Tuesday photos

Crikey, what happened to the last few days? It's seems like yesterday was Saturday. I didn't even have a good drunken weekend to account for the lost hours. Watching Le Tour into the wee hours of the morning should explain why I wake up feeling like my brain has been replaced with a stale muffin, but I haven't even been able to watch that all the way through - I keep on conking out on the couch.

Monday was nice. Today was miserable - but warm. Although it rained all the way home, I was too hot to put on the spray jacket. It's funny watching pedestrians crouching over and shivering as the dart from cover to cover as I tonk along trailing a thin cloud of steam.

That's an odd way to perch at the traffic lights.

The ongoing saga of the open-and-shut cycle path continues. One moment, there are barriers pushing cyclists onto the path. The next day, there are barriers blocking it off, and guys with jackhammers are tearing up the path. I hope these blokes aren't ripping up freshly laid concrete (I have this horrible feeling that they are - the stuff is about 2 weeks old). Typical government job.

The only irks this week have been two taxi drivers that decided to push me out of my lane. I was coming home tonight, rolling along quickly in the right hand lane (as I wanted to turn right at the next lights) when this taxi came along side and then just moved into my lane. The driver didn't try and get in front of me, or wait and get in behind me - he just decided to push me out of the way. At the lights, he was held up, so I got in front of him and then went around the corner reeeeeaaaaalllllyyyy ssssllllloooowwwwllllyyyy. I annoyed him enough for him to honk several times. When he tried to go wide to get around me, I simply drifted over and blocked him. If he wanted to be a prick, I was happy to reciprocate.

What's a clwon?

Must be a French thing. The caption here reads: "A clwon reacts as the peleton with Brent Brookwalter of the US, left, passes by".

Gumby cyclist

Some drivers are idiots, and the same is true of cyclists. We all do stupid things sometimes. The bloke in this video takes a quite amazing risk in my opinion - passing on a blind corner where cyclists come rattling around from the other direction at speed. In the mornings, I zip down this hill and around this corner in the other direction at a fair rate of knots. This bloke was lucky not to have a head-on with someone coming the other way, and no doubt I would have been caught up in the carnage.

What really annoyed me is that he crawled up the hill to the corner, and then overtook at the most dangerous point. I normally put the hammer down as I come off the ANZAC bridge, and try to be doing 40-50km/h as I hit the base of the slope. With that sort of speed, I hardly have to work on the uphill bit, as you need to bleed off speed to get around this blind corner at the top safely. Gumby trundled up the hill at about 20km/h - a frustratingly crawling speed - and then passed an even slower cyclist at the stupidest point. Aaargh! Some people shit me.

ZIX 702 - knobhead number one

I'd like to say a big "Hello, and fuck you" to the Simmons Contracting knobhead that nearly took me out at a roundabout earlier this week. I should have rung this bloke up on 9983 0779, or gone to their address at:

A. Simmons Contracting

Suite 5, 186 Mona Vale Rd, Ives, NSW 2075

and given them a piece of my mind.

The driver of this ute was clearly in a hurry. This is a 50km zone, and I was doing 40 as I started braking for the roundabout - you need to really slow down for this one as visibility to the right is impeded by a building on the corner. (I was almost taken out by a Porsche there on Friday, which I saw too late). When I was 2/3 of the way down the hill towards the roundabout, there was no traffic behind me - and then suddenly there was this bloke. He was moving.

As I braked, idiot decided to cross the double white line and go around me without slowing down at all. I hate it when drivers do this, as they fail to realise that whilst there might be enough room for them to get side by side with me at the entry to the roundabout, there is rarely enough room for us to be side by side in the middle of the roundabout and especially at the exit. And cars going too fast for the roundabout tend to swing wide as they turn and they take up all the available space on the road. If I had been going straight ahead, I could have been sideswiped as he swung out, or been forced off the road - and it's never fun crashing over a raised kerb at speed.

Friday photos

What happened today? Oh yeah, it rained. I was cursing my spray jacket all the way into town, as it didn't rain, and then it rained in the last kilometre. If I hadn't been wearing it, I would have been soaked. I didn't wear it on the way home (the afternoon is much warmer than the morning) and I got soaked - but who cares? I sloshed in the back door, threw the shoes in the dryer, the wet clothes in the washing basket and splashed through the house to a hot shower.

Check out that sunrise - like a Turner painting.

I am getting better at taking photos with my thick winter gloves on - it just takes a bit of practice. That means I am back to taking photos on the run - or on the wheel. It's not that easy, and I do miss a few thanks to fumbling fingers, but I am improving.

Another shot of that glorious sunrise.

I can understand people not wanting to do the whole lycra thing and to be relaxed and comfortable in their normal clothes - but surely that's not much fun in the rain?

Will Joolia launch the BDR?

We've had the BER - Building the Education Revolution.

Now it's time for the BDR - Building the Detention Revolution.

Coming soon to a pacific island nowhere near you. A $3 billion grass hut with a plaque on the side.

Targeting Gilrudd

Andrew Bolt had a lot of fun with this photo today. A lot of commentators made remarks about Nazi salutes and so forth.

As much as I would like to bash Gillard, it's not a salute. It's a target indication that she is giving. This is the way I was trained to indicate a target - you never point with your finger. You point with all fingers outstetched in the manner demonstrated here. I left a comment to that effect, and only Habib picked up on it (he's serving somewhere in some sort of capacity - he knew what I was talking about).

What this photo says to me is that Gillard is observant and a quick learner. I'm sure she wasn't on the boat long before she noticed that the swabbies were indicating things port and starboard in this fashion - and she worked out why and copied them. Good on her. I doubt Rudd would have been that quick - or he would have chewed them out for pointing in such a "silly" fashion (silly as far as he was concerned, since he was such an Enormous Box of Brains).

So I'm not going to make any cracks about Fascist salutes. She's paying our military a complement by doing as they do. Some people need to pull their frickin' heads in.

Bloodnut jokes will resume tomorrow.

Shagged

Shagged. Just shagged. Absolutely wrung out. It's nothing to do with the weather, which was almost half pleasant today. I was only rained on twice.

It was mainly to do with these two buggers. They overtook me on the way home, and me being me, I just had to chase them. Dogs chase cars for no sane reason. I do the same with cyclists that overtake me. Woof.

Trouble is, they were lighter, fitter and faster, and although I managed to hold their wheels, it came at a cost. The couch looked very welcoming when I got home.

Tuesday photos

Another murky, wet day. I had two goes at taking this photo - the first, I let the camera choose the light levels.

The second, I set the light level on the muddy spit sticking out in front of where I was standing. Complete washout.

Coming home was little better. I left the spray jacket off, thinking it would be too warm to ride with it - and it started raining a minute later. Not heavy enough to warrant stopping and putting on the jacket - I thought about the cyclists in The Tour who had to ride 200km through the rain yesterday, and put away my wussy thoughts and pushed on regardless.

Monday photos

Had a really crap night's sleep, so it was a late start again this morning. The forecast was showers, but I avoided them all. When I left the office, a bloke on a motorbike was leaving at the same time and he proclaimed that "I was going to freeze my arse off" on the way home. Motorcyclists forget that cyclists actually use a few muscles when moving around - you do more than twist one wrist and knock one foot up and down.

Anyway, to the photos. Check out that sky - all glowering clouds down below, sweetness and light up above.

The water really did look that grey and moody.

Thursday photos

Took lots of photos this morning, but only felt that a few were worth putting up. I made a radical change - I actually stopped for a few minutes and took a series of photos from the one spot as the sun came up. When I got home, I found that I didn't like any of them, so I stood there freezing for nothing.

The last two were taken from the same spot, but have different ratios of sky to water. I was trying to show the reflection of the clouds on the almost-still water.

Sorry Cav, had to ignore your rule of thirds for the last one.

If I can be arsed, I'll take the tripod back to these spots after dark one night and do some time lapse photos as the planes fly overhead. I'd like to try and do one where I capture the lights of the aircraft both in the sky and reflected on the water.

Close call

Kevin Rudd hasn't been given a cabinet post.

I imagine there are thousands of public servants who will be getting pissed as newts this Friday night in celebration of the fact that their department is not going to be headed up by Arsehole Number One.

If he was an abusive control freak as PM, just imagine what he would be like as a bitter and twisted ex-PM with an axe to grind.

The Bloodnut Number One should never have promised him a gig after the election. Every public servant in Canberra with half a brain will now vote Liberal in order to minimise the risk of him being their minister.

Explanation for the cold snap?

We all know that everything freezes when Al Gore is around - the Gore effect is well documented.

However, he hasn't been anywhere near Australia lately.

On the other hand, he's getting divorced from Tipper. Maybe she has decided to take half the effect as part of her settlement?

Anyone know where Tipper is at the moment?

Monday afternoon photos

Part two of the Monday batch. Here's a bright looking back pack - I was almost blinded by the sunlight reflecting off it. The antithesis of the Ninja look.

Ageing hipster heading home. He had the cuffs cut off the bottom of his jeans, and wore his bike lock around his waist. Probably an academic.

Another view, with his head in the clouds.

Sunset tonight was pretty awesome. The water in the Bay was not quite mirror flat, but flat enough to look like a burnished mirror in places.

Cyclist taking the low road.

I love the reflection of the clouds on the water.

That building on the left is the UTS rowers club. Top floor is a restaurant. How I'd love to sit up there with a beer, watching a sunset like this.

Yes, it was this dazzling. When I went around the bend, I was completely blinded by the sun.

The reflection off the water at this point was something else. There was a pool of dead still water, and the sun reflecting off it turned the water almost white.

And that's it.

Monday morning photos

Lots of photos today, so I am dividing them into two chunks. To work and from work.

It was a crispy old morning in Sydney - it was 3 degrees when I left home, and I thought my ears were going to snap off before I was halfway into town. I don't know how Tony Abbott has made it through so many Canberra winters on his bike and kept his flappers attached to his head.

Look at that water - beautiful. And undoubtedly bloody cold.

I've used a bit of zoom to capture the top section of the Harbour bridge in the distance - see that curved bit slightly left of middle?

First there was one rower....

....then there was a swarm. I hope they were wearing wetsuits.

They went this way and that, some crews racing against others, other solitary crews doing stroke improvement exercises.

A shot with 2/3 sky...

...and one with 2/3 water. I prefer the water shot, particularly as the water gets so dark as it gets closer to you.

A crew heading home.

The last of the moon over a bunch of boats.

Stopping to take all these snaps just about killed me. I had to take a glove off each time to work the camera, and the lack of motion before I was properly warmed up risked muscle seizures in the legs. But I reckon it was worth it.

Tuesday photos

Coming home - a pair of cyclists with lots of rear facing flashing things.

Check out the groovy leather lace up boots on this chick.

Sunset from multiple spots around The Bay.

Sunset with dead bush and sticks.

I hope that's sunset - otherwise, the smog is getting worse.

Monday photos

Apart from a few wispy tendrils, there is not a cloud in the sky. Which probably accounts for the overnight minimum of 5 - again. Sunrise certainly photographs a lot better when there are lots of clouds around - something to diffuse the light, and to add a bit of colour to the sky. Plus you don't get this great big white blob in the corner of your photos.

The rowers were out as usual. I'd forgotten what a massively masochistic sport this is. Rowing when it is warm is bad enough - rowing when the temperature is not far above freezing is just plain insane. Lovely flat water though.

Fingertips

Just about froze my fingertips off yesterday. The temp was down to 5 when I left - much colder than the 8-13 degrees that we have been having in the mornings. I blame the lack of cloud cover.

My fingers stopped complaining bitterly after about 10 minutes - either warm blood started circulating throughout the body, or the nerves iced up. I'm off to find my long fingered winter gloves this morning.

My toes were bright pink and painful when I took my shoes off - the shoes are beautifully ventilated so that your feet do not fry in summer. Not so useful in winter. The sun is starting to light things up - time to go.

Shortest ad campaign in history

The Kevin0Lemon ads - good for about 3 days. That was it.

61 hours in one day

I read 61 Hours on Saturday. I've never heard of Lee Child (author) or Jack Reacher (subject). The book was handed to me mid-morning at a moment when I had nothing to do, and it was finished just before 7pm. Ripping yarn - loved it. As it is about the 10th book in the series, I now need to go back and start at the beginning. 10 books in 10 days?

Friday photos

Given that it is now actually Monday, you may be wondering why I have called this a Friday photo. Simple - it was taken on Friday. Just around dawn. It's the only one worth publishing, as it is the only one that is relatively horizontal. When I take photos to the side when I am at speed, the camera always tilts one way or the other, and I think I'll get told off if I don't have nice square photos.

It was a bit wet on Friday - you can see two stalwarts walking into the shot from the left. They were about the only two pedestrians I saw that morning. There are some whackos who go out rain or shine, wind or hail, hot or cold - the weather fazes them not.

I must stop and ask those types if they are ex-infantry, and whether they were dropped on their heads as babies.

Kevin Rudd's Downfall

Thanks to Catallaxy. Yes, the idea is old, but I do get a kick out these when they are done well. And it's done well.