Entries from December 2006 ↓

There are at least two or three journal entries that I'm behind right now, but I figured they could wait.

I just wanted to share this.

Best fourteen megs I've spent on dialup.

Hit Perth Motorplex again tonight with a somewhat large group of friends for something different to do on a Wednesday night. We ended up with 62 bikes.

Thanks to Phil and John for the photo’s of myself

On my sixth of seven runs I ended up doing a personal best of 11.865 seconds at 188kph, which isn’t too bad for a bike that’s covered the miles that mine has. The important thing of course, is that I beat several of my friends with newer, shinier bikes of the same size. After all, if you can’t rag on your mates, what have you really got?

This last week I've really enjoyed being unemployed. While it's not particularly pursuant to any goal involving having enough cash to avoid eating noodles several times a week, it certainly allows a degree of occupational freedom that I can't help but love to bits.

After being ambushed by a Reload on the 9th, I spent my Tuesday with a friend from England bumming around art galleries and exhibitions in Fremantle, riding Wednesday and Friday, shopping on Thursday, hitting the proverbial town on Saturday night with friends after an extended BBQ lunch and spending Sunday on the beach for a Christmas party.

Unfortunately all of this free time has also given rise to the sobering thought that in six weeks I could be anywhere within a couple of thousand odd kilometres setting up camp for the next couple of years. One part exciting, ten parts terrifying, three parts skipping town to Mexico.

Yesterday was also a year to the day since we lost Russ in a motorcycling accident, and it's never very long between the times I think about him. It's a lot nicer thing to celebrate than it is to mourn. Thankfully, there's a lot of celebrating left to be done.

I might also mention that when I rode home on Sunday morning at 3am that the Bureau of Meteorology reported that it was 23°C outside. At Three AM. Whoever's in charge of the world's weather system needs to lay off the Red Bull.

I've been havin' a bit of a low week, which is fair enough. I had to have my seven year old pup put down this time last week, which was hard. Knowing how my body works with things, I've just been giving myself some leeway when it comes to things like snacks and sugar. I know that it's no good for my body and will only end up as arse blubber, but it helps to keep my mood up a bit, which is important when I'm feeling low.

Three motorcyclists have been killed in the city in this past week as well, all of them due to careless driving on another persons part. Two killed in separate accidents where a car has pulled across the path of an oncoming motorcycle (the same way my friend Bryan was killed in November last year) and another was driven over the top while moving by a woman in a luxury four-wheel-drive while she was reaching for something in the car. She didn't stop for four hundred metres after the collision. The man was dragged for two hundred and fifty of those, the bike still trapped between the axles when the car came to rest on the wrong side of the road (on a dual carriageway). This one was only a few kilometres from where I live. No one I know was involved, but it doesn't bode well, and the press only serves to vilify the riders.

As I'm certain Glen could tell you, my mood has not been the best of late, or as he would put it, I have been “bagging shit all the time” followed by a couple of references to grumpy old men and telling some kids to get off my lawn. I've been quite frustrated with the world around me a fair bit recently.

I've finally started making some progress on my Conrad novel, and that, combined with listening to some Henry Rollins last night (yeah, great way to avoid being a bitter old man) I think that lately I have been too concerned with what I would call gossip, and that I have been more preoccupied with being quick-witted and dispensing one-liners than actually giving a lot of thought to what I'm saying and having any kind of intellectual diatribe. Combined with this, I've noticed that sometimes there are people with whom you might spend time, but who make no positive contribution to your existence (and sometimes not to anyone elses apparently either). While personally I value the idea of being abe to add something to the lives of my friends and accomplices, whether it be great or small, I think there is a limit to the amount of time you should spend trying to fill an empty well. Sometimes if you look long enough into the abyss, you see that it's just a big hole.

To turn completely around on my last paragraph, I've also had some really nice bits of conversation with people I haven't seen nearly enough lately, and it's really brightened up my day, night or whatever solar cycle I'm subject to at the time.

Finally, daylight savings is still creeping me out. I can't get used to eating dinner while I can see the sun, and any landmarks I had made from the time of day or location of the sun are completely out of whack. I'll be in Bunbury from tonight until Sunday because anoter reload has crept up on me. Say hello if you're around.

right now, over me

Saturday morning I got out to the Perth Bikers Charity Ride.

Mah steed…

About 40 bikes met up at scarbs for the pre-ride ride (thanks casa )

Nice TASSLES marcus

Belmont Park meet point

The girls oiling each other up

Must be a scooter thing…

For when you need to get your lippy *just* right

Skitching practice

The ride’s been happening for over thirty years and is the oldest one of its kind in Australia. All of the toys get bagged up into sacks at the end point, loaded into a truck and distributed by the Salvos along with cash donations given.

It’s a good thing, and every year ropes in a few thousand bikes (if you were on the northbound Mitchell Fwy yesterday between about 11am and 12pm you couldn’t have missed the procession, it’s about 20-25km long) and comes up with a truck chockas of toys for kids.