Monday, September 19, 2005

Bush and Howard: Political bedfellows

Thought this article was kind of interesting:

Australia is too close to US: Latham

This guy Latham is really on a tear lately. I don't know all the history, he is the former leader of the opposition Labor party. He has just recently released a much anticipated "diary" of his account on the behind-the-scenes goings-on of the party over the last little while. Just like in the US, the opposition has been unable to put together a pallatable alternative to the Bush/Howard administrations.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Hardware!

Had my first multisport race in Australia yesterday. Going in with 13 weeks of base training and hardly ever seeing a heart rate above 150bpm and having not done any real intensity efforts for a long time (Monday night cycling sessions excluded), I didn't really know what to expect. But, the course was dead flat, there was very little wind and the temperature was cool (~10 degrees?). I managed to put in a good effort for just over an hour and ended up with PBs in all categories, including breaking 40kph on the bike (including both transitions) and being 3:40 per kilometre pace and below on both runs ... resulting in 3rd place in my age category, which brought home some hardware.

These paces are all unchartered territory for me, so I'm quite pleased. So, maybe this high volume, low intensity thing really works.

Full Results (29th!)

Click on the following links for some photos ...

First Run -- ouch (the guy in red finished in 4th, 7 seconds back)

Bike -- grunting it out

Bike -- almost there

Awards ceremony (2nd place Jarratt -- spent some time training with D'Ornellas in TO)

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Signage

Lynn and I find some of the signs in Australia rather entertaining ... and some you wouldn't expect to see in North America ... for example ...

Submerged Rocks ... very dramatic:


A prime minister was once lost in these waters:


Comparable to a sign for moose in Canada?:


My apologies for my inability to centre the camera on this one ... I think the major take-home here is to "take care":

The "Great Ocean Road" ... and 2 years of marriage.

To celebrate our 2nd anniversary, Lynn and I travelled to Lorne ... approximately 150kms from Melbourne and in the heart of the Great Ocean Road ... here are some select photos and videos ...

Driving at night on the G.O.R. ... Aussies are crazy drivers as apparently I am way too cautious:


A koala in the wild, just steps from the highway:


Whats left of the 12 Apostles (the closest one just fell over a couple of months ago)


Not bad a photo taken by a fellow tourist (into the sun!):


Ahh, some peace from the tourists:


The most exercise I did all weekend:


Much of Great Ocean Road is just like this:


and this:


Surfers at the famous Bell's Beach (sadly, the beach itself isn't that spectacular, but aparently the surf is pretty good):


Some videos of driving on the left (thought somebody might get a kick out of these) ... can you guess who is driving in either of these?

Koalas, Wallabies and Dingos, oh my

Oh yah, and the wombats, tasmanian devils, platypus, birds of prey and penguins deserve special mention too ...

As you may have seen on Lynn's blog, we had our first visitor ... Lynn's high school friend and jazz pianist / singer / songwriter / etc Brenda.

So ... tourists flock to Phillip Island to watch the Penguin parade. It's rather surreal. A few hundred humans sit around in stadium seating with lights on the beach to watch short penguins (just over a foot tall) gather themselves and march in big groups (say 20-50) along the beach and into nests that they've dug on land. In possibly the worst possible weather conditions for the island (5 degrees and rainy), there was still a solid turnout of tourists. Strangely enough, we paid an extra $10 ($27 altogether) to get an even closer look ... though we had a much smaller group of people (tourists here are generally obnoxious) and it was well worth the extra money.

The next day, we made our way through the Yarra Valley to the town of Healesville ... to visit the Wildlife Sanctuary, which includes the newly built Platypusary.

Here are some shots from either Philip Island or the Healesville Sanctuary ...

The Knobbies:


The south coast of Philip Island:


The funky looking trees in the town of Cowes on the island:


A penguin under the boardwalk:


A Tasmanian devil:


A wombat:


A wallaby, not to be confused with a kangaroo:


A postcard-quality shot of a koala:


Cheers!

Friday, September 02, 2005

Well this sorta spells it out ...

A rather shocking article ... and a reminder of the current state of the world:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/050804/2/vd4b.html

I find David Davis' comments blatantly hypocritical though. And, just so we all don't think extremism is an attribute of one religion, one doesn't have to look too far to find:

http://www.thememoryhole.org/terror/tyler-terror.htm

This stuff blows me away.