1st day on the new job (unpaid but)
Well with no instruction manual to study and mum & daughter already in a routine I bumbled around today trying not to get in the way.
Bruno from Cyclexpress was celebrating his birthday in fine style today, so to smooth things over I took the girls out for coffee and cake, before we went to the local swimming pool for a splash around. No pics of that but here is a couple from later in the day.
Madam can kneel against the couch,coffee table or bath for support, so I dare say walking won't be too far away....
sat/sun.......
So, with me back in the roll of president of I.M.L (international man of leisure) there was only one way to kick start things: off for a mountainbike with a few familiar faces and one new one. Tom and James, myself and Chris (from Wellington, fellow Vorb member) packed ourselves into Tom's Subaru, strapped probably $30,000 worth of bikes to the bikerack and headed southeast to Hunua for a spin around the "low tracks"
The first thing we did was ride up a hill.
And then back down. So much for flat trails then.
Then along the river trail, I presume there is a river below the track then. I've never seen it.
Next was the usual ambling trails to the far end of the valley where Tom demonstrated not once, but three times how to gracefully go splat.
Chris hadn't ridden any of these trails before, nor the bike he was on, but thought the company was grand and the ride quite spiritual.
Or was it the coffee beforehand or the Sassy Red (beer) afterwards?
Sunday dawned much the same, Tom the taxi arrived, another new face (Mark the Canadian, from Canada), coffee and then back out to Hunua-but around the other side this time, for a little "off piste walking track riding" this time-Tom's infamous Mangatangi Dam ride.
Unfortunately the Ranger told us otherwise as per the sign saying "no mountainbikes"
As he said we couldn't ride up the hill, I politely asked if he could give us a lift up the hill instead. Not surprisingly he said no.
I insisted we had to go anyway as I had dropped my keys on the trail yesterday and we needed to go back and find them.
Next thing you know we have the bikes in the back of his ute and we get a free ride right to the top of the hill !
My legs have never felt so fresh for such a climb!
With a hearty thanks we left the ranger, didn't waste any time looking for the keys as they were in my Camelback the whole time and hooked into the downhill walking track for 4.5 km of fairly challenging trail back to where we started.
Sensational stuff.
While we were out, Emily was asleep because she stayed up till 9pm the night before and Keighley cooked up a storm in the kitchen - cake and cookies for our return.
No photos this time - can't get the card to talk to laptop at the mo. Better luck next time.
Oh, and Tom didn't bin it today.
But he did stick to the sheets last night.
News from Dad
Changes afoot ! Keighley is going back to work at Montana Wines in December
Rick will be primary caregiver for Emily !
Oh the humour........or irony if you like.....
So, Jungle Coffee will just be a caffenated blur of the last 5 years.....the parking tickets, the bike races, the coffee cart outtings.....ah, all but a distant memory.
Oh and the customers - who could ever forget? And who said the customer was always right.....not me that's for sure.
Best sign off before the coffee really kicks in
About time we gave you folks some news
Well - what's been going on you ask?
We've all had the flu or colds from hell........
Emily is now up on her hands and knees and very close to putting the whole crawling thing together very soon.
Currently she gets around pretty well with a kind of a shuffle.
So that's the family covered then.
In breaking news from "Frontierland" (my garage) I proudly present my very much slapped together metal polisher.
The motor is borrowed from a coffee grinder, the stand it sits on is an old battery holder turned upside down and the doofer that holds the polishing mop and grinding wheel was found on trade me. The nice shiney item in the front of the pic is my trial run at polishing up a crank arm. The motor needs an upgrade before I cook the other one, but it's good to have a go with.
Oh, I nearly forgot - I have a new Mountainbike in the stable and I even sold my old one to finance the new purchase!
How about that then: selling a bike who would have thought?
Stefano Colenso, formerly Mad Steve is now the proud owner of my red 2005 Foes FXR. He's stoked with it. His Misssssses has also got a black one, so they are a nice matching pair out in the forest.
I have a 2006 Foes FXR in a tasteful shade of Blueshark Blue, apparently the only one in existence. Pictures to follow.
I've ridden it twice and then got sick, but preliminary reports are that is fantastic.
Tomorrow (7/10/2006) Keighley and I are going out to Woodhill forest for a singlespeed MTB kind of fun ride with some like minded individuals.
We have to ride around the forest collecting playing cards from checkpoints and get back to a bbq and beers 1.5 hrs later and see who has the best poker hand.
Sounds good to me, 1st time back on the bike in 3 weeks. Maybe even a report to follow.
Emily is going to hang out with Mitchell Faint (who is 15 months old) for the afternoon.
