I was there man

Yesterday morning I got up early to hit the road but the weather had different ideas. Rain and heavy wind meant that the windtrainer was the only option but it did give me the chance to do something that I haven't done in ages; watch Rage.

Not that I like all the music that's played on there but I feel that it's the final frontier for music videos. All the others seem to have fallen to the wayside and/or have more and more moronic presenters desperate to try and stay "on trend". Anyway one of the videos brought back fond memories of dance floor tear-ups (of which I've been doing a bit of lately). In particular famous "dance-offs" I've had with my very good friend Toby Lawrence. Toby and I have known each other since 1st year uni and whilst neither of us could pinpoint where/how it started, we've been regularly pitting our moves against each other. There's no real orginaisation to it, it's fairly organic and it might just be the right combination of music, booze, temperature and a simple look at each other to say "it's on". We can never agree on who "won" but we can agree that everyone who was there saw something really special and will most likely tell their grandkids about it.

If you've never had the pleasure of witnessing a Toby vs. Jear dance-off this is pretty much what it's like (well in our minds anyway(even down to the outfits)).

Coincidently this is something Chrissy sent me today as is probably more accurate (even down to the outfits).

Night of Nights

Tuesday night was the 2nd Annual Smelters Ball - Port Pirie's social event of the year. As luck would have it I scored an invite as my company had bought a table - I didn't disappoint, channelling my inner Leo from Titanic, wearing a tux with white bow-tie and slicking the hell out of my hair. I was a little upset at not winning best dressed but that stuff's all political anyway...

Me with Carlos the Brazillian

I also cut a savage rug on the D-floor and, as usually happens when I'm out with Toby, a dance-off was announced. My poor unsuspecting colleagues. Some of them can dance but when you're a seasoned veteran like me you know that it'll go 12-rounds with a guy like Toby and you have to be ready for anything and have all the cards up your sleeve; "Shopping cart", "reversing the car", "vogue-ing" and that's before you've pulled out the big ones like "Mr. Roboto"... I never really needed to get out of 2nd gear but at least that got to see what A-grade looks like.

An award I didn't win

 

Whilst Wednesday was technically a public holiday a group of us volunteered to work at the company stand at the Smelter's picnic/fete. Never before have I felt so enraged by a lack of manners from children, as one by one they came up and demanded: "give me a blue one!". It wasn't long before my father's voice came out of my mouth to say: "sure, as long as you can say thank you?"... The rest of the day was spent on the couch catching up on some Breaking Bad.

Better coffee

Vino y Velo

Wow, this Blog thing is a lot harder than I thought. I raced off at the start with a few good (well I thought they were) posts, where the words flowed quite easily from keyboard to screen. Now I find myself at a bit of a loss because, well, not much has happened this week that I think my vast readership would appreciate (by the way, a big "An nyoung ha seh yo" to my one fan from South Korea).

I did briefly start typing up a post on unions, their pro's and con's and the rather negative interactions that I always seem to have with them. However, it just seemed to form all the hallmarks of an ill-informed rant so I shut it down. I will say this; don't ever accuse someone of being a "scab". I believe everyone has the right to choose to work under the conditions that are made available to them. Sure, solidarity is required for the group as a whole to benefit but "je ken en andre mensen boek niet lezen" (you can't read another man's book) - let people choose their own course. Don't heckle them whilst they do it.

I digress. Some very good things happened this weekend; wine drinking and bike riding.

Saturday morning started early with a couple of hours on the bike so as to be back in time to get on the winery tour bus. This early start meant I was back in time to finally try the coffee at "Jamaica Blue"... Ah well, disappointment is the wrong word to use as I never expected it to be any good. I was right. The only redeeming feature of the whole experience was the "ok" banana loaf (not bread, loaf). Take note all you Melbourne coffee/cafe snobs; STAY WHERE YOU ARE THERE IS NOTHING FOR YOU HERE! Actually, I did get some very very good coffee, avocado on toast and service at "A Mother's Milk" at 105 Unley Road, Adelaide. Go there, not here.

Where was I? Ok, so after all that I finally made my way down to the bus (on my new sweet sweet Fixxay - built by Spiro. I now believe that after riding down the main street on it in jeans, leather jacket and Holbrooks, I'm Pirie's first hipster). The winery tour and lunch were fantastic and it was really good to get out with the work crowd in a social setting. I bought some wine but the bus trip back seemed to soak most of that up (don't worry Dad, I saved you one). Although, as is often the case, the wine loosened the lips and brought out a confession by one of the party that he had touched his sisters boobs... but only so that he could give his opinion on her new boob job... he's also Brazilian so I guess that's cool?

After that bombshell we made our way back into town and in time for a couple of beers at the pub, as I went to leave (on sweet fixxay) a young guy that worked at the pub came running out; "I thought I was the only fixie rider in town?" he said. He mentioned that he was looking for someone to ride with and after admiring my bike for a little bit he said "shit, I better get back to work". I'll let him know about FOA in a little bit, don't want his mind blown just yet.

It was also a perfect day in Pirie today so I grabbed colleague, Dan Brown, and headed out to Port Germein where I'd ridden a few weeks back. We rode out through the gorge, down towards Laura and to the greatest pie stop on the planet "Stone Hut". One great egg and bacon pie, crap coffee and good "Chester Square" (it had pink icing) and we were back on the road for a mostly downhill run, and fun descent through the gorge, back to Pt. Germein.

Good.

PS. Here's a photo from work. On the daily!