Monday, November 27, 2006

HOMGWTFBBQ and the beach

Jeez, its been a while since I was at the beach. Let alone far enough up the coast to get to Mullaloo...

Doug had a BBQ at the pad he was house-sitting. Lucky it was hot and the cricket was on, cos it was the perfect occasion to have a day outdoors. Julz and I grabbed a carton of Becks and headed out to the northern suburbs (which is a packed lunch in itself).

When we got there, a few of Doug's mates were there including Kate - a Polish girl! We crapped on in Polish for a while then she told me she had made a Polish salad for the BBQ; oh man, I was gonna hone into that one. And I did.

"Bowling Shane" was bellowing from the telly, with Australia getting an absolute cracker of a score in the first Test.

BBQ was on, beers were on, telly was on. What a ripper day. After lunch we hit the beach with more beer and about 4 litres of suncream.

Kimberley clouds
Adriana minding the esky
"we didn't bring our bathers"
Mullaloo
Oooh, I need a tan
The beach crew
Me and Julz
Becks + Beach = :)
Mid-sentence

Post beach; it was back to Doug's for more beer and the rest of the match. Oh man, I miss the beach.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Decent mixture

Well, fellow readers, It's been a week since I posted and few event have been and gone over the last few days. In fact, a decent mixture of parties, chilling, adventure and just downright silliness!

Let's start with Thursday. It was off to the Hula Bula Bar in the city for the Movember showdown. There were many dashing moustaches to be seen, but the joy of facial hair was overshadowed by the extravagance of this stunning bar. Imagine Gilligan's Island and mix it with a cruise ship karaoke night. That's the Hula Bula way. Tiki huts, crazy cocktails, a talking squawking toucan, music from the 70's and the best part: Polish beer available from the bar. Awesome. It was just the one beer and much gasbagging at the bar, then it was on to the shenanigans part of the evening.

Meeting at the local McDonalds, a few of us rode off to *secret location of private property* to um, make the most of some bike tyres. For me, the cherry was popped, but the tyre was not. Which was the correct answer, as I was to get a new one fitted the next day. I still have some small rubber pellets all over the bike. Teehee! You couldnt' wipe the smile off my face! w00t!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

It was then over to Scabs for a coffee when one of the workers from the food joint asked if I had been on the girls' run. I hadn't as I had been at Hula Bula, but turns out one of the girls had left her ATM card behind. Turbor to the rescue, making calls; location - Northbridge. So off it was to Northbridge for a juice and a yarn.

On to Friday, where Julz rang me in the morning and asked if I was hungry, the regulation answer being "yeah". So it was off to Han's Cafe for some food, when I got a call from the workshop boys asking if we were heading out to lunch. We caught up in the end and even got the good old corporate card to foot the bill. Thanks guys! On a sad note, I had overindulged in said Chinese food and was so full and bloated for the rest of the day.

Back at work and the boss rocks up a day early (rather than coming in on Monday) - spewin! Luckily, he brought over some Swedes from company that were designers/managers. We got chatting and had a laugh, I hope I made a good impression cos I'm trying to get over there! I nicked off around 2:30 just in time to get my new tyre fitted, brake lines measured and then it was off for fun, frolicking and free drinks in the city.

There was an engineering "do" at Carnegies which included free beers and food (mmm, killer spring rolls, mind you I'm still not really over that big lunch, and yet I'm eating again...) Of course, Ben rocks up like w00t! Hadn't seen him in ages, and he's ever so sexy! From Carnegies it was onto the QV1 party where boring office block people finally get to be ever so exciting. Get a phone call on the way and Nic is at box deli spotting me! BAH! Caught up with Bamber and Nicko briefly, then found Wilson later in the night. The atmosphere there was fantastic, so many people were packed in, but the beer selection was limited and cold enough. Again, it was time to migrate. This time, to the Woodside building for more free beers and much bum-grabbing.

Eric by this stage is getting ripe, while the rest of us are taking it easy, as we either rode or drove. Heineken and Crownies (ew) were coming left, right and centre. We were over it. Onto the Belgian! Julz and Eric decide to stay on, whilst Ben, Matt and I head over towards the West-Ende, bumping into Nic again, still at Box Deli.

The Belgian was mega packed, so we settled for cocktails at Epic and lots more gas-bagging. I had also bumped into Gav on the way out, but didn't hang around too much.
It had been a while since Julz and Eric said they'd come down, so we headed back to the Woodside building and intercepted them heading our way. Oh noes!!!1! we keep going and end up getting lots of white wine. At this stage, Eric starts looking unhealthy. I think its time to bail.

We head over to the carpark and I grab my gear. Eric passes out in Julz's car and I know that won't be a happy ending. Matt and I walk to our bikes where some dude has just dropped his $1100 Arai helmet off his bike *tisk, tisk*. I ride home and get an SMS from Julz "Eric just spewed up in my car" - like I didnt know THAT was going to happen!

Saturday was track day. Julz and I went up to check out Ryan on the Ducati baking up Wanneroo and to sort out my brake lines. Unfortunately, it was a little bit of a waste of time, but going to Maccas for breakfast along the way really hit the spot. Thanks Julz! Got a little sunburnt at the track, but didn't really hang around long enough to get too toasted. It was time to head back and service the bike. After much shopping, Subway and general procrastination, it never happened. Too tired, too hard.

Sleepy time, then off to tart up and head out to the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra with Rob. Like HOMG, tell anyone I was wearing a dress and you die! I dropped Rob back home then headed to the Paddo where I caught up with the PSB crew for the "Thank FCUK exams are over" party. Everyone was in fine form especially Robin, who kept asking me to dance but he was denied. *mental note: pinky promise was made to dance with him all nite next time*. I hung around till the lights came on and even volunteered to drive some people to the Mustang bar for the carry-on. Splash and dash, now I'm here. Nando's leftovers at 1am - super. In all, a decent mixture of events.

Today, I have a BBQ at noon, and I doubt if I'll be very awake before then. I will enjoy my sleep tonite.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Red Bull Air Race - Photos

The Red Bull Air Race was in Perth for the last few days, with the main race day yesterday. About 300,000 people packed around the shores of the Swan River to see the event.

Traffic was a complete nightmare and it was stinkin' hot, so I only ended up staying for an hour or so. Not only that, but there were way too many kids!

In all a great day tho, topped off with some beers and a good sleep. Look mum, no sunburn!








Friday, November 17, 2006

It's alive!

My poor bike had an interesting week to say the least. I finally got around to washing her on Sunday, where soon after I realised that she was running on three cylinders. After much contemplating on the possible causes for the next few days, Julz came round yesterday to strip Paris down for the diagnosis. Dodgy spark plug lead - arcing all over the place.

The culprit.

Today I put the rest of her together; tightened the spark plugs, changed the busted plug end and generally checked over things whilst she had the fuel tank off. After only being able to test the bike for about 5 minutes, it all seemed fine and she was back to four cylinders. Good on ya mum for having a go at me for running the bike at like 7pm! I'll have to check and warm her up tomorrow morning, maybe even go for a blat around the blockas well.

Thanks to Julz, Saf and Leroy for your help and tips! Hopefully the bike will remain stable till something else breaks!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Tiger Lil's

It's 1am on Saturday morning, and I'm exhausted. What a great day I had. No, really. Work was pretty straight forward and I was hanging to go out. Tash had put a note out to head out to Tiger Lil's but somehow I wasn't really keen. So I decided to convince Matt and Frank to come out for a cold bev at the Belgian Beer Cafe first.

I managed to spot Nicko, and Richie with the OC girl (Nicko and I both couldn't work out which one she was as there were two girls) during the night too.

We then migrated to Tiger Lil's where we managed to skip the que. Somehow I managed to dump $100 tonight, but jeez I had a great night.

Highlights were comments on my boobs, Robin giving me a neck rub (resulting in a semi), Daise wearing a mo, Saf and Ryan rocking up being hobos, Matt and Robin giving me "bowling" tips, heaps of glass breaking, feeling up Franks nipple ring and missing out on seeing Tash's boob, Jacob being a sleaze, driving Kyle home to Ballajura via Kingsley, and lots of HO-MY-GAWD and fuuuuly effnik!

What a top night. It was great to meet some new people and catch up with some oldies.

Quotes of the night:
Robin: I've been to Singapore. Trust me, I know the definition of "happy ending".

Saf: Can you take me home?
Maya: Now?
Saf: No, I mean can you "take me home"? *wink*
Maya: Haha! Yeah, no worries.
Saf: Cool. Can we go to your house? Cos like, my wife is at my house.
Kyle: I put her hand down my pants and she was feeling my junk.
Maya: Haha, noone uses the word "junk".

Ryan (to Maya): Yeh-nah. I dig it.

Matt (to Maya): HOMG.

Ryan (to Saf): Like she says "dude" more than you do.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Denmark's answer to speeding

Note: may not be work safe






Thursday, November 09, 2006

'MO progress #2

MO MONEY!

The chops got an accidental trim yesterday (musta been thinkin' about me when you were shaving and got excited aye Rhino?) so here's the latest:

I don't like smiling.

Current tally: $495.00
Get into MOVEMBER now!
sponsorship # 38247

Got mah whoop on!

It was Whoop-Ass Wednesday at the Perth Motorplex last night and I was quite excited. It was the first event I'd been to since last season (which ended in May of this year).

It was going to be a big nite with a few fellow riders from PSB and PR going, including Ryan, Frank, Damon, Reece, Matty, Saf and Matt.

Met up with Ryan on the freeway (apparently for a "quickie in his bushes" - gawd that was funny) and rode down to the 'Plex.

My first run was an impressive 13.405s; which compared to my previous personal best of 13.316s was pretty good. I did end up breaking my PB with a sterling run at 9:30pm:
EVENT: Whoop Ass Wednesday
DATE: November 8, 2006
MODEL: Honda CBR400RR
YEAR: 1992
CAPACITY: 399cc
MODS: Roo Racing Pipe, K&N Air Filter
TIME: 13.296s @ 166.27km/h
REACTION TIME: 0.322s (pro-tree format)
EDIT: that's also a new TOP SPEED!

I got 8 passes in for my $40, of which many I beat Matt off the line and caned him on the 60 footers. Until he got into second gear and it was all over from there. I got a couple of decent reaction times during the night as well: 0.100s, 0.056s and 0.054s.

Racing was over at about 10:10pm so I rounded some troops up to head out to Chelsea Pizza for a feed, a beer and a bag-out on Francesco and people working in IT. Nice catching up with you hobos. Till next time!

And like HOMG! there were no photos of me... :(

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

A spot of bother

Most people know me as a free and easy kinda person, there's not much that bothers me. But (OLD) PEOPLE THAT CAN'T FUCKING DRIVE, do. Ready, set, rant!

< rant >
Right. I'm riding along in my usual kinda way; wasn't speeding or really weaving, filtered some lanes, took off reasonably, hugged some corners and generally enjoyed the 20 mins that I have to myself on my ride home from work.

After taking a nice left hander (thanks to Main Roads WA for resurfacing that one, nice job boys!) off Tonkin Hwy onto Morley drive, it was the home straight. Nothing too taxing from there, so I was just on my merry way.

I actually saw a fellow rider without a helmet on. Man, he looked wired. I could see how massive his pupils were through his sunglasses. Weird. Aaaaaaanyway....

So I'm riding along down a hill, at the correct speed mind you, where any normal person in a car would go "oh, there's a bike, won't pull out yet", but NO, not one, but TWO fucking cars pull out in front of me. Now, they're coming in from my right, and I'm in the left of two lanes. Again, the logical choice would be to pull into the lane with no traffic ie: the lane without ME in it; ie: the right lane. Car 1 pulls in, which I've seen and slowed down, and Car 2 then pulls out and I'm like "oh, they'll stay in that lane" and then they keep going! I nearly collected myself into the arse-end of a Ford Explorer!

10 points for an excellent emergency brake; no smoke or locking up at all, very controlled and changed down gears at the end AND even gave her the old 12V horn... but then the adrenalin kicked in and ZOMG did I go fucking mental! I sped up to this old wench who luckily had her window down where I proceeded to serve about 100 profanities and gave her the regulation "what the fuck is wrong with your head?" sign language.

By then I was rattled. I was starting to shake a little. The reality had just kicked in. If I had been doing 80 in that 70 zone, I would have collected myself. Fair call. But, if she had looked for 1 second rather than half a second, she may not have pulled out on me. What if I had my high beams on rather than normal light? What about a high visibility vest? What if I was in a car with small children? Seriously, if everyone, and I mean everyone from cars, trucks, taxis to scooters and motorbikes looked where they were going and weren't so complacent, there wouldn't be close calls like this. And I bet you right now, they happen every day.

Now, I read a statistic today, that motorcyclists have made up 27 of 166 road fatalities in WA this year so far. Twenty-seven (that's about 16%). Regardless of who's fault, there's people out there dying in vehicle accidents. So please, look out for yourself, and the girl on the bike next to you, or the dude in the van behind you. I do however want to conclude by thanking those people that DO do the right thing and look where they're going and are courteous on the roads. I know you're out there... somewhere...
< /rant >

'MO progress #1

Update on the late starter, now the hot favourite...

Still sexy, now just looks more like a crim. Up to $470 of a current target of $1000. At $1000, the head gets shaved! At $2000... we'll see!

Rhino FTW!

Have you supported MOVEMBER yet? Click the link dammit!

http://www.movember.com/au/sponsor, enter the rego number which is 38247 and your *credit card details. All donations of $2 and over are tax deductible...
*It's a secure transaction

Monday, November 06, 2006

Movember

It's MOVEMBER! And if you're not in the loop, then you're just not doing your bit!

Fellow rider "Rhino" is getting sexy with a 'mo this month and if you'd like to sponsor him (like I did) click here.

So help out where you can to raise awareness for Men's Health and grow or sponsor a 'mo this month!
Progress report: Day 4
And put a shirt on! Nah, you can keep it off.... ;)
LOVE YER WORK!

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Walk the line

I finally picked up my HEL braided brake lines today, after ordering them months ago. They were only $110 (compared to the $300+ I was quoted by the local Honda dealer for the same product about a year ago). Now all I need is someone to help me install (read: someone to install) the lines. Saf? Anyone?


In other news, Aaron and Steve from Rilusi Motorcycles had their store pre-opening today. Celebrated with a BBQ and a sausage sizzle, I even rode in the rain for that. And I'm the worst of the sunshine riders. The official opening is next Saturday, so for those interested:

RILUSI Motorcycles
Aaron Mather - Proprietor
Unit 1, 18 Boag Rd, Morley WA 6062
ph 9375 9703
fax 9375 6938
mob 0419 921 884


Tomorrow I'll be attempting to wash the bike then head out for another BBQ (for silly 250 riders) to make some noise and maybe even stop past and watch some of the PR boys play cricket.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Sif

Bailz: SIF NOT UPDATE YOUR BLOG IN A WEEK MAYA!!
Like OMG, the ex-king of drivel telling me to update my blog. Now I've heard it all. Get back to work and beat down upon your subordinates.

Well, not too much to report really. As you know, I was in Leonora the last two weeks and I got back on Friday night. The weekend was cruisy, with little to do other than eat and sleep. Work has been flat out - so much so that today I actually felt ill because I was doing about 15 different things for the equivalent number of people and everyone wanted it done when I was away.

I couldn't even be bothered going to fencing tonight. I just wanted to clean my gumboots and fix the headlights on my bike. As usual, for the 3rd time, it was the high-beam/low-beam switch. I got it fixed in 50 minutes. I think I would have kept that down if I had bothered to see if any wires were being crinked as I was screwing the whole thing back together. I think I'll perfect it for next time. As per the last few times I've fixed the switch, some contact cleaner that I lifted from another mine site and a roll of wet'n'dry made the switch come up a treat; or at least until it gets chockers with dust and shit and it stops working again.

News in brief:
One of my girlfriends went to the Pride Parade on the weekend and picked up a straight guy.

Julz is in Malaysia on holiday for another few weeks so I'm out of mid-week drinking buddies.

Pumpkin is heading to Oz this month - bring me another pair-o-clogs foo!

Mozilla Firefox 2 came out October 24th, so jump on the bandwagon and "rediscover the web", no shit, its a great browser.
So that's about it for this edition, no photos this time, but I did find something super-cool on good ole YouTube... Evanescence doing my fave Smashing Pumpkins song of all time... Zero.