The Mullet Family

Flea, Rohan, Hayden and Chloe arrived at the Gold Coast for a holiday last week. We got to catch up with them on Sunday at our place in Brisbane. After letting the rain pass and showing them around our MASSIVE flat :) we walked down to Southbank for a beer and a bit of a gander. Being Sunday there were plenty of buskers out and the kids had fun checking out some of the shows. One in particular got a bit heated when the busker lost it and started dropping the F-bomb at an audience member for tying him up too tight. This was after the busker had asked the audience member to tie him up as tight as he could! I'm sure that one will make its way into dear diary when they get back to school.

Getting the feet wet at the beach at Southbank:


Enjoying a drink at the local:

Friday Night Alleycat

Last Friday night was meant to be the "Missing Lanes" alleycat (alleycats are bike messenger races held through cities all around the world). This particular race was open to non-messengers so I decided to join the fun. Unfortunately the rain on Friday meant the original race was postponed and the organiser set out a different route instead. Fortunately I knew the 8 locations for the checkpoints on the race, unfortunately I didn't know about the locations of several bridges and cut-throughs! The race took most of the guys around 50 mins and was measured to be about 21kms, I took about 1hr 20mins and tracked over 30kms...

Next time it might pay for me to tape a map to the handlebars!

The fixie went great though, and I got to belt out a great ride. I thought the get-up that Kath made for me looked pretty good as well. The other guys had a laugh. Kath manned a checkpoint at West End and was worried when I didn't show for a while. I'd left that spot until last, and given my geographical shortcomings was somewhat late!


The re-run is being planned for a couple of weeks time, so hopefully in those weeks I can improve my Brisbane geography!

Mt. Cootha ride

Before starting this post I have to provide some brief background on our extended family. We currently own 4 bicycles, and to avoid confusion we have names for them. OK I admit it sounds tragic, however it makes it a lot easier to distinguish the bikes, plus it kinda helps to give them a personality. I'll post more about our brood in the coming weeks, however let me introduce you to Mario.

Mario was born in Italy about 10 years ago and soon after emigrated to Melbourne, Australia. At that stage Mario was just a frame, however he quickly got built into the bike he is today thanks to the team at SBR (Swim Bike Ride). I adopted Mario last year from a reluctant seller, and without revealing the exact amount, got him for a steal! For the bike nuts out there, Mario is a De Rosa Vision frame, has Campagnolo Daytona running gear, and a Mavic Open Pro wheelset.

I usually go out with Mario 3 times a week, however having been sick recently I've had to leave him in the garage for a good part of the last month. Today I decided to get back into it, and what better way to shock my system then to ride up Mt. Cootha (Brisbane). For my Melbourne mates think the Dandenongs.



I took off from our place at around 8am and quickly joined a peloton of around 50 bikes which was nice to warm up with. However these guys quickly went their own way and I was by myself once more. I took the river route which is really nice and scenic, a great way to warm up for the climb. I hit the climb and boy did I hit the wall! The first section is at a grade of 30% which just killed me (call me soft :-) ), however I managed to get about 2/3 of the way up the mountain before having to make a stop to regain composure. It was really hard to get going again, however I swear I would have thrown up had I have kept going without a break (gross I know).

I got to the top and was pretty happy with my average climb speed of about 12kph. However a combination of me being unfit and Mario being geared for flat terrain (a by-product of having been built in Melbourne no doubt) made it very difficult. I enjoyed a coffee before the descent, of which I won't quote my max speed for fear of my mum reading this. It was a pretty cruisy ride home and from door to door it took about 2 hours (including coffee).

I will be doing the ride again in a couple of weeks and hopefully I'm in better shape by that stage. I've plotted the route on velomaps for those who may be interested. Next time I'll take a camera!

River Fire

We headed up to the park on top of Highgate Hill (just up the road from our place) yesterday arvo to catch a glimpse of `Brisbane's best night out'. The river fire is a festival which culminates with a fireworks display and fuel dump-and-burn by an F111. The whole thing takes place down at Southbank which you can see quite well from our little park. We rocked up around 2 to get a spot and spent some time chatting to other locals including two of our neighbours.

The rotunda filled up pretty well later on in the afternoon.

The RAAF put on some nice entertainment with their formation flying.

Richard and Sarah (friends who have also moved up from Melbourne recently) joined us later in the afternoon.

The F111 fuel dump-and-burn was pretty impressive, it lit up the entire sky over Brisbane.

The fireworks went for a long time and were timed to music which was simulcast on the radio. It reminded me of the old sky show they used to have in Melbourne.

I'm paying for last night today as my cold has really come on in full force. It is a bit surprising given that we actually got a pretty early night. Oh well good thing it is Sunday and I can stay in bed all day surfing the web.

Brisvegas

So after completing the PhD I got a job at the University of Queensland. We've made the move from Melbourne to Brisbane and have found a flat in Highgate Hill. Keep posted for some random goings on in Brisbane.