Remember that post a week and a half ago where i mentioned i was finally getting out on the bike more often?
Yeah well, unsurprisingly that turned to shit just a couple of days later, it seems some of the slackers at the servo want to have "time off" and "holidays" in the lead up to Christmas, so i'm doubled up on servo shifts from now til Christmas (and probably a few weeks afterwards too for all i know).
With a coworker at the pool shop leaving soon, i was facing the prospect of working from 11pm Sunday through til 5am Thursday in a few weeks time (with the chance of a few naps here and there i should add). They've now hired a temp which negates that particularly horrific scenario, but 11pm Tuesday to 5am Thursday is still mighty unpleasant.
On the plus side though, all of this work has FINALLY started to improve the finances (just in time for Christmas/the end of maternity leave to fuck them up again lol), and i have managed to still do enough riding to halt the weight gain, if not enough to reverse it.
First up, last weekend (yes we're going that far back, i told you the riding was up shit creek) Andy the Fixie Guy went over to Noosa North Shore for a weekend of drinking with the odd bit of 4WDing squeezed in, so i got up early on Sunday morning to try and catch up with him on the motorbike.
Being early, i had the ferry all to myself-
And having never ridden on sand before, i decided that rather than going straight to 3rd Cutting (the route to Double Island Point) i would start by testing out my sand legs on the little used 1st Cutting. This was not as good an idea as i thought, as being little used meant the sand was about as hard packed as air, and a metre or 10 deep. I managed to get out to the beach ok, then as i turned around to go back in, half a dozen 4WDs turned up just in time to see me get bogged and fall over. Luckily the XT is light enough for me to pick up, and the dark visor on the helmet did something to alleviate the embarrassment.
3rd Cutting was a breeze by comparison, and then i was onto the open beach, where i would be able to just cruise along for miles and miles. I've watched the Paris-Dakar, i know what riding on sand is like right?
Well, no. Apparently desert sand is different to beach sand, and i am not Cyril Despres.
It didn't help that the tide was coming in, so the choice was wet sand (and the Pacific Ocean whenever a wave came in) or super soft dry sand. Neither allowed any kind of directional stability whatsoever, and by the time i reached Teewah village (not even a 1/4 of the way to DI) i was well and truly over it, so gave up and turned around.
At least the view was nice-
And at least it meant i had time to help my mother-in-law with her garden (believe it or not my mother-in-law is quite nice).
On wednesday afternoon i managed to get out on the mtb after work, and i headed for an abandoned trail i had rediscovered called Rollercoaster. Back around 2008 i used to ride it fairly often, but was told recently that a flood had destroyed it around 201-11.
Turned out that was right-
But apart from that and another similarly dramatic spot, it's mostly in pretty good nick.
So this afternoon i was set on heading back to have another go. First up i needed to fit the new freehub that arrived, and while that was easy getting the axle back in wasn't. Specifically, i just could not get the axle to sit where it needed to, and it took nearly an hour of swearing and head scratching before i finally twigged that i was trying to put it in from the wrong side.
FFS.
But with that done i was finally back onto my beloved Velocity/STX RC wheelset, and the bike feels so much better. So much better in fact, that i somehow managed to get 3rd place for Rollercoaster! Sure there's only 15 people on the leaderboard as the track got messed up before Strava really took off, but i'm damn happy with that given i had to do a fair bit of running and jumping on the crook bits. The really interesting thing is there was a bit of ribbon tied to a tree at the start, so there's a chance the local club might rebuild it.
Anyway i'm now off to try and grab an hour or so nap before starting work at the servo. Here's hoping for no ATM failures-
(yes yes i know, it's the only out of order sign i had)
No discarded syringes in the rubbish bins-
No discarded syringes in the rubbish bins-
(seriously, fuck people)
And most of all, no reasons to have to go into the dungeon under the building at 2am-
And most of all, no reasons to have to go into the dungeon under the building at 2am-
I'm telling you if i hear or see anything in there i'll be in orbit before i've turned around.
Fair Winds,
LDR.