Info

Sydney, Australia

horse + high-res version

Just testing out this new whiz-bang WordPress theme (Anthem). This is the first wordpress theme that i’ve paid for but I really like its simplicity and the way that it highlights images such as this one I took over in Queenstown, New Zealand last year!

More to come…

Went down to Melbourne the weekend before last for the 250km Around the Bay in a Day ride. Drove down from Sydney on Wednesday and came back the following Tuesday. Driving was easier than packing the bike into a box, risking it getting damaged in transit, unpacking at the other end and repeating the process. Plus I found the drive quite relaxing and got to see parts of Australia I otherwise wouldn’t have.

Once in Melbourne did the usual touristy things – shopped quite a bit, ate a lot and caught up with some family members. I can highly recommend The Italian on Flinders Lane and Jim’s Greek Tavern in Collingwood if you’re looking for a nice bite to eat!

RBLB1079-12x17The weather forecast for the big ride was looking OK (“partly cloudy”) until the BOM forecast on Saturday morning added in ‘the chance of hail’ so at that stage I wasn’t even sure that I would get out on the bike come Sunday but thankfully the Saturday afternoon forecast was more forgiving and so the ride was on. Gave the bike one last clean on Saturday night, reciting the mantra that “a clean bike is a fast bike”, laid all my food, clothes etc… out in preparation and set the alarm for 3:45am.

Too excited to sleep, I got up at 3:30am, had a shower, ate 4 crumpets, checked the latest weather radar, and headed out to the start line at 5am with a detour for a cappuccino to get that much-needed caffeine fix.

The 250km riders were all due to head off at 5:30am in waves according to your estimated speed (30-35km/h, 25-29km/h etc…) but in the end it seemed to be every man for themselves. It was pitch-black when we started so lights were a necessity, however not too many had one and this resulted in many, many near misses with witches-hats and bollards that were acting as lane dividers during the early part of the ride.

It took a while, but after the first 40-50km the bunches broke down in to manageable groups and we were on our way. It was a cold day, starting off around 9 degrees celsius before warming up later in the day to around 23 degrees. We had an incredibly strong headwind (~45km/h) on the way down to Queenscliff via Port Arlington, with a little tail-wind on the way back to Melbourne from Sorrento. There was intermittent rain, but nothing torrential and certainly no hail which was good! I guess you could say it was just your typical Melbourne day.

The ride itself was quite fast, with actual ride time of approx. 7hrs 30minutes (elapsed 9hrs 40mins which included waiting for the ferry and the ferry crossing itself), for an average speed of around 32km/h which I was quite pleased with. Only had one mechanical in the form of a puncture about 50km in to the ride, but apart from that everything went well.

Everyone seemed in good spirits, and Bicycle Victoria managed to raise over $800,000 for The Smith Family to assist disadvantaged Australian kids. Picture above of me crossing the finish-line before getting a much needed leg massage! Stats for the ride are here. A big thank you to all those who sponsored me for the ride, and also to all those volunteers that help make the ride possible.

In other news, the loss of Steve Jobs earlier this month to pancreatic cancer is a loss to society generally. He really did change the way much of the world communicates, listens to music and interacts with technology. He made products not only that were ground-breaking and innovative in their design, but so intuitive to use. His legacy will live on for many, many years to come but i’m afraid we won’t see someone as visionary again in my lifetime. Let’s hope i’m wrong. RIP Steve.

Yes i’m still here for those of you still visiting after my recent inactivity! I have been quite busy the last 8 weeks or so – firstly covering for my colleague at work while he went on safari in Africa and the day that he got back I took 2 weeks annual leave to study for, and sit, two exams (Intellectual Property and Practice & Procedure). If I have passed those two that will leave one exam to go before I graduate – wooooooooohoooooooooo!

A lot of people dread exams but I quite like the whole routine of revising material, creating an exam preparation document, writing model exam answers and then finally getting to the exam venue early and counting down the time until we are told ‘it is now 1pm you may begin writing, good luck everybody!’

exams

Both exams this semester were open book. I’m not fussed either way whether they are open or closed book; the open book exams just require more detailed answers!

For each subject I tend to do a thorough subject summary (approx 200 pages) and then a less detailed version for reference purposes (approx 60 pages) and that tends to serve me OK however we all learn in different ways so each to their own!

Results are due out about mid-October so watch this space!

I have also purchased a brand-spanking new road bike to replace my Cannondale Synapse. I ended up with a 2012 Supersix Evo Ultimate, and she’s a beauty. Matte black with red accents:

bike1

She is also ridiculously light, weighing in with pedals & bottle-cages at 5.3kg!

I only picked her up a day or two ago so not too many km’s ridden yet, but in comparison to the Synapse the Evo is a lot more responsive, much stiffer and almost as comfortable as the Synapse – so far so good! I will provide a more detailed ride report after i’ve ridden a few thousand km’s!

That’s about it for the moment – next month i’m down in Melbourne again for the Around the Bay in a Day ride (250km) and i’ve also signed up to do the 3 Peaks Challenge in March 2012 down in Falls Creek. If you’re thinking of doing either ride I can highly recommend them!

Thanks for stopping by…

This delicious pasta dish is simple to make and very moreish! Works well with tagliatelle if you don’t have any pappardelle. Serves 4.

crab-&-prawn-pappardelle

Ingredients

1 live mud crab (approx 1.4kg)
16 green king prawns, shelled & deveined
100ml olive oil
350-400g fresh pappardelle pasta
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 sml red chilli, finely sliced
50ml dry white wine
250g vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bunch continental parsley
50g unsalted butter
1 lemon
Salt & pepper

METHOD

Put the mud crab in the freezer for approx 20mins while you bring a big pot of salted water to the boil. Take the mud crab straight from the freezer and put into the boiling water and cook for 10min per kg of crab. Drain water and allow the crab to cool before extracting all the crab meat. Set the crab meat aside.

Bring a pot of water to the boil.

In a large frypan over medium heat lightly fry the garlic and chilli in olive oil, being careful not to colour the garlic. Add the prawns and crab meat, turn the heat up to high and cook for 30 seconds.

Add a splash of dry white wine and flambé. Add the cherry tomatoes and a handful of roughly chopped parsley. Toss to combine.

Put the pasta in the pot and cook until al dente, drain & add to the frypan. Add the knob of butter, season well with salt & pepper and toss together to combine.

Serve with a small handful of chopped parsley and a wedge of lemon. Enjoy!

Note: If you are using dry pasta you will have to put it in the pot to cook before you start cooking the chilli and the garlic as it will take a lot longer to cook then the fresh pasta.

Delicious and wholesome and also reasonably healthy. These are the tastiest muffins ever! Recipe courtesy of my girlfriend. Makes 12.

muffin

Ingredients

2/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 tsp bicarb of soda
pinch salt
2/3 tsp cinnamon
2 large ripe bananas
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans/walnuts)

 METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (fan-forced).

Beat butter, sugar, egg & vanilla essence in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Continue mixing and add mashed bananas followed by the flour, bicarb of soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir in nuts.

Put into a greased & floured muffin tray and cook for 14-15 minutes. Serve with a knob of butter & dusted with icing sugar. Mmmmmmm!

Yep slack again I know! Not much to report on this side of the fence – Uni has started back up two nights a week, Camera Craft 3 one night per week and then work, study & cycling the rest of the time! Shot some still life this week and moving in to flash and night photography next week…couple of the assignment shots I took from this week below. This was the first time i’d used any kind of background and even though it’s just a sheet of paper you can see how much it makes the subject ‘pop’ out!

IMG_5444

 

IMG_5480

IMG_4650

Went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show yesterday – like to go every couple of years and had a great time – particularly with the animals! Favourite sections are the Woolworths fresh food dome where you can try all sorts of treats and buy yourself a $2 coon toasted cheese sandwich (mmmm) and also get some fresh strawberries with cream & ice cream (mmmmmmmmmmm) and the animal sheds where you can get up close to cuties like that shown above!

Got my exam results back last week – pass with merit (second highest category) for Legal Ethics and pass with distinction (highest category) for Family Law so I was pretty happy as you can imagine! I have enrolled in Practice & Procedure (compulsory) and Intellectual Property (elective) this semester leaving only Jurisprudence remaining for next semester! Goodbye $1200 on enrolment fees and $400 on textbooks!

Not much else happening at the moment – Camera Craft 3 starts this Thursday and i’m looking forward to expanding my (limited) photographic knowledge.

I have managed to raise $150 so far for The Smith Family as part of my Around the Bay in a Day pledge to raise $250 so that they can help disadvantaged Australian children get the most out of their education. If you are feeling generous you can sponsor me here.

Bootcamp finished last week and I’m up in the air as to whether or not i’ll sign back up for another 12 sessions (1 month). I did find it beneficial but the cost is $210 or roughly $20 per hour-long session. When you look at it in those terms it is more expensive than a gym membership so at this stage I think I will stick with my regular morning cycling rides and throw in the occasional swim or run and put the $210 to good use elsewhere!

…if only temporarily at least. Went out for the usual Saturday morning ride up to Church Point – finally had some nice weather in Sydney after what has seemed like months of rain. So beautiful up that part of Sydney, especially around McCarrs Creek.  After any vigorous exercise I always feel upbeat and happy about life. Must be all those endorphins floating around. When I see all these people walking around with glum looks on their faces I just feel like saying to them ‘go for a run!’ or ‘take your kids to a park and kick a ball around!’. I know if I don’t exercise for a couple of days my mood definitely starts to change for the worse and all I think about is my next ‘fix’ as it were.

After the 3 peaks challenge my cycling has slowed down somewhat and i’m now doing 3-4 days per week instead of 4-5 days per week.

I’m not a big fan of online one-day sales promotions like cudo and stardeals mainly because the subject matter of most of the deals seems to be oriented towards the fairer sex (i.e. facials, massages and the like) but the other day I saw a great ‘stardeal’ for a bootcamp. 12 sessions (3 sessions a week for four weeks) for $39 with a free t-shirt! I couldn’t resist so I signed up. Just finished the second week and i’ve got to say it’s been a struggle. Although my cardio fitness is OK I can’t run to save myself and quite a few of the bootcamp sessions involve lengthy runs (generally carrying a weight or holding it above your head) and so i’m often dreaming of the bike while pounding the pavement. We refer to our instructors as ‘Sarge!’ or ‘Corporal!’ and yes they do dish out the punishment.

All in all it’s an enjoyable experience and open to anyone of any fitness level – they just put you in different groups and adjust the number of sit-ups/push-ups/squats etc… accordingly. We meet Mon/Wed/Fri for 1hr at a time and each day is designed to complement the last – so one day might be cardio, the next upper body muscle-groups and the following lower body muscle-groups. The stardeal was with ‘The Original Bootcamp’ and they have locations all over the place. If you’re thinking of giving it a go I recommend them. The group is about 30 people in size so you’re not going through the pain alone!

I have signed up for Camera Craft 3 at the Australian Centre for Photography in the hope of improving my photography once again and also exploring other genres. It is 3 hours per week for 10 weeks beginning at the end of April so i’ll let you know how that goes. I think what I enjoy the most is everyone being given the same brief and then looking at the variety of pictures based on each individual interpretation and creativity. Anyone new to digital photography or if you’ve just bought your first DSLR I would highly recommend doing a course like Camera Craft 1 to really take it off Auto, learn about the relationship between aperture, ISO and shutter speed, white balance etc… At the end of the day though nothing improves your photography like taking more photos and that’s something that I need to be doing – taking my camera with me everywhere I go!

Easter is fast approaching. Thinking of going to the Sydney Royal Easter Show this year as haven’t been now for a couple of years and I really enjoy the day out – even if I no longer go home with half a dozen showbags. Funny how you slowly move from the rides and showbags to more ‘grown-up’ things like the dairy pavilion/food hall, wood chopping and the like.

Entries open to the general public on Monday for this years’ Around the Bay in a Day ride down in Melbourne. Had such a good time last year that i’m looking forward to the ride again this year. Any excuse to get down to Melbourne for the weekend is a good excuse. Be good to catch up with Shane again and maybe do an impromptu shoot in the Melbourne CBD.

Exam results still two weeks away… Ran into one of the legal ethics lecturers on the train the other morning and joked about hopefully not seeing him again next semester… will just have to wait and see! Smile

Delicious and simple! You can make this with fresh bread but the stale bread is really what makes the dish. Serves 4.

Tuscan-Bread-Salad

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt & pepper 

Salad
1 stale ciabatta loaf, roughly broken up by hand
6 large ripe roma tomatoes, quartered
1 lebanese cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped
5-6 slices red onion, broken up
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
12 large basil leaves, roughly torn

 METHOD

Whisk the dressing in small bowl and set aside.

Put the bread in a large bowl with 2 cups water for 1min. Drain the water off and squeeze any excess water from the bread with your hands and drain that off also. Add in all the other ingredients except the basil, add the dressing and mix well. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

When ready to serve, stir in the basil. Enjoy!

I don’t often have burgers but when I do I’m not concerned about them being low-fat – I want them to be tasty – and these certainly are! Makes 2 good size burgers.

burger

BURGER PATTIES MIXTURE
250g beef mince 
1 egg
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped 
1 clove garlic, crushed 
1/4 sml white onion, finely diced 
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt & pepper 

BURGERS
2 hamburger buns
2 tablespoons hummus
2 rashers bacon
2 eggs
1 tomato
Lettuce leaves
Tomato sauce, to serve
Slices of cheddar cheese (optional)

 METHOD

For the patties, mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and form 2 large patties, set aside.

Cook the bacon in a pan until crispy, set aside. Cook the patties in the leftover bacon juices (3-4mins each side) and add the eggs to pan toward the end of the cooking process and cook to your liking.

Put 1 tablespoon hummus on the bottom of the hamburger bun, top with lettuce, tomato, the beef patty, bacon rasher, egg and tomato sauce. Serve with your favourite oven chips. Enjoy!

Optionally after you have turned the beef patties over once in the pan, top them with 3-4 slices of cheddar cheese and let that melt over the top of the patty before placing on the hamburger bun for that extra bit of taste!
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.