Tuesday photos

Slept in a bit this morning - normally, this starts happening at the end of the week when I'm absolutely toasted after 4 days of back and forth. Must be the cold & flu tablets I took before  hitting the sack. The sun had been up for too long to get a properly spectacular morning shot.

Lots of rowers out this morning though, and as the tide was right up, they were closer to the banks than usual - I even managed to get a half descent photo of a couple of crews.

It was cold enough this morning to require a jacket and leg warmers - although I shed the jacket after a few miles. I won't be wearing the leg warmers in the morning - left the bloody things hanging up at work. After 6 months of not wearing them, I'm not in the habit of packing them for the trip home. I needed the leg warmers - even though I got up late, it was still only 12 degrees when I left home.

I worked a bit later than usual today, so I got a few dusky photos on the way home.

But here's a morning shot, just to mix things up. The skinny bugger on the right is blasting past us two hubbards.

Chasing the tram on the way home.

A recumbent - haven't seen one of these in ages. A very rare sight on the commute. More come out on the weekends though.

For some reason, the camera went all macro on me for this shot - although it's a wipe out of a photo, it does have some artistic merit.

Night time riding - the chip on the camera is so good as sucking in light, it makes almost complete darkness look like the sun is still partly up.

Another macro photo - my fingers must be wandering all over the camera when I turn it on. Must do better tomorrow.

Thursday photos

It's been a week of early morning up and at 'ems for me - I haven't seen this many sunrises in a row for a long time. As usual, the clever 'lectric brain in the camera has made it seem much lighter than it actually was.

The blur of this jogger going past gives it away - the camera was open for a while and sucking in lots of light to get this shot. It's so dark, I had to stop to take shots - something I never, ever do. Except when it's nearly dark.

How glorious is that? Rowing into the sunrise. Except of course that none of the rowers can see it.

If it wasn't for the blasted trees, the view from here would be great.

If it wasn't for the blasted cars, the view from here would be great.

If it wasn't for the blasted cyclists riding through my shot, the view from here would be great.

This guy was a crack up. He was riding slowly and erratically through Pyrmont - I easily blasted past him. However, I heard him coming up behind me as I sat at a red light, and the bugger nearly crashed into me as he went careening past, half out of control. It was reasonably dark, and he had no light, not rear reflector and no helmet. When I went past, I found that he also had his headphones in, and was talking on the phone - I caught a blast of Arabic from him as I took off.

At least he kept his hands on the handlebars, and didn't wave them around.

I reckon he's a taxi driver that's lost his licence. He certainly cycled like many taxi drivers drive.

Wednesday photos

Believe me, it wasn't that bright when I took this photo - it is the magic trickery of the camera's innards that make it look like the sun was up. I had my headlight on and was dodgy around hard to see black dogs and so forth when I took this. Amazing what its little electronic brain can do.

I spotted this photo opportunity as I went past, and for once, I did a U-turn and went back and took the shot. Normally, I just blast on past if and ignore the lost opportunity. Onwards! Onwards.

You're probably wondering what I went back for....

That light is perfectly bisecting a coxless pair. You'd probably be able to see what I was on about if I had been riding with a proper SLR camera with say a 300mm lens. Ah well - at least I tried.

Saturday photos

Saturday photos? What's this Saturday photos business? Isn't Saturday normally a day for resting the legs?

Yes, it is - but I had a mission to perform (see next post), so I zipped out for a while looking for election posters. As I had to visit Balmain, I took my first trip over the new bike/pedestrian lane on the new Iron Cove Bridge. Bloody hell, it's good - it's wide and smooth. It makes a lovely change from the usual narrow, twisting rooted bits of "bike path" that are currently being constructed around Sydney. Although not shown in the photo, it had plenty of pedestrians on it. Wasn't nice weather, but there were heaps of people walking around.

I stuck my head over the side of the bridge and saw rowers - lots of rowers. Big regatta on today.

Believe me when I say there are 36 rowing shells in the above photo - I counted them from the bridge. They stretch out into the distance for a kilometre or so.

Lots and lots of expensive shells parked at Rodd Point too, waiting to go out.

A non-rowing aquatic feature - the swimming pool next to the Iron Cove Bridge. One thing Sydney does well is swimming pools right on the water.

Wednesday photos

Cav has asked me to put my photo caption underneath the photos, rather than above them. Christ on a bike, the world is full of critics. I'll give it a go - just this once. I know that the traditional book style format is to put them underneath - that's what I grew up with too. Ugh - this is going to be a wrenching change. Bloody hell Cav, why can't you old farts get with the program and move into the 20th Century!

This is a caption below the photo. Bloody hell - now I know why I type my narrative above the photo - the blogger composing layout is completely crap for typing below a photo. I knew there was a sensible reason why a wise man like myself would put captions above photos. Since I've been typing, the photo above has scrolled out of the composing window, so I have no idea any more what's in the photo. You'll have to tell me. I think it is two penguins having sex in Antarctica.

Here's another photo - blast, it's scrolled away too as I've typed. I think it's a photo of my hairy knee, complete with rooftop construction induced scar. No, I scrolled up and found that it is actually a big collection of rowers getting setup for a race. They're hard to spot in the early morning light, but there was over a dozen shells out there when I went past.

How's that for a montage of early morning Bay activity? All the above photo needs is a jogger tripping over an errant dog, and it will be complete.

The early morning light is great for these action shots - the shutter needs to stay open longer, which produces a great bit of blurring.

This bloke had the most incredible calf definition. Only thing I will point out is that my legs are even hairier than his. When I was at uni, some mates held me down one night and tried to shave my leg. They removed a section of hair about an inch and half long, and then gave up as the razor was irretrievably clogged. I could have been a stunt double on Planet of the Apes.

Hot, hot, hot

Whilst half of Queensland either blows away or is submerged under a dozen feet of water, we're sweltering away down here thanks to a very hot, dry spell. That's one big ball of fire coming up over the horizon, with not a cloud in the sky. To avoid the worst of it, I've been getting up a bit before dawn and riding off as soon as it's light enough to see.

That has helped a bit, but not much. It was still 27 degrees when I left this morning. A lot of my workmates don't have air con at home (like us), and all complained endlessly today about a lousy night's sleep.

Even with the heat, there were a lot of people getting some form of exercise at dawn - runners, walkers, cyclists and maniacs doing push ups and so on. I think the smartest group were the rowers - at least they can pretend to catch a crab and fall out of the boat.

The other thing I've been doing to avoid the worst of the heat is to not race into work like an old maniac. I latched onto a hubbard each day, and dawdled into town at a much more leisurely pace than usual. Even so, I had to stand under a totally cold shower for 10 minutes to cool down to the point where I could put my work clothes on without drenching them instantly in sweat.

Here's co-ordination and common sense for you - just after council spent months (and millions) ripping up this bit of road, to build a bike path, along comes another mob with a ditch digger, and they tear up a nice trench across the newly laid bike path.

Riding home was a shocker. The bike thermometer read 27 when I left the car park - I thought I was in for a reasonably cool ride. Then it slowly climbed to 35 as I left the shadows of the CBD. As I crossed the ANZAC bridge, it hit 39, and then wobbled back and forth between 39 and 40. That's 104 for those of you that like Fahrenheit. It wasn't too bad, as the humidity was a lot lower than it has been for the last month, but as soon as I stopped, the sweat literally poured off me. Glad I packed two water bottles for the day.

And I have to say that the 300ml bottle of icy cold Coke that I consumed soon after getting home was the best drink I have had in a very long time.

Monday photos

This morning was a great time to be alive. I was up around 0545 and on the road at 0615 - a stupidly early time for me these days. I used to do that every day - winter included. Now, I'm lucky to crawl onto the saddle at 0700.

Getting away early in summer is a must - it was 18 degrees when I left, so I wasn't a ball of sweat when I arrived at work. Leave it an hour later, and you bake.

First photo is actually from this afternoon - it just looked better than the morning photo. Why not start with the best?

The morning - beautifully crisp.

Very few bikes around this morning, but plenty of runners.

And a few rowers.

One problem with leaving so early - you are riding directly into a low lying sun. Not a problem when it's overcast, but a real pain on a day like today.

Council Xmas decorations - not the total lack of any implication that this is a religious holiday. No angels, no Jesus - not even a lamb or a shepherd or a wise man. Bloody PC dipshits.