Lane's Ramblings

Well, it happened; I got on the bike. I only rode a few k's but the important thing is that i fixed it up and this has been on my to-do list for months. I didn't need to do too much; clean it up, work on the chain a bit, make some adjustments. The front brake is dragging a bit too so I'll need to adjust that.

There really aren't too many places to ride around here. Melbourne's really good for bikers, bike lanes, and bike paths but just coming out of the garage without driving anywhere can be tough out here in Berwick. Not all of the roads accommodate bikes, there are a lot of neighborhood streets that require a lot of slowing down, and the drivers aren't as used to bikers as they are in the city. But I'll find some places and maybe drive up to St Kilda and go along Beach Rd with all the other biking nuts.

Next will be the mountain bike. I'm hoping that this one will be just as easy but I think there may be some other issues as I am prone to fall off of that one and I know that it has a few dents, not to mention a bent brake lever. There's a great mountain bike path system about 5km from here, where they held the Commonwealth Games in 2006 (sort of like an Olympics for the countries that were part of the English Empire and consider themselves part of the Commonwealth).

LTC - now up to page 240.
DQ - read ch XLVIX and L
Greek - read some
Running - ran a short one around the block to stretch out for the race tomorrow. Aiming for 42 minutes on the 10k.

I also made banana bread. This I've done before and it's come out very well but this time not so much. It's fine, it's edible, I'll eat it, Ula says that it's ok, it just doesn't say 'banana bread' to me. We'll try again. But I only have one more week here and I don't think perfecting banana bread is at the top of the list.

Tomorrow, like I said, I have the 10k race up by the zoo in Princes park, I'm going to come home and mow the lawn, maybe take a nap and then I'm heading to the cricket. There are 3 types of cricket and I may have explained this in a previous post but this is the homerun derby of cricket. The bowlers are bowling fast, the batters are hitting hard, and there should be 75,000 fans there so it'll be a good time. I'm going with Tori and Tracey and we're meeting up with some people beforehand at a pub called Riverland. Riverland is where you want to be on a nice afternoon in Melbourne, plus it's right near the MCG, where the match is being played. My concern is that with 75k people, I think a few might have the same idea and the place will be packed. Tori disagrees because we'll get there at 2. Ok, the match starts at 7:30, is 3 hours long, and we'll be drinking there; now we have a 5 hour warm up? 8 hours of drinking on a Sunday afternoon - great way to start the week.

And to Corrigan's comment: I have heard of the place but have never been there. Maybe I'll go with my all of the extra time that I'll have while in the D.