Rach came up to Canberra for a visit again this weekend. Had a fun night out on Friday night for my thirtieth, then it was off to the Blue Mountains for a night away. I must say, the back roads from Canberra to the Blue Mountains are some of the most beautiful I've been on and the towns are overwhelmingly well preserved and completely devoid of tourist trappings. Of course we had to stop for Devonshire Tea.

While searching for a place to stay I found a small B&B located in Katoomba. Built over a hundred years ago, Kurrara has functioned as a guest house for almost its entire life, including a short stint as a bordello!!

We were lucky enough to score the Honeysuckle suite, complete with open fire and spa. The house was decked out with everything we could have possibly desired.

What I did neglect to mention about our scenic drive from Canberra is that the weather was quite unbelievable. Sun, rain, hail and ferocious winds! As we ascended into the highlands the temperature dropped 5-10 degrees . The ice-hazard light came on in my car at under five degrees and it was freezing by the time we reached Katoomba and if you look closely at the first picture below you'll see some white specs to the right. These are in fact snow flakes! No more than two days after Sydney was hit with the worst dust storm for seventy years, we hit this. Of course, the best way to warm up was to head the The Paragon for the BEST Belgian chocolate I have ever had.

The weather didn't concern us too much, soon enough we were relaxed in the tub back at the house then snuggling in front of the fire and watching a movie.

The next morning we went for a short stroll along the cliffs and I found the old Katoomba Kiosk I remember from visiting as a child, still looks exactly the same. Then it was off to Sydney to drop Rach at the airport.

Another great weekend had by us.

Mullet organised an awesome event in celebration of the PM's birthday - called The Beaurocrat. Meeting at Old Parliament House we headed off on an alley cat style race around the lake and finishing off at All Bar Nun, along the way collecting various bits of cryptic information.

All was running smoothly 'til it bucketed down!!! The day had been a strange one, dust storms since the AM then thunderstorms in the evening. We thought we'd missed the worst of the rain as it drifted by Canberra just prior to the start. Half the ride went unhindered until me and Langers were situated at the point of no return - the other side of the lake where it was just as far to go back as to go to the pub. So, after sheltering under a bridge through the worst, we abandoned all competitiveness and went for the beer and pizza!

My ride home from the pub was one I'll never forget and probably wont repeat too soon. There really is nothing quite like riding home through a lightning storm, the roads and paths being lit up every few seconds! Quite an experience.

Now that I've started a new blog I decided to have a look through my old stuff. Today I've chosen just under twenty of my favourite pics from 2007. It feels like so long ago when you see pics from a former life. Enjoy.

The Scott 24hr is coming up in 3 weeks, so I've decided to get serious with my training. Although I'm not aiming at a specific result, I do need to at least qualify for the World Championships next year and the Scott will be my only chance.

At the moment, my training regime goes like this. In order to simulate how shit I usually feel in the last hours of darkness on a Solo 24hr ride, I have taken to having huge nights before a day of training. This leaves me with quite a hangover and lacking a lot of energy, just like the real thing!!!!

And here's an image of the 2 hours I spent 'at one' with my bike today. It was just one of those perfect rides, did the entire outer loop, including Heavy Cow and the Sparrow loop, in an hour 45. Can't wait to get back out to Sparrow Hill this week.

The Mocan guys ran The Royal Hunt yesterday, an alleycat-esque ride through the inner north of Canberra. The weather turned itself on for another great weekend of cycling and the organisation of the event was just as fantastic.

The idea was to ride to a series of locations outlined on the board at the signup area, the further from home base (The Front), the more points it was worth. The Mocan guys added a twist, you had to return to signup after each token was collected, working out well for people like myself and Steve who lacked any strategy and chose locations purely on their proximity to a pub of some description and our condition after the last drink.

It was great to be out and about Canberra seeing other riders navigating their way around town. Presentations were made after the event with some great prizes from Knog and even cash for Damien (what a surprise winner!!). Then we had a few more beers at The Front followed by some fresh Pide.

Another great cycling related Spring event. Many thanks to Mocan for organising it and I can't wait till the next one.

Shopping list for Saturday 19 September 2009:

2kg Mandarins
1 Titanium 1" quill stem
1 Loaf Italian bread (Olive oil and sea salt, soft crust)
400gms Ricotta
1 Crankset - Sugino SR Royal (54t, 44t) 170mm
2 Huge Mixed berry muffins
350gm Provolone Dolce (the soft and smooth one, not the vintage)
1 Nitto 1" quill adaptor
1 Dozen oysters
1kg Lady Finger Bananas
1 Nitto 1" quill stem (100mm)
1/2 kg Ham off the bone
1 Fork (1" 4130 Cro-mo)
1kg Jindebah Cappacino Blend beans (Bronze Medal Winning)

Courtesy of the Bicycle Garage sale, the Canberra Region Farmers Markets and my favourite shop, 'Fruitilicious'.

P.S. Isn't it amazing how fresh oysters, complete with self contained sea water blast, make you feel as though you are in the ocean, even though it's 200km away.

As the weather in Canberra has begun to improve with the move to Spring, Steve decided it'd be a perfect opportunity to run another Tweed ride. The weather really did turn itself on and was the first day over 20 degrees since before winter.

We met up at Remembrance Park for tea and shortbread before conducting our usual pass through civic.

The reception we received was cheerful as usual before we headed passed Floriade and over the bridge for a tour of the lake.

It was a great show of faces and fashion, with over twenty tweeders. You could smell the old man odour emanating from our vintage threads miles away.......well, mine at least. Eventually it was time to hit the grassy parkland on the other side of the lake for blue cheese, oysters, champagne, gin and whatever else people pulled from their panniers.

The time to relax was over once I got everyone on their feet for the Sherry race of the century. The idea was to ride, holding a glass of sherry, from the start line around a marker and back. The first to do so without spilling their beverage and successfully drinking it once over the line, was the winner. The races ran smoothly for the qualifiers, until Adam decided sherry wasn't hard enough and started filling the glasses with Jameisons. This was fine for most of us but Malcom, being the eventual champion of the world, had to endure over four rounds to win the tittle. Needless to say he was a bit frazzled by the end.

Next was the competition for the heartiest greeting. Phrases like 'old chap', 'dandy' and 'tally ho' were flying until a shock revelation was made by Wendy that she was pregnant, the two finalists decided that they were not only long lost friends but about to parent a brand new tweeder together!!!! No one could decide on a winner and they shared the spoils.

More frivolity ensued as we played a spot of cricket before retiring to the Parlour for Martinis and deep fried chillies.

The last stop for the tough tweeders was Cornelius and Wendy's house for late night stew (once we performed the circus trick of fitting four people and four bikes in the elevator).

Much fun was had by all again. Couldn't ask for a more pleasant day out really.

Massive thanks needs to go to Steve again for devising the scheme.

Just some pics from my old blog. Experimenting with the new format. Enjoy.

Well this is my new site. Blogspot was too much of a pain to upload photos to. Considering most of my post these days are photo related I thought it'd be a bit easier to start from scratch with a provider that allows bulk photo uploads and far more freedom. Justin actual pointed me this way and I think some of you may find his material interesting so please have a look at judhampson.com, check out his first few blogs for an idea of where he plans on going (far more engaging than my  random photog/cycling/drunk rants). Anyhoo, more to come, as usual.

If you'd like to see some of my old stuff go to www.tyld.blogspot.com