" that Grade 6ers (can) have, or the growing pains that many of the Grade 6 girls are experiencing that make them just impossible for everyone, least of all a hairy round-eye like me.

Grade 5 loves me, and I love them. Awesome classes. It's so cool to be someone's hero.

2. I played basketball with some Grade 6 boys after school, and they had as much fun as I did (lots). This is the second time, and I can see it means a lot to them, this kind of relationship is almost essential for them to have any interest in English (sadly at today's school with 190 kids in GRADE 6 ALONE it's very difficult).

I wish I could do this more, for them, but also selfishly for me, as it gives me friends and allies in the classroom, and I need them.

3. Saved the best for last: I bumped into my old neighbour in the supermarket tonight, with her two littlies - son 3, daughter 2. They kinda remembered me, which was nice, but while talking to Mum, the little dude dropped an absolute cracker of a comment, I'll never forget it. Mum and I were discussing that I was just on my way home from work (hence the suit...yada yada yada) and that we were busy etc... when her son came out with

"Yeah, I'm busy too - got heaps of work to do at Kindy."

Mum and I both nearly lost it, not only at the comment, but the nonchalant way he just rolled it out - what a gem. Why do these things never happen when the video camera is rolling? (Excpet for the coconut-dance, but forget it Pop, that's a whole different kettle of fish...)