Meet Beau - our newest family member
Beau – She is a 7 week old Miniature Pinscher.
19. May 2009 »
Another year older
This weekend marked another year older for me – and we had a great weekend in Akaroa to celebrate both my birthday and Joss getting into nursing school. A great weekend until Brook came down with either a tummy bug or food poisoning that is. He was sick from 11:30 in the evening though to 4am in the morning. After finally getting some sleep at 4am I was woken by the neighbours – some just coming home from a heavy night out drinking by the sounds of it – and because one of them slept in the car.
The weekend was overall very good – nice weather and very relaxing. A good break after doing 3 days of DIY and gardening over Easter weekend. We needed a break so even though feeling tired at the end of it it was a good break.
I see I have not posted anything here since the start of Feb – not sure why. We went to another Twisted Hop beer festival a while back. It is great to see so many new craft breweries – life is too boring to drink most of the mainstream stuff.
I am enjoying the road bike – still just commuting to work on it (but I really should get out for some actual road rides). A little worried about the skinny tires with little grip over winter. Will be interesting.
20. April 2009 »
First real road ride
I did my first “real” road ride on my new road bike this morning. I brought it for riding in to work, but with a few people around me talking a lot about hill rides etc i thought I better have a blat myself.
I rode through town to the bottom of the hill. Going through town was a mistake with the glass and ridiculous number of red lights. Hill wise it was nothing compared to many riders but I was pleased to have got up Hackthorne Rd to Dyers Pass Rd. Only 1.5km up hill, but the gears are significantly higher than my mountain bike so I thought I did all right, especially passing a few other riders (although the a couple of them started to gain ground close to the end).
Once down Dyers (why do road bikes – designed to go faster than mountain bikes – have such crap brakes?) I followed the hill around to Sumner and then home again. 41km.
It was good fun (even the challenge of the hill).
7. February 2009 »
MTBing still the Fav
We went for family ride in the forest this morning and I for one definitely prefer off-road to road cycling. It was fun, especially when I did a bit at the end by myself. There is something about being in the air and realising you need to land on a sharp corner, trees each side that really gets the heart pumping.
1. February 2009 »
Site Maintenance
Hi,
I have done some minor tweaks to the site. Changed the header picture slightly, added better article tags, and soon will add in a picture gallery (you can access all the articles with pictures using the tag “Photo Attached” on the side.
31. January 2009 »
Turn it up! Bring the Noise
Today I brought Anthrax – Return of the killer A’s (the best of). What a blast from the past! Joss wanted a divorce when I showed her :).
The music is not heavy compared with today’s standards and rather tame. I love the bargain bin!
25. January 2009 »
Road Bike
Yip I have gone slightly against my MTB roots and brought a road bike. A 2008 Diamondback Criterium to be specific. A reasonable entry level ($800) road bike to travel to and from work on. It is a lot easier to ride on the road with than a mountain bike.
Whilst I have only had one trip to work on it, I believe it has added about 6-8km/h onto my speed.
I am not giving up MTBing – that is for sure! Riding through the forest is infinitely more fun than a ride on the road (in my opinion). This will extend the life of my MTB.
I brought the bike at Burwood Cycles – my first time using this store. They come highly recommended for maintenance service and good prices (even though they do not have the biggest bike selection).
I’m happy.
Spec highlights include a DBR carbon fork, Shimano 2200 drivetrain, RPM alloy road cranks, Alex R500 alloy rims with alloy hubs.
Custom-formed 6061 double butted aluminium alloy frame,
Carbon fork with alloy steerer
Shimano 2200 8speed gearing
Frame: Double Butted 6061 Aluminium Alloy with Integrated Headset
Fork: DBR Carbon fork with alloy steerer
Headset: Integrated
Handlebars: DBR Alloy racing bar
Brakelevers/Shifters: Shimano 2200
Front & Rear brake: Dual Pivot road caliper
Frontderailleur: Shimano 2200
Rearderailleur: Shimano 2200
Chain: KMC 8 speed
Freewheel: Shimano HG-50 cassette, 8 speed, 12-25T 53, 39T
Crankset: RPM alloy road
Bottombracket: Cartridge
Fronthub: DBR Alloy QR
Rearhub: DBR Alloy QR Cassette
Spokes: Stainless Steel
Rims: Alex R500
Tyres: Road, 700×23c
Seat: DBR Road
Seatpost: DBR Carbon
Stem: DBR Alloy ahead
24. January 2009 »
First for 2009
Halfway through Jan and I have not yet updated the site with our Xmas + New Year goings on!
Happy New Year to you all.
We had a nice “low key” Xmas this year – much needed after a busy year and especially end to the year. My (Cam’s) parents came to our house this year for Christmas Day and we had what is now coming to be a tradition of a BBQ on the day. Reasonably easy and good for left overs for tea. With Joss and I working as many days through these holidays we appreciated the low key nature of the day.
We popped by to visit some of the Prices (part of the Simpson clan) later in the day and skyped into some Simpsons over at Disney Land.
Probably the nicest part of the holidays has been going out for family rides in the forest. Brook’s new 24” wheel bike makes it easy for him to keep up and we get quite a reasonable ride in. Joss has not had the best of luck with a few bike part failures (her bike is in the shop as I write!) but otherwise it has been a blast.
After New Years Day we shot off up to Golden Bay to Joss’s parents for a weeks holiday. The weather was great and we had a great time relaxing and going for walks. I manage to convince a Milnthorpe outing (where the beehive photo above comes from). I say that like no one wants to go there, it is not hard to convince people as it is a great spot, just that there are lots of spots to chose from and I always pick this one as it is a favourite of mine. Next time we’ll need to take Brook’s wee paddling boat.
We did a walk up the hill behind Joss’s parents house. This ended up being a bit of a mission. We silly chose to go up after tea – 7pm at night. True this was based somewhat on Ross saying the track was well cleared and only 10min up. Anyway it was a nice walk and there was a lot of potential for clearing out some areas for brilliant views up the valley. The only problem was the second part of the track had not been cleared and we lost the track. So just before 9pm we had the choice of walking back or bush bashing our way down. We chose bush bash and slid our way down as darkness came on rather quickly.
Another highlight was the trip to the Cobb Dam. This was some amazing country and we all enjoyed the day. The road in is certainly enough to put off a lot of people and I was pleased Ross was driving.
What will 2009 bring? Work for me is going to make last year look easy I think with some great challenges. Brook is looking forward to school again – he wanted one of the new starter teachers and got one. Joss is thinking about her art, work, and potentially some study. And we want to start some DIY around the house too. It is going to be another busy year.
18. January 2009 »