The Lynwood Cafe is situated in a little village about 60 kilometres from Canberra. Blowed if I can remember the name of the place at the moment - I just know that you drive down the Federal Highway and turn right and there you are.
It's a nice place to stop for tea and cake if you are driving down to Canberra on a weekend afternoon. It makes a very nice change from the Macca's at Marulan. It's a whitewashed old cottage with a good sized bit of lawn out the back, and people come from far and wide for the food. It's one of those marvelous places where you can roll up for lunch at not depart until about 6 hours later. I like it. Only problem is, I have to drive 250 kms to get there.
Ah well, we dropped in the other day for a refereshing coffee and cake. I had a lemon curd thing, which surprised me by coming in a water glass. It was really strong curd at the bottom, with mild creamy curd in the middle and proper double cream on top. It was great, and about 4 times what I needed. It was possibly the best curd thing I have ever had, but I left feeling like I had pigged out on way, way too much creamy stuff.
The coffee was good too - I needed it to cut through all the cream I was ingesting.
J had a macadamia tart of some sort, which was also very good, but a bit sweet for my liking. Again, a portion half the size of what we got would have been better. Still, can't complain about being stuffed full of good food.
There was only one downer about the place - there was a table of a dozen or so ladies from Canberra doing lunch near us, and some of them had those amazing penetrating voices that you can hear in the next paddock. They all struck me as public servants of one type or another, and one of them in particular just went on and on and on about some drunken night, and unfortunately she had the voice that would penetrate cement. I had to listen to her dribble away as I spooned my way through the delicious curd. Some people need to be denied eating rights at certain establishments. Why can't we bring back some sort of class system? Not one where you have to be upper class, but one where you have to show that you have some sort of class. She was just a silly piece of work.
Lynwood is not for the faint of wallet either - two cakes and two coffees set me back $31.50. The cakes were $12.50 each.
Ouch.
Sunday, 10 December 2006
Tuesday, 5 December 2006
Weather
I have had a series of very indoors jobs for the last decade. I rarely find myself outside these days during work hours, so the weather for me has not been that important for a long time. About the only thing that I used to concentrate on during the weather report was the surf conditions, but frankly I can't work out the difference between "seas" and "swell" - I just go to the beach and hope for some waves to bodysurf on. I don't care whether it is hot or cold, fine or raining when I go swimming - after all, you're going to get wet, so what does it matter?
Cycling has changed all of that. Now I study the weather with the same intensity of farmers and ice cream marketing departments. Do I need to pack my spray jacket this morning? Is it a day for gloves with or without fingers? Should I take the clear lenses for my sunglasses? Will I have a headwind going in, and if so, how strong? Depending on the wind, which route should I take? Will I get hit by lightning? Should I pack spare socks (in case it buckets down and my socks get wet - putting on wet socks at the end of the day is not a good start to the ride home).
These are all considerations for the cyclist. Looking out the window helps, but I am now a student of the longer range forecast, because it also determines what time I get out of bed. If it is going to be stinking hot, I get up soon after dawn and ride in before the road starts to melt. If it is going to be freezing, I go in late after the sun has been up for a few hours and the mist has lifted.
It's all part of the subtle differences between motorists and cyclists. Motorists don't need to give a bugger about what is going on outside - you just set the climate control to 20 degrees and go wherever you are going.
Cycling has changed all of that. Now I study the weather with the same intensity of farmers and ice cream marketing departments. Do I need to pack my spray jacket this morning? Is it a day for gloves with or without fingers? Should I take the clear lenses for my sunglasses? Will I have a headwind going in, and if so, how strong? Depending on the wind, which route should I take? Will I get hit by lightning? Should I pack spare socks (in case it buckets down and my socks get wet - putting on wet socks at the end of the day is not a good start to the ride home).
These are all considerations for the cyclist. Looking out the window helps, but I am now a student of the longer range forecast, because it also determines what time I get out of bed. If it is going to be stinking hot, I get up soon after dawn and ride in before the road starts to melt. If it is going to be freezing, I go in late after the sun has been up for a few hours and the mist has lifted.
It's all part of the subtle differences between motorists and cyclists. Motorists don't need to give a bugger about what is going on outside - you just set the climate control to 20 degrees and go wherever you are going.
"Chai" for chunder
We recently acquired a packet of Chai tea. I am not a big fan of funny teas. As far as I am concerned, tea is made from tea leaves, and that is about it. No cinammon and vanilla and cardamon pods and all that muck. However, since I am not much of a tea drinker (maybe 5 cups a year), I don't have much say in what tea goes into our kitchen cupboards.
What amazed me about this packet of Chai tea is how much it stinks. The coffee shop that I visit once each morning sells bucketloads of the stuff, and it has never offended my nostrils. J makes a cup of it regularly, and it doesn't bother me when it is steeping in the cup. I can even make a cup for her.
What I can't stand is the smell of the box of teabags in the cupboard. For some reason, concentrated unused Chai teabags smell like vomit to me. Don't ask me why - they just do. We've had to seal them in a plastic tub in an effort to stop me from hurling everytime I open the drinks cupboard.
Wierd.
What amazed me about this packet of Chai tea is how much it stinks. The coffee shop that I visit once each morning sells bucketloads of the stuff, and it has never offended my nostrils. J makes a cup of it regularly, and it doesn't bother me when it is steeping in the cup. I can even make a cup for her.
What I can't stand is the smell of the box of teabags in the cupboard. For some reason, concentrated unused Chai teabags smell like vomit to me. Don't ask me why - they just do. We've had to seal them in a plastic tub in an effort to stop me from hurling everytime I open the drinks cupboard.
Wierd.
Sunday, 3 December 2006
Stupid councils get up my nose
I've had to visit a physio once a week or so for the last few weeks, so I have been cycling to the physio from work and hoping that my bike doesn't get nicked whilst I am getting kneaded. After the physio, I take the long way home, since my physio tells me that part of my recovery regime is riding. Unless you know the area, describing my route home is a waste of time, but one highlight is that it takes me under the Gladesville Bridge. The bridge was built in the 1950's, and is a typical concrete monstrosity of its era. I still like going under it, as even concrete monsters have a certain beauty about them.
In all honesty, I just want to climb up the support works. It's a big concrete arch, and it looks shallow enough to be able to climb up it with a good pair of grippy shoes. Doing that kind of stuff these days is enough to get you shot as a potential terrorist, so I doubt many people do it anymore. But it's nice to dream.
The only nasty thing about the ride is the bit that takes me to the bridge, plus a bit of stupidity on the other side.
The Council in their wisdom has decided to mark out a bike lane along a street that runs parallel with Victoria Road. Victoria Road is an immensely busy arterial - one of the main roads in Sydney. I hope I never end up on it on my bike. I much prefer the back street.
There is just one problem - the back street has a road surface that would put the Paris to Dakar rally conditions to shame. And of course the worst bits of surface are right where they have marked the bike lane, so I never ride in it. It's a bit bloody stupid really. The council can say that they have created another 500 metres of bike path for the cost of a few tins of paint, but the whole thing is just a lie.
Fucking local government. What more can I say?
Once I get under the bridge, I meander around the water for a bit before rejoining the road. Once again, the council has built a path that for cyclists, is a path to nowhere.
There is a bit of an artform to building cycle paths. With pedestrians, it's easy. You can build a totally shoddy goat track and people can still walk on it. It doesn't matter if bits are missing - pedestrians will find their way around any obstacles.
Now that I own a pram, I know that it is not so easy when pushing a pram. Suddenly those rocks and stairs and lumpy bits and missing wheelchair ramps become big obstacles. A pedestrian with a pram is nowhere as manouverable as one without. Sounds obvious, but it doesn't stop stupid bloody council planners and council workers from building paths that could only have been laid by complete dickheads.
With a bike, you take it up a notch as you are travelling a lot faster. My top speed pushing a pram is 6 km/h, and that is fast for most pram walkers. Yes, some people run with prams, but they are a minority.
On the flat, I rarely drop below 25 km/h unless there is a really nasty headwind. Cruising speed is around 30 km/h. Fast cruise is 35 km/h. Really hiking along is 45 km/h, and flat out with tailwind is 50 km/h.
Suddenly stairs and potholes and rocks and low hanging branches and other obstacles become enormous problems. A pedestrian going 6 km/h can come to a complete stop in one step. A cyclist at 35 km/h on skinny tyres takes.... I have no idea how long to pull up. Too bloody long is the simple answer, and at that speed, any obstacle is likely to result in a crash.
A cyclist is also as likely to get off their bike and push it as a motorist is as likely to get out of their car and push it. I know that sounds silly, but it is part of the psychology of riding a road bike. Mountain bikers might be used to dismounting, but the only time I dismount is at the end of the ride, or when I have to carry my bike up a set of stairs. Apart from that, I dismount for no one or nothing.
Which leads me to stupid councils. Once I get past the Gladesville Bridge, I am on a path that was not designed with bikes in mind. For starters, there is no way to get onto it from the road - no wheelchair ramp. The only way onto it is to either jump the kerb and cross some grass, or to go into a driveway and cross a nature strip, hoping that no punctures occur on the way across. At the far end, there is a wheelchair ramp, but it is not designed for a speedy exit onto the road. I think the safest way to get onto a road is to do so as quickly as possible, like merging lanes when you join a freeway. Slow traffic is a menace, and so are slow bikes. Of course the ramp has been located in such a way to slow you to an utter crawl.
I wish I could control a concrete truck and crew for a few weeks. The fun I'd have.
In all honesty, I just want to climb up the support works. It's a big concrete arch, and it looks shallow enough to be able to climb up it with a good pair of grippy shoes. Doing that kind of stuff these days is enough to get you shot as a potential terrorist, so I doubt many people do it anymore. But it's nice to dream.
The only nasty thing about the ride is the bit that takes me to the bridge, plus a bit of stupidity on the other side.
The Council in their wisdom has decided to mark out a bike lane along a street that runs parallel with Victoria Road. Victoria Road is an immensely busy arterial - one of the main roads in Sydney. I hope I never end up on it on my bike. I much prefer the back street.
There is just one problem - the back street has a road surface that would put the Paris to Dakar rally conditions to shame. And of course the worst bits of surface are right where they have marked the bike lane, so I never ride in it. It's a bit bloody stupid really. The council can say that they have created another 500 metres of bike path for the cost of a few tins of paint, but the whole thing is just a lie.
Fucking local government. What more can I say?
Once I get under the bridge, I meander around the water for a bit before rejoining the road. Once again, the council has built a path that for cyclists, is a path to nowhere.
There is a bit of an artform to building cycle paths. With pedestrians, it's easy. You can build a totally shoddy goat track and people can still walk on it. It doesn't matter if bits are missing - pedestrians will find their way around any obstacles.
Now that I own a pram, I know that it is not so easy when pushing a pram. Suddenly those rocks and stairs and lumpy bits and missing wheelchair ramps become big obstacles. A pedestrian with a pram is nowhere as manouverable as one without. Sounds obvious, but it doesn't stop stupid bloody council planners and council workers from building paths that could only have been laid by complete dickheads.
With a bike, you take it up a notch as you are travelling a lot faster. My top speed pushing a pram is 6 km/h, and that is fast for most pram walkers. Yes, some people run with prams, but they are a minority.
On the flat, I rarely drop below 25 km/h unless there is a really nasty headwind. Cruising speed is around 30 km/h. Fast cruise is 35 km/h. Really hiking along is 45 km/h, and flat out with tailwind is 50 km/h.
Suddenly stairs and potholes and rocks and low hanging branches and other obstacles become enormous problems. A pedestrian going 6 km/h can come to a complete stop in one step. A cyclist at 35 km/h on skinny tyres takes.... I have no idea how long to pull up. Too bloody long is the simple answer, and at that speed, any obstacle is likely to result in a crash.
A cyclist is also as likely to get off their bike and push it as a motorist is as likely to get out of their car and push it. I know that sounds silly, but it is part of the psychology of riding a road bike. Mountain bikers might be used to dismounting, but the only time I dismount is at the end of the ride, or when I have to carry my bike up a set of stairs. Apart from that, I dismount for no one or nothing.
Which leads me to stupid councils. Once I get past the Gladesville Bridge, I am on a path that was not designed with bikes in mind. For starters, there is no way to get onto it from the road - no wheelchair ramp. The only way onto it is to either jump the kerb and cross some grass, or to go into a driveway and cross a nature strip, hoping that no punctures occur on the way across. At the far end, there is a wheelchair ramp, but it is not designed for a speedy exit onto the road. I think the safest way to get onto a road is to do so as quickly as possible, like merging lanes when you join a freeway. Slow traffic is a menace, and so are slow bikes. Of course the ramp has been located in such a way to slow you to an utter crawl.
I wish I could control a concrete truck and crew for a few weeks. The fun I'd have.
How to cut the road toll
Once again, the SMH is up in arms about P-platers running into things and killing themselves. Everyday, there is another front page article on some 18 year old that has managed to kill themself, and often a few friends. There is the usual hue and cry to "do something about it".
I don't know about you, but I think the principal cause is that young people are idiots. I was young once, and I was an idiot. I did stupid things with guns, flamable liquids, explosives, cars, heights, fire, water, tools, alcohol, bicycles, motorbikes, trucks, cats and just about anything that came to hand. That's part of being young. I was lucky - I got away with it.
The usual cure for all of this is simple - growing up.
One difference these days is that the youngsters are driving much better cars than we had to put up with. One of the things that comes with a "better" car is that it is faster. We had underpowered slugheaps that were lucky to get up to 110 going downhill with a tailwind. Every picture of a totalled car that I have seen included what seemed to be a fairly late model car that had either a reasonably powerful 4 cylinder motor or a fairly pokey 6. Commodores these days can get up to a ludicrously scarey speed in very little time at all. Cars have gotten safer, faster, more economical and less polluting, and along the way, they have created a false sense of security. I live on a corner, and the window that I am sitting in front of now looks onto that corner. I see youngsters lose it on this corner all the time - they try and take it too fast and they end up all out of shape. So far, none of them has met a car coming the other way, but that day will come, and I will be looking out the window at a head-on.
The cars that I drove as a youngster all got out of shape so quickly that one didn't have a chance to have a deadly high speed crash - one had metal bending low speed crashes that rarely resulted even in bruising.
I think the answer is to start importing Russian cars again and making them compulsory for those under 25. No more BMW's for the 19 year olds.
I don't know about you, but I think the principal cause is that young people are idiots. I was young once, and I was an idiot. I did stupid things with guns, flamable liquids, explosives, cars, heights, fire, water, tools, alcohol, bicycles, motorbikes, trucks, cats and just about anything that came to hand. That's part of being young. I was lucky - I got away with it.
The usual cure for all of this is simple - growing up.
One difference these days is that the youngsters are driving much better cars than we had to put up with. One of the things that comes with a "better" car is that it is faster. We had underpowered slugheaps that were lucky to get up to 110 going downhill with a tailwind. Every picture of a totalled car that I have seen included what seemed to be a fairly late model car that had either a reasonably powerful 4 cylinder motor or a fairly pokey 6. Commodores these days can get up to a ludicrously scarey speed in very little time at all. Cars have gotten safer, faster, more economical and less polluting, and along the way, they have created a false sense of security. I live on a corner, and the window that I am sitting in front of now looks onto that corner. I see youngsters lose it on this corner all the time - they try and take it too fast and they end up all out of shape. So far, none of them has met a car coming the other way, but that day will come, and I will be looking out the window at a head-on.
The cars that I drove as a youngster all got out of shape so quickly that one didn't have a chance to have a deadly high speed crash - one had metal bending low speed crashes that rarely resulted even in bruising.
I think the answer is to start importing Russian cars again and making them compulsory for those under 25. No more BMW's for the 19 year olds.
I must be a sucker for Ikea
For some years now, I have been working off a big desk at home that is totally bereft of drawers or filing. It's great - I just dump everything on top and when the mess gets too much, I throw out all the rubbish, stack up the things I want to keep and move on.
Due to space restrictions though, I now have to share the desk. Boo hoo. I am now down to about 1/3 of the area that I am used to, since a fax and another PC now occupy the other 2/3 of the desk. That meant I finally had to relent and buy a 3 drawer thingy to stash all my loose junk in. Ikea seemed to offer the best bargain with the 3 drawer thingys costing only $49.
I think. I'm sure I only paid $49. Maybe it was $59? Who knows. It was less than you'd probably pay for a half decent unit second hand.
The only problem with buying a GOLIAT from Ikea is putting the blasted thing together. They always fool you in the shops by presenting fully built models. That to me is false advertising - they should instead display what the thing looks like when you pull the 74 bits out of the box and have them spread around you on the floor. Then throw in a couple of toddlers to smash the foam packing into 63,000 little white bits and to jump up and down on the cardboard box until it is mush.
It shouldn't have been that hard. After all, the little Dalek of a thing barely reaches my knee, has no moving parts and consists largely of a base, two sides, a back and a top.
Well, it wasn't that hard really, except that my legs ached from bending over for an hour or so whilst screwing it together.
What I did work out is that this self-assembley idea is a crock. I have just bought something for $49 that has numerous metal and plastic fasteners, umpteen bits of wood, plastic runners and door handles and was all cut and packed in China and shipped to Australia and it still only cost $49.
Which means if you take out the profit and the shipping costs and the handling and transport and storage and the general overhead of running a 2 acre shop, means it probably cost about $10 to make in China. Which also means some rice eating bloke was probably paid about 20 cents an hour to cut it and pack it.
If it took me an hour to put it together, why not give the guy another bowl of rice and get him to put it together? After all, it would increase the price from $49.00 to $49.20.
Due to space restrictions though, I now have to share the desk. Boo hoo. I am now down to about 1/3 of the area that I am used to, since a fax and another PC now occupy the other 2/3 of the desk. That meant I finally had to relent and buy a 3 drawer thingy to stash all my loose junk in. Ikea seemed to offer the best bargain with the 3 drawer thingys costing only $49.
I think. I'm sure I only paid $49. Maybe it was $59? Who knows. It was less than you'd probably pay for a half decent unit second hand.
The only problem with buying a GOLIAT from Ikea is putting the blasted thing together. They always fool you in the shops by presenting fully built models. That to me is false advertising - they should instead display what the thing looks like when you pull the 74 bits out of the box and have them spread around you on the floor. Then throw in a couple of toddlers to smash the foam packing into 63,000 little white bits and to jump up and down on the cardboard box until it is mush.
It shouldn't have been that hard. After all, the little Dalek of a thing barely reaches my knee, has no moving parts and consists largely of a base, two sides, a back and a top.
Well, it wasn't that hard really, except that my legs ached from bending over for an hour or so whilst screwing it together.
What I did work out is that this self-assembley idea is a crock. I have just bought something for $49 that has numerous metal and plastic fasteners, umpteen bits of wood, plastic runners and door handles and was all cut and packed in China and shipped to Australia and it still only cost $49.
Which means if you take out the profit and the shipping costs and the handling and transport and storage and the general overhead of running a 2 acre shop, means it probably cost about $10 to make in China. Which also means some rice eating bloke was probably paid about 20 cents an hour to cut it and pack it.
If it took me an hour to put it together, why not give the guy another bowl of rice and get him to put it together? After all, it would increase the price from $49.00 to $49.20.
Dining at the Welcome Hotel
Had dinner at the Welcome last week - hadn't been there for some time, and we felt like a night out.
The Welcome has a proper dining room, unlike some pubs where you just eat in the bar area. Not many people were having a feed - the dining room had maybe a dozen tables and we were the only ones there until near the end of the meal.
We don't have the luxury of eating long, lazy meals anymore. Little Monkey will sit around reasonably quietly for about 10 minutes and that's it. As soon as we got there, we let him go and he wandered around the restaurant until the food arrived re-arranging chairs, playing with the power points and generally trying to pull glasses, plates and cuttlery onto the floor.
The Welcome has quite a good menu, with just enough dishes to choose from. They'd don't smother you with choice. I didn't bother looking at the wine list as we were both off the juice. What I should have done was eat 2 or 3 entrees instead of just having a main. The entrees looked really good on paper, and my main turned out to be annoying.
One bad thing was that our food seemed to take forever to arrive. I went for a veal cutlet, which was a good sized, done rare but served on a bed of awful vegies. I think it was a bed of celery and leek, and I just hate celery. I don't mind leek, but it was undercooked and tough and stringy. The meat was good though. I asked for a side order of chips, and they were the crappiest chips that I have had in a while. No salt, not fried - I think they were oven baked, and they were both soggy and flavourless. Don't go the chips.
J had a chicken ballantyne, which is some sort of boned out piece of chook that has been stuffed with something. I'm not sure what it was stuffed with, but I didn't particularly like it. It was served with some sort of gnocchi, which I tried and almost spat out. It was dreadful. I think it was stuffed with sage, which I love with pork, but it seemed to be about 70% sage and 30% gnocchi and you have to tread lightly with sage.
Big thumbs down.
To cap it off, the chook did not agree with J, and we had to pay and bolt and then pray that she didn't have a chuck in the car on the way home. It was that bad.
Which is a shame, as J knows the owner and the Welcome is normally very good. It hasn't put me off the place, as it has so much potential. Next time we go there, I am just going to order entrees until I have had enough.
As far as price goes, it is a bit expensive. Our mains were $27 each, and the totally crap chips were $7.50, which is one of the most awful rip-offs that I have ever seen. For $7.50, we could have gone to Lashings and got a great big burger with everything and chips on the side, and Lashings makes great chips, smothered in chicken salt.
So that was the Welcome. I wonder how long it will be before I can face it again?
The Welcome has a proper dining room, unlike some pubs where you just eat in the bar area. Not many people were having a feed - the dining room had maybe a dozen tables and we were the only ones there until near the end of the meal.
We don't have the luxury of eating long, lazy meals anymore. Little Monkey will sit around reasonably quietly for about 10 minutes and that's it. As soon as we got there, we let him go and he wandered around the restaurant until the food arrived re-arranging chairs, playing with the power points and generally trying to pull glasses, plates and cuttlery onto the floor.
The Welcome has quite a good menu, with just enough dishes to choose from. They'd don't smother you with choice. I didn't bother looking at the wine list as we were both off the juice. What I should have done was eat 2 or 3 entrees instead of just having a main. The entrees looked really good on paper, and my main turned out to be annoying.
One bad thing was that our food seemed to take forever to arrive. I went for a veal cutlet, which was a good sized, done rare but served on a bed of awful vegies. I think it was a bed of celery and leek, and I just hate celery. I don't mind leek, but it was undercooked and tough and stringy. The meat was good though. I asked for a side order of chips, and they were the crappiest chips that I have had in a while. No salt, not fried - I think they were oven baked, and they were both soggy and flavourless. Don't go the chips.
J had a chicken ballantyne, which is some sort of boned out piece of chook that has been stuffed with something. I'm not sure what it was stuffed with, but I didn't particularly like it. It was served with some sort of gnocchi, which I tried and almost spat out. It was dreadful. I think it was stuffed with sage, which I love with pork, but it seemed to be about 70% sage and 30% gnocchi and you have to tread lightly with sage.
Big thumbs down.
To cap it off, the chook did not agree with J, and we had to pay and bolt and then pray that she didn't have a chuck in the car on the way home. It was that bad.
Which is a shame, as J knows the owner and the Welcome is normally very good. It hasn't put me off the place, as it has so much potential. Next time we go there, I am just going to order entrees until I have had enough.
As far as price goes, it is a bit expensive. Our mains were $27 each, and the totally crap chips were $7.50, which is one of the most awful rip-offs that I have ever seen. For $7.50, we could have gone to Lashings and got a great big burger with everything and chips on the side, and Lashings makes great chips, smothered in chicken salt.
So that was the Welcome. I wonder how long it will be before I can face it again?
Saturday, 2 December 2006
Flipping foul French food
Well, I finally made it to our local French restaurant for a feed other than breakfast. I was working from home last week and feeling a bit peckish and we were monkey free, so we decided to have lunch as a couple.
Le Grande Bouffe is a lovely place to sit in - the decor is good and the layout is interesting. The staff are also not too bad. Pity about the food.
To start with, it's a very difficult place to take a vegetarian for lunch, even one that eats chicken (a chookatarian?). Apart from a salad and a soup, everything on the menu had lots of meat in it. Or fish. Vegetarians could starve in places like this. I guess there aren't many vegos in Frogland.
I was not that hungry, so I went for two entrees - the soup and a terrine. The soup was a consome of tomato with a few parcels of pasta like stuff in it, sprinkled with truffle oil and shredded basil. It was nice, but not to my taste. It was also a silly thing to eat when the temperature was around 38 degrees.
The terrine was not bad either, but not good. It was just plain boring. I doubt there was any herbs or seasoning in the meat mixture, and if there were, they were very subtle. Too subtle for my worn out tongue. It was served with a small pot of onion relish, which was quite tasteless as far as relishes go, and the relish was garnished with two small cornichons, which were also pretty tasteless.
In short, it was like working your way through a plate of cardboard. Not bad cardboard, but cardboard none the less.
J had a salad of walnut, blue cheese, pear and rocket-type greenery, and it looked alright. It was the only thing she could eat on the menu. There seemed to be a lot of it, and she didn't complain, but we aren't going back.
It's put me off French food a bit. We have another frog place nearby called Vatel, and we have never eaten there, although everytime we drive past we say, "We should eat there". Now I am not so sure.
Ah, what the hell, we'll give it a go.
PS - lunch at Le Grande Bouffe set us back quite a lot when you consider that we had 3 entrees and tap water. It was an expensive failure.
Le Grande Bouffe is a lovely place to sit in - the decor is good and the layout is interesting. The staff are also not too bad. Pity about the food.
To start with, it's a very difficult place to take a vegetarian for lunch, even one that eats chicken (a chookatarian?). Apart from a salad and a soup, everything on the menu had lots of meat in it. Or fish. Vegetarians could starve in places like this. I guess there aren't many vegos in Frogland.
I was not that hungry, so I went for two entrees - the soup and a terrine. The soup was a consome of tomato with a few parcels of pasta like stuff in it, sprinkled with truffle oil and shredded basil. It was nice, but not to my taste. It was also a silly thing to eat when the temperature was around 38 degrees.
The terrine was not bad either, but not good. It was just plain boring. I doubt there was any herbs or seasoning in the meat mixture, and if there were, they were very subtle. Too subtle for my worn out tongue. It was served with a small pot of onion relish, which was quite tasteless as far as relishes go, and the relish was garnished with two small cornichons, which were also pretty tasteless.
In short, it was like working your way through a plate of cardboard. Not bad cardboard, but cardboard none the less.
J had a salad of walnut, blue cheese, pear and rocket-type greenery, and it looked alright. It was the only thing she could eat on the menu. There seemed to be a lot of it, and she didn't complain, but we aren't going back.
It's put me off French food a bit. We have another frog place nearby called Vatel, and we have never eaten there, although everytime we drive past we say, "We should eat there". Now I am not so sure.
Ah, what the hell, we'll give it a go.
PS - lunch at Le Grande Bouffe set us back quite a lot when you consider that we had 3 entrees and tap water. It was an expensive failure.
Yes, I have changed the blog template
I must be getting old, because I was finding the blog hard to read with the previous template. I have been reading a few blogs lately, and found that the "minima" template is one of the easiest to read - big letters, few distractions.
I hope it helps your eyes too.
I hope it helps your eyes too.
Lazy good for nothing shoppers
I hate lazy people. People who are too lazy to push their shopping trolley into a trolley bay in the car park once they have finished loading their car. People who just leave their trolley next to their car, blocking two car spaces, and drive off.
I hope they are all fat bastards with sore knees.
Why is it that people think it is fine to abandon trolleys in car parks? Where I shop, there are multiple spots set aside for used trolleys, and no car space is more than a 20 second walk from a trolley bay. Yet the car park is generally spattered with trolleys, and one bloke is employed full time to go round and round the car park sweeping them up.
I parked there the other day, spotted an unused trolley and pushed it to a bay, which wasn't that hard as the trolley was right next to my car and the trolley bay was in a direct line to the escalator which takes you up to the shops. I didn't have to deviate more than a few feet to collect it.
I got some stares of wonder and astonishment from some of my fellow shoppers. The thought of cleaning up after themselves had obviously never crossed their tiny little minds.
I can't wait for my local supermarket to start charging a $2 deposit for trolleys. That'll stuff 'em.
I hope they are all fat bastards with sore knees.
Why is it that people think it is fine to abandon trolleys in car parks? Where I shop, there are multiple spots set aside for used trolleys, and no car space is more than a 20 second walk from a trolley bay. Yet the car park is generally spattered with trolleys, and one bloke is employed full time to go round and round the car park sweeping them up.
I parked there the other day, spotted an unused trolley and pushed it to a bay, which wasn't that hard as the trolley was right next to my car and the trolley bay was in a direct line to the escalator which takes you up to the shops. I didn't have to deviate more than a few feet to collect it.
I got some stares of wonder and astonishment from some of my fellow shoppers. The thought of cleaning up after themselves had obviously never crossed their tiny little minds.
I can't wait for my local supermarket to start charging a $2 deposit for trolleys. That'll stuff 'em.
I finally make an edible breakfast
I eat breakfast out a lot. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that I am not that fond of cereal. The ones that are good for you taste like cardboard and I just don't like the ones that are bad for you - way too sweet. I can't handle sweet stuff early in the morning. Croissants and bagels and all that are not for me - I need something savoury.
The second reason is that I can't make coffee, or at least good coffee. I have tried my hand at several expensive coffee machines owned by other people and it is an art that I haven't mastered. I can make something drinkable, but not something good.
The third reason is that I am really quite crap at cooking breakfast. So are a lot of cafes. But that's beside the point. Someone that cooks 50 breakfasts per day is likely to be much better at it than me, so I bow to the experts.
The last few weeks though have seen me doing a bit of work from home. The option is there to go out for a feed, but some morning I don't have time and I have to feed myself.
Bugger.
I have been in omelette mode lately, so that is what I have been making. Today, I finally managed to make one that would be passable at my favourite local cafe. Not great, but passable. It has only taken about 50 dozen eggs to get to this point.
There were three things that I did differently today - I added a lot more salt than normal, I ground a huge amount of pepper into it, and I whacked in a stack of ....aaargh, can't remember the name of the cheese. It's French, and it smells a bit, and it is great with eggs. It will come to me eventually. Anyway, I put in about 3 times my local dose. I need to remember the name as we are almost out and I will have to go shopping for more tomorrow.
I thought I was going to have a cheesy disaster, but it was fantastic. I was pretty impressed with myself. I have also been shopping around for bread to put it on, and have settled on a very good sourdough loaf that has only one drawback - it is $5.50 a loaf, and I have to drive miles to buy it.
But it is worth it.
In case you are wondering, the eggs come from cage chickens. To hell with free range - the cage chooks lay eggs that are just as good and are half the price. My only exception to that is when I get eggs from Ann, as her chooks run around all over the farm and get fed heaps of expensive grain, and the yolks are so yellow, they look like blood oranges.
So I can now feed myself at home. I am so happy, I think I will have to eat out tomorrow to celebrate.
The second reason is that I can't make coffee, or at least good coffee. I have tried my hand at several expensive coffee machines owned by other people and it is an art that I haven't mastered. I can make something drinkable, but not something good.
The third reason is that I am really quite crap at cooking breakfast. So are a lot of cafes. But that's beside the point. Someone that cooks 50 breakfasts per day is likely to be much better at it than me, so I bow to the experts.
The last few weeks though have seen me doing a bit of work from home. The option is there to go out for a feed, but some morning I don't have time and I have to feed myself.
Bugger.
I have been in omelette mode lately, so that is what I have been making. Today, I finally managed to make one that would be passable at my favourite local cafe. Not great, but passable. It has only taken about 50 dozen eggs to get to this point.
There were three things that I did differently today - I added a lot more salt than normal, I ground a huge amount of pepper into it, and I whacked in a stack of ....aaargh, can't remember the name of the cheese. It's French, and it smells a bit, and it is great with eggs. It will come to me eventually. Anyway, I put in about 3 times my local dose. I need to remember the name as we are almost out and I will have to go shopping for more tomorrow.
I thought I was going to have a cheesy disaster, but it was fantastic. I was pretty impressed with myself. I have also been shopping around for bread to put it on, and have settled on a very good sourdough loaf that has only one drawback - it is $5.50 a loaf, and I have to drive miles to buy it.
But it is worth it.
In case you are wondering, the eggs come from cage chickens. To hell with free range - the cage chooks lay eggs that are just as good and are half the price. My only exception to that is when I get eggs from Ann, as her chooks run around all over the farm and get fed heaps of expensive grain, and the yolks are so yellow, they look like blood oranges.
So I can now feed myself at home. I am so happy, I think I will have to eat out tomorrow to celebrate.
I finally make an edible breakfast
I eat breakfast out a lot. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that I am not that fond of cereal. The ones that are good for you taste like cardboard and I just don't like the ones that are bad for you - way too sweet. I can't handle sweet stuff early in the morning. Croissants and bagels and all that are not for me - I need something savoury.
The second reason is that I can't make coffee, or at least good coffee. I have tried my hand at several expensive coffee machines owned by other people and it is an art that I haven't mastered. I can make something drinkable, but not something good.
The third reason is that I am really quite crap at cooking breakfast. So are a lot of cafes. But that's beside the point. Someone that cooks 50 breakfasts per day is likely to be much better at it than me, so I bow to the experts.
The last few weeks though have seen me doing a bit of work from home. The option is there to go out for a feed, but some morning I don't have time and I have to feed myself.
Bugger.
I have been in omelette mode lately, so that is what I have been making. Today, I finally managed to make one that would be passable at my favourite local cafe. Not great, but passable. It has only taken about 50 dozen eggs to get to this point.
There were three things that I did differently today - I added a lot more salt than normal, I ground a huge amount of pepper into it, and I whacked in a stack of ....aaargh, can't remember the name of the cheese. It's French, and it smells a bit, and it is great with eggs. It will come to me eventually. Anyway, I put in about 3 times my local dose. I need to remember the name as we are almost out and I will have to go shopping for more tomorrow.
I thought I was going to have a cheesy disaster, but it was fantastic. I was pretty impressed with myself. I have also been shopping around for bread to put it on, and have settled on a very good sourdough loaf that has only one drawback - it is $5.50 a loaf, and I have to drive miles to buy it.
But it is worth it.
In case you are wondering, the eggs come from cage chickens. To hell with free range - the cage chooks lay eggs that are just as good and are half the price. My only exception to that is when I get eggs from Ann, as her chooks run around all over the farm and get fed heaps of expensive grain, and the yolks are so yellow, they look like blood oranges.
So I can now feed myself at home. I am so happy, I think I will have to eat out tomorrow to celebrate.
The second reason is that I can't make coffee, or at least good coffee. I have tried my hand at several expensive coffee machines owned by other people and it is an art that I haven't mastered. I can make something drinkable, but not something good.
The third reason is that I am really quite crap at cooking breakfast. So are a lot of cafes. But that's beside the point. Someone that cooks 50 breakfasts per day is likely to be much better at it than me, so I bow to the experts.
The last few weeks though have seen me doing a bit of work from home. The option is there to go out for a feed, but some morning I don't have time and I have to feed myself.
Bugger.
I have been in omelette mode lately, so that is what I have been making. Today, I finally managed to make one that would be passable at my favourite local cafe. Not great, but passable. It has only taken about 50 dozen eggs to get to this point.
There were three things that I did differently today - I added a lot more salt than normal, I ground a huge amount of pepper into it, and I whacked in a stack of ....aaargh, can't remember the name of the cheese. It's French, and it smells a bit, and it is great with eggs. It will come to me eventually. Anyway, I put in about 3 times my local dose. I need to remember the name as we are almost out and I will have to go shopping for more tomorrow.
I thought I was going to have a cheesy disaster, but it was fantastic. I was pretty impressed with myself. I have also been shopping around for bread to put it on, and have settled on a very good sourdough loaf that has only one drawback - it is $5.50 a loaf, and I have to drive miles to buy it.
But it is worth it.
In case you are wondering, the eggs come from cage chickens. To hell with free range - the cage chooks lay eggs that are just as good and are half the price. My only exception to that is when I get eggs from Ann, as her chooks run around all over the farm and get fed heaps of expensive grain, and the yolks are so yellow, they look like blood oranges.
So I can now feed myself at home. I am so happy, I think I will have to eat out tomorrow to celebrate.
Friday, 1 December 2006
It's getting warmer
I am still hovering around the 75 to 100 kms per week mark, struggling to push right up to 160 kms per week. I was hoping that the warmer weather would help - I can get out of bed earlier and take a longer route into work, since the danger of getting frostbite on the way is no more. However, everything is conspiring against me and I am sleeping in instead, thus cutting down the morning riding time. If I can do 14 kms each way, cracking 100 kms a week should be a doddle - ride 4 times and it's done.
Apart from sleeping in though, I've been working from home a bit, and it's a bit hard to ride in those circumstances. Once I start working, it's hard to break out of it and take an hour off for a pedal. I know I should, but working from home seems to mean putting in a 14 hour day.
Hmm, must set alarm clock for 4pm and ride, regardless of what is going on.
Apart from sleeping in though, I've been working from home a bit, and it's a bit hard to ride in those circumstances. Once I start working, it's hard to break out of it and take an hour off for a pedal. I know I should, but working from home seems to mean putting in a 14 hour day.
Hmm, must set alarm clock for 4pm and ride, regardless of what is going on.
Exercise cockroaches
I was having a bite to eat with a few co-workers recently and we were talking about the hazards of mixing cyclists and pedestrians. One bloke goes for a ride before work some mornings (on a mountain bike I presume) and he also complains about pedestrians straddling the entire available footpath - and he lives in south Sydney. So it doesn't seem to matter which suburb you live in - some pedestrians are just plain fools.
Why is the ABC so stupid?
I was watching the news on the night that the Blackhawk clipped Kanimbla and went into the water. Some idiotic journo was prattling on about how the Army had sent out a purchase order for replacements for the Blackhawk and "those that fly in them must be nervously awaiting the arrival of the new helicopters", implying that the existing choppers are crap units that are just waiting to fall out of the sky!
Amazing. Where do they get these drongos?
Who knows what happened to the Blackhawk. Until the investigation is complete, it's a bit early to start blaming the helicopter. For all we know, the pilot might have stuffed the approach or the landing and it is all down to pilot error. Hell, after reading a few books on flying, everything is down to pilot error, even if the rotor falls off in mid-air (pilot blamed for not properly checking the aircraft before taking off).
I can't understand why more journalists aren't punched in the face each year - the excuse being that the puncher was trying to knock some common sense into the punchee.
Amazing. Where do they get these drongos?
Who knows what happened to the Blackhawk. Until the investigation is complete, it's a bit early to start blaming the helicopter. For all we know, the pilot might have stuffed the approach or the landing and it is all down to pilot error. Hell, after reading a few books on flying, everything is down to pilot error, even if the rotor falls off in mid-air (pilot blamed for not properly checking the aircraft before taking off).
I can't understand why more journalists aren't punched in the face each year - the excuse being that the puncher was trying to knock some common sense into the punchee.
Thursday, 23 November 2006
Breaking a few eggs
If there is one thing that I am happy with, it is the omelettes made at Circle, a Godly little cafe in Balmain. I thought Balmain would be socialist aethiests from one end of the peninsular to the other, but tucked away in the middle is a cafe that is also a church on Sundays. Can't remember which mob - presbyterians or whatever. It's not overtly churchy at all - there is just a plaque near the door that says it is run by the Unity church or whoever they are, which of course means that they aren't open on Sundays.
That annoys me. Their food is so good, I want to eat it 7 days a week. The council should never have allowed them to run it as a church on Sundays - I am sure the hymn singing must annoy the neighbours. Surely someone can shut them down so that the cafe can open on Sundays?
I thought the least they could do would be to open up for a feed after all the praying and so on is over - surely the congregation must be hungry after a morning of kneeling and standing and clapping and whatever?
The other thing that annoys me is that I have been trying without success to replicate their omelettes at home. My favourite at the moment is ham, tomato and goats curd, which is mushy goats cheese. Without fail, my omelette always breaks into at least 2 pieces when I go to fold it over, and it never tastes quite right. I have tried adding fresh herbs - too overpowering. I have tried three eggs - one too many, doesn't cook through. I have tried deseeding the tomato in order to reduce the water content. I got rid of the spinach, which seemed to help (too much water). I tried thinly sliced wog ham - still no difference. I have also tried two types of goats cheese - a soft one and a hard one.
I finally got close yesterday - 2 big eggs, mushrooms, deseeded tomatoes and gruyere cheese. The gruyere seemed to do the trick, as it bound the whole lot together once it had melted. For the first time, I got an omelette out in one piece.
But I think I need a bigger frying pan - the egg mixture is just too thick in the small pan that I am currently using. If the egg stuff spreads out thinly, it cooks faster, so the bottom does not burn.
I also have to find out where they buy their bread - it is marvelous stuff. I have tried all the bakeries in the area, but none seem to have the particular type of sourdough looking stuff that Circle uses. I am of course not game to ask where they get it.
Anyway, to celebrate the great home cooked omelette from yesterday, we just had to dine there this morning. Didn't want to tempt fate by trying to make two good omelettes in a row.
That annoys me. Their food is so good, I want to eat it 7 days a week. The council should never have allowed them to run it as a church on Sundays - I am sure the hymn singing must annoy the neighbours. Surely someone can shut them down so that the cafe can open on Sundays?
I thought the least they could do would be to open up for a feed after all the praying and so on is over - surely the congregation must be hungry after a morning of kneeling and standing and clapping and whatever?
The other thing that annoys me is that I have been trying without success to replicate their omelettes at home. My favourite at the moment is ham, tomato and goats curd, which is mushy goats cheese. Without fail, my omelette always breaks into at least 2 pieces when I go to fold it over, and it never tastes quite right. I have tried adding fresh herbs - too overpowering. I have tried three eggs - one too many, doesn't cook through. I have tried deseeding the tomato in order to reduce the water content. I got rid of the spinach, which seemed to help (too much water). I tried thinly sliced wog ham - still no difference. I have also tried two types of goats cheese - a soft one and a hard one.
I finally got close yesterday - 2 big eggs, mushrooms, deseeded tomatoes and gruyere cheese. The gruyere seemed to do the trick, as it bound the whole lot together once it had melted. For the first time, I got an omelette out in one piece.
But I think I need a bigger frying pan - the egg mixture is just too thick in the small pan that I am currently using. If the egg stuff spreads out thinly, it cooks faster, so the bottom does not burn.
I also have to find out where they buy their bread - it is marvelous stuff. I have tried all the bakeries in the area, but none seem to have the particular type of sourdough looking stuff that Circle uses. I am of course not game to ask where they get it.
Anyway, to celebrate the great home cooked omelette from yesterday, we just had to dine there this morning. Didn't want to tempt fate by trying to make two good omelettes in a row.
Wednesday, 22 November 2006
Who is stupid enough to put solar panels up?
With all the guff about solar being thrown around at the moment, I was intrigued to notice an ad in our local rag that offered solar panels for your house, with it only costing about $9,000 to put up enough panels to light your average home.
I thought that was pretty good, but then I remembered reading an article the other day that mentioned that some guys had costed solar power and the total cost to make their home self sufficient in electricity was something like $90,000, with a payback period of 64 years.
Aha.
It might only cost $9,000 to provide enough power for lighting, but how much power do our lights actually draw in comparison to all the other energy sapping devices like the fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer, TV, PC etc? Maybe 10%? I don't know. It might be less, given that almost every globe in our place is now a fancy energy saving fluoro globe.
So I wonder how many people they suck in using that $9,000 advertisement who then freak when they find out that all that allows them to do is run half a dozen lights, and not the fridge and freezer and washer etc.
I know they can't be done for false advertising as they said "Light your home", not "power your home", but it's nice to see that the scammers are getting into the environmental game.
I thought that was pretty good, but then I remembered reading an article the other day that mentioned that some guys had costed solar power and the total cost to make their home self sufficient in electricity was something like $90,000, with a payback period of 64 years.
Aha.
It might only cost $9,000 to provide enough power for lighting, but how much power do our lights actually draw in comparison to all the other energy sapping devices like the fridge, freezer, washing machine, dryer, TV, PC etc? Maybe 10%? I don't know. It might be less, given that almost every globe in our place is now a fancy energy saving fluoro globe.
So I wonder how many people they suck in using that $9,000 advertisement who then freak when they find out that all that allows them to do is run half a dozen lights, and not the fridge and freezer and washer etc.
I know they can't be done for false advertising as they said "Light your home", not "power your home", but it's nice to see that the scammers are getting into the environmental game.
Crunchy munchies
I discovered tonight that fly traps can serve more than one purpose. Assuming that they actually attract flies, they can be useful for attracting stick insects that feed on flies.I put this trap up on the weekend, and after a spot of hot weather today (39 in the backyard, 34 in the office), the trap gunk finally brewed up enough to start attracting flies. The trap had about two flies in it this morning, and about 100 by the time the sun went down.
At about 5pm, I noticed that a stick insect had taken up residence near the entrance, and was snaring the odd fly that approached the trap. Here he/she is having a munch on a freshly caught fly. Marvelous. If the trap doesn't get them, sticky will. I wandered out for a look every 15 minutes or so and sticky was still grabbing flies and chomping away. Last I saw, sticky had nabbed a really big fat sucker that had the added bonus of carrying maggots. Munch, munch, munch and out pop a few maggots. Great, just before dinner too.
The most frustrating thing was trying to take close-up images of sticky with the fancy digital camera. I couldn't get the blasted thing to focus on sticky - it kept on focusing on the lid of the fly trap or on the tomato plants behind, but not on sticky. How I wished for a manual focusy thing like a good old fashioned SLR camera. I was frustrated enough to pull out the instruction book in order to find out how to do manual focusing, but haven't had the chance to read that chapter yet. Knowing modern gadgets, it won't have any "manual" options anymore. The computer knows best.Like hell.
So I was unable to post any nice close up photos of sticky chewing on a fly. You'll just have to trust me when I say that sticky is chewing on a fly in these two photos.
Assuming sticky is half smart, I might be able to get some more snaps tomorrow in manual mode - if I can find the manual mode.
Somehow I don't think the flies are going away.
Monday, 20 November 2006
Whatever happened to Sunday night movies?
Sunday nights used to be all about flopping on the couch at 8.30pm to watch a 2 hour feature presentation - usually some blockbuster that the network had been saving up for months. You could count on a few good movies being shown on Sunday night, and the biggest problem was deciding which one to watch.
Now, you're lucky to get one movie and that's it. One movie is not ok, given that if it's complete garbage, one is left with little to watch. OK, maybe the networks are telling me that it is time to subscrive to Foxtel, or I need to spend more time and money renting DVD's. I just figured out that I have not been a member of a DVD rental store for nearly 10 years. I just couldn't be stuffed anymore going through the whole rigmarol of dragging myself to the store, prowling down the aisles looking for something and then shelling out a fistful of cash for something that might be beyond lame.
Where would we be without computer games?
Now, you're lucky to get one movie and that's it. One movie is not ok, given that if it's complete garbage, one is left with little to watch. OK, maybe the networks are telling me that it is time to subscrive to Foxtel, or I need to spend more time and money renting DVD's. I just figured out that I have not been a member of a DVD rental store for nearly 10 years. I just couldn't be stuffed anymore going through the whole rigmarol of dragging myself to the store, prowling down the aisles looking for something and then shelling out a fistful of cash for something that might be beyond lame.
Where would we be without computer games?
Path upgrades - where did my onramp go to?
Our local council has been splurging more money on widening the foot/bike path around The Bay, which is a nice way to spend my rates. I won't be objecting to that, since it helps to keep me away from cars, and anything that keeps me away from cars is nice.
It would be good if it also kept me away from dogs not on leashes, prams not in their lane and family groups of 10 or more that take up the entire path from edge to edge, and are oblivious to anyone else that wants to use the path. Family groups also seem to walk at the speed of crawling babies, even if there are no crawling babies in the group, so even people that are walking find them to be a complete pain in the arse.
But enough of that. For the last few months, one lane of the roadway has been blocked off for a few hundred yards whilst the path is widened a few metres. There's been big chainlink fences and road barriers and all sorts of stuff erected to keep cars and people off the new path and separated from each other. Whilst that was going on, a bit of tar was laid as a ramp from the road to the existing path so that cyclists like me could get over the curb without putting an enormous ding in our front wheel.
Not long ago, the concrete trucks turned up and a hundred metres or so of new path was laid. For some reason they didn't finish the job, so there are a hundred metres or more of beautiful new path, and a few hundred metres of blue metal which is impossible to ride over with a road bike. Mountain bikes are ok, but I am not.
This means I have to stay on the road to skirt the pathworks, which I don't mind, except that someone has taken away the little tar-ramp at the end, so instead of just skirting a hundred or so metres of pathworks, I have to stay on the road for about a kilometre before another ramp appears and I can zip back onto the bike path. And of course there is no longer a bike lane, so you are stuck on the road with all the other numbnuts. The speed limit around the Bay is 50, but that doesn't stop young fools in a bright yellow WRX with an exhaust the size of a bin lid from trying to do 100. And although there are double white lines all the way around, and I ride very aggressively well out from the kerb, it doesn't stop them from trying to overtake on blind corners. One had a near head-on just as he overtook me last week - dickhead. The thing I worry about is that I will pile into the crash from behind, or the dickhead will swerve hard left to avoid the oncoming car and squish me into the cars parked on my left.
So good on you Council - another good effort marred by a brain dead engineer who failed to think about who is using the path. The trouble with most of them seems to be that they are all trained in road works - ie, how to deal with cars, and they have no idea about how to deal with non-vehicular flows; dogs, prams, pedestrians, bikes. They're just so one eyed.
It would be good if it also kept me away from dogs not on leashes, prams not in their lane and family groups of 10 or more that take up the entire path from edge to edge, and are oblivious to anyone else that wants to use the path. Family groups also seem to walk at the speed of crawling babies, even if there are no crawling babies in the group, so even people that are walking find them to be a complete pain in the arse.
But enough of that. For the last few months, one lane of the roadway has been blocked off for a few hundred yards whilst the path is widened a few metres. There's been big chainlink fences and road barriers and all sorts of stuff erected to keep cars and people off the new path and separated from each other. Whilst that was going on, a bit of tar was laid as a ramp from the road to the existing path so that cyclists like me could get over the curb without putting an enormous ding in our front wheel.
Not long ago, the concrete trucks turned up and a hundred metres or so of new path was laid. For some reason they didn't finish the job, so there are a hundred metres or more of beautiful new path, and a few hundred metres of blue metal which is impossible to ride over with a road bike. Mountain bikes are ok, but I am not.
This means I have to stay on the road to skirt the pathworks, which I don't mind, except that someone has taken away the little tar-ramp at the end, so instead of just skirting a hundred or so metres of pathworks, I have to stay on the road for about a kilometre before another ramp appears and I can zip back onto the bike path. And of course there is no longer a bike lane, so you are stuck on the road with all the other numbnuts. The speed limit around the Bay is 50, but that doesn't stop young fools in a bright yellow WRX with an exhaust the size of a bin lid from trying to do 100. And although there are double white lines all the way around, and I ride very aggressively well out from the kerb, it doesn't stop them from trying to overtake on blind corners. One had a near head-on just as he overtook me last week - dickhead. The thing I worry about is that I will pile into the crash from behind, or the dickhead will swerve hard left to avoid the oncoming car and squish me into the cars parked on my left.
So good on you Council - another good effort marred by a brain dead engineer who failed to think about who is using the path. The trouble with most of them seems to be that they are all trained in road works - ie, how to deal with cars, and they have no idea about how to deal with non-vehicular flows; dogs, prams, pedestrians, bikes. They're just so one eyed.
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