patham

I picked Bonus's mail to reply to in case I win a prize. Just joking - its not a contest- but a test of my memory. Boeing 717 Boeing 720 (variant of the 707) Boeing 737 -200/300/400/800 Boeing 740 - SP/400 Boeing 767 - ??? Boeing 777 -??? Airbus A310 Airbus A320 Airbus A330 Airbus A340 MD-80 EMB 135 EMB 170 CRJ 700 Vickers Viscount (that and the B720 should give away my country of origin) Fairchild Metroliner DHC - 8 / Q400 ATR 72 Dornier Do 228 (noisy bugger but takes off like a bat out of hell) DHC-2 Beaver Cessna 172 (drop plane - so I have never landed in one) Cessna 206 Gipps Airvan Bell 206-Longranger AS 350 Squirrel Might be a few more if i get the right brain cells to spark.

That is a great photo, although exaggerates the size of the 707 somewhat. I have flown in 6 of the 9, including that elusive 717 (Qantas has a small number in their domestic fleet).

I always had a sweet spot for those wide bodied tri-jets, but never got to fly on one. They (DC-10 and MD-11) are getting even rarer to spot at the cargo terminals nowadays.

The very reason why I bought my Sony pair at a layover in Singapore.The first leg of the flight was a nightmare with crying babies. To tell the truth, I did not mean to go top of the range, but the salesman found me an easy target to upsell to.

I bought the top of the range Sony MDRxxx 6 years ago. It is still going strong, with great battery life. Leather over-ear cups are still very comfortable and in great nic. I am sure the newer ones are even better, but I am in no rush to upgrade. And yes, most high end makes are better than Beats. I understand Beats have a built in equaliser that pumps up the bass. Beats just have really good marketing, enabling them to dress up lower quality componentry, and sell it for premium prices. It was/is a really high profit margin business, which explains why it was snapped up by Apple.

I was forced into commuting in January after my vehicle was written off. The incident happened at a bad time of year when all the repair shops and assessors were on leave, and it took about a month for the claim to be sorted out with insurance. That prodded me to cycle in to work (its about 10 km), which is what I have been promising to do for years but never got round to it. The route is a mix of suburban road, one steep off-road section and small length of single track, then bike path next to a highway, some on road cycle paths, finishing up on a dedicated cycle path on the Brisbane River. Doing it on my Trance is a bit overkill, but so be it. The trip home I vary, I go a long way round (14 km) to avoid peak hour traffic on a section of suburban road I do not feel comfortable on. Anyway, I now have a replacement new car, but still commute in twice a week. There is a certain satisfaction of making a good time, and a great sense of satisfaction when you overtake the cars going slowly on the highway. The advantage of using a Trance as a commuter is that when all the racers and e-bikes overtake you, you can just say to yourself - well its all about the bike. But after a month of cycling, the ratio of overtakee to overtaker improves, not that its a race. Well maybe an informal competition to make it interesting.... What I have learnt: integrating commuting into your work routine gets your fitness levels way up. I am probably more fit than I have been in years. When I did some trails recently, hills that used to render me breathless are just simply pedalled away without fuss. I admit the commute has not improved my trail skills - those are now the limiting factor. I just hope I keep it up in winter. Luckily it does not get excessively cold /wet here, but I probably need to get lights that light up the road, not just safety strobes.

#2. If its lean bacon - practically just warmed through is my personal fave.

Took the family up the the Sunshine Coast to a bike friendly part of the world (Marcoola), where one can can cycle on dedicated bike paths to the local cafes, restaurants, beaches etc. Didn't use the car once over the three days.. Cycled to Mt Coolum - which must be one of the smallest national parks in the world to climb up the 208 m to the peak. Well worth the burn in the legs.

The old JIMC - I remember them well from my old CRC import days. I also had to phone plenty times to get a pick-up, but the person who finally answered gave me the gold: their fax number. From then on, all I ever did was fax correspondence off, and a few days later the parcel would have been released. It never failed.

More Brisbane urban exploring.

A crummy autumn day in Brisbane (22 degrees C), so I went for a cycle from our house down to the CBD (bike track next to freeway) and then past the other side on the river boardwalk with the main aim to scout out some family friendly rides with en-route coffee shops for the significant other. Not quite a 94.7, only a 35 km, but more than enough of a workout on the Trance.

Exam technique it is, and don't fall into the trap of believing that because your first language is English that gives you an automatic right to score high. I also put in a few weeks of research into the IELTS beforehand, and the tips on the writing and listening components were very helpful. They enabled me to get perfect 9.0's on all bands first time round and permanent bragging rights over my wife and some in-laws. I am just thankful that in my road to Australian citizenship I could make do with just one set of English test results, I was not looking forward to the hassle of doing it again and the potential loss of superiority in case my results dropped!

Likewise. A few years ago I treated myself to an online purchase of the hardcover complete collations of Gary Larson, Calvin and Hobbes and also Dilbert. I think the courier guy got a hernia from picking up the box, it weighed a ton but looked pretty innocuous. I think my softcover versions of their works had a return rate of less than 50% when lent out to friends....

Cool. Literally, seeing as the typical two days of winter are upon us!

I have been following from afar and hoping for the best, but that is not the way this story has been written. I never met Barry aka Tumbles aka Holy Roller in person, although we did have a few PM's. He was always a voice of reason in the Hub and I always valued his contributions. In the end the only things we really leave in life are the values and qualities we bring our children up to observe, and the fading ripples we leave behind on the others we have known. From the posts in this thread it seems that his sons have been raised to be fine young men and he has left nothing in his wake but positivity (well, maybe also a few hangovers). To me, that seems like a life well lived. All I can add is my sincere condolences to family and friends.

Trance looks great, but I am biased. But I see the Trance BB is now 5 mm lower than before. As it is I get too many pedal strikes on my 2015 Trance. So I am not too sure how much longer this trend can continue before we all have to move to hamster length crank arms to compensate. Or we just stop pedaling entirely and use their E-bikes instead?

Well Dangle, it took me a year, but the quality of your pics made me swallow some humble pie (after slating Fuji in the past) and get me an X100. The online review of other fans, including guys like Ken Rockwell are also quite compelling. It did help that it was other people's money: my going away gift from my company of 17 years. I have not had time to play with it as I am currently homeless (50% through the process of relocation across the pond), but the in-camera shots look great. What you did not rave about and what I find amazing is just the build quality, alloy materials and tactile feel of the camera; it makes high end DSLR's feel cheap, plastic and nasty. I don't see this replacing my DSLR, but it will be a great carry cam and portrait catcher.

I bought the package deal to replace my Juicy 3's. They started off as being slightly better than the J3's, although I could never get rid of the brake squeel, and they do have an annoying rattle due to the lever design. My one attempt at bleeding was not too successful, but that could be operator trouble, not the brake's fault. My serious bug bear was that when I tried to change the pads, they seemed to have changed the pad shape ever so slightly, so that the new pads would not fit into the old calipers without filing them down. That seemed like too much PT, so I upgraded to the new Shimano XT Ice Tech (I got a good price from local on-line shop ). Now those XT'sare amazing brakes. I still have the Clarks packed away for when I have some spare time to make everything work. From my viewpoint, save up the extra and go Shimano SLX or XT level. They are far better quality, less hassles, and far greater stopping power.

@ Dangle Colour. The rain drops add texture to the colour, but distraction to the B&W. Without the rain drops I would have voted B&W. But remember beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder.

The light at sunset was amazing that day, as well as the double rainbows (Sunninghill area at least). I must download my pics to see what came out of my own shoot. But damn, your pic captures the moment well.

Just put on my new XT's a week ago. Loving them so far (ex Avid, ex Clarks user). Funny enough, just like River Rat is planning, I also donated my old kit away...

I reckon if they have been stored out of the sunlight they should be fine. I think the shelf life of vehicle tyres is in the order of 10 years before they reccomend you do not use them, so even if the rubber is only half as good, a storage life of 5 years should be OK ? I just put on a UST Maxxi Ignitor that I had stored for about 2 years, seated first time and keeping its pressure well.

Was using a 200mm lens also, it was just that I could walk to within a metre of this owl. If you get too close it hisses like a cat and makes funning popping sounds with its tongue ! Flash in the eyes is what the birding photo fraternity like to see - they say it gives the bird life. They always recommend fill-in flash for that effect, even if its not really needed for lighting. And for one of the other posters - I shoot both RAW & JPEG together, so I can mix and match happy snaps and serious images for later rework without having to remember which is which. This is not good for burst action shots though...

I've had my own visitor the last few weeks, comning and going as he pleases. I gather they are juvenile spotted eagle owls that have been evicted from their parent's nest. They are still learning to be owls, so they have no "street cred" so to speak. So they hang out in the open, fly around during the day, and are generally clueless. The other birds in my garden hate the thing, and dive bomb him all day, hoping to make life so uncomfortable for him he flies somewhere else. They know what he is actually capable of doing once he figures it all out !

All of my maintenance is scheduled for after my toddler's bedtime. However don't work when you are too tired as you end up doing stupid things that will have to be repaired the next night, and so on. But in general, self teaching with a bit of net research is all you need for most stuff, and buy tools on an as and when needed. Although: get a bike stand early on, once you get one you wonder how on earth you got by without it.