Wot I did on my weekend Miss.

Still Monday. And back from that job. Emails checked... HP got back to me about a warranty claim. Which reminds me .. time to harrass Telstra again. Their garbage response to our service request weeks ago. when they sent an email saying something to the effect that this was their within 48 hour response and they were really busy and would respond further soon. They don.t know its sorted cos.. they never got back to us. You would make jokes about Telstra customer service but really... they do it for you. I think I will follow up with an email asking when they are going to respond. If I can be bothered.

Saturday was the Belgian Beer Cafe cycling club breakfast. For $30 you can join this cycling club which gets you 11 free breakfasts a year.. and about $30 worth of beer vouchers. Its a fantastic deal. Breakfast includes Belgian waffles in chocky sauce. Perfect. So you have been told.. join. To justify the chocky those of us from BV forums hold a couple of rides leaving early in the morning from the St Kilda Road location of the BBC and heading down Beach road and returning by 9:00 am for Breakfast. The newbie beginner version of this ride is the one I usually do.. goes to Black Rock and back. You can read about these rides here

Anyway it was raining when I got up. Nothing new. Set off to ride from Blackburn to St Kilda rd. In Hawthorn got nearly tag teamed by the only two idiots of the whole trip in. In the left lane at the corner of Princes and Hawthorn.. just moving into the right turn lane after indicating and loon P plater in black HSV Ute blasts past in the right turn only lane cutting left across me, and as I swerved to avoid him the truck behind him drove straight through the gap and turned right.. very nearly taking my arm off.. still out to signal. Had words with him.. A***se!!!!! It was the duality of this that was so dangerous.. one stupid moron setting up the situation so that a merely dangerous overtake when a halfwit in a hurry in a truck is added to the mix becomes totally lethal. Both of these drivers I am sure would argue that cyclists simply should not be on the road. An argument that always boils down to the unsaid 'cyclists should not be on the road because I am not competent or too selfish to cope with em'

The beer cafe ride was fun.. still raining. Was one of the girls Katrina,s first ride on Beach Road. Not a lot of hardy cyclists out. Lots more cars than usual. Perhaps many of the normal cyclists were doing their training in the car because of the conditions. The one sprint of the morning.. hill climb up Barkly St on the return was led out by JAC in an impressive effort.. chased hard by me (when I eventually got a gear.. time to adjust gears again) and at the top I was challenged by Publius Naso. The result is in dispute but I am confident I got it.

Fitzroy St St Kilda has 'benefited' by the introduction of a dodgy Taxi Parking.. council equipment storage lane pretending to be a bicycle lane and as a result is off the route for this and many other rides. The accident rate has fallen I believe. So have the number of cyclists. Way to build bicycle infrastructure. I really wonder about the competence of those who design bicycle farce-ilities. Actually I don.t wonder at all.. I know about their competence. My only question is are they taking the pi** or do they seriously think this stuff works? The classic site exploring the poorly trained, incompetent or practical joking world of the insanity that is psyclepath design is here

Significant Other did not ride down with me. In fact in a very lame effort to do nothing physical at all she stayed the night with a friend in Glen Iris so as to "need a shorter lift in in the morning" and at that was well late. Sigh. If you think that is lame then another friend came up with a "I cannot train tonight as I have not ridden my bicycle in a couple of weeks" Ho hum.. Significant Other did turn up late even at that.

The breakfast was fun. Much chatting.. eating and displaying of new bikes
Much socializing. If you guys don't do this sort of stuff you really really are missing out.

Long and damp ride home Via lunch at JACs (and Cats and Atom Ants. And I am told I should mention Gus too. Gus is a naturally gifted cyclist suffering from teenager inability to get up. He missed the waffles ) . With brilliant forethought I had however bought dry socks and gloves so started off happy.. Significant Other had decided to stay another night in Glen Iris and so I spent the evening and all of Sunday exploring the awesome power of the remote. Wow. I missed this. How did I let that power slip from my fingers? Its not happening again.. that is for sure. From now on I am... ta da ... Remote Man.