We’ve never owned a car that hasn’t been grasping for the oily rag around 500k’s and then you’re desperately looking for a petrol station.
Well not with the Ford Mondeo Diesel. Could get to Sydney on one tank full.
Pecking Time
July 26th, 2010 by dogbait 7 comments »That time of the year approaches as Mrs Maggie gets ready for the nesting season. This cheeky sod decided that our door mat would provide good nest material.
Then she will repay us cyclists like THIS.
Could be Worse
July 22nd, 2010 by dogbait 6 comments »I’ve been a bit slack with my blogging of late but the truth is I seem to be running out of steam. Maybe it’s the winter blues or whatever.
We’ve been doing a lot of bike riding and we make the most of any good weather to get out and flog the legs. Call me a fair weather cyclist if you like, but at my age, comfort zone is my middle name. We had three great days this week, and while MP was away, I snuck in some extra training.
The stars weren’t lined up too well yesterday as I managed a 9.5 dive off the beast coming into one of the road crossing chicanes along the Rail Trail. The front wheel hit a piece of wood edging and headed left as the back wheel wanted to go right. For an instant, I had similar thoughts as Jens Voigt as his tyre blew out at 70 kph in last year’s Tour De France, “Oops, this is going to hurt”. (The crash is at 53 seconds and he ended up seriously injured)
I’m not capable of those insane speeds anyway, but nevertheless, I landed on my arse big time and one of the cons of clip-on bike pedals is that the bike stays attached as you head south. The bum and hip are awfully sore today and just picking up the soap in the shower is painful. Could be worse. 
Actually, it was, because I arrived back in Drysdale and the coffee man had just packed up so the headache only got worse.
Johnny Wuhu
July 16th, 2010 by dogbait 5 comments »Aka Dogbait Junior, is off to China in a few weeks in an attempt to instil the Queen’s English into students in the city of Wuhu about 300k’s west of Shanghai. Hopefully his graduates won’t end up on this blog!
I visited him this week at his hideaway in Apollo Bay about 2 hours west of OG where I helped him setup a blog so that he can chronicle his exploits to family and friends over the next year or so. His literary skills are far better than mine and I would recommend his missives to all and I’m sure we will be entertained with his usual wit and humour.
His blog is still in development stage but I’m sure my efforts won’t be in vain. Stick him on your reading list and give him some encouragement.
The Ostrich
July 8th, 2010 by dogbait 9 comments »We watched a show last night called “Around the World in 90 Minutes”. It showed the International Space Station doing one complete circuit of our planet and highlighted what was going on in countries below and what happens on the planet in those 90 minutes.
Whether it’s trees cut down, carbon dumped into the atmosphere, increase in population, plastic dumped into the sea all of it makes for very depressing viewing. What was more depressing was the assumption that the world is a great place and nature will fix these problems and everything will be hunky dory. You can bet your bottom dollar that nature will fix these problems in due course but expect half the people on the planet to disappear in a major spring clean.
I could rant on for ages about how stuffed our planet is but you’ve heard it all before. If you need me, I’ll be out the back banging my head against the garage wall or down at the beach.
I’ll be easy to pick out.
Cretins
July 4th, 2010 by dogbait 3 comments »Time to move on. Had a great walk with our friend Tanya yesterday and she’s had similar issues with cretins recently so it was a good therapy session.
I wrote to the Council last week about the variation in standards on the Rail Trail between Geelong and Drysdale and then from Drysdale to Queenscliff. The former 19k section is maintained by the Friends of the Bellarine Rail Trail under the auspices of the Geelong Council who do a great job and the latter 17k section comes under the management of the Bellarine Steam Railway who don’t give a rats clacker for it’s maintenance.
This is a portion of the reply from the council. Bear with me as you’ll be amused near the end.
……..“Firstly I would like to say thank-you for your feedback. It is of great assistance to receive the thoughts of regular trail users to assist us in our future planning.
In terms of updating you on Councils current plans for the improvement of the Rail Trail I can confirm that we have allocated a significant amount of money for track improvement works during the 2010-11 Financial Year. These works will focus on sealing several sites that have been identified as maintenance/safety issues as well as extending the existing sealed sections of the trail further towards Queenscliff. In an attempt to make this money go as far as possible Council will also be apply to the Regional Development Victoria grants programs for supporting funding.
In relation to your comments about the variation between the trail west of Drysdale, and then east of Drysdale, I must advise that Council’s land management authority between these areas varies and this effects our ability to develop the trail to the same standard. This is a result of the existence of the Steam Railway and their management rights over the majority of the lands within the Rail Trail/railway line corridor. We do however support the efforts of the Bellarine Landcare Group in the revegetation / weed eradication works they undertake. I do appreciate you comments regarding the need for additional seating/toilets etc. on this eastern section of the trail and will look at funding these works if the opportunity arises”……………
Mention was made of the Bellarine Landcare Group, and lo and behold, we came across about 100 of them on Friday planting 5000 trees at the old Marcus station site at Banks Rd. They were heading off for lunch as we arrived but I got chatting to Nickie who gave me insight to the great work these people do and high on their agenda is weed eradication and replanting work all along the Rail Trail.
Great stuff but having the Bellarine Railway dudes responsible for the Trail’s upkeep is about as a good as a fart in a spacecraft. They have no interest in maintaining the track and I was told the only thing they do is slash foliage for fire prevention each summer which usually involves slashing all the trees they have just planted.
And here I was thinking that I was moving on from from talking about cretins.
Where’s the Couch
July 2nd, 2010 by dogbait 9 comments »Don’t read on if you want to avoid a vicious Dogbait rant.
What is it with me and people. I must have a face that reads, “Use and abuse me”. I have a few computer skills which attracts calls from friends, friends of friends six times removed and even strangers (they’re 7 times removed) who are on the blower requesting that I fix their computer problems.
I spend hours driving to their house, fixing their computer, giving lessons and sometimes can barely crack it for a thank you or a coffee. I don’t charge nor do I ask for payment and leave it up to the goodwill of the person. If they ask, I profess a fondness for fruit cake for a small job or movie tickets for something more than plugging the power cable back in. For bigger jobs like building a computer, reformatting and reloading all the software or long sessions of tuition, lounging in the Gold Class cinema is appealing. I’d like to inform you that I’m not getting fat.
If I tell you about the latest effort I’ll end up in an apoplectic fit and Dogbait frothing at the mouth isn’t a pleasant sight. If you really want to send me into a maniacal rage, ask me about the former good friend, who for no reason, no longer wants to know us. I know, that’s one no, no, know, too many.
I’m so pissed off with people at the moment that I’m even starting to feel sorry for the next person who rings me wanting something.
Thanks, doctor, I’m feeling better already.
Mixed Bag
July 1st, 2010 by dogbait 3 comments »I had to drive into Geelong yesterday and the bridge reconstruction between Ocean Grove and Barwon Heads continues and is on-schedule to finish by Christmas. The new footbridge is finished and cars are using it for the time being while the rest of the bridge is constructed. There was a lot of controversy over the building of this bridge as interests wanted just one bridge but I’m pleased there is a separate footbridge for us peds and bikers.
Nearing Geelong on the Barwon Heads Rd, I stopped for the “before” picture, and when I do the “after” photo in a couple of weeks, there will be 22,000 houses here. Armstrong Creek is a new suburb for Geelong and the first land sale took place last weekend when 46 blocks were snapped up. As you can see, it didn’t take long for the surveyors to plant their little sticks.
As I mentioned in the last post, winter is well upon us and getting out of the car for a bike ride is a challenge these mornings. At least it isn’t as bad as having to play with your rubber ducky very early in the morning.
Out the back gate is looking particularly pleasant with the recent rain and with the willows losing their leaves.
La Niña
June 30th, 2010 by dogbait 5 comments »Not much exciting happening of late. Still doing plenty of running and biking and have an 80k ride planned for Friday and a long walk on Saturday so that should test the aging muscles.
Getting on the bike on these chilly mornings takes some effort but we soon warm up. Got caught in a downpour last week so cut it short but the bonus on Monday was a 17k downhill with a 30kph tailwind up our bums. Very enjoyable.
Decided to run along the Rail Trail yesterday morning so I dropped by and picked up MM’s two dogs who enjoy such outings. Sent a text to tell her we were off and got a reply later when she was out of the shower to say she’d just got back from a run with the dogs. No wonder they were lagging behind when I finished! I thought Dogbait could be loved by at least a couple of dogs on this planet but not so sure now.
A meteorologist was on TV on Tuesday telling us we were now in an La Niña event where the water surface temperature was warmer hence we could expect “above average rainfall for winter and probably for the rest of the year”.
So what happened yesterday? It rained all day of course.
Cold, wet and miserable now but you won’t find anyone here complaining.
WolframAlpha
June 26th, 2010 by dogbait 3 comments »The power of the internet never ceases to amaze me. I’ve been checking out a web site that is astonishing in so much as it is garnering all the computational knowledge in the world and doing a damn good job about it.
When you go to the site, click on the “More” link below the search box and run the Video Intro first, and after that, don’t tell me you’re not impressed. Click HERE.
A Sheila at the Helm
June 24th, 2010 by dogbait 4 comments »Goodness gracious, how could this happen? A woman Prime Minister in Oz! Heaven help us, why isn’t she at home looking after the hubby and the kids?
Probably because she doesn’t have either and how can you take seriously as PM a barren spinster who mashes her vowels with a sledgehammer. No way I’ll be voting for her.
Well that’s the thinking of some people and a similar conversation overheard in the local supermarket by one of MP’s fitness class partners.
A woman reins supreme in Oz for the first time in our history and we could say about time too considering Oz was one of the first countries in the world to give women the vote.
Good one, Julia Gillard.
Girl Power
June 24th, 2010 by dogbait No comments »About an hour to go until a leadership ballot but it looks like we will have our first female Prime Minister.
What do they say about a day in politics?
Rail Trail and Seals
June 20th, 2010 by dogbait 5 comments »Last weekend, we headed west to Warrnambool and shacked up with Marls and Chris and were entertained with a bike ride and some seal watching.
The new 37k Warrnambool to Pt Fairy Rail Trail is all but completed and just needs some finishing touches before an official opening. There are issues with access to private land near the Warrnambool end so we hopped onto the trail 5k out from Warrnambool and headed through Koroit to the lovely fishing town of Pt Fairy. The trail is mostly through farmland with some small pockets of forest but a pretty good surface to ride on except for some small muddy sections in places. Unfortunately, Chris’s road bike, with it’s narrow tyres, came a cropper at one stage and he managed to land on his head but his bone dome saved him from major grief.
We stopped in Pt Fairy for a coffee and a look-see at the waterfront before heading back to Warrnambool. We stumbled upon an organised bike ride to Koroit where the local burghers thought it a good idea to drum up some winter business by advertising a community bike ride. However, the message hadn’t got out as only a handful of people turned up and they were well ahead of us by this stage.
We arrived back at the old Koroit station and the smell of the snags on the barbie was very tempting to four hungry cyclists and we were soon tucking into some mystery bags and hot coffee courtesy of the Rail Trail organising committee. We got chatting to the leaders of the committee and discovered that they had spent $2.2 million of the Councils and State taxpayers money on the trail so far and then gave us an insight into the hard work that goes to developing these Rail Trails by a dedicated band of volunteers. They told us they only had $15,000 left in the kitty to finish off the Trail and I suggested they put it to good use like a monster party for themselves.
We arrived home to wash the bikes and ourselves and then headed down to the Breakwater to view the antics of a pod of seals who have taken a liking to a fisherman who regularly cleans his tuna catch by the water. A lady asked him what type of fish they were and if tuna made good eating. She obviously has a cholesterol problem.
A small slideshow here and a video clip of the tuna lovers here. The sound is a bit iffy with the video but keep an eye out near the end to see how the seal breaks up large morsels of tuna.
Becky
June 16th, 2010 by dogbait 5 comments »I was going to post some photos of our bike ride along the Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail but it can wait as I stumbled across Rebecca Barry last night and I’ve been splitting my sides ever since.
You have to hear this 8 year old from Dublin making prank phone calls. Apparently she’s a sensation around the world but I’ve never heard of her before. She’s setup by a radio station in Dublin but the kid is smart, cute and quick too.
Start with the call to the demolition company, and if you can get past that one, there are 3 more and several on Update 1 and 2. Hilarious.
I’ve taken the liberty to linking to another blog, Merchant Prince, and check out the 1339 comments! Get it HERE.
The Death Hour
June 11th, 2010 by dogbait 6 comments »That’s what I call the period between 3pm and 4pm. It’s a time I refuse to be on the roads, either running or bike riding, without a serious death wish. It’s the time when mother’s scurry to schools in the area to pick up their little treasures.
Like most kids of my era, we walked to school, usually with friends, and we thought nothing of the 6k return trip each day. The dangers lurking around were prevalent in those days too yet it seems mandatory for children to be driven to school these days, usually in massive 4WD’s with matching chrome bullbars.
While most parents are responsible and cautious on the road, you have a minority who use it as a race track, or worse, doing it while on a mobile phone even though the penalty for this is quite severe. Even worse are those who nibble the bottle through the day and then head off to pick up their kids and this isn’t an isolated case either.
A couple of days ago, I made the mistake of running on a quiet, back road during Death Hour and was confronted by a Ford Explorer being driven towards me by a woman on a mobile phone totally oblivious to my existence. Since there are few footpaths in OG, you run towards the traffic and cars usually give you plenty of room when passing but this cretin drove straight at me and I had to dive into the bushes to avoid two tonnes of rampaging metal. She at least had the grace to stop after I gave he a verbal volley and a waving fist and got out of the vehicle and said,”Sorry, I didn’t see you”. I told her to tell that to coroner when she kills the next person.
Going west for the weekend to ride the Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail which we’ve been told has just been completed.
Probably get run down by a drunken Thomas the Tank Engine!
