Wow, what a week! Seemingly not a minute to myself. Between muddy mountain bike racing and beer drinking exploits it's been quite memorable.

I suppose there's no real reason to start the post with an image of the Facebook User* apart from the fact that I love the photo and I think it captures the good times with her in a nutshell somehow, I suppose that's why I like photography . It was her birthday breakfast and my first visit to Urban Food. Freakin' yum.

Of course there was a series of races during the week, at which I got quite muddy, but come Friday all was dry and good once again. I made the most of it all by riding, more. One of those moments of clarity occurred on Friday arvo while weaving through the quasi rainforest of Majura pines; a lot has to be said for being out there by yourself...

Beer League IV was held on Friday night, 11/11/11, the honorary birthday of Canberra One Gear Society (COGS). Started innocently enough with vego grub and a six pack each at Ainslie before we headed for Dairy Flat Road for an 11:11pm race start. Under the gaze of a full moon the idea was to conduct a relay race, approximately 1km in length each leg. The clincher was the fact that you had to devour a beer at the end of each of the four legs and that no lights were allowed. My career has been punctuated by many a drinking game, a 'culture of drinking' exists in my line of work, so I did have an inside line on the need to expel as much gas from your stomach as possible after each hefty guzzle (for me it was a finger down the throat while riding between ends, not dignified in anyway; must have sounded like a charging wildebeest to the untrained eye). It was a fierce battle, with my main competitor being Marty the Canadian, who had avoided the pre-race drinking but seemed unable to hold his dinner down, he finished behind me, bike and body covered in his own vomit. The alcohol hit me roughly ten minutes after race finish, kind of a double up on the conventional race finish high.

Saturday Eddy invited me out on an expedition to the old CSIRO buildings in Yarralumla. Surprising and mysterious place.

Rach and I devoured a few reds on Saturday night and visited quite possibly the worst pub in Canberra. Don't go to Sirens, ever.

Luckily Sunday was another perfect day and time for me to teach Eddy to paddleboard. Okay, he fell off a few time but his determination rewarded him with a new experience that I think he's quite keen to try again!

Then of course Bike Polo on Sunday arvo. Pretty much more of the same awesome fun whacking a ball around the court, with one exception.......

Eddy took a big fall! Ended up at a hospital, lots of blood, and some kind of immensely swollen thumb. Verdict to come.

And to top it off, a random image of Nick's DIY tilt shift lens, brilliant!!