Cobweb-Clearing Ride

The weather is terrific here, relatively, so I got my first chance of the year to go for a ride. After spending two hours in the morning fixing up my bike and degreasing the chain and getting all the grit off from last year, we (little e and I) went for a cobweb-clearing ride. No records were broken, but it's damn nice to be on the bike again. Hopefully, weekends like this will come more frequently so that I can get my fitness up quickly. I need to be extra fit to ride with Dennis: he bought a new bike last year.

Now I have to write a talk for Tuesday. I'm glad that I did manage to get outside, even though there's work to do on the weekend.

Trip to Australia (and new Camera)

A bee eating
Originally uploaded by supercooldave

I went home to Australia for the first few weeks of January, with a small stopover in Tokyo on the way there and in Hong Kong on the way back. Little e joined me for the journey. I bought a new camera on the way out of The Netherlands. Just look at the stunning tricks it can perform at the mere press of a button.

Australia was great. The weather was super. My sister got married at a wonderful and modest ceremony. My sister-in-law had gone and got herself pregnant. She was virtually splitting at the sides. My folks were in good shape. Mum even went for a little tumble down a mountain, worthy of Jackass, without a scratch, I might add. Having little e with me meant that I acted as a tour guide and saw a lot more of the country (and a lot less of the cricket) than I normally would. Check out my flickr photo stream for an account of these adventures.