Moby – Alice

With a bar going in across the street, and the building owners ignoring my “let’s go halves” requests to have double glazing installed to deal with the noise, I’ve begun to look a bit harder at buying a house. In a good twist of timing, my flatmate has just got one himself.

So I’ll move in with him, save a bit of money, deal with some debts and get myself into a better financial position. It’s farewell to my apartment, a partial goodbye to Petone, and one suburb across to Moera. One Tardis bike bag, and I’ll bike to the bottom of Ngauranga Gorge 2-3 times a week, chuck the bike into the Tardis and ride the bus to the top.

Until of course I shed another 5-6kg, getting 96kg of me (down almost 20kg since France!) and my bike and a backpack up Ngauranga Gorge takes a lot of energy.

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – Look For The Woman

I have blogged before about the Drunken Street Preacher but he’s been quiet as of late. Until this morning… maybe.

During a lull in my sleep at about 5.30am, out of nowhere I was awoken sharply by someone yelling “I’ll fucking kill you!”

Must have been pretty loud for me to hear it that clearly, I initially thought it was inside my apartment – but not my room, so a bikeseat post, of all things, was the first thing in my hand from underneath my bed. Enough to knock a man out, not enough to bludgeon with though. A quick ninja sweep of my apartment and a check of the stairwell and doors revealed nothing. I looked out over the street and saw nobody, I figured I was imagining things and went back to sleep.

This morning I asked my flatmate if he heard it, which he did.

Who needs Shortland Street when you’ve got Jackson Street?

So while I can’t confirm that it was definately our beloved Drunken Street Preacher, it certainly fits his modus operandi.

Minuit – Menace

On Saturday I enjoyed a good sleep-in, but it was not to last. I was roped into doing a cycle leg of the PetoneMan duathlon, like, drop of a hat notice. So it went like this:

Peter – First running leg
Benny – First cycling leg
James – Second running leg
Me – Second cycling (and final) leg

Benny and I shared my bike, however I did not have enough time to put the slicks on before Peter got back, and it’s a good thing too – while James was running I swapped the knobblies for the slicks and straight away had a bung valve on my rear tube leaking air all over the place. Fortunately I’d had the forethought to take a couple of spare tubes, so I had the tube changed, the tyre back on and inflated just in time for James to arrive, then it was on like Donkey Kong.

Carrying extra weight in the form of equipment and my own extra mass (yeah, I’m a sedentary fatty), and battling into a headwind on the dodgy road shoulder from Eastbourne to Petone, I didn’t hold much hope for a decent run. In fact I slotted into a very nice 120rpm cadence with a 4 gear range and maintained 26-32kmh the entire way, with a brief respite from the wind coming along The Esplanade where I was creeping up the gears and the speed, only to be cut off by some nitwit in a Subaru Legacy, before being slowed by some dawdling old lady out for her Sunday drive… only a day premature there, nana.

Regardless, I had a very strong ride and passed several less experienced cyclists who, besides being exhausted from doing the previous 3 legs by themselves, hadn’t figured windload into the equation and were struggling quite badly. A few of them were on pretty expensive and probably borrowed roadbikes too. So I was feeling pretty good at the end of the leg and the standing ovation at the finishing line was pretty choice too. So I might just be motivated to startup running again and try Petoneman by myself next year… Just waiting to see if my photo appears on the Petone Mighty website…

Update: Picture here in this gallery

Lemon Jelly – Ramblin’ Man

Old and busted, meet new hotness.

Today my new jimi wallet arrived. It is a wallet made in the United States out of recycled and recyclable materials, and 1% of the proceeds go to the 1% initiative. Being plastic, it found a quick underground following among outdoor sports enthusiasts, specifically cyclists and skiier/snowboarders, for its rugged shower and shockproof nature. Fortunately it has other great aspects, such as teaching wallet frugality – the endeavour of cutting down the content you carry around, ensuring that you’re not lugging around unused library and video shop cards and receipts, and it has the capability for lanyard attachment making it excellent for travel; For those who aren’t comfortable with simply using their relatively pickpocket-safe front pocket, a concealed lanyard is better than a bumbag/fannypack or one of those under-shirt vest things. Because just what you need in another country’s humid summer is more layers, right?

Compared to its predecessor, a standard issue geek wallet – a $7 Farmers Mazzoni affair with more card pockets and hiding places than you can throw a stick at, the Jimi just seems to make sense. Unfortunately for the leather wallet it is thick, and especially when packed with unused cards and receipts it becomes quite thick and unweildly – you could probably beat a man to death with it. It does make your pocket stick out and takes focus away from your obvious codpiece though. Also it’s made of leather, which makes vegansexuals cry; it just adds to your walking animal graveyard self, because somehow being a walking compost heap suddenly makes them enlightened.

So there’s got to be a better way, an environmentally friendly way that cuts out the useless guff infesting most wallets. While searching Trademe for a business card case (a popular alternative) I came across the Jimi wallet, which as it turns out is popular among cyclists. And hey, I’m a cyclist – sort of. So I investigated and decided to get one.

It claims to hold five cards and three folded bills (that’s “notes” for those of you not from americanland), though in my one I got one monthly train pass, a thick door security card, a proximity bus pass smart-card, a driver’s licence, a VISA, an EFTPOS card, a train ten-trip and a couple of business cards with room to spare. You can also get them in a multitude of coloured shades, I elected for plain old clear for obvious practical reasons.

The only downside, however, and frankly, for traditional single-guy wallet users is that as a single guy with a typical wallet you normally have a condom or three *just in case.* The Jimi does not really have the space for a permanent “just in case” condom, though you can squeeze one standard (I mean, extra large ) in the gap left in the middle if you’re going out on the pull.

R.E.M. – Bad Day

When I went for the interview at my current job my boss told me “you will f*ck up, you’re only human, but rest assured that the rest of the team will be here to help you pick things up and make sure you don’t do it again”

It seems that the time is nigh for this very speech to take effect. Today I rode in, got halfway up Ngauranga Gorge (to about Kiwipoint) before my quads started severely cramping, walked the rest of it with my bike, Joplin, at my side. I was tasked with moving 3 switches from one rack to another – something I considered would be straightforward, a few hours work and I’d be back home with enough sunlight left to get my WiMAX connection sorted once and for all.

Oh how I was wrong, 12 hours later and it’s all gone pearshaped. It’s about 90% done, two subnets are not talking to one another and I cannot figure out why. In retrospect I should have done this yesterday, leaving today to be the day to fix up any mistakes. What it looks like will happen will be that we’ll get things *just* working tomorrow morning, and I’ll have to re-audit the floorplan and come in next weekend and finish it all off properly.

At least I know now that I can get up to 70kmh on Joplin going down Ngauranga Gorge.

*sigh*

Here tis, my cycle commute. Mapmyride has to be one of the most powerful yet most infuriating things to use. Alas, ignore the errant stop points, they are false and refuse to go away when I update the route, and ignore the lack of notes which are not displaying. I’ll figure those issues out eventually, probably with re-doing the whole thing

I can’t wait, of course, to give this route a nudge on my new bike. However, hosting guests at my pad has really messed up my cycling chi – due to the space being taken up I haven’t been able to setup my Durango on my trainer, I haven’t been able to get my workstand out to assemble the new bike when it arrives and I haven’t been cycling my usual 2-3 times a week. It has also affected some projects that I’d like to get done. Regardless, Tijs reminded me that the Tour de France should be going on when I’m over there, so that might inspire me

Audioslave – Bring Them Back Alive

Jim the Eagle just dropped me off in Newlands and I had to navigate my way through the ranges back to Petone, which meant a high probability of dealing with the Horokiwi open pit mine. He took a photo, because there was the minor risk that I’d be riding off an unmapped cliff at high speed. I was wearing some of my winter wear – my Ground Effect Baked Alaska to wick away the sweat, underneath a Kuta Lines tee. I also had my New Balance riding shorts under some boardies, my Wellgo MTB shoes and my T7 hydration backpack. Finally, my Bolle Extreme’s, helmet and 661 downhill winter gloves. The bike is a Jamis Durango 2.0 hardtail.

About a third of the way through the descent, I stopped to reflect on the difference between mine and nature. Then I realised that the only nature there was gorse, so my attitude switched to “fuck nature”, because I hate gorse. *Applies Savlon to his gorse wounds* Unfortunately I was a bit busy with the descent and not falling to my death to take plenty of photos, and the pit was cast in shade so my phone camera was struggling with the lowlight as it was, needless to say I don’t think I’ll be hurrying to re-explore the mine. I was just a little out of my comfort zone – parts were so steep I had to dismount and sidecrawl down, making it probably a Grade 4. Extreme downhillers are more than welcome to apply though.

The view was nice though. Amazing in spots. And in saying that, the route I did take was a little spastic.

I think this kind of “drop you here, navigate your own shit” type of cycling is awesome – it’s an adventure. Though basic orienteering safety does have to be taken into account – I had pretty good bearings and had studied high-resolution maps of the area, so I was ok. Plus I was in an area where if I got lost it wouldnt be such a biggy – pick a direction and stick to it and you’ll wind up in civilisation pretty quickly. It’d be cool to do this in unfamiliar territory with a GPS and a map though…

“For the rich, there’s therapy. For the rest of us, there’s mountain biking.” – anonymous

Concord Dawn – Man for all Seasons

Well, that was a bad ride home. I did it in great time, however my left ATAC got a bit chompy which meant I almost fell over at the Ngauranga intersection of death. Not wanting to be flailing on the ground still connected to my bike in the middle of a lane with oncoming traffic is one of the reasons I got the Time Z ATAC pedals and cleats in the first place. Maybe it just needs to be broken in a bit or adjusted slightly.

Anyway, there was only the lightest whiff of wind at ground level, the main problem was rain and too many cars. So it’s time for the following:
* Switch back to knobblies on my Durango for the extra grip – more on that soon
* Purchase some protective booties. I thought these were a silly idea, until I arrived home with what can be described as swamp shoes. Back to the loch with you, nessy!
* A front guard to help prevent surface water rooster tail ending up in my face. Though that does cause you to ride in a more aggressive position…
* Shellwear. Fortunately I ordered a Flash Gordon today. I might add a CAN backpack cover to help me survive the dim months

Now, why did I mention “more on that” when I discussed putting the knobblies back on?

(Google Maps original)

The potential job has potential commute routes over the ranges, on top of the boring but deadly motorway routes. That’s climbing and downhill, I’ll be needing plenty of grip. Green = potential routes to work, red = extra potential route home, and the Horokiwi Quarry has a few routes itself. Unfortunately it’s too steep to be a viable to work route, but a bit of downhill to wind down after a day at the office is tops in my book

1 Giant Leap (Featuring Michael Stipe & Asha Bhosle) – The Way You Dream

I cycled home today with a headwind the whole way, I did have one good stretch about halfway along the Hutt highway doing 30kmh, but battling a headwind is hard slog and I found myself becoming distracted. Letting your mind wander while you’re riding along a state highway is just plain dumb. Unusually though, my legs are now aching. But at least they’re bulking up and I think it’s time I focused on other parts of my health.

Between now and the end of the month I will have one bottle of whiskey to get through and then that’s it – my cache of booze will be gone, and at the start of next month I’ll go on a detox. I’m also considering a full blown three day juice-fasting detox. After that, I’m cutting right back on the booze, or specifically binging and aiming to get drunk for no really good reason. Being able to down a bottle of whiskey, half a dozen beers and still go to work the following day is not good. Polishing off four dozen beers over a weekend and not being that badly affected is not good. There are guys who would brag about such drinking prowess, and they’re fools. I’ll still drink, I just won’t get fubared.

If things werent so uncertain at work, I’d join their gym – it’s free for anyone who works in an RJ Holdings building. Then there’s yoga – I havent really had time to check out what’s out there in Petone, but I know of the uptown gym doing courses, monsoon yoga and apparently one of the ladies at the health store next to the Screaming Turtle takes beginners classes. There is of course Bodyright Pilates as well. I also think my cardiac fitness is up enough for me to start running again – I’m creaky compared to what I used to be, and I wont be running 5km runs like they’re nothing due to my hernia scar firing random nerve pulses to my brain (which registers as pain), but I’ll start with a run around Petone Rec, then gradually build up to 30 mins of running around Petone Rec (while trying to increase the distance covered in those 30 mins).

I had a hard time explaining to my Austrian engineer colleague today why New Zealanders are so obsessed with sport. Maybe because we dont have the French or Mediteranean parodoxes here in fish n chips NZ!

For my brother Matt, click for more detail:

Okay, I have the goals in place, but right now my motivation is dipping again – damn biorhythm *sigh*

Maybe this weekend out of Wellington will reenergise me… And apparently I’m 9000 days old today!

Incubus – I wish you were here

This little bastard is all it takes to ruin my chi. Shown with a standard M3 screw for size reference. It shouldnt be called an M3 screw, given that it’s not an M3 thread *rolls eyes*

Though I made the most of it – I was late for work anyway, so I took my time replacing the tube in my back tyre. I enjoyed the morning sun, and the din of the Hutt highway traffic contrasted with the sound of the harbour going about its business. It was almost therapeutic. And I was reminded of another reason why I like to cycle – it’s fraternal: So many other cyclists slowed down and asked if I needed anything.

But damn, what a difference a properly matched and inflated tube can make – I’ve been running a 1.95″ that some arrogant jerk at some random cycle shop gave me instead of the 1.25″ I specified. I should have taken it back and thrown it at him, but instead I got a 10-pack from Torpedo7.

Tube at a bike shop = $11
10 pack online = $25-30

dee – ewe – aych