Wingnuts ahoy!

A photo essay describing the wingnuts and fruitloops that I encountered today. Just remember that when the photos are uploaded, blogger puts a compressed version into the blog. If you want to see each photo in all its glory, you have to click on it and it should open in a new window. Or tab.

Years ago, I would have described most of these people as "zipper-heads". Why did such a wonderful expression fall out of fashion?

Note the guy on the left - I will write about him later. He was there to interview people who were attending. He cut my interview short. Wanker.



There was one sign I didn't manage to photograph properly. I got home and found that the goose carrying it had turned it side on as I snapped the shutter. But I do remember it saying, "Invite Chavez, not Bush".

If Saddam was still unhung, would they be saying, "Invite Saddam, not Bush"? Probably.

"APEC = corporate plunder."

Hmm. How do you work that one out? I'm afraid it might take more than 3 words on a placard to explain that to stupid old me. Maybe I should read the fine print at the bottom of the placard?



"21 world leaders. 1 caged city."

Well, given that I rode all over the city today, apart from the relatively small area that was fenced off, I would have to take issue with that statement. Sounds like a bit of exaggeration to me.

Also, how do you define 'city'? Are you just talking about the CBD, or do you include the City of Sydney (which thanks to council amalgamations is now quite extensive) or the entire metropolitan area? Surely the inhabitants of far-flung Campbelltown have not been fenced off as well? (Although I would like to see that happen one day).



"Even Putin signed Kyoto. How embarassing".

Yes, how embarassing for him that he was suckered into signing.

And just check out the shit-eating grin on the woman on the left.



"Socialist Alliance". It figures.



The red T-shirt says "The govt lies".

Yes, especially when it says, "I'm from the government, and I am here to help you".



I'm not sure what the banner reads, but it is big and orange.



How funny! A man dressed as a nun! Hilarious!



This is the start of the great "We want our banner on TV" fight between two groups.

These youngsters are standing behind a Sky TV reporter who was doing a live cross.



Here is the Sky guy and his cameraman. Notice the very snappy tent extension coming off the side of their 4WD. I want one of these for my 4WD.



I was wrong the other day about the poofs not being invited. These three had their banner, and they wanted it seen on TV as well.

Note the person of indeterminate sex on the far right. I am sure it was a chick, but it had a longer beard than me (when you got up close).



So the poofs moved up behind the young kids and tried to take their airspace and some nasty looks were exchanged.

I just noticed that the way the banner is folded, it reads "Stop the war clit".

Make of that what you will.



Are there unwritten protocols regarding fair and unfair use of banners at protest rallies?

This next photo shows two great placards and a very silly haircut. Just how does Western Mining corrupt John Howard? If they have an inside track as this sign suggests, I think I will buy some WMC shares on Monday when the market opens. Thanks for the tip guys!



This guy really takes the cake. At first I thought he was some kind of official photographer, thanks to the yellow vest and camera with large lens, but then I noticed that he is actually wearing an inflatable vest - the kind that airlines hand out when your plane belly flops into the ocean. He has gone onto my shortlist of "complete floggers that I saw today".



And here is our whacko friend again with some friends of "loose change". I know that the rally was being held next to the Hyde Park fountain, but I doubt there was much risk of anyone falling in and drowning.

Anyway - to these T-shirts:

"Corporations cold turn you to stone before you realise", and then the loose change bit down the bottom.

I think it is supposed to say "could" instead of "cold", but I guess that just proves that she is a product of our state school system.

Or she is a school teacher.



Funny little face masks were popular with some people. Maybe that was a protest against chemical weapons? Funny how the protests are directed generally against the US, and not those that have actually used them (although there is not much protesting against Saddam anymore is there?)




No rally would be complete without lesbians with whistles.

The sign behind says "The right to strike is a human right", published by Socialist Alliance.

Hmmm, I am more fond of the basic human rights like the right to own property, the right to a trial by jury and that sort of thing. Striking as a right is not high on my agenda.



This twat looked like he was out to cause trouble. One look at him and I thought, "He's on speed". He was walking quickly, looked agitated and had the whole hood and face mask on.

The mask by the way has a nice badge on it that was a swastika in the background with John Howard's face over the top. I gave him a Nazi salute and a "Heil Hitler" as he walked by. He just gave me a dirty look in return.



"US bases out of Asia and Pacific".

Why do we need an 'and' in between 'Asia' and 'Pacific'? I thought the common usage these days was just to say 'Asia Pacific'.

Clearly someone that is in love with using the word 'and'.

And another thing,.... I forget. No wait - maybe another school teacher?



Is that a tofu burger you are eating? I don't really care, but I do want to know what the small stuffed toy poking out of your jacket means.



A plethora of TV trucks. Note that they are all 4WD's of one sort or another.



No rally is complete without street theatre and a man blowing bubbles. The arm on the left is holding a bubble blowing contraption. I want one.



This couple seemed to be embracing like it was the end of the world. I think she was all overcome with the sheer emotion of the day.

Pfft.



And then there was balloon man, who looked like a giant blob of fish spoof (I mean caviar) and some bloke in head-to-toe red tights and a wierd woman in an 'unfuck the world' shirt. I am not sure that this bloke is trying to be caviar. If he is, where is the slice of lemon and the blob of creme fraiche?

Like I said, where would we be without street theatre.



Ah, retired school teachers. Where would we be without them?



Manboobs! He has bigger boobs than she has! I am not kidding - they don't come out that well in the photo, but they were jiggling quite amazingly when he walked past. Mate, get a manbra.



Socialism in action. Well, capitalism actually. The guy in red is 'selling' newspapers, if that is how you define exchanging a socialist rag for dole money.

Imagine that - a heresy! Actually selling something at a rally like this in order to make a profit! I am sure I saw a sign somewhere in this group that said "greed kills".

Capitalists like this guy should be railroaded out of town on an organically grown, untreated pine log.



Note the aboriginal flag on the far right (it is almost rolled up). It was of course being carried by a bloke that looked 100% Chinese.



Didn't the aboriginals used to call the Chinese "white pork"?

Just a small selection of the police that were mobilised to line the route. For out-of-towners, note that the Cenotaph is just up the embankment behind the black 4WD on the left. I am so glad this shower of shit were kept well away from it.

Note the sign which reads "If I live in a democracy, why am I silenced in a police state?"

The holder of that sign should be beaten around the head with it until they see that they are talking crap. Or signing crap. Whatever.



A close up of the sign in question.

Also check out the tool on the right with "normal looking person" written on the back of his suit jacket. I take it that is some sort of dig at people that wear suits to work. ie, capitalist pigs. Or he is just a dick. I think he is just a dick.



The ABC van. OK, so it is not a 4WD. But it did have the engine running the whole time (and I even took video to prove it). The Channel 7 van had its engine turned off.

The ABC also had the door of their van open, so I guess they had the engine running to run the air conditioning, and the air conditioning had to work extra hard to keep the van cool due to the open door. Oh, those gaia cooking gases! Think of the polar bears!



The black sign on the left reads "Stop Bush, Free Palestine, Stop Genocide in Iraq".

Hmm.



Since this blog is supposed to be about cycling, here is the police peleton going past the park.

They ride like girls.


Want to play "Guess which flag this is"?



"278,000 Iraq civilian killed by Bushs war Murderers inside the fence".

I think some people might have an issue with the use, or lack thereof, of an apostrophe here.

Also, 278,000 is a very exact number. Is it precisely half what Lancet used? Maybe not. Where did this number come from? I think this was the number of Moonies married in a ceremony in South Korea last week.



There always has to be someone that wants to blame it all on Jewistan.



"Don't attack Iran".

Why not?



It's all about the T-shirt. I presume "PSA" stands for some sort of public sector union.

What is it with chicks and bum-covers? Why do they need to take an article of clothing with them that serves no purpose except to be tied around the waist to cover the bum?



"Video survellance in use on everyone".

You got that right mate. The organisers were running around video taping everyone that turned up. Worse than ASIO if you ask me.



I was ignoring the speeches at one point and was watching the road beside Hyde Park instead. A black limo went past, with three motorbikes as outriders. Instead of being BMW tourer type bikes, they were offroad bikes - and bright yellow at that. I took one look at the procession and figured that the Chaser mob were out having another go at pulling a prank - this time with motorbikes that no one would mistake for police bikes.

Then I rode up behind these guys, and noticed that they were wearing utility belts, had guns and radios, and were the real deal. One phone call later, I found out that the bikes only cost about $8500, whilst the boots cost $750 - nearly 10% of the cost of the bike. I did notice that these guys were wearing very groovy boots, which initially made me think that they were a joke. How wrong can you be?



Another pic of a line of police. Lots of police.



The woman carrying this sign was nice enough to stop and pose for me when the first photo that I took of her did not work out.

I am keeping this photo as a reminder as to why I will be voting for JWH again. He might be a prick, but he's not a dick.



The final photo in this series - I was almost out of the park when this woman came up behind me and started talking to herself. Well, I thought she was talking to herself, but it turned out that the lady that she was talking to was some distance away.

Her comments were along the lines of "We have the most disgraceful police in this state - absolutely disgraceful. Their behaviour was disgraceful".



Yep, absolutely terrible. I can't for the life of me figure out why they just stood there and didn't draw batons and chase these poo-bags into the harbour. If disgraceful behaviour is putting up with fat old nutjobs like her, then they must have been doing something right.

Approaching the protest

This is what it was like near David Jones. All the streets around the Pitt St mall area where blocked off by one or two buses parked across the road. I wrote yesterday about the lack of mesh screens to cover the front windows of these buses - well, I was too hasty. Some of the buses had detachable screens fitted to not only all the windows but the wheel wells as well. They looked pretty rock-proof to me.



If you click on this photo and view it full sized, you can see another row of buses right down the end of this street in the distance, as well as a couple of lines of police along the street.

The photo below shows a pair of buses blocking the approaches to Parliament House. These ones have the mesh screens fitted to the wheel wells and windscreens.



Lots of people were taking photos of the police buses, so I took a photo of them taking photos.



People photographing each other seemed to be the most popular activity of the day.

A police force patrols on its stomach

I was heading across town to Hyde Park when an odd sight confronted me at a set of lights. I was stopped outside the NRMA building when a rental van of some sort pulled up and two cops got out. My initial thought was that it was a rent-a-paddy-wagon. ie, the police were renting extra vans in order to hold arrested protesters.

Sadly, it was not to be. It was the grub truck. The back was full of packed lunches - a veritable meals on wheels. You tend to forget about the logistics of organising the security for an event like this. How do you keep thousands of police fed and supplied with coffee and donuts? Where were the Krispy Kreme vans?



And where do they all go when they need to have a piss?

I thought about going over and checking on the welfare of the constabulary by asking them if the tucker was any good, but thought the better of it. They might have forced me to eat some of it.

Will the ABC publish my photo of a wanted war criminal?

I spotted Keyser Trad yapping away to a camera, so I grabbed a few photos of him. I have cropped this photo, ala Reuters style, to show him with a great placard behind his head - "wanted for war crimes - have you seen this man?" I thought that was great.

The original photo of course has a photo of GWB on the top of the placard, but if Reuters can root around and photoshop their images, then so can I. It's all about context after all.



I have uploaded this photo to the ABC website. It will be hilarious if they run it. I am trying to figure out how to upload it to the SMH as well - they used to have this feature where you could SMS your photos in. I can't find it now.

Just to show that I am unbiased, here is the original, uncut photo.



The media was having the usuall feeding frenzy. These two still photographers were vying to get the best shot of Trad. The short, bald guy on the right elbowed the tall guy out of the way, and some nasty looks were exchanged. Peace and love was lacking in some quarters.

Spring cycle

The annual Spring Cycle is on next month. It's a 50km ride that starts in North Sydney, crosses the Harbour Bridge and finishes up at Homebush. For me, it's more like a 70km ride as I have to cycle to North Sydney first, and my only way of getting home from Homebush is to hit the pedals one more time.

This year, I did the right thing and signed up early. That way, the organisers can post me my number in advance (you have to wear a number on your jersey - I guess it makes you feel like an athlete.) The year before last, I signed up the day before, and was punished for my stupidity by having to stand in a queue in North Sydney for half an hour to be issued with my number.

You can start anytime after 7am (I think). The entire route is cleared by the police, including a lane over the Harbour Bridge, so you can take off as soon as the road is clear. I wanted to get my number in advance this time because by the time I got going last time, I was stuck in a pack of 5000 pensioners, cripples and five year olds. The speed of the pack was about 0.1km/h above that which I needed to stay upright. It was a horrible experience.

Now that I have paid my $40 in advance, I will probably get the flu and be unable to ride on the day.

Such is life.

My knowledge of the road rules is sorely lacking

As part of bike week (I had no idea we were having a bike week in NSW), the local rag has published a cyclist awareness quiz. If you complete the quiz and send it in to the local council, you have a chance to win a $50 DJ's voucher.

Woopee-do.

We sat down and had a look at the 10 questions. Even though I have been riding for 3 or 4 years now, I had no idea what the answers to some of the questions were. "Can a bicycle rider turn right from the left hand lane?" Frankly, I have no idea, but this is not something that I want to try. I doubt it is a stunt that could be pulled that often by those that have any expectations of seeing their next birthday.

"Are bicycle riders legally entitled to use the roads?"

Well, that is a good question. Many drivers seem to think that the answer is negative, along with a reasonable number of police. Just try to report an incident between a car and a bike. You get that raised eyebrow look that says, "what were you doing on the road anyway?"

"Must a bicycle rider give a stop signal before stopping?"

This is something that I was taught as a kid, but I haven't done it in years. I like to have both hands on the brakes, thank you very much - especially in the wet. I was able to do it as a kid, but back then, my dragster had those back-pedal brakes, not handlebar mounted brakes that require both hands to operate.

Besides, I stop for nothing. There should be a signal that cyclists can give that says, "I intend to run this red light/stop sign/give way sign/pedestrian crossing."

"Can a bicycle rider overtake a vehicle on the left?"

Yes, a bicycle can do that. It's a bloody silly idea though, as in my experience, cars that are moving slowly enough for me to overtake them are about to make a sudden left hand turn. I also think the grammar of this question is stuffed. Shouldn't it say, "May a bicycle rider overtake a vehicle on the left?" 'can' implies the ability to do so. 'may' implies permission to do so. There's a difference.

Can I eat this chocolate biscuit?

May I eat this chocolate biscuit?

So what this quiz has shown me is:

• Strathfield council are a bunch of cheapskates - a $50 voucher indeed!
• I need to brush up the road rules (as if)
• Strathfield has crap schools
  

Bugger it, I'm going

I'm going into town.

One big decision to make though - should I wear deoderant or not? Will it give me away?

To go, or not to go

I'm sitting at home, warm and dry, wondering whether it is worth riding into town in this. I've been watching the radar for a few hours, and the showers just keep coming through non-stop, and some of them have been pretty heavy.



I guess one good thing will come of it. If I do ride in, the ferals shouldn't pong that much after a good drenching. Although I wonder if dreadlocks smell like wet sheep after they have been out in the rain? Or wet dog?

I might take a few bars of soap and suggest that some of them have a quick dip in the fountain in Hyde Park before they go home, since their home clearly lacks any means of sanitation.

APEC and weapons

Before I rode into town yesterday, junior asked me to get some photos of any snipers that I saw. He wanted to see some shots of cool weapons.

It just struck me that every copper that I saw yesterday (and I saw lots) was armed with nothing more than a Glock, a can of hairspray (or capsicum spray) and a batton.

I vividly remember flying out of Vienna airport back in 1991. The place was crawling with policemen carrying H&K submachine guns and wearing body armour. It left an indelible impression. I also spent a few nights in Istanbul, and noticed that whilst staggering back drunkenly from a bar, there was a soldier posted on every intersection with an SLR (or the H&K equivalent - I think. I was drunk.)

For an event that supposedly has such a 'heavy security presence', the police seem to be rather under-armed. Not an M16 or an H&K to be seen anywhere on the streets.

Why cycling gloves are fingerless

I wrote a recent post about my encounter with some shoddily made Netti gloves. The things started falling apart after less than a week of use.

When I rode into town yesterday to smell the ferals, I wore my winter gloves (it was threatening to rain). My winter gloves are quite lightweight (compared to the ski type gloves that you'd wear in Canberra when it gets cold). The only real difference between my summer gloves and winter gloves is the fingertips. One set has them, the other doesn't.

I only pull out the winter gloves when it gets really cold and wet and miserable, so the wearing ratio of winter to summer gloves is probably 1:5 or greater. They don't get much of a workout, and it wasn't until my second year on the bike that I bothered to buy a set of winter gloves. In other words, the summer gloves have spent an awful lot of time on my hands, and the winter ones haven't.

How much time?

Well, before my bike computer gave up the ghost yesterday, it told me that I had ridden 9511km since installing it. Given that my average speed is a bit under 25km/h, that adds up to 380 hours in the saddle, or a bit over two weeks. The summer gloves are starting to show a few signs of splitting, but they should get me through the remainder of the year.

The winter gloves are a different proposition. I had a look at the fingertips yesterday and noticed that I could see my fingers through the fabric - the ends had worn so thin, my skin was visible. At that point, I started to wonder 'what is the point of wearing gloves with full fingers if they provide almost no more protection than gloves without?'. Especially since the summer gloves have really good padding on the palm, and the winter gloves don't.

I don't have an answer, but I figure that if you want really long lasting gloves, you just have to remove the finger tips, since that is the part that wears out fastest. It kind of makes them a bit pointless in cold weather, but I had never studied glove wear points until now.

Is Rage completelt rooted?

I have been watching Rage for the better part of an hour this morning. In that time, I have watched two hours worth (thanks to the wonders of digital recording technology).

I have spent more time fast forwarding through crap than I have spent watching something listenable (is that a silly thing to say?)

The guest programmers this morning are utter bollocks. Normally, the little monkey will get up and dance if he hears something that he finds pretty groovy. So far this morning, he has only wiggled his hips once, and that was during an ad. I think it is time to put the Shaun the Sheep DVD back on.

Please Rage, get better. I don't want to have to watch Video Hits.

Dear Jamie

Dear Mr Oliver

Bought your latest cook book the other day. Cost me sixty bucks. Read it that afternoon - found about three recipes that I can use.

Then I watched your latest TV show last night. I even recorded it, since the kids were playing up and I couldn't hear a word you were saying.

I've just watched the show, and it has gone straight into the delete bucket. Yes, I am interested in knowing how to cook all forms of broccoli, but there is a limit. Heck, apart from the odd urge to eat chicken, J is a complete vego. I need to be able to cook interesting vegetarian food in order to keep her happy. I was hoping you'd give me a few recipes that I could use to stop her getting the grumps, but I'm afraid you failed.

To start with, she doesn't eat chili. I'm sure that cauliflower and chili go together really well, but I don't think I will ever get the chance to try it. Then there was another recipe that used an entire tin of anchovies. Yes, I love anchovies. I don't buy them in tins - I buy great big jars of them in oil. Trouble is, I never get a chance to cook with them as J doesn't like fish, and certainly doesn't like anchovies.

So what is to be done? My brother lived in the UK when you were climbing the ladder of success, and he had to put up with being bombarded by you to a much greater extent than we Australians ever had. To put it bluntly, he thinks you are a prat.

Unfortunately, I am starting to think the same way. Help me out here. I don't need to be too adventurous in the kitchen. Just give me something I can cook that the whole family will like.

Stop Bush Coalition - the usual suspects

I just Googled the title (without 'the usual suspects') and found this website.

It lists all the usual suspects:

• J-TV (I thought that was a music show?)
• Keysar Trad, and the usual line that 'muslims don't feel safe'. Try visiting Auburn and see if non-muslims feel safe there.
  
• Workers radio (whatever that is)
• Terry Hicks, climate change activists (are they 'people' or just climate change activists now?)
• Redfern Legal Centre
• The next meeting is at UTS

If you want a full list of all the floggers involved, try this page.

Do not buy smoked pork belly

It's been a while since I have cooked pork belly. I normally buy about half a metre of it from my favourite butcher, who cuts it to the length I need. I have a big, expensive cast iron Frog-made pot, and the lid is the perfect thing for cooking belly in. I just get him to cut me a slab that just fits into the lid.

I like pork belly because it is really just a big slab of crackling with a thin smear of meat underneath it. It's easy to cook, tastes great and everyone (bar the vegetable-heads) loves it.

But today, I screwed up royally. I was not paying attention and I got smoked pork belly. No matter what I did to it, the bloody crackling would just not crackle. I have lately become a master of the crackling, but none of the usual tricks worked.

As an aside, I normally score the skin with a very sharp knife, then pour a truckload of salt over it. I then go and put my feet up with a book, or read a blog, or kill some time in some stupid manner or another.

Then I wipe of the salt and all the water that has been extracted using a paper towel, and I salt it again. After more water comes out, I wipe off the excess salt, rub in any herbs that I am bothering to use and then stuff it into an oven that should be hot enough to vaporise your eyebrows.

I have cookbooks that talk about using salt, not using salt, rubbing in oil, rubbing in vinegar and all sorts of things, but this is the one method that works for me. It also keeps me up all night drinking water, as it gives me about a months intake of salt in one meal.

Smoking absolutely screws up the skin. Yes, it tastes good, and all that, and it would have been perfect for a pea and ham soup, but I wanted crackling! So did the kids. I failed them.

The only answer is to do another pork roast this weekend. It's lamb tomorrow night, so Sunday will have to be pork. And lots of it.

APEC, riot police and barricades

I apologise for the rather ratty photos - I am not very experienced at taking photos at demos. Well, given that this was the first demo I have been to, I have no experience at all. I did my best.

I rode into town today to see what all the fuss was about. I needed to go for a ride, so going into town was the obvious choice. I am sick of going west and riding through that cesspit called Auburn. I'd love to tell you how far I went, but the battery on my bike computer decided to die in the morning (after 3 or 4 years of good service), so I will have to estimate 20 - 25km. It was a nothing ride - just a simple in and out in the drizzle. Not even enough to get the legs warmed up.

On the way in, I was just about over the ANZAC Bridge when a couple of motorcycle cops went zooming past in the opposite direction with sirens blaring. They were really moving. I figured they were the front riders for a cavalcade of some sort, so I stopped for a few minutes to see who came around the corner. Being the impatient guy that I am, I only stopped for about two minutes - if that. No enormous snake of vehicles appeared, so I gave up and kept on going. I did see a convoy heading back into town on my way home - but that is another story.

I took my normal route into the city - through Pyrmont and then around the back of Darling Harbour and then up George St. (Normally, I turn off George St to get onto Kent St, but today I kept on going straight down towards the Rocks. There was little traffic, so I figured it was worth the risk of sticking to George St. Besides, there was probably stuff-all to see down Kent St way.)

All the car parks under Darling Harbour were closed to cars, and there were plenty of Police at all the entrances to the entire conference centre. I even spotted some wet looking police standing at what looked like a metal detector outside one entrance. I also spotted a few police buses, which have mesh screens over the side windows - but none over the windscreen. They don't even appear to have a screen that can be pulled down over the windscreen if necessary. I don't see the point in that, but I am sure someone in the Riot Squad has a reason for it. I would have thought they'd be in a spot of bother if some prick threw a brick through the windscreen.

I did get an up close and personal look at a Police bus - I was zipping down George St in the bus lane when a bus pulled up behind me at a set of lights. I'm glad I didn't jump the lights, as I looked over my shoulder and saw that it was a police bus with a stack of police sitting in the back. It might have been possibly the stupidest way to get a traffic ticket imagineable. Well, maybe the second stupidest since David Hicks was asked, "Is that your tank?"



On the other hand, I reckon I could outrun an old bus full of cops, but then you have to think of the snipers. I doubt they would bother trying to shoot out a tyre that is 1 inch in diameter when they had a big red jacket with high visibility stripes down the back of it to aim at.

The bus stopped at Martin Place (which is where I took the above photo), but I kept on going towards The Rocks. I went around a corner and almost went pelting through a barricade at 40km/h. I managed to pull on the anchors hard enough to stop before I went crashing into a couple of Police that were inspecting the underside of cars, and decided it was a good time to do a U-turn and get out of there. I don't think anyone is in the mood for another "Chaser" style stunt. Especially by a bloke on a bike wearing a back pack. Hell, I didn't even think to stick a small fluttering flag on the handlebars.

I saw barricades down side streets, but none of it looked too onerous to me. By the look of it, all the talk this week about a "massive, intrusive fence" is just plain frogshit.

Martin Place was completely empty of people, except for the ubiquitous police up the top of the hill near the Reserve Bank building. I thought about going over and asking them where I could get a good coffee, but they didn't look in the mood for chit-chat. A ride without coffee is - well - a caffeine free ride.

From there, I headed up towards Hyde Park, since I figured that's where the ferals would be. And I was not to be disappointed.

The police had sequestered a small group across the road from Hyde Park. There was a bloke in this small group with a megaphone, and he was heckling the hippies and calling them idiots. I figured this was the pro-ANZUS alliance group. I crossed the road and had a look - I was right.



In the photo below, the 'sinister' black Landcruiser on the left is from the riot squad. Funny that they parked it near the only group most unlikely to cause a riot. I guess they figured they could leave it there with the windows down and the keys in the ignition and none of the ANZUS people would think about stealing it, trashing it or setting it on fire.

I just had to use the word 'sinister' there to feel like I am part of the Fairfax group. I also spent some time scanning the skies for black helicopters, but they must have had their cloaking devices turned on. I should have lined my helmet with tinfoil - that would neuter the mind control devices and make them visible to the naked eye.



Also funny that the ANZUS mob did not need any police near them to keep them under control. From what I read in the paper before I left, the police asked them to move away from the nutbags so that they wouldn't stir them up too much, and they complied. After that, the police didn't seem to feel the need to "actively monitor" them (ie, sit on them with hands on truncheons) in order to maintain public order.



Initially, I was disappointed that there only appeared to be 5 or 6 people in this group. I thought about having a yarn with them for a minute, but then figured that I didn't want to blow my cover with the ferals over the road. I also figured that this number was so small because the people that might normally support them either have a job, or are doing something capitalist on their day off like adding to the value of their home by building a patio out the back or re-tiling the bathroom.

Now, keep that number in your head (5 or 6) and check out the massive lack of media presence surrounding this group.

I then approached the "proper" protest from the rear. The police had blocked off the road out of Hyde Park to prevent the ferals from marching down to the restricted area. I came up behind the command group - there are four senior police at the back of the crowd here that were controlling everything. They all had lots of pips on shoulders. One of them however spent no time controlling his troops and all his time yapping on his mobile phone. I guess he had to report back to someone higher up the food chain. That's the curse of modern communications - the boss always wants to know exactly what is going on right now.



In front of the commanders are a couple of ranks of police on bicycles. They set the bikes up sideways across the road, and had a couple of ranks of them, so no one could get through. At first I thought it was a funny way of doing crowd control, but have you ever tried to walk across a couple of bikes that have fallen over? It's almost impossible. They are harder to get across than barbed wire.

A good tactic for the police would be to just drop the bikes, let them get all tangled up and then pound the hell out of anyone that tries to remove them. Of course if you have a solid phalanx of ferals coming at you, they won't be able to get the bikes out anyway, as they won't have any space to pass them back through the ranks. If you have tightly packed people, there is no way they could manouvere something with wide handlebars through the crowd.

With luck, the first rank trip over and break their ribs on the pedals and handlebars etc, and the screaming stops the crowd moving forward. It's a bit hard to claim "Police brutality" when you trip over and fall on an innocent bicycle.

Which is why I think the police need to mount knives on their bikes, like the Celts did back in about 300AD when they took on the Romans.

This next photo shows the bike police in a more detail. This shot is a bit blurry, but on the left hand side, you can see a cluster of overhead boom microphones. I counted four or five. I guess that ticks off all the TV stations.That is where the protest is.

The protest consisted of a handful of ferals with "blood on their hands" standing around in a circle chanting various things, like "how many kids did you kill today" etc etc. Just the bike police, without the commanders, outnumbered the protesters 2:1. The media easily outnumbered the bike police by 2:1 or 3:1. The media scrum was at least 3 or 4 deep around the protesters. It was the most miserable crowd imagineable. I was barely 20 yards away and I could hardly hear what they were saying. I doubt their message was audible down at the Intercontinental. It was so inane, I thought I had stumbled onto a Mormon picnic.

And for crying out loud - think up some new chants!

I read in the paper today that the organisers were upset about all the claims of 'potential violence'. I saw plenty of violence at this protest - mainly cameramen from rival stations elbowing each other in the guts in an attempt to get the best shot. Yes, events like this do provoke violence - from a feral media.



I noticed that a lot of the cameramen were aiming to get angled shots from low down - that way, they would only include the protesters and would not include the enormous pack of media all around them.

This is just another photo of the incredible media scrum around an incredibly small and useless stunt.



It's hard to take photos that convey just how pitiful this whole scene was. I didn't see any point in trying to penetrate the media scrum, as all I would have ended up with was photos of photographers heads - or the backs of them.

Here is a better shot of the police lines. By counting wheels, I reckon there are 14 bike cops in this photo. Keep that number - 14 - in mind.



Take a close look at the bloke in the middle of this photo in the green vest - he is not a cop. On the back, it says "Human Rights Monitor", and he has a video camera.

On my way in, I saw three of these clowns outside the Town Hall. I took one look at them initially and went "wierd beards". Then one turned around and I saw that caption on the back of their vest. I then changed my mind to "school teachers". You know the type of person that wears socks and sandals? Got a mental picture? Good, because I wasn't going to pull my camera out at the traffic lights and take a photo - you'll just have to imagine them.



Personally, this whole "human rights" thing bothers me - especially in Australia. In fact, I find this insulting. I laughed today when I first saw one of these clowns, but now it just makes me mad. I don't remember seeing any of these characters hanging around Tianamen Square a few years ago. Wankers.

Somewhere in this photo are the protesters. See if you can find them.



Given up? Well, I have circled the only two that I could find. Note the "blood" on them. (Bet it doesn't come from pigs. In fact it is probably tofu with food dye in it).



Juvenile is the best word for it.

Then there was rocketman and his sidekick. At least it makes a change from papier mache heads. Just where do they think up the ideas for stuff like this? Personally, I have not had the urge to get Mum to make a costume so that I could wear it in public since I was, oh, about 8 years old. Grow out of it chum!

I also have to say, the ape costume that Mum made me was of much better quality than these stupid rockets.



At least they had the courtesy to paint "Made in China" on the side. I didn't get what they were protesting about though. Went completely over my head. Maybe they launched themselves into giant papier mache heads later on? I don't know - I couldn't bear to stick around to find out.

It didn't get any better. I bumped into these two clowns seconds later. Notice the Coke bottle sticking out the top of his rocket. I don't know if that is supposed to be some sort of anti-Capitalist statement about Coke supporting the military-industrial complex, or just a convenient place to stash his favourite drink (oh the irony, the irony). I think the clown behind him is lugging a shield.



Note to clowns - an ABM shield is not actually like a shield that say the Spartans used to carry. it is not something that you can lug around. It is a system that stops things getting through.

This is my favourite though - after the protesters had finished chanting and mugging it up for the cameras, they walked over to another area. This is a photograph of the entire protest. Count them - they are the people in white T-shirts.



I count 8 of them. I have not included the bloke on the right, who is a cameraman, but I have included the person walking in front of the guy in black in the middle. I think I am being generous.

Eight. Eight. Half the media on the planet turned up to film 8 people chanting? If it was the Dalai Lama and 7 high ranking monks, I could understand the interest, but this was just 8 morons on their day off.

The priorities of the media really confuse me sometimes.

There were five pro-ANZUS protesters across the road. They attracted maybe two still photographers. There were seven anti-APEC protesters in the park. They attracted maybe 200 people from the media. Did anyone mention the word 'bias'?

I thought I'd also get some snaps of the banners. To begin with, the place had more skulls floating around than a Khmer Rouge holiday camp. What is it with these people and skulls and skeletons?



Note the banner on the left - an aboriginal flag blending into something green (snot perhaps? Slime?). I don't get why the aboriginal flag needs to be trotted out every time as well. I must admit that I did not walk around the entire event (I was lugging my bike - I was not going to chain it up somewhere and risk one of these bastards nicking it), but that part of the event that I saw did not contain a single black face. Not even a half-and-half aboriginal. Not even someone as dark as Nigel Mansell. It's another crock.

Then there was this banner - "reinvent democracy". I am not sure what they mean by that. Get rid of the Senate perhaps? Elect a committee of Elders to oversee parliament? Only allow green-certified people to stand for office?



I like how the southern cross motif has been dragged in as well. When you throw in the missiles, the skulls, the aboriginal stuff, you start to wonder whether the organisers now have this great long checklist of stuff that they have to include.

Didn't seen anything pink though, so I guess they left the poofs out this time. And the dolphins. (Oh no, we forgot the dolphins!) They're not thinking about the whales either.

The overwhelming feeling I got from the whole event was one of being utterly underwhelmed. The organisers had promised lots of action in the days leading up to the march, and then it just fizzled. Here is my take on the numbers that turned up...

Let's say you went to the MCG to watch a big footy match, and some clown announced the next day that 80,000 people turned up to play football.

80,000 people might have turned up, but that would have been made up of:

• 100 or so coaches, water carriers, runners, statisticians and club officials
• maybe 100 cops and private security people
• numerous ticket sellers, barrier attendants and MCG managers
• some commentators
• cameramen, producers, technicians and so on
• food and drink sellers
• cleaners
• groundsmen
• parking attendants
• 78,000 spectators
• 36 players, plus those on the bench

This protest rally was like that. If someone said 500 people turned up, I'd call them a complete liar. It appeared to me that a lot of those that were hanging around were like me - they weren't there to protest - they were there to smell the ferals. If you take away the organisers and the media and the police and the spectators, you'd be lucky to be left with a few dozen people. At most.

I presumably was counted as a protester. Those doing the counting don't ask if you are there to support the protest, oppose it or just ogle it - they just count your head and assume that you are on their team.

Well, they can just fuck off.

Post-script. As I was cycling home, I spotted one of the organisers leaving Hyde Park. Did she get on a train? No, she hailed a cab outside David Jones and took that instead. Imagine, an organiser of an anti-global warming rally taking a Gaia-raping, six cylinder monster home. Was it because it was raining? Oh diddums. Again, the irony just kills me.

I also noticed that I was the only person in the park (apart from the bike cops) to have come by bicycle. I figure the organisers must have used at least a couple of trucks to get all their equipment to Hyde Park, and everyone else looked like they drove. Imagine that. The only person on a nice clean machine is a member of the VRWC.

--------

Some thoughts on the media.

I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, but it was hard to tell the media apart from the protesters. Somehow, I don't think that was the media trying to blend in. Their standards have slipped. Most of the photographers and reporters looked like hobos with an expensive camera around their neck. Where is their pride? What happened to the days of reporters attending an event in a suit?

Good on you Bunnings - you pack of twits

I have been to Bunnings twice this week. I have been hunting sandpit sand, which as it sounds, is designed to go into sandpits for the little kiddies. Until this week, I had no idea such a thing existed. When I was a kid, we had a pile of yellow sand in the back of the yard that was left over from when the back fence was constructed. The fence was made of limestone, cement was required to bind it together and yellow sand was required to make the cement.

At age 6, I was shovelling sand into a cement mixer. That which was left over from that bit of home renovation became my sandpit. Thankfully, Dad over-ordered by a factor of about six, so I had a nice big pile of sand to play in.

These days, you go to Bunnings and buy special river sand that has probably been washed and scrubbed and filtered and bleached and is now suitable for the little dears to play in. If I had known it was going to cost $8 for a 20 kilo bag, I probably would have driven to Bondi and just shovelled some into the back of the Disco. Except that when you tote up the tolls and the parking fees, it's just easier and cheaper to buy the bloody stuff from the local hardware store.

It took me two trips to find it. I searched the entire yard on my first visit. I didn't bother asking anyone, as there was no one to ask. I guess all the staff were at another store making advertising videos. I did however buy a box of herbs, which are now in the garden. Chilli, parsley, mint and something else - tomatoes. I got yellow ones and red ones. I want a good look salad this year.

As an aside, I always find that you buy about 5 times more herbs in those little pots than you really need. For a few years, we survived with one tarragon plant. I denuded it every month or so to make a great tarragon and grape salad, but it was all we required. I really couldn't eat tarragon more often than that. So when I bought a pot of it this week, did I absolutely need 30 or so little tarragon plants? I know that I will kill a certain number in transferring them to their new home, but I'm sure I won't kill 29. It's a good thing that we have friends down the road who have plenty of space in their garden and were in need of some herbs. We planted half of what we bought, then gave them the rest. The contra deal is that when we need more herbs in a few months, they can buy the next batch. That said, there were enough herbs in that box to give at least one type of each herb to every person in our street.

Anyway, we had to go back again today to buy some sand. I went right around the yard again and eventually found an employee who could point me in the right direction. He led me from one end of the yard to the other to this pile, spitting all the way. I think he was Syrian. He spat every time his left foot hit the ground. The yard is pretty sizeable, so that was a lot of spitting. I reckon he would have been pretty dehydrated by the time he spat his way back to his original location.

What is it with cultural sensitivity? If I go to Saudi Arabia, I am supposed to be sensitive to the culture and not do anything offensive blah blah blah. Yet if someone comes here and decides to be offensive, what happens?

They get a job at Bunnings obviously.



The sand I sought was behind this pile of pallets. On the bottom row of course, so it couldn't be seen from anywhere. And there was also a big ladder of sorts right in front of it, so access was impossible. The only way I found it was that there was a bloke standing behind these pallets pulling out bags of decorative sand. I reckon his name was Stanley Livingstone. He was nice enough to point out the sandpit sand to me.

The point of this post is that if big, stupid companies want to sell their wares, the best idea is to make them available to someone that wants to buy them.

As it was, in the time it took me to buy $16 worth of sand, J managed to walk around and pick up $75 worth of plants and pots.

So I guess there is some method to their madness.

Interesting article about hiring a bike in Paris

Frankly, Paris is the last place I would expect to ride around - although it's 16 years since I was last there, so things might have changed.

Anyway, read the article - if you can put up with dipping into the Guardian. Personally, I would take this with a big pinch of salt.

Riding to APEC

I was thinking about riding into town today to see what all the APEC fuss is all about.

Then I saw that the Chaser team had been detained.

I still might go in tomorrow or Saturday. The main thing is the weather. There were showers and squawls today and it was just unpleasant to be outside. The Disco got blown sideways as I went over the Gladesville Bridge, so that gives some indication of the wind strength. I just need to keep an eye on the rain radar and leave so as to duck in between the storms.

What the hell is that?

I was up at the Chatswood Mall again this morning - may Allah curse the carpark there with the fleas of a thousand camels. Technologically, it is the most advanced carpark I have ever been in. There is a sensor above every car space and a light, so the central computer knows which spaces are occupied and which are empty, and there are signs at every intersection telling you how many spaces are free if you go left and how many are free if you go right etc.

Today, like most days after 10am, the signs all read "full". I love the technology. I hate the fact that they are short about 10,000 spaces to cater for the actual demand. The only way to get a spot is to spy a shopper that is leaving, tail them to their car and then sit there until they pack all their shopping and split. I had the pleasure today of being saddled with the world champion in slow car packing. How long should it take to lift six bags out of a shopping trolley and transfer them to your boot? 15 seconds? 20 seconds?

Try about 2 minutes. I swear this woman looked in every bag and ruffled the contents this way and that before taking it out of the trolley and putting it in her boot. I really felt like giving the trolley a nudge and sending it down the ramp to the next level of car park hell.

But that is not what I meant to write about. I could also write about the fact that the stupid car park is the only one in Sydney that does not label each row of car spaces. If I go to say Broadway, each pole has a big letter painted on it, so I just need to remember that I parked in row L on the pink level. At Chatswood, the car park is a convoluted mess, and there are no labels anywhere. I can now see why people can lose their car in a car park - I have gotten lost twice now, and the only way I found my car was to go back to the point in the mall where I got out of the lift and then retrace my steps.

I hate the place.

I was retracing my steps again today in an effort to locate the car when I almost ran over a blob that barely reached my hip. I didn't see the blob until the last moment as I was carrying a big plastic sandpit over one shoulder (like the Spartans in '300' with their shields) so I have some sort of excuse.

The blob turned out to be an obese dwarf. I am not kidding - perhaps morbidly obese dwarf would be more accurate. This person (sex indeterminate) was about half my height and double my weight. It's calves had that look of blubber infested with veins - you know that horribly unhealthy look that really fat people get?

I have to stop here. I want to have some icecream for dessert, but the thought of those fat legs and arms is really putting me off my dinner. I almost chucked into my mouth just then at the thought of the...ugh.

The sight of this dwarf blob was enough to make me forget about the other interesting thing that I spotted and wanted to write about. It will come to me eventually.

More good coffee - and a pie!

Although the weather was looking pretty threatening today, I still pulled on the gear and headed west. I'm so thankful I decided to wear my new, expensive cycling jacket, since it started bucketing down on the way home and I would have frozen without it - but that can wait until the end of the story.

I have been intrigued on my ride around the waterfront at Newington by signs that point west and read "Parramatta". As far as I know, there is no bike route once you get past Newington - it just finishes. Parramatta might indeed be that-a-way, but there is no means to get there. It would be like me putting a sign out the front of my house with "NZ" on it, with the sign pointing in an easterly direction. Yes, NZ is that way, but just try driving there. I can guarantee it will all end in tears in about 25km time.

What I did notice on my last ride was that I could see a certain billboard off in the distance. One thing the councils out west allow you to do is put up enormous fat poles and put billboards on the top of them. They are ugly as sin, but so is most of the western suburbs, so I don't mind. At times like this, they make handy navigation markers. Given the way I get lost, they should erect lots more. Lots, lots more. Dot the landscape with the bloody things I say.

So today I took the "proper" cycle path that I know leads to Parramatta - the one that follows the M4. I had just left Homebush when I spotted that same billboard - it was outside a Bunnings warehouse, and I practically rode underneath it. So I reckoned if I could see that sign from the waterfront, there must be a way to ride from the cycle path to the waterfront.

All that I had to do was get across the M4, which is about 19 lanes of traffic in each direction.

Actually, it wasn't that hard. I just jumped onto the footpath at Silverwater Road and headed north. Following that would mean I would hit the water eventually. It was just a question of finding a nice, cycle-friendly route in the meantime.

I jumped off Silverwater Road as quickly as possible - like at the next set of lights - since it is a bastard of a road. It's thick with large trucks and courier vehicles, and I hate couriers. They're always in a hurry, the disobey 96% of the road rules and they are dumb as fuck. Seen anyone with a PhD driving a courier vehicle lately?

That left me in a large and horrible industrial estate. I stooged around the estate for a while before noticing that it was the same estate that I got lost in a few weeks ago, so I was in familiar territory. I had come into this estate from the opposite direction - but not from the point that I wanted to reach - so I just had to use the Force to try and get to where I wanted to go.

I then spotted the navigation marker that I really needed - a sailboat on a trailer parked on the side of the road. I had ridden past that boat just a few days ago, and I knew that it was essentially at the end of the line for the waterfront cycle path. Once I got to the boat, I was home and hosed.

The funny thing is that I kept on seeing these two other cyclists again and again on my ride. They weren't together, but they kept on popping up at odd points. I hooked up with one of them and we had a pleasant ride together for about 10 minutes. He works at Homebush, and goes for a one hour ride around the place each day, covering about 20km in the process. We had a good chat about this and that. It's not often that I get to chat to another cyclist - very few seem to be going my way - so it was a nice break from the solo pattern.

From Homebush, I headed back to Breakfast Point for another coffee at Pane e Vino. I parked the bike out the front, sat down and a waitress came out and said, "Let me guess - you want a mac", which was correct. However, I didn't remember seeing her there on Monday.



And I hadn't - today was her first day. The barrista had seen me through the door and told her that I probably wanted a macchiato. I appreciate that sort of memory. The coffee was as good as it was on Monday. The bonus was that they also had some pies in stock. I wanted a beef pie, but they were all gone, so I had Thai chicken instead.

Check out the coffee - I put the glasses in the shot for some scale, but it doesn't really work. They make the glass look much larger than it is. It's essentially a shot glass, which is what a macchiato should be. And check out the level of the coffee in the bottom - I had a small sip before taking the photo, but there is bugger all coffee in there. It's concentrated, thick and glutinous. Lovely.

This is the pie. I just loved the way they folded the pastry. I have tried making pies at home, and always buggered them up. Now I know how to do them - make a simple parcel and fold the corners in and away you go.



It was not a wimpy pie. When I have a pie that is supposed to be Thai, it should have a good kick to it. This one did. I got back on the bike, rode straight into a heavy rain shower and the pie kept me beautifully warm.

I later calculated though that if I had not stopped for a pie and coffee, I actually would have made it home before it started raining.

Such is life. I'll take a good coffee and pie anyday over wimping out over a bit of rain.

Toys

I took this photo in a well known toy shop.

Check the spelling. I am sure it is meant to say "interactive".



I blame all school teachers.

The first cockroaches of the season

I haven't seen a single cockroach all winter. For months, we have been cockroach free, which is great, since J just hates them, and I am always running around killing them and cleaning them up after she has spotted one.

To my surprise, the warm weather last week brought a few out. They weren't little baby, spring hatched cockroaches. They were large, fully grown monsters. They took quite a bit of killing too, but I got them in the end.

More cockroach spray will have to go on the shopping list now. In Sydney, there are that many cockroaches, it pays to have a can in almost every room in the house. You need it to be within arms reach when you see one of the buggers.

Pipes

You don't see many people smoking pipes anymore. I was therefore surprised today to see the bloke in the car next to me at the traffic lights to be smoking a pipe. He had the window down a couple of inches, and he was puffing away quite happily.

The other odd thing is that he was driving a Nissan sports car of some sort, and he looked about 70. Not the sort of car you'd expect someone of that ilk to be driving.

Another lousy day

I was hoping to go for another ride yesterday, but lost interest after I walked outside and felt the wind strength. I don't mind going out if it is drizzling or cold, but I hate riding into blustery winds if I don't have to. Given that the usual ride out to the west covers a flat as a pancake landscape, the wind just howls across it with little respite. There aren't even buildings that I can hide behind to get out of the wind.

Then it rained. At that point, it was time to put the feet up on the couch with the latest Jamie Oliver cook book.

How do you get a fishy smell out of the kitchen?

I sure as hell don't know. The place still has a fishy odour to it.

Victory is mine

I have been pestering the council for the last few months about a "no parking" spot outside our house. The traffic wardens have this horrible habit of coming down our street and giving people a $179 fine for parking outside our place, but there is no sign saying that you can't park there. After getting a ticket myself, and discovering that all the other residents in our end of the street had gotten a ticket, I pestered them into erecting a sign.

I got a letter six weeks ago saying that a committee was going to study the matter. Having heard no more since then, I have been gearing up of late to start annoying the council again. Then I walked out the front door this morning, and almost walked into a bloke carrying a shovel. There was a council van parked across the road. In the back was a "no stopping" sign.

Thankfully, he installed it in such a way that I can still park the car outside our place. Of course I got home and there was a car parked in the "no stopping" zone. I wonder how many people are going to realise that there is a newly erected sign there and not park where they can get a ticket?

This place stinks

I made a huge blunder last night. I had some leftover fish fillets from Saturday night, so I cooked them inside instead of doing them on the BBQ (like I should have).

Half a can of deoderiser later, I can still detect the reek of cooked fish in the back half of the house.

I got lazy. It was just a bit colder than usual, so instead of rugging up and standing at the BBQ, I pulled out a frying pan and did them on the stove.

Perch. Whew, what a smell. Tasty, but the smell!

My aching legs

Didn't ride over the weekend. Couldn't. I managed to total 128km up until Thursday, and then my legs just collapsed on Friday. I could barely walk around the supermarket. Buggered if I know what I did to have them go bung on me so badly. It's not like I was riding long distances or thrashing along at high speed or attacking nasty hills. I was just dawdling along on the flat for nothing much over 38km a day. Nothing at all really.

All I know is that my legs really ached, and that was the end of my riding for three days straight.

Shitheads

There is a bit of a diversion here because the bike path crosses a boat ramp. You don't see this everyday. Well, I've never actually seen it before.

The council has thoughtfully painted a big green patch on the road indicating that if you are on a bike, that you need to veer around the horrible cobbled bit in front of you.

That of course has not stopped these two inconsiderate shitheads from parking their vehicle on the bike path. They stopped there to have lunch. I could smell the burgers as I went past. They smelled good. The two blokes did not.

A great use for waterfront land

There is a real estate axiom that waterfront land is the best thing to own as there is a limited supply of it for use as housing.



Balls. There is plenty more waterfront property available in Sydney. It's just that it is currently used to store containers and things like that (they're not very clear in this photo, but there is a great stack of them on the horizon). If our government had any sense, they'd flatten a slum like Macquarie Fields, turn it into a container park, and sell this waterfront land for building McMansions.

The beauty of parking lots of containers in the former suburb of Macquarie Fields is that you can house the current inhabitants in the containers. They can't be any worse than your average housing commission dump.

Industrial ick

Every so often, I'll be riding along and I'll spot something that is just spectacularly ugly. Here we have some kind of pipeline bridge framed against a cement plant in the background.



It's even uglier when you get closer to it. My advice is to stay a long way away - at least 10km away. Personally, I would prefer to be 30km away, which is Bondi. But you can't have it all.

Another hideous housing development

There I was, idling along the banks of the Parramatta River when I looked to my right and spotted this thing shown below.



It's a "waterfront" housing development of some sort. I presume it is situated on an oozing miasma of toxic industrial waste. I bet it will still cost a bomb to live there. I stood there and looked across the river at it for a few minutes, shook my head and gave thanks that we live where we do.

This is a toilet

It's on the foreshore near the Newington Armory. I rode past it having no idea what it was, until I saw some bloke bolting for it holding his crotch in a "I need to pee" stance.



Bugger me. Why can't councils just erect dunnies made out of good old fashioned besser blocks? What's wrong with a pig-ugly, cheap as chips toilet? Do we really need to blow lots of taxpayers dollars on this type of thing?

Pane e Vino

All rides are undertaken with one eye watching for a good place to stop and have a coffee. I decided to meander around Breakfast Point today because I have given up trying to find a good cafe in the Homebush area.



I found this place off the beaten track - Pane e Vino, which means "Bread and wine". It's not really that far off the beaten track. In fact, it's on a main thoroughfare. It's just that it is not a road that I frequent that often. Before today, I might not have frequented it at all.

I liked the place, simply because it was nice, the service was good and the coffee was quite good. It would be a disaster if the service had been bad, as the waiter:customer ratio was 1:1. I was one of three customers. All three staff came out to see if I needed anything at one point or another.

I had a macchiato, which was one of the best I have ever had. It came in a cup not much larger than a thimble, and the coffee was quite thick and was topped with very little milky foam. Once I had added a dash of sugar, it was like Turkish coffee. Given that I normally only have one coffee per day, and this was my second, I had to resist the urge to have another. It was a violent urge, mainly because the coffee was so good.

I also wanted to have a pie, as they make their own, but they can't have been making many of late as there were none left. Or they are so good, they are all sold out by 2.30pm each day. Given the lack of pies, I opted for a quiche, but they were all gone as well. The next choice was a burger, but I doubted I would be able to make the trip home with a gut full of burger, so I had to leave it at one coffee.

The breakfast menu looked good as well. Perhaps over-complicated, but good. Tuesday is their day off. If it wasn't, I would be there tomorrow morning testing the breakfast.

The only thing that spoiled my interlude was the view. Specifically, a view of two rock apes in a red Commodore parked just down the road. The wanker in the passenger seat had dumped his fast food container out the window, and it was just sitting on the verge next to the car. They just sat there - fiddling with the fluffy dice and yabbering on about something or other. It would have been nicer if they had pissed off somewhere else - like driven off the end of the nearby wharf and ended up on the bottom of the Parramatta river with all the other scum and pollutants.

This hills are alive, with the sound of god-botherers

Here we have our local Hillsong church, which looks like a converted shop. I say "local" loosely, as this is a good 5km from our place.




The first time I saw this church, I was lost as buggery. I had gone for a cycle on a weekend and had completely lost my bearings. I decided that since I knew the water was to the north and Parramatta Road to the south, I would simply go one way until I hit either the water or the road, and then I would know which direction to go in. I might not know where I was, but at least I would know which way to head to get home.

It was around then that I first had thoughts about buying a GPS that I could mount on the handlebars.

I was riding along a street, completely lost, when I saw a gaggle of well polished cars ahead of me, together with gaggles of well dressed youth. I thought I had stumbled onto a secret drag racing meet, but it turned out that they had all just finished a service and were standing around on the footpath having a gasbag. As I rode past, I made a mental note of the church, since at the time, the Hillsong mob were attracting a lot of attention for having Costello address them and that sort of thing.

Anyway, there I am riding along today, and I bump into the same church. Except this time, I know where I am, and how to get home. It's amazing what a year or two of stooging around the backstreets of an area will teach you.

Architectural mish-mash

The ride today was around the Breakfast Point area, which is a bit of expensive waterfront a bit further west of us. My first ride through this area introduced me to a two door Bentley - the first I had seen in Sydney. I was gawking at the buildings, and almost ran into the back of it. It's the kind of car you normally only see on Top Gear with a price tag of $250,000, so I was a bit surprised to see it parked in the street of this development



It took me about 10 seconds to figure out that it probably belongs to the developer, rather than the owner of one of these apartments.

I snapped these two photos because I liked the juxtaposition between the old buildings on the site (which are presumably being retained for heritage reasons) and the new. The shocking thing is that for once, the design of the new apartments does not make me gag and want to vomit on the spot. If I didn't have rugrats, I could actually see myself residing in one of these (assuming I had the cash - they are not cheap).



I think I will just have to resign myself to squatting in one of these derelict "heritage" dumps near the water.