SlowManiac

Dirt jumps with the sprog https://youtu.be/30dqOIDYckQ

So you say - meanwhile I'm over here enjoying my $3 cauliflower! How do you like them apples!

Meh Sydney is not too bad. Sweet trails a 15min ride away, beach a 10 min ride. Traffic sucks and it does get stupid hot and the people can be a bit cranky.... Food in NZ must be ridiculous, I've NEVER thought 'wow Sydney is so cheap'!

Ours was exactly the same! We also rigged up a broom stick pressing into the panel at the back, that also worked.

My Crest Mk3 also cracked around the spoke holes. Custom wheel build from Chain Reaction. They are being super good about it so far and have organised a courier to pick the wheel up.

I bought a Lezyne light from Wiggle and it was warrantied after close to 2 years (even after being 'ejected' from the bike a couple of times.

Garden gap! Just bought my boy a Commencal Meta HT 20 for his birthday. It's an epic (and too expensive kiddies bike) but he loves riding and is pretty handy for a 5yr old.

Faark that - I'm all for 1st world dentistry - hang the cost. I want the finest anesthetics, latest equipment. Last dentist I went to I had to fill in the form on an ipad. My kind of place. Of course I have had to take a second mortgage....

I made some pretty good ribs on the weekend, entirely on the Weber. Sauce/Marinade 500ml apple juice small punnet tomato paste ginger fresh chili garlic worcester sauce apple cider vinegar Lots of smoked paprika sugar, salt and pepper This was enough for about 800g ribs Mix up marinade and put ribs (the rasher type ones) in a foil baking tray with enough marinade to cover them. In the Weber for 3 hrs or so on and indirect heat (off to the side of the coals. Remove half the sauce into a saucepan and reduce on a stove top. the ribs on the weber continue to cook and add some smoking chips. Can turn them occasionally when the stove top sauce is nice and reduced (should be nice and sticky) coat the ribs and finish off over the coals. Don't be scared to get a little charcoaling on the sticky sauce! Edit - the good thing about this recipe is that it allows for plenty of time keeping an eye on the ribs (with beer in hand). Thus looking busy and not needed for other domestic tasks

I've basically been turned off watching NRL because of the constant scandals, bad behavior by players and the fact that all games are sponsored by either fast food, alcohol or bookies (or often all 3 at once). Matt Lodge is the latest example but there are many others. But the ball tampering thing has been out of control here, it's gone way past a joke how seriously it's been taken.

I've got a Feedback Sports Pro Elite workstand. It is a thing of beauty. So well designed and works flawlessly. A good workstand is worth it...

Re-reading (for the nth time) Commando by Deneys Reitz. Incredible story. Finished 'The Son' by Jo Nesbo - good Scandi crime thriller - enjoyed. Reading the Hobbit to my son. He's a bit young for it but it puts him to sleep like a boss.

I've read a few books over the past few months. 'Dividing the great' and 'Be brave, be strong' - both about the Tour Divide mountain bike race. Really enjoyable. A couple of Dennis Lehane books - he wrote the book of the movie Shutter Island. Movie was average but his books are a really good read. Rough Ride by Paul Kimmage - a really good book from the point of view of someone who is really pretty much cannon fodder in the peloton. Currently reading The Fatal Shore, a history of convict Australia. It's surprisingly readable and I'm enjoying it a lot!

Braai'ing with other people if funny. My father-in-law likes to make the smallest friggen fire possible so as not to waste any wood/charcoal. You have to watch that thing like a hawk otherwise you've missed your window and it's raw, slightly warm steak. My braai'ing options are limited in Oz (GAS!!) but I recently got myself a mini Weber and my braai'ing has taken a turn for the better. I think Webers are great and the mini one is cool, I take it to picnics etc.

I have been speaking a lot to some of my veggo/vegan cycling friends. It's pretty hard to argue with, either health wise, morally or from an environmental perspective.

When I was lank fit I ran the Routeburn Track (out and back), Kepler Track (in the race) and the missus and I walked the Milford track. All in a week! Was epic. It's ridiculously beautiful there. Have you been to the Abel Tasman NP? It's really nice too, we got married there.

fergburger is a Queenstown institution! If you're in Te Anau check out Redcliff cafe

I can imagine - you'd hope that existing visa holders would be OK? How long till you can apply for residency? I think there is probably some time before any changes would take effect. I'm lucky enough to have a passport by now.

Looks like Australia just got harder to immigrate to - http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-to-abolish-457-immigration-work-visas-20170418-gvmw34.html This is the visa that myself and most of my friends used to move to Aus

I'm in Oz if there's anything you might need to know from here

Haha those are Aussie natives introduced to NZ (I think). Every spring for about 6 weeks they get a bit feisty... There's some great footage out there from people who mounted GoPros to their helmets. I've had another type of swooping bird draw blood right above my eye. Here in Aus they are of course protected. I find it quite funny when they attack, they are persistent little buggers! Round here in Sydney you'll see heaps of cyclists riding around with zip ties sticking out of their helmet, this is supposed to stop them attacking. Or putting eyes on the back of your helmet....

The Aussie sporting landscape is pretty weird. Rugby is almost non-existent here, very much a minority sport. Most of NSW and QLD it's all rugby league and the rest is all AFL. Most Sydney-siders wouldn't have a clue about AFL but that's changed in the last few years with 2 Sydney based AFL teams (the Swans and Giants). I would say league fans trump AFL for boganess! Not a week goes by without some idiot footballer in the headlines (peeing into their mouth, simulating sex with a dog, and these are just the funny ones) Cricket is the national sport here - EVERYBODY loves cricket.

Starting to warm up but it's been a very wet winter/spring. Sydney daytime temps are about min 12 to max 20 at the moment.

Looks like the Palm Beach (well apart from the Opera House). I'm a few beaches and several tax brackets south.

Reading 'Dune' by Frank Herbert. A sci-fi book that I have wanted to read for AGES but it's always managed to avoid crossing paths with me. It's a funny one - took me some time to get into it but I am enjoying it. It's very much a book of it's time (1965 I believe) with quite a heavy mystic/spiritual element rather than the full on techno based themes of my usual sci-fi diet. One thing that really annoyed me early on in the book is the fairly frequent use of made up words with not much clue to their meaning.