Out on the bike this morning, not too hot when I set off and today I headed west for a change. I haven’t travelled this road for over eight years, mainly due to the fact that the roads can be a bit scary, however this morning it was OK.
A few of the hills along the way proved a bit challenging but overall it was a good ride and a lot of it was away from traffic which was even better.
Not much going on, another week closer to my travels, I have a long weekend and so back to work Tuesday. Happy Days!
Tomorrow I plan to work in the garden; many weeds need a killing and a bit of maintenance to the stairs on the retaining wall and generally just tidy the place up and fill the bin to capacity.
Unseen forces manipulate your day, Unseen forces make you do what they say,
Unseen forces rule the world, Mind you It could be gravity it could be magnetism, It could just be plain old pragmatism.
Forces of nature can provide or destroy, We are no more than a soft cuddly toy, Earthquake or tsunami, Floods and drought, There is no doubt who’s in control.
In world affairs who really cares, It’s all smoke and mirrors, Being sold to the highest bidders, We are mere pawns in a desert, The one percent rule the roost, Powered by the American War Machine, Greed and power is King, With a Turnip in power with no clothes, His Entourage vast and submissive, Licking and stroking an ego that’s infinite, With the stroke of a pen another child dies, With the stroke of a pen we are told more lies, With the stroke of a pen new rules are imposed, We are told what to think, We are told what to say, Speech is not free.
Of course I blame the accountants and academics, Living in a virtual fantasy world and being able to control mine, Theory and reality are not one and the same, They need to get out more, But it’s forced upon as, We are guinea pigs, An experiment that’s going bad, Just look at The mental health crisis, It can only make you sad.
This Utopia is in the mind, This Utopia is marketed, This Utopia will never come to fruition, Instead unrest is coming direct from the right, The left have gone too far left and a balance is due, Why do we have to waste time on pronouns, I’m offended; and yet I lose, Be what you want but don’t let your stupidity affect my life, You can’t say black if your white, You can’t use the word fat, You’ve just got to be nice, But I am, my use of the word is true, You’re arse doesn’t fit in the seat and it’s built for two.
Unseen forces, My language is curtailed, My life could easily be derailed if I said….It! We live in an illusion of freedom, And world leaders have the cheek to criticise China, At least there it’s obvious.
But the biggest unseen force, The one that Trumps all, Is the rise of stupidity, The downfall of all, Social media is the cause of course, Creating so much rumour and discourse, But It’s a disease that we can not appease, There is no cure, And so the truth is inverted, The lies justified, Say the wrong thing and you’ll be crucified.
Unseen forces too many to control, I could rant all day, Got to keep the time keeper at bay, So best put your head in the sand, Wear blinkers, Have tunnel vision, Live in a bubble, Close your mind and take care of your own behind. Ah ignorance is bliss…..
Second week back at work and no time for the bike, so this morning I went out for a wee run and I was accompanied by my new toy…..a mini camera which I can fit onto the handlebars.
A bit shoogly at times because the roads are fairly rough, although I do have suspension on the front forks. I’ve got a 128GB card in it and this morning’s wee jaunt only used about 7GB, however it records in five minute bites instead of a continuous video but it’s OK because if you want to edit you only have a small file to play with. So about 90mins is around 7 GB, looking forward to taking this on my next trip so I can do a bit of Vlogging.
I really notice the difference not going out a couple of times a week, my fitness levels have dropped, but when the cooler weather comes back I’ll get out during the day between shifts. It’s still hot today, the air was thick and the UV high so not the best of days but it was still good.
Yesterday I picked up a free Futon from Gumtree, I’m going to use it downstairs and I’ll move the Ikea Daybed back upstairs again and put it in the spare room just in case I get a visitor…..well you never know….stranger things have happened.
I had to dismantle the Daybed and carry it back upstairs and by 2 o’clock I retired to the aircon and took it easy listening to YouTube music. Back to work in the morn, but I will be having a wee dram for me Ma who moved on 21 years ago which I find staggering…….I cannot believe 21 years have passed.
Only one day left of the mammoth summer holidays and so I went out on the bike for a long run, I really didn’t have the energy but I headed out anyway. I didn’t fuel up well yesterday and I knew it would be difficult.
My legs were beginning to complain after only half hour and at every turn I’m thinking I should just go home, however I persevered and stopped at my local café for coffee and cake and was surprised to see that I nearly covered 40km, but it wasn’t easy.
I had nothing in the fridge to eat so the only option was pizza and I know the rule I’ve set for myself but I thought “I’m still on holiday”, so pizza it was.
The last two weeks have been fairly hectic. Next door asked me to help with the repairs on their the outside landing and stairs and I’ve been knocking a wall down.
I’ve had all this time off and everything has been crammed into the past fortnight. I had the electrician and the Data guy moving points and then I removed the interior wall adjoining the living room and bedroom, it makes such a difference.
Removing the gyprock is messy, dust everywhere. The next challenge was the four hardwood studs, the old reciprocal saw went through one blade but did the job. I discovered a metal brace across the studs and luckily had a small precision grinder that dealt with that. When I finally got round to cleaning the place up and moving the furniture I’m very pleased with the results and can’t understand why I didn’t do it 20 years ago.
I still need to add architraves at some point
It’s been hot, and having the room opened up now the air conditioning seems to distribute the air more effectively, before this adjacent room would have been closed off getting hot and the cool air just circulated in the living room but now it is so much better.
Having the larger space feels so much better, not claustrophobic. This summer I have spent many hours inside because it’s been too hot and now it’s so much better.
I still have to tidy up downstairs, there are cables and things to fix. A bit more moving of furniture, some of it fairly heavy and so the next few weeks will no doubt fly.
Tomorrow I’ll go back to help Mick with the stairs, I’ll get there about 7:30 and try to finish before noon.
For a long time I’ve wanted to remove this internal wall but have been hesitant to do so, probably because I’ve listened to others telling me that it will reduce the value of the house and that it I was just being stupid.
I really need to have more confidence in my self and decisions and so with that in mind I have begun the transformation today.
Taking off the gyprock was very dusty and so there is a fine layer of white dust throughout, and so I wore a mask while I was removing it.
I’ll not do too much more until the Data guy comes to move the NBN and network connections. He’ll come on Tuesday morning because I don’t want to risk doing damage to the current network connections and hardware.
Cutting through the hard wood frame will be the next challenge and I think that will be thought through thoroughly before I do anything.
Up at 5:30 this morn and got to the train station at 6:45am. Get the 6:51 train to Ipswich and then the 7:05 to Rosewood and then back via Haigslea and Fernvale.
A couple of minutes after I arrived, a young guy on the other platform shouted that the trains had stopped due to a power outage. I checked my phone and sure enough he was right. I had fifteen minutes to get into Ipswich Central, which is only two stops on the train, however on the bike I might be in trouble.
When I arrived at the station the guard told me to go to platform 3 and they blew the whistle just as I got to the platform, luckily they held the train for me and I was on my way. My breakfast was not very happy at being jostled around so much and so it was good to just to sit on the train for 30 minutes to recover and let my stomach begin its job.
I never paid my 50c ticket this morning so I sneaked off the train, I was the only passenger anyway and I don’t think anyone was too concerned. It’s not that I didn’t want to pay it’s just that it was all a rush at Ipswich and I forgot.
It was only 24C this morning and it was very pleasant, there was even a bit of cloud cover which kicked in from time to time on the way back. I like Rosewood; it has a nice vibe about it. I took a new route today, first to Mt Morrow and then Haigslea which took me across the Warrego highway and onto Fernvale along some lovely country roads. This route was not as challenging as the Marburg road but the ride is quite a bit longer.
When I arrived at Fernvale I was thinking of coffee and then I thought that my stomach might not appreciate a double shot Latte at this point in time so I looked for a place to refill my water bottle instead. There is a Bike Hub/Information block where filtered water was on offer and free charging for you E-Bike is you have one. I stopped for 10 minutes and then joined the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail (BVRT) The trail started as a concrete path but soon turned to dirt on the outskirts of Fernvale. The path for the most part was fairly well graded although there was a bit of erosion and ruts due to the storms and there were quite a few dead trees fallen by the path which I guess have been tidied up.
The gravel section lasted for around 20 KM I imagine, before we entered civilisation once more and the smooth concrete beckoned. For most of this patch I was escorted by Butterflies, Dragon Flies, and numerous small birds and I got whacked by a Cicada. For most of the trail the cicadas played their symphony drowning out everything but my thoughts.
When I got to Brassall and back on the concrete my legs were beginning to complain and I was dropping into very low gears to keep my cadence high, but I knew I didn’t have far to go to the Jasper Café where I could recharge with Latte and Danish.
The café is less than 5KM from home, however there are two hills to navigate and thankfully my legs held strong and I did not have too much trouble. When I got home I sat out the back and drank the remains of my water and felt remarkably ok.
Just under 60 KM from rosewood today but if you count my ride to the Ipswich station this morning I would have done about 64Km in total.
I ordered a Pizza, got changed and the rest is history. Pizza was delicious, 30 min siesta and after several cups of tea I feel grand. Mind you I will be having a lazy day tomorrow……
Up at the crack of dawn which is pretty early at this time of the year, the sun just can’t wait to show it’s face.
I got the train to Rosewood again this morning and went via Marburg, another small town.
I then headed to Glamorgan Vale,
I turned right and then headed to the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail,
Very different terrains today. When I left Rosewood there is a hill called Evans Hill which was very hard to climb. My breakfast hadn’t kicked in and when I hit this hill I ran out of juice real quick and began to overheat. I stopped three times on the climb just to get my temperature down and this is where my heart rate peaked so it wasn’t a very good start. I think if I had come across this after about 30 minutes or so after setting off I would have handled it better.
There were a few other hills to tackle but for the most part it was relatively flat and there was a nice breeze crossing the plains, only problem really was the road surface which was very rough and that makes it a bit more difficult.
I had to go on to the main Brisbane Valley Highway for about ten minutes and then I headed to the old rail track that lead me right back into Ipswich.
I stopped for fuel at the cafe just to make sure I’d get home. I paused my tracker while I had coffee and cake and when I set off again I was a couple of hundred metres down the road before I realised, and so I was a bit disappointed when I finally made it home that I had recorded just under 50KM. I haven’t done this distance for years and I could still climb the stairs of the house without too much bother and if course I had no choice but to treat myself to pizza.
