Grey, wet and lonely

Bloody awful morning to be cycling to work. I could hear the rain hitting the roof when I woke up, and it was not encouraging. But it's nothing to get worked up about - it's not cold at the moment (about 20 degrees), it's not windy and the rain wasn't falling that hard. Sure, I got wet, but not much wetter than some of the bedraggled people in suits who I saw sloshing into the office not long after I arrived. The shoes some of them were wearing were so wet that you could hear them squeaking a mile off. 


I noticed traffic was pretty slow on the bridge - some poor sod had broken down in the pissing rain. That big orange glow at the bottom of the photo is the hazard lights on the tow truck that turned up to take him away.

No plod handing out tickets this morning. Then again, there were no cyclists around either. I found it really weird when riding  home - the sky was blue, but there were no bikes about. And then I worked it out - no one was riding  home because no one had braved the weather to ride into work.

Some of the city roads were nicely flooded. When I stopped to take this photo, the water came up well over my ankle. I was totally soaked at this point, so stopping in a deep puddle to take a photo made no difference. The footpath was underwater, and trucks going through this lake were creating huge sloshing water falls.

This photo doesn't really show how grey and horrible the morning was - it was truly dark and awful. Normally, there is a pack of serious photographers hanging around at this spot taking photos of the Opera House. By serious, I mean TV cameramen and guys with big SLR cameras on tripods. None of them showed up this morning. The last time I saw weather like this, I was in the backblocks of Scotland in winter.

Saddlebags and flats

Karma. It's a nasty thing. As soon as I stowed my camera away after taking this photo, I started bouncing up and down in the saddle as I pedalled. That's a sure sign of a deflating back tyre. Sure enough, a few seconds later, my bike was also upside down with the wheel off. 

Sorry Cav, this is an equal opportunity blog.

Cop that

George asked in comments if I had been busted by the police on the Pyrmont Bridge this week. Funnily enough, I snapped these photos on Tuesday as I was riding to work - and the police were there on a previous day too. Today was at least the 3rd day in the last week when the police have been nabbing cyclists - mainly for running the red light - so this was not news to me. On the first day, they had a police car parked just out of picture - it was bleeding obvious what was going on. This morning, the two bike cops had their bikes parked facing the oncoming cyclists, and they had their fluoro vests on and they had their lights flashing - you'd have to be utterly oblivious to miss them. It's clear to me that the people who got tickets were really fined for being useless blind morons.

It seems quite a few pin heads did fail to spot them, and they got fined for blasting through the red light. I have no pity for them - the traffic patterns at this corner can be quite nasty, and I've seen no end of idiotic cyclists having near misses with cars that had the right of way (and the green light). As the saying goes, it's only a matter of time before a stupid cyclist gets ironed out at this corner by someone heading to the Casino.


And don't get me started on the idiots that fang across the bridge in high gear, ducking and weaving through the hordes of pedestrians. It's never an issue when I ride across before 0700 - the bridge is damned near deserted at that time, and you could cross it at 100mp/h in a batmobile without any risk of hitting a pedestrian. However, by 0800, the bridge is jam-packed. And it's just as bad around 1700 with the evening peak. You just have to put your patient head on and dawdle across at 10-15km/h. If you can't put up with that, you can just fuck off and ride somewhere else. 

Kaboom

Once you've been riding for a while, you really start to feel every little nuance of the bike. Am I feeling a bit of vibration of grinding through my feet? Does my bum detect some wheel wobble? 


This morning, I definitely started feeling wobbling from the back end, and it had nothing to do with last night's dinner. I stopped, checked the tyres and wheels and spokes, but detected nothing out of place. When I spun the back wheel, everything was true.


But as soon as I started riding, I felt a bit of wobble. Not much wobble - just enough to start getting concerned.


It was worse when I left the office. I stopped again and had a look, but there was nothing to be found.


Once I got up to speed, the wobble disappeared. And then I was moving quite nicely down George St at 40km/h, when the back tube let go with a really loud bang. A few pedestrians crapped themselves. Thankfully, the tyre stayed on the wheel and I was able to come to a controlled stop in a driveway. I pulled the tube out and found a good sized tear in it - but still no indication of what had gone wrong.


A really close inspection of the back tyre showed that the side wall was giving way in one spot - it didn't bulge or show up when I was off the bike, but when you add my weight, it clearly had problems. The side wall obviously gave way enough for the tube to burst.


So it was off to the nearest bike shop to buy a new tyre and fit it on the footpath, as I got to the shop 5 minutes before closing, and they were bringing down the door as I walked in. Changing a tyre and tube on a busy footpath is not the most elegant thing you can do, but I am long over being embarrassed by that sort of situation.


Anyway, now I know - next time I feel wobble, it's definitely time to change the tyre.

And you think Gina is rich and influential?

The richest 70 members of China’s legislature added more to their wealth last year than the combined net worth of all 535 members of the U.S. Congress, the president and his Cabinet, and the nine Supreme Court justices.


The net worth of the 70 richest delegates in China’s National People’s Congress, which opens its annual session on March 5, rose to 565.8 billion yuan ($89.8 billion) in 2011, a gain of $11.5 billion from 2010, according to figures from the Hurun Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy. That compares to the $7.5 billion net worth of all 660 top officials in the three branches of the U.S. government.

Two good articles worth reading

The first, on fighting the good fight, by Pointman.


Interestingly, I had to take two long taxi rides this week. On each occasion, I had barely buckled up before the driver launched into a 45 minute rant against Tim Flannery and everything to do with climate change. Both of them swore extensively every time Flannery's name was mentioned. The tamest description was perhaps "fucking thieving lying Flannery".


When you've lost the taxi drivers, it's all over.


The second is on capitalism, and what a bunch of bastards us capitalists are.

Settled science

Ever heard of the Wallace Line?



The Wallace Line (or Wallace's Line) separates the ecozones of Asia and Wallacea, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia. West of the line are found organisms related to Asiatic species; to the east, a mixture of species of Asian and Australian origin is present. The line is named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who noticed this clear division during his travels through the East Indies in the 19th century. The line runs through Indonesia, between Borneo and Sulawesi (Celebes), and through the Lombok Strait between Bali and Lombok. Antonio Pigafetta had also recorded the biological contrasts between the Philippines and the Maluku Islands (Spice Islands) (on opposite sides of the line) in 1521 during the continuation of the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, after Magellan had been killed on Mactan.


The distance between Bali and Lombok is small, about 35 kilometers. The distributions of many bird species observe the line, since many birds do not cross even the smallest stretches of open ocean water. Some bats have distributions that cross the line, but other mammals are generally limited to one side or the other; an exception is the Crab-eating Macaque. Other groups of plants and animals show differing patterns, but the overall pattern is striking and reasonably consistent.


The only reason I know about it is that one of my older relatives told me years ago that he studied it when he did Geology at high school in the late 1930s. The reason he remembered it so well was because the settled science of the day was that "oil does not exist south of the Wallace Line". That was stated as geological gospel. It was thought that the different flora below the Wallace Line in prehistoric times was not conducive to the creation of oil. I think.


So much for that theory. At least the geologists who promoted it had the good grace to ditch it when drillers actually discovered oil south of that line. In fact it has been ditched so thoroughly, I can find no sign of it via a quick Google search. You'd probably have to dig up an actual 1930s text book to find evidence that it ever existed.

Take this poll

It's not complicated.

Friday - day of mayhem

What is it about Friday afternoon that sends everybody completely flaming nuts? I pulled out of the office and had 3 near death experiences in the following 5 minutes.

It started with a taxi driver being a bit too desperate for a fare - he changed lanes right into me without looking or indicating. His driving was so obnoxious that a bus driver pulled over in front of him and deliberately blocked him in. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only annoyed person on George St, and the side benefit was that the bus was so close to the taxi, it prevented me from stomping up to the driver's door and giving him a good thumping. I was literally boiling with rage at the close call.

About a minute later, I'm following a stream of traffic when a car coming the other way just decides to turn right across the stream - which meant turning directly into me. And he did it quickly too, leaving me no time to react. The only thing that saved me is that I was moving fast enough to get out of his way before he collected me.

At that point, I didn't think it could get any worse, but then not long after, a driver overtook me and then pulled over straight in front of me - again without indicating. It was just brake and swerve. I seem to have a sixth sense about these things, so I easily avoided another prang.

The traffic was no heavier than a normal work day. There was nothing wrong with the weather, and there were no road works. The problem was that drivers were just mental - fed up, aggressive and possibly drunk. Most days, my commute is pretty cruisey - low risk and no hassles. And then everything hits you at once.

Stunner

Best sunrise so far this year. The bloke in the left hand corner had ridden  his bike down to the Bay to photograph it. He just sat there taking photo after photo whilst I tried to keep my hand steady enough to get a shot that wasn't blurred to buggery.

I tonked along behind this bloke for a while, mainly because he looked absolutely buggered. He had a competition number still stuck under his saddle, so I figured he must have been riding home from an early morning race. He was totally wrecked - barely able to maintain my warm up pace. But check out the definition in his calves - I reckon he would eat me alive if he wasn't utterly knackered.

These two blokes from the LACC also showed me a thing or two about being fit and strong - first hill we came to, they left me for dead. Bastards.

Something in pink

The Rocks markets. Something for everyone. Except moi.

Sometimes you are the rabbit....

....and sometimes you are the fox.


By that I mean that there are days when you are the fittest, fastest thing on two wheels on the City-Wogville route. You are the fox, chasing down and eating the rabbits.


And other days, the legs are fragile and worn out; the lungs are cactus and it's been a long time since you had something to eat. On those days, you are the rabbit, watching the foxes pass you by as you struggle up the inclines.


The cool thing is that my fox days outnumber my rabbit days by a wide margin at the moment. Towards the end of last year, I decided to deliberately lengthen my route, and to ride on weekends as well. I thought the extra work would kill me - that I'd be utterly rooted by Friday. Instead, I'm feeling fitter and stronger than ever.


Of course there are still the uber-fit cycleheads who blast past me like I'm standing still. If I find a time machine that will take off 25 years, and I can drop 20 kilos, I might be able to give them a run for their money.


Bastards.

Vanilla slice

I love a good vanilla slice.

Funny how different the colour is when you turn the flash off.

This one was expensive - I was walking through the QVB and forked out $4.50 for this one.

It was worth it. But I won't be eating them regularly.

More Marxist muck

Another week, another power pole covered in Marxist crap. Will these idiots never give up?

Don't you just love the list of speakers:

• Bilger
• Mamdouh Habib
• Gary Foley (listed as an Aboriginal activist).

I think I'd prefer to wank goats for an artificial insemination program rather than listen to these idiots.

Dawn

Another day when I was up at the farting of the sparrows. Not that I'm complaining - it's the best part of the day.

Some sort of bike tour - they were all on the same bikes, wearing the same helmets and riding on the footpath.

I was going to stitch these three photos together to make a panorama, but I can't be arsed. You'll just have to do it in your head.

Cranes

Cranes. Where are the damned cranes. That's not a crane.

Ah, there's the cranes. They're working on the Barangaroo redevelopment. I'm wondering whether this lot will go the way of World Square, which started as a big hole in the ground at the lower end of the CBD and remained that way for years after a financial crisis.

Rowers, rowers and more rowers. There's lots more in he background. And notice the lovely smudge that the kiddies fingers left on the lens.

Yep, I was up pretty early that morning. The camera is great at gathering even the dimmest light - to my tired eyes, it was not this bright. In fact, it was pretty bloody dark!

A few obligatory bikes. This bloke was carrying a bit - a backpack and a laptop bag.

Thursday photos

Ugh oh, there's a battleship in town.

I was out much earlier than usual on Thursday, which meant I saw the Bay Run being used by a different population group to what I am used to. At my usual riding time, there are quite a few commuters heading into town, and the fitness groups are generally winding up, giving people time to get somewhere and shower and change before work. Because I was out so much earlier, there were absolutely no commuters but heaps of runners. These guys must start running before dawn most days. There were packs of them everywhere - and the majority were women.

Wednesday photos

I'm normally happy to be up about 0545, but the body clock went haywire this week - I've been waking up at 0500 instead, so I've been riding into work earlier than usual most days. Not that I'm bothered - it's the best part of the day.

Lighting conditions are tricky though - I'm usually photographing whilst looking into the sun.

This bloke was wearing a jersey advertising a very interesting sounding beer. If it wasn't for that, this photo wouldn't be here.

You can tell it's an early morning shot - the lack of light leads to blurry action shots.

Tuesday photos

White Bay power station smoke stacks

The smoke stacks of the old White Bay power station in Balmain, silhouetted against the dawn sky. Notice how skinny the stacks are? And there's no cooling tower like a modern power station. Those stacks used to pump out good old CO2 and soot and ash, and maybe a touch of steam. Funnily enough, this dreadfully polluting power station was originally built to power Sydney's electrified tram and rail network (which is usually seen by Greens as being a Nirvana compared to the motor car).

Check out the surreal colours of the city in the early light.

I just about smashed into this couple as I passed - they were incapable of riding two abreast without swerving around a bit and occupying both sides of the bike lane.

And now for some different - sunset.

Got a spare 30 minutes?

Thanks for the tip, Paco.