Mountain bike video

A 10 minute helmet cam video of our ride last weekend. There is sound too, so if you're in the office, turn down the volume!


King Parrot Trail from delboy

Chat soon,
DelBoy

TFI Friday - Long weekend!

As the weekend approaches and the sun breaks through the clouds, people around Melbourne are starting to smile. It’s a 4-day long-weekend for most and the forecasted rainy weather seems to have moved on.

The reason for the weekend: Melbourne Racing Carnival! It’s a week of horse racing that starts tomorrow and ends next Sunday. The public holiday is Tuesday, but most people, including myself, have taken Monday off too.

And I am really looking forward to this weekend ‘cos we are heading south with my brother-in-law and his family to the Otway National Park. We have hired a cabin in the forest and we are packing our mountain bikes too. The Otways are quite a well know MTB area with loads of forest tracks and MTB paths. And after the past few days of rain, there should be tons of mud too!

I promise loads of photos and a possible short video when I get back next week.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

A day in the sun

After a really early start (4am) to watch my beloved Boks lift the William Webb Ellis at the 2007 Rugby World Cup and then driving my in-laws to the airport, we decided that yesterday was just the day for a picnic.

The temperature was forecasted at 34 degrees C (it finally stopped climbing at 36!), so we packed our picnic baskets, loaded our bikes into Az’s Jeep and headed for Lysterfield, venue of the 2006 Commonwealth Games MTB race.

There weren’t many people around when we arrived at 11am, but by the time we got back from our 1-hour ride it was packed. The ride was good – a 4km climb up a firebreak then another 4.5km of singletrack through a bluegum forest with log obstacles and deep ruts. If I weren’t so unfit, I would have had a second go at it! Unfortunately, I didn’t take my helmet cam with me, so no video this time.



After a picnic lunch and a splash in Lysterfield Lake, we headed home to crash out in front of the TV.

Chat soon,
DelBoy

PS: I did say that if South Africa lifted the World Cup I would tell everyone if our baby was a boy or a girl. So, for those of you that don’t yet know, it is a … little girl!

TFI Friday

Another week passes by and another weekend is upon us. It'll be the first weekend in a long while that we won't be out house-hunting, but instead we'll be window-shopping to furnish the new place. I don't mind that though, 'cos one of the things we'll be shopping for is a plasma TV.

Weekend also means the finals of the Rugby World Cup! And we all know who the favourites are. Not that that means a thing - we seen enough upsets to know that we need to be very careful ("we" being the Bokke, of course). I mean, England in the final? That alone is an upset!

It also looks like summer may finally be arriving in Melbourne with predicted temperatures of 25 and 31 degrees C for Saturday and Sunday. Might have to drag the old mountain bike out again...

Chat soon,
DelBoy

TFI weekend

Thank goodness Its weekend! Not 'cos my job gets me down or anything, but 'cos I get to do what I want to do, not what I have to. (Well, that's not entirely true either 'cos I have a fiancée and a kid to entertain too!)

I did do two things that I love: rode my bike and watched the Boks. The ride was fantastic; 22km through the city all in greenbelt (Australian style - I'll post video later) with amazing scenery and wildlife.

The rugby, although we won, was NOT so great. Bloody Tongans nearly beat us! Jake White, WTF??

I also spent time working on our website (let me know what you think). Did I mention that my PC is fixed and I haven't lost anything! And it's been upgraded to a Dual Core P4 in the process! For AU$150! Bargain!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

On yer bike!

I finally got out on my bike again today. I had it serviced this week and brought it home on Friday night. With the great weather we've been having, I couldn't wait to get out there!

So this afternoon I took a gentle ride through Dandenong Creek, up the killer hill that is Moorak Road, back down Terrara Road and then home through Bellbird Dell. I was a great 12km ride and now I'm not even stiff!!

With it getting dark later every night, I'm hoping that this will become a regular thing on week nights!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Holiday Heaven

So I'm on holiday again! Only this time, I haven't really gone travelling!

Monday I relaxed at home (ended up doing some work!!) all day. Went for a 30km bike ride in the morning to shake those cobwebs out of my joints (and try out my new toy)! It felt great. I'd been for a ride last Friday evening after work and ended up with cramps in both my calves!

Tuesday we drove up to Suffolk on England's east coast to visit a friend of ours who runs a beautiful little hotel in a village over there. We relaxed and did nothing but eat great food and drink some delicious wines for 2 days! We drove back today (and spent an hour standing still on the motorway 'cos some idiot managed to roll his/her car in the rain!) to rest at home tonight before driving down to Wiltshire tomorrow where we will spend the weekend with more friends.

I plan to take my mountain bike and toy with me and do some riding in Savernake Forest if the weather holds!

Chat soon,
DelBoy

Mountain Bike Video

For those of you that are interested, I have put the helmet cam video of our ride last Tuesday onto the net. Fall and all!

The video is on my video blog or you can see it at Vimeo.com

Chat soon,
Del

Detox & falls

Detox & falls

Today is day 3 of my detox - and it's going pretty well! No junk food, no beer, no added sugar! I feel great except that I keep getting headaches 'cos I've also given up caffeine! Anyway, I'm going to stick with it and see how we go. I'll keep you up to date right here!

I also went for a bike ride yesterday. I felt like a kid again, racing through the forest on my mountain bike. We were the oldest kids about on bikes (it's summer holidays over here), but the others were a lot more daring than us. They were launching themselves into orbit off the jumps that they had built. I, on the other hand, managed to fall after hitting a jump that was about 1 foot in height! Scraped my knee and tore my trouser leg! Even caught the fall on video (which I will post at a later date).

Boys will be boys...



Chat soon,
Del

Back in the saddle

After a hard day at work (well, it wasn't that hard but it was about 40 degrees C indoors!), I finally managed to find time to go for a ride on my trusty steed again! It's been just over a month since I last rode. Slacker!

It wasn't all my fault. I finally managed to sort out my brakes (lack of brakes actually) on Saturday. Also, with the current heat wave going on, there was no way I was going riding. Even today I only ventured out at around 7.30pm! I use the phrase 'heat wave' very lightly. It's been between 28 and 32 degrees with no wind for at least two weeks now! Not very nice in London - wish I was on Camps Bay Beach!

Also, there has been the problem of work what with that World Cup Football thingy going on. Thankfully now that England are out, there isn't too much stress anymore! Got to start planning for Notting Hill Carnival now...

Which reminds me: it's almost a year since you came to visit cuz! Now who's the slacker!

Chat soon,
Del