Based on the life expectancy of a white, Australia male, I am halfway there- 35 today.
Here's how I went (Rachel insisted on this photo and was the creative director and photographer...): A fine mix of apparel, technology and reading material. The Sennheiser noise cancelling earphones and the Albert Jacka book are fantastic. As is the new (sore back saving ) windsurfing harness- though it won't get ut into use this week as the traditional windy Boxing Day came a day early.
Speaking of weather, Mt Buller yesterday: Not bad considering it's summer and a week ago they were fighting fires that threatened to engulf the whole place. As my Grandmother might have said : "The Lord works in Mysterious ways"
Just wait until 58 seconds in. Up to that point, the video is your standard 996 GT3 tailing an Aston Martin DB9. But then... I am not going to ruin it. You will laugh. And scratch your head. Sorry about all the German. A Merry Kwanza to you. Enjoy.
Monday: Where? Elwood Beach Weather? 15-35+ knots south west Using? *NEW* 5.3sq m KA Kaos sail, Torquay 272 board With? Duncan For? 1 hr Rating? 1 out of 5 Why? Gusty as hell. Over powered, then nothing. Weed and crap in the water- cathiung on my fin making progress difficult. Happy Xmas Hughey, ya miserable bastard! (the new sail is really good though)
A very merry Christmas to all. To my Mum (who's in transit to WA) to my Brother (who's in Ohio with his wife Sarah and family) to all friends and acquaintances- enjoy!!
Miss Rachel is on night shift, so her arrival home at 8am was the start of the Christmas morning fun. As I've previously stated: she is nuts for Christmas and could not wait to get the gift giving underway. All I want for Christmas is a sleep in...
I did rather well this year!!
...as did Rachel
...and Caboose Our tree before we went present mad!
For those of us in sunny Australia, the name Barack Obama means very little.
I know about him thanks to my ever-so-politcally-aware brother Stephen, who is a very enthusiastic supporter of Obama and suggested that I watch the following speeches from the Democratic National Convention back in 2004: Part 1, 9:35
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama Sr. of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Siaya District, Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. His parents met while both were attending the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student. In his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama describes a nearly race-blind early childhood. He writes: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me –- that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk –- barely registered in my mind."
He's an amazing speaker, a prodigious writer and a true thinker. I hope that if he can't be president (addressing whether the USA is ready for a black or female president is the stuff books are made of), he can still be an influential politician who delivers to his country a world view and can engage in the odd piece of navel gazing (or shoe gazing, I'm never sure which is better).
He's starting his run for president early. I was prompted to post about him as the US papers are reporting about him a lot lately:
Monday: Where? Elwood Beach Weather? 25-30 knots south Using? 4.7 sq m sail, Fanatic Rip With? Tone, Carlos, Donny, Duncan. For? 2.5 hrs Rating? 4 out of 5 Why? Whoa, howling. My old 4.7m KA Killer is crap. It has a tear along the leech, rigs too flat or too full, has light switch power (ie either on or off) and frankly can't handle high winds as well as my bigger 5.3m. Anyhoo, the sailing was great. Cranked out my first big loops for the season, and got to see Donny throwing out a few massive forwards and showing that with our combined age of 70+ we still pwn teh w4v3s when it's really windy :P. One incident stays in my mind. I was heading out through the shore break- powered up and planing at full pelt, when I hit a wave and jmped about 15 feet up. I didn't have a trick in mind, but at the apex I decided to do the old Mark Angulo "look back" where you bring your knees up and lay your head right back and look at the water. All was going fine until I straightened up. I had turned up into the wind, stalling the board's forward momentum and so we (the rig, board and I) fell to earth. Onto my arse. OUCH!
As some of you would no doubt have noticed, I use blogger to power this site.
I've just changed over to Blogger Beta- they finally support FTP- allowing me to automatically transfer files onto thomasr.org.
Anyhoo, I am going to have a look at the new features and work out what I am going to do wioth them. Yes there will be a new template in the new year. No, I have no idea what I am going to do yet.
Perfect timing! Summer's here in full effect and Eric Kleptone is doing a weekly Mashup podcast- just music. The Kleptones are, for mine, the best mashup outfit in the world. I love Party Ben's work, but The Kleptones are the first to go for a more conceptual feel. Plus if you haven't heard "Careless Whisper" mashed with Bon Jovi's "Wanted: Dead or Alive" then you haven't lived!
Okay, well, let's get away from the heavy duty stuff for a bit, and get back to the music, and finally (well, for me anyway) I'm proud to announce the first Hectic City podcast! Yay!
You can get it via RSS as well. Home delivered mashup goodness!
Thursday: Where? Elwood Beach Weather? 15-20 knots south, dropping out to 12 SE Using? 5.8 sq m sail, Torquay 272 board With? Toby, Brendan from RPS For? 2 hrs Rating? 3 out of 5 Why? Fell in for the first time in ages. Could not get my foot uot of the strap and binned it. Damn fury. Did huuuuge one handed jump almost over Brendan. No loops. Haven't done one all season. Also haven't been on my 5.3m2 season either...
If you'll excuse the (mild) profanity, you need to understand that I let my go-karting team down badly at today's event at the VACC circuit in Port Melbourne.
In short, I had my arse handed to me by all and sundry.
The excuses:
I had two laps practise. As I had on-air commitments at 11:30am (ie my actual segment on 3AW- the one that pays the bills), I had to go out early, with minimal instruction, and try to cut a few laps. I did an out lap, a hot lap and cool down lap. I was stone cold last on the timing sheets at this point.
My kart cut out at full throttle. Greg Murphy complained about this more than I, but if you didn't "roll" the throttle on, it coughed and lost momentum. Go karts are all about maintaing corner speed and momentum.
Two of the "media" guys were ringers with professional driving experience. I know this, they couldn't even spell their own names. I demand a re-count/protest/re-drive etc.
Tony Schibecci spun off and ruined my hot lap. This is true. I was on a flyer. I had three laps. The warm up, the hot one (yellow flagged) and a final lap (in lap). Sheesh!
The truth:
I don't have enough experience and did not have a enough time to really wring the neck of the thing. (ok, I suck)
The result:
My team (Dean Canto, Luke Ellery and me) finished 4th, and I was 5th in the media grouping. (Six teams contested the event- 6 V8 drivers, 6 go-karters and 6 media clowns.)
The Pics:
The Peter Brock foundation folks (Lewis Brock and Julie Bamford) were there and so too was one of Brocky's cars (an FX Holden from Goodwood 2006)
I apologised to team mate (I love saying that!) Dean Canto. He was cool with it. Phew.
The V8 boys get back to their roots.
The delightful Ms Caroline Page with your host (do I look rather fetching in my race suit?)
Tony Schibecci from SEN and I see each other at these sort of events. God knows why we do this sort of event though. We didn't exactly own the day!
International Australian motor racing star and dual V8 Supercar champion Marcos Ambrose will head-up a star-filled field at VACC Park for the VACC Charity Karting Challenge this coming Wednesday, to raise money for Peter Brock Foundation....
The Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC), the Australian Karting Association (AKA) and the Go-Kart Club of Victoria have invited this elite line-up to compete in this fund-raising team-trial event in the lead up to next weekend’s V8 Supercar championship decider at Phillip Island.
The VACC Charity Challenge will comprise six teams with one V8 star, a media representative and a karter, who will each complete a lap. The team with the lowest aggregate time will be declared the winner.
...and yes, I am to be one of the "media representative" drivers tomorrow. It's a fair juggling act- with my segment on tomorrow on 3AW, but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do...
Saturday: Where? Elwood Beach Weather? 12-18 knots south Using? 5.8 sq m sail, Torquay 272 board With? Strangers For? 2 hrs Rating? 3 out of 5 Why? Faaaast. Was powered up for much of the time and smoked everyone. That's not a brag- I'm still 95+ Kgs and fat is fast. Didn't fall in. Nailed a no-hands gybe, as illustrated below:
