A Night with Curry and Pepper - Margaret River

After the success of the very many Curry Runs with added Pepper, an overnighter became the "next big thing" to do for the crew.

Saturday was the day of the Federal Election, so imagine me rocking up at the local kindergarten with my leathers on, wearing a backpack and Camelbak. I had a few strange looks but everyone else had a bit of a chuckle considering it was also going to be 35 degrees and it was already hot as buggery at 8:30am when I went to vote. Liberals didn't win anyway. Spewin'

We all met up at the usual BP petrol station, filled up, had a gasbag, dropped our backpacks off and left not long after 10am. The relatively early start meant that we could ride for the best part of the day and still arrive in Margaret River in daylight. God knows where I was half the time, but the roads were terrific wherever we went. It was hot and there were many flies, but with the Camelbak and a closed visor, all was well.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to pee with a one-piece leather suit? Especially when everyone is in a hurry and all they want to do is keep going? You can't rush these things!

2 days, 11 fuel stops, 8 bikes, 985.6km and some memorable moments. In summary, "I don't want to wake up with an ass full of twenties", "watch out for the papercuts", "chik, chik, poew", "go awaaaaay", "are we there yet?"

Thank you to Dalip for leading over the weekend, Tristan and Jase for riding with me down Radiator Road, Dan for tagging along in the car and honking along the whole way and of course the true gentleman... Savi. You're a fucking champion mate, there's no one quite like you! =)

The crew

Who?

The procession

O RLY?

Bunbury

Beware of the Savi

Many kilometres

And even more... bugs!

A Bit of an Update

It's hard for me to update a blog if I don't have photos. I've actually been doing a fair few things over the last two weeks, none of which have any photos. The origin and fundamental reason for me actually starting a blog was to have somewhere to share my pictorial stories, rather than rattle on with just werds.

This will be one of those rattles.

I was in sunny Leonora about two weeks ago, a splash'n'dash visit of only two days where I did a bit of software training, did some quality control checks and helped out with some troubleshooting of a rig. The weather was superb, the roadhouse chicken burgers were hot and tasty and the trip all round was pretty good. I had flown into Kalgoorlie and chose to drive to site rather than taking the site plane, so I could spend some time in the Kalgoorlie office and crash out for a night there as well. Oddly enough, I spotted an old uni mate Drake in the Qantas Club lounge in the morning. We got chatting and decided to catch up for dinner on the night I was to spend in Kalgoorlie. It was a terrific night, great food, lots of laughs and two bottles of red. Best part was, it was all free :D

It was a fairly academic drive up to Leonora however. One of my workmates Al, gave me two albums to listen to; one on body language and one on the history of English. I listened to the Body Language one up to Leonora and the History of English on the way back. I was amazed at how interesting the English language and the language of the body really are! I will listen to them again in the future because its hard to concentrate for 2 and half solid hours, also whilst driving.

After that, not much was really happening at work.

On Saturday an old mate came back from Sweden with his new girlfriend for a summer holiday.
Pete and Erika came round after lunch to pick me up and off we went to the Swan Valley. I was pretty hungry but I hadn't eaten all day so basically, all I wanted to do was eat.
We went to Elmar's for food, cheese and garlic bread, kassler, wurst, sauerkraut... and of course a stein of pilsner to push it down. I must be out of form because it took me a hell of a long time to finish it off, and even then I left a little at the bottom of the ceramic HB mug.

Off to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory where we pigged out on samples of dark chocolate. I stocked up with my usual 70% cocoa buttons and a few other chocolates including the honeycomb crunch. *chomp*

Saturday night Sean picked me up and we went to Simon and Annie's for dinner, played Guitar Hero II then went bowling at the Rosemount where I came last in both games and still never got a gutterball on the first go. Got a couple of strikes but nothing sterling. I wish it had been bumber bowling. THAT is where its at.

Aaaaand back to work this week where again, not much been happening. Next week should be alright as I'm heading over to Townsville for a quick two-day stop.

This weekend however should be a ripper. It's the first Curry Run Overnighter in Margaret River. I'm looking forward it, ripping along the country roads, sinking beers with the boys as the sun sinks after a hard days riding.

More photos to come. (soon)

OMG!!!

Blackberry test for mobile blogging bitches!
Maya
This message was sent from my BlackBerry handheld.

2007 PSB Trackday

It was delayed by 5 months. We waited and waited until that first Sunday in November, for the PSB Trackday. It was a perfect sunny day, with a cooling breeze, some light cloud and the R1 was ready to sing its way around Wanneroo Raceway.

I had spent the Saturday waiting around for Robin to finish his bike, only to have mine washed last minute. It came up a trick though and we were both terribly excited to be heading out again.

The day started with stumbling across Sean, Glen, Hornet and Ryan at the BP in Wanneroo. Nice of them to wait for us /sarcasm. Off to grab some cash and off we went to Barbagallo. I was so excited to be heading up there on the R1; it would be my second time up there, but this time I would be in a pretty fast group (Group B) with a lot of familiar riders, so the pace was going to be quick! I had my new red knee sliders on my suit as well so I was keen to scrub those in too. After spending the last day bringing back the brightness in my white leathers, I was ready to ROCK!

Once at the track I signed in, grabbed my PSB Trackday 2007 limited edition pit shirt and headed back to the bike to tape it up for the day. I had noticed that someone had already started taping it up so I started ripping it all back off again and went over the bike with black race tape and a fine pocket knife. I had to make sure it was picture perfect.

The timetable of the day was set so that the four groups would have five sessions of 15 to 20 minutes, with a lunch break in the middle and a pillion session. Now THAT was what I was really excited about. Robin had the pillion seat and pegs attached just for me to hop on the back and it was a total blast to be going ape-shit around Wanneroo like that.

With the brilliant Continental tyres and fresh brake fluid, the bike was feeling fantastic. After a fairly slow and non-enthralling first session, the second session was interrupted by an off - a red GSXR. No injuries, just cosmetic bike damage. In the third session things were feeling much better and I could tell that I was getting faster. Not as many people were overtaking me :P

It was then the lunch break and the pillion session where Robin and I were out flat tack, so much so, that at some points I thought I was going to let go of the bike. It was getting a little bit painful to keep holding on so tight so we dropped it down from 11 to 9 out of 10 and still kept excellent pace.

I had some excellent comments from the instructors saying that my lines were spot on and that my corner speed was amazing. Which is pretty right, I'm just not keen on going fast in the straights. I might actually upgrade the pads on the R1 and maybe even the 400 for some more bite. I'll feel consciously better if I "feel" more bite on the brakes.

On the next session of the day, that was where I shone. I had kept up with all of the other riders the whole time and almost never had a gap large enough for anyone to get away. I was overtaken once only and was seriously hooking around the lefthander and the basin. I guess I'm pretty lucky in that I'm game enough to have rediculous corner speed. I'm still scared of braking though, which is why I never get the bike up to speed quickly or even for very long. I'm just paranoid that one day I won't stop...

During that session Hornet was following behind me with the pen camera mounted on his bike. I don't have the footage yet, but it would be interesting to see what kind of lap times I was getting.

I took it easy on the last session after the awesome buzz of the previous one. Was no point in going any harder as I was only getting more tired as the day progressed.

At the end of the day there was a roast lamb dinner where everyone pigged out and drank softies and was merry. It was fantastic to catch up with all the old mates, Mirkz, Seandre, Straye, Rhino, Buttnekkid, Ells, Fastgirl, Zephyrus, DTM, Nath, Chyna, Davey, Desmogod, Saf and Jana, Tyson, T_B_R1, Jamathi, Gryphen and Polishdude.

YEA Soccer Carnival

It was raining, cold, windy and generally miserable for the most of the day - but when the sun came out it was terrific! It was the Water Corporation team plus me, the ring in.

I got an email a month ago about the YEA Soccer Carnival and suggested to Julz that we put a team together with all our engineering mates. Turns out he forwarded the email to the rest of the social club at the WC and made a team out of it. Thanks Julz!

The team

Pre-match tactical discussions

I was the goalie in the last two matches

Photo opportunity during a corner kick!

The action

There were four matches in the rounds of which we won two, and lost two. We didn't even hang around for the finals as we were already snap frozen, sore and tired. All everyone wanted was to sink a pint and nibble at some wedges. So off we went to the Floreat Hotel where we caught up with all the other teams that hadn't made it to the finals.

I was pooped and cold, copped a soccerball at full pelt in the leg at close range, thirsty and sore but I had a great day. Nearly lost my keys too, but they were in the last pocket I looked in my backpack. Damn keys!