Kath and Dan

Welcome to Woolloongabba

2008-12-16T17:03:00.003+11:00

So a lot has been happening since the last post. For a start we moved to Woolloongabba (right near the Gabba cricket ground). The new place is very Kath and Dan, slightly run down but with plenty of character!

I was in Sydney and Melbourne for a couple of conferences last week and the week before. Then back to Sydney with Kath in tow for a wedding last weekend. I'll let Kath talk about the wedding.

I'm also currently in the process of building Kath a bike which will be much easier now that I have my own workshop downstairs. Photos to come soon....

Journal Paper Accepted!

2008-11-14T14:10:00.005+11:00

I got some good news this morning that some of my PhD research is going to be published in an upcoming issue of the Swarm Intelligence Journal. Very exciting given that the journal is edited by the heavyweights in this field and they hold the keys pretty tight! The paper looks outstanding now compared to when it was first submitted thanks to the comprehensive review it was given by the review and editorial boards. These guys love their field, and it really shows!

The paper is titled "Multiple Objective Ant Colony Optimisation". The research was a bit of a spin off from my thesis and basically categorises about a dozen Multiple Objective Ant Colony Optimisation algorithms according to their common features. It will be out early 2009 and I'll post a link to it when it appears.

Details of the journal from Springer:

Swarm Intelligence is the principal peer reviewed publication dedicated to reporting research and new developments in this multidisciplinary field. The journal publishes original research articles and occasional reviews on theoretical, experimental, and practical aspects of swarm intelligence. It offers readers reports on advances in the understanding and utilization of systems that are based on the principles of swarm intelligence.

Emphasis is given to such topics as the modeling and analysis of collective biological systems; application of biological swarm intelligence models to real-world problems; and theoretical and empirical research in ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, swarm robotics, and other swarm intelligence algorithms. Articles often combine experimental and theoretical work.

Graduation weekend in Melbourne

2008-10-29T16:56:00.005+11:00

I'm a little bit late in reporting on this one... oops!

I finished my PhD some time ago now, however I had still been waiting to graduate. My graduation was on a Tuesday so we decided to go down to Melbourne for four days by combining a couple of days off with the weekend. We got down on the Friday night and were wonderfully greeted by Mum and Kate (sister). I was great to see Kate who is pregnant at the moment and we certainly made the most of our time in Melbourne to catch up with her.

On Saturday we caught up with friends for breakfast in Warrandyte and take in a bit of op-shopping. Kath found a somewhat interesting article of clothing that she is trying to convince me to wear to an upcoming alleycat bicycle race. I'll post pictures if she can convince me to wear it, I doubt it though!

That afternoon (and it was a glorious afternoon, sunny and 30 degrees) we went to a housewarming for Stu and Kat in Hawthorn. Their place has an amazing courtyard and we got to catch up with a lot of friends without having to organise it ourselves which was fantastic.

On Sunday we had a nice sleep-in and then got a bit of grub and booze together for a family get together. We had a pretty full house at mum and dad's place and ended up partying for a long time! One of mum's friends made me an amazing quilt with ants printed on it (my thesis was about ant colony optimisation, an optimisation algorithm inspired by ants).

On Tuesday I got up a little later than expected for my graduation at noon, thanks to a fault alarm clock! It was ok though as we had allowed plenty of time and I was still one of the first to arrive at the Hawthorn Town Hall. I got gowned up and attracted a bit of attention standing on Burwood road where we met up with one of my old mates (Adam) who I did undergrad with and had also stayed on at Swinburne to complete his PhD. He's of the the USA in a couple of weeks so it was great timing to be able to see him.

We met up with the fams and went for a coffee at Haddons coffee shop in the middle of the Swinburne campus. After having a sit down we got some quick photos and went back over to the town hall to get read for the graduation ceremony. The ceremony was good and I got my 1 minute of fame as the Dean of my old faculty read out my citation while I was on the stage. I was one of three PhDs which was nice as we each got a great round of applause (maybe because we were last and that meant that everybody knew they would be let out soon!)

After the ceremony we went for some beers nearby, later when the numbers dwindled down Kath, Mum, Dad and I went for dinner at Vegie bar in Fitzroy. It was so great to get some decent vegie food again and we even celebrated with a bottle of red (Penfolds Cab Shiraz, Bin 389) that dad had been keeping for a special occasion. I think it may have been the most expensive bottle that Vegie bar has ever seen given the reaction by our waiter!

It was great to be back in Melbourne and it was hard to get back on the plane, I'm very much looking forward to getting back there in December...

Sounds of Spring

2008-10-13T21:21:00.002+11:00

Saturday was time for the Sounds of Spring music festival. The weather has been spectacularly warm and sunny for three weeks, and then, the weekend where we had fully planned outdoor activities, the heavens opened.
This caused havoc right from the start, as it instantly changed my opinion on what I was planning to wear. It's a dilemma, because there's so much to consider - warmth, cooling, sweat, dirt, comfort, sun exposure, suitable footwear, accessories, and on top of all this, of course one has to look cool. I went for the Russell Pty Ltd sundress top, as planned, but wore longer pants underneath, rather than the initially proposed shorts. Cheapo brown canvas sneakers on the bottom, red beads (of course!) and massive sunglasses, and we were underway. Dan opted for a polo and shorts, with equally cruddy shoes.
First we walked down to West End, to have a little caffeine infusion at Ugees. We met some Mexican marine scientists and some Aussie firends, and had such a fab time chatting that we could easily have missed the festival. We ducked out super quickly, and hopped on a bus in to the valley, where we walked a couple of blocks, then jumped on the tail of a 1km long queue. Just to get in. Then we joined another queue for wristbands (to prove that I'm over 18 - ha! AS IF I ever even get asked for ID anymore!) all the while checking the time, and terrified that we would miss the John Steel Singers, probably our fave band of the minute. We got in just in time to see them, and the rain started up. So we bought some overpriced ponchos, and danced away in those, leaving my poncho wetter on the inside than the outside.
Once inside the festival, punters had to purchase tickets which could be exchanged for food and beverages. So we jumped in our third queue of the day, which snaked along in front of the stage. We got our 30 tickets, watched some of The Boat People, then ditched them to hang out with some local acquaintances. A wave of thirst washed over us all, so we got in our fourth queue, to enter the licensed area of the venue. At the front of this queue, we were asked for ID *again* before being shoved back into the queue by the security guard, who I swear was memorising details for identity theft or similar, he stared at the ID for so long. So we got in to the licensed venue, where we got to join queue #5 to exchange tickies for beeries. Our friends somewhat sensibly double parked themselves with beer, but we downed our $5 cans of Extra Dry and headed off to see the next band. There was a reasonable view of the stages from the licensed areas, but not of the bands we wanted to see, besides which I am not down with paying $70 to stand around and drink cheap nasty beer. I can do that at home for free.
So we aimed for the Corner Stage, where bluejuice were scheduled. They performed as expected - hyperactively. Early on, Dan said "How many songs til jake climbs the speaker tower?" I guessed 5, but Dan picked it at 3. A highlight of the show was his first tower climbing attempt, when his mike chord wouldn't reach.
From bluejuice we slung a token glance at The Spazzys, but spent most of the time chatting to another friend we bumped into (2 degrees of Brisbane) and then, in the interests of doing something Authentically Brisbane, we checked the Gin Club out. They played the Time Off stage, a much smaller stage which was close to another licensed area, the queue for which now snaked all the way across the showground. It had a grass area where we could sit down, chill out, and watch the pissheads mud-wrestle.
We left early to catch the second half of the Muph n Plutonic. The whole stage was running late, so we actually ended up seeing the whole set. It was abotu this time when the Festival Fever got me. Where you plan all the acts you want to see, but halfway through the day, I scrap that and just want to dance. So Muph n was perfect. We had planned to move on after that, but decided that the Resin Dogs suited better than Spiderbait, so we aimed for the front, and scored ourselves a good little spot. During the set, a couple of drunk tools decided to muscle in, and three different guys were throwing punches at Dan, while the security guards, 2m away were yawnign and occasionally shining a torch at someone on their mate's shoulders. Tops. But the Resin Dogs were really really good. Better in Brissy than anywhere else I've seen them.
So after all that wrestling, Dan needed some chill-out, and conveniently, epicure were on around the corner. We watched them, and decided to go our separate ways while I danced out my Fever at The Herd, and Dan went to check out Cog.
From there, we met up out the back of the Grinspoon stage, watched one song, decided that they were arrogant and over-rated, and headed for home.
Even in our sober state, we were unable to read the bus timetable properly, and waited 30 mins for the 10:54am bus. Whoops! we started walking home, but after standing and dancing all day, we piked in the middle of the CBD, and got a cab.
It was a big day, and my calves are still stinging! But would do it all again, of course!

The Mullet Family

2008-10-13T21:14:00.003+11:00

Flea, Rohan, Hayden and Chloe arrived at the Gold Coast for a holiday last week. We got to catch up with them on Sunday at our place in Brisbane. After letting the rain pass and showing them around our MASSIVE flat :) we walked down to Southbank for a beer and a bit of a gander. Being Sunday there were plenty of buskers out and the kids had fun checking out some of the shows. One in particular got a bit heated when the busker lost it and started dropping the F-bomb at an audience member for tying him up too tight. This was after the busker had asked the audience member to tie him up as tight as he could! I'm sure that one will make its way into dear diary when they get back to school.

Getting the feet wet at the beach at Southbank:

Enjoying a drink at the local:

Friday Night Alleycat

2008-10-13T20:54:00.004+11:00

Last Friday night was meant to be the "Missing Lanes" alleycat (alleycats are bike messenger races held through cities all around the world). This particular race was open to non-messengers so I decided to join the fun. Unfortunately the rain on Friday meant the original race was postponed and the organiser set out a different route instead. Fortunately I knew the 8 locations for the checkpoints on the race, unfortunately I didn't know about the locations of several bridges and cut-throughs! The race took most of the guys around 50 mins and was measured to be about 21kms, I took about 1hr 20mins and tracked over 30kms...

Next time it might pay for me to tape a map to the handlebars!

The fixie went great though, and I got to belt out a great ride. I thought the get-up that Kath made for me looked pretty good as well. The other guys had a laugh. Kath manned a checkpoint at West End and was worried when I didn't show for a while. I'd left that spot until last, and given my geographical shortcomings was somewhat late!

The re-run is being planned for a couple of weeks time, so hopefully in those weeks I can improve my Brisbane geography!

Falling in love....

2008-10-05T22:30:00.004+11:00

Well, coming off the end of a huge and brilliant weekend, I am experiencing a nostalgic feeling of love for a new place. We've been in Brisbane for just over 3 months now, and I remember feeling the same way after the same amount of time in Melbourne. Everything's new, and just a little bit uncertain, but I'm settling in and discovering all the best stuff.

I'm having a good time.

Out and about, Friday.

2008-10-05T22:14:00.003+11:00

Friday I managed to drag Dan out to see The Grates. I've been trying for a few years now, and finally succeeded due to them being supported by The Vasco Era and The John Steel Singers, other bands that we have seen before and really enjoyed.

Arrival.
I discovered quickly that people who go to see The Grates fall into 3 basic categories:
1) Girls who want to be Patience
2) Guys who want to do Patience
3) Guys who have been dragged along by category 1 types.
The great part of this was that there were a LOT of frocks to check out. Dresses are already probably my favourite thing about Brisbane, and this event was a veritable smorgasbord of fashion, that I eyed off with a view to ripping off designs on my Bernette.

The John Steel Singers
Easily my favourite part of the evening. Six members, swapping between a variety of instruments, playing the catchiest of tunes, which I am still singing. It was the third time we have seen them in 5 weeks; if there's a gig in Brissy, they'll be playing it. QPAC forecourt, Valley Fiesta, Sounds of Spring. In a way, I hope they never make it big, as I don't know that I'd cope if they left the country for too long.

The Vasco Era
Last time we saw these guys was at The Corner in Feb 07, which was just a brilliant show. This time... they were late, they were chucking back a lot of Tooheys New, their sound was a pile of junk and their timing was out. A lot of people in the crowd were just waiting to see The Grates. Except one chick, with a massive Peter Pan collar, who threw herself around and screamed the words. A lot of us around her laughed. At her. She was having a good time.

The Grates
This was just nuts. As soon as The Vasco Era finished, people were jostling for their places, and people started pissing in corners, marking their territory. One guy behind us tried to push his way through, right before the set. Dan stopped him, and he said "Just so you know, when they come on, I will do whatever it takes to get up to the stage; I am that in love" I replied with "Just so you know, I'll probably kick you in the balls on the way through." The girl next to me gave me a high five.
So once they came on, there was a massive surge. The Category 1s started to bounce, with their Cat 3 boys protecting them from Category 2 types who were pushing, thrusting and surging towards the front. The show was great, high energy, a bit contrived, but very entertaining. By the end of it, I turned to leave as quickly as I could, even though I knew there would be an encore; I'm just getting too old, and my body punishes me for a good night out.
We watched the encore from the back of the room, where we bumped into Dan's colleague and fellow yoga attendee, chatted for a while, then realised we had to hoof it halfway to New Farm to catch the last bus. We got it with 30 seconds to spare, and walked up the hill to home.

Another massive weekend!

2008-10-05T21:25:00.003+11:00

On Saturday I got to pick up my matching front wheel for Eric the Fixie Bike. I'm quite pleased with how it looks. I spent most of Saturday riding him around with Kath. We went into town to try to find some Hawthorn football socks for next Friday's bike race.

On Saturday night we went to see Bell Shakespeare's Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome at QPAC. It is a modern adaptation of a Shakespeare play and was absolutely fantastic. Also one of my old school mates was in it which made it even better!

Played Bike Polo on Sunday which was ace fun! I've put a heap of photos on my flickr account (that's the thing of to the side of this blog, click it and have a look). Nobody got hurt, and nothing bad happened to the bikes, except for some flat tyres.

Bee Update

2008-10-01T20:28:00.004+10:00

For those who haven't heard we got invaded by bees on Sunday! I managed to snap a picture of their entry point to the nest this morning before I went to work. In the photo you can clearly see that they have established a nest inside the wall cavity as they are hanging around the vent in the wall. I love watching them come and go!

For some perspective I took the photo by leaning out our bedroom window and our bathroom is directly above the vent in the photo. Our toilet out-pipe is visible to the left top corner. The people who live below us, now have a few hundred new neighbors...

Living in a bee graveyard...

2008-09-28T21:10:00.003+10:00

Today, after going to Spotlight, I was thinking about lunch while Dan was down in the garage. Our kitchen windows were open, with the flyscreens shut, because our flat gets very stuffy, so we usually leave them open all day. As I was putting away some washing up, I noticed that a bee was on the inside of the screen. I opened the screen to encourage it to leave, and two more flew in. I freaked out a little bit, and lit an incense stick, hoping that the smoke from the incense would stop any more from coming in, while I shooed the others out, then shut the window so that no more bees would slip through the hole in our screen (it's a quality property) But the window wouldn't move. I leaned right over, to try and pull it in, but slipped, and my arm knocked the incense stick, and I got a little burn. So I walked out towards the garage and got Dan to come in. Dan squashed the two bees on the inside, and the one that was between the screen and the window. We were taking some time to breathe after all that, and taking in the massive number of bees outside our window. There were heaps. Heaps. As we're standing around debriefing, Dan has to squash another 4 or 5 that appeared from within the flat somewhere - they possibly got in while the window was open and I didn't notice, or they were finding a way in somehow, which we found not so difficult to believe, given the extremely poorly constructed building we live in.

Dan went back out to the garage, and I continued sorting out the kitchen. In half an hour I had to squash another 6 or so bees, that just kept turning up. I cooked up our lunch - we had a salad with baby spinach, alfalfa sprouts, capsicum, sundried tomato, pine nuts and garlic polenta croutons - and as we were sitting down to eat it, noticed an ENORMOUS swarm outside our window. It would have been about 3pm. Meanwhile, there's a bee graveyard on our windowsill - about 12 of them. What brilliant vegetarians we are (gulp.)

The Fixie Project (part 3)

2008-09-28T18:53:00.005+10:00

I've been waiting on wheels for the last few weeks so I haven't made much progress. Since last time I blogged I have added the handlebars and handlebar tape, plus a yellow seat I picked up off ebay.

So the wheels I ordered arrived (or at least the rims and rear hub) on Saturday morning. Jens at Bicycle Revolution (BR) built up the rear wheel on Saturday and I took the frame down there so that we could fit the wheel and get the chain line as straight as possible. I couldn't have done it without the boys at BR since we needed to cut the thread on the bottom bracket (it was full of crap from sitting around for so long) after that we were able to get a new bracket in there and attach the wheel. I took the bike home at that point and put it away until Sunday.

All I had to do today was pop a tyre onto the new wheel, borrow a wheel of Mario for the front (until I get the front wheel built up), and attach the chain. At this stage I still don't have a front brake cable so I'm running brake-less, but I won't be taking it on the road like that!

No dramas getting everything together, the photo above is before I tensioned the chain so it does look like wet spaghetti! Pretty happy with it, and I am looking forward to getting the last bits on it next weekend! Particularly the matching front wheel, talk about bling!

Bike Polo (mallet building)

2008-09-28T18:42:00.004+10:00

I recently got in touch with some locals who are interested in starting up some Brisbane-based Bike Polo. I'd previously had a game with the guys in Melbourne and loved it so had been eager to get some going here. In order to play we need mallets though so I spent some time preparing them today.

Here are the ingredients:
5 x Salvos old golf clubs
1m PVC pipe
plumbers cement
5 x hose clamp
1 x angle grinder
1 x drill

I started by lopping the ends off the golf clubs. Then the PVC was cut to length. I drilled some holes in the PVC pipe, slightly angled to allow for better swing. Then rammed the golf club ends through the PVC to create a nice snug fit. The hose clamps are hidden inside the PVC pipe just as a backup should the glue fail. The glue is just to add some extra bonding on top of the interference fit of the PVC and golf club ends.

I painted them as well for effect. Our first game is planned for next Sunday, I promise I'll post up some photos of the carnage!

Busy Weekend

2008-09-28T18:12:00.003+10:00

Whoa what a big one! I'm going to have to break this one down into multiple posts otherwise I may break blogger. Kath met me Friday arvo and we rode together into town for Critical Mass. For those who haven't heard of Critical Mass before it is a monthly bike ride held all around the world where cyclists can come together to ride together through their respective cities. We'd gone to Melbourne CMs before but never to one in Brisbane.

We got to Queens Park around 5pm where about 20 people were gathered. More rocked up within the next half and hour and before long we had over 60 riders. We started out with a cyclone (riding around in a circle) before hitting the street and winding our way through the CBD and out to New Farm and the Valley. We all had a great time, at one point I found myself holding a large banner with another rider at the front of the mass.

Saturday morning we got up early to get to the market and also have breakfast out. Ended up getting to the market around 8, which meant we could actually lock our bikes to the lone 6-bike rack at the market! Got our veg and then headed to the Gunshop Cafe for breakie which was great. We also met up with a local that I'd met online to talk about Bike Polo, more on that in another post though.

I'd got word that my bicycle wheels had been delayed so we chilled at home for a little while. I went down later with my frame and picked up one wheel (the other one is missing a hub so will have to wait for another week). More on the bike though in a another post.

I got home just after the start of the Grand Final, Richard was meant to be coming around so that we could all go down to the pub to watch it. I'd delayed things by being stuck at the bike shop so as it turns out we ended up drinking homebrew at our place with Richard rather than miss any of the action in transit. Sarah came around during the fourth quarter (she'd been at a Hens do that morning) and we all watched as Hawthorn destroyed Geelong during the fourth quarter.

When the game was wrapped up we walked down to West End for some more beers and some dinner. We grabbed Thai which I thought was really nice, after which we decided on a night cap at Sling which does amazing cocktails. I got their aptly named Zombie, which given the three kinds of Rum in it could turn anyone into a Zombie.

Sunday morning was a little more subdued and I spent most of my day in the garage on various projects: fixie bike, polo mallets, general bike servicing 101 and homebrew bottling. We had a surprise in the arvo when a swarm of bees arrived in the tree outside our window, around 20 or so found their way inside as well. But I'll leave that story for another post.

Mt. Cootha ride

2008-09-20T13:03:00.007+10:00

Before starting this post I have to provide some brief background on our extended family. We currently own 4 bicycles, and to avoid confusion we have names for them. OK I admit it sounds tragic, however it makes it a lot easier to distinguish the bikes, plus it kinda helps to give them a personality. I'll post more about our brood in the coming weeks, however let me introduce you to Mario.

Mario was born in Italy about 10 years ago and soon after emigrated to Melbourne, Australia. At that stage Mario was just a frame, however he quickly got built into the bike he is today thanks to the team at SBR (Swim Bike Ride). I adopted Mario last year from a reluctant seller, and without revealing the exact amount, got him for a steal! For the bike nuts out there, Mario is a De Rosa Vision frame, has Campagnolo Daytona running gear, and a Mavic Open Pro wheelset.

I usually go out with Mario 3 times a week, however having been sick recently I've had to leave him in the garage for a good part of the last month. Today I decided to get back into it, and what better way to shock my system then to ride up Mt. Cootha (Brisbane). For my Melbourne mates think the Dandenongs.

I took off from our place at around 8am and quickly joined a peloton of around 50 bikes which was nice to warm up with. However these guys quickly went their own way and I was by myself once more. I took the river route which is really nice and scenic, a great way to warm up for the climb. I hit the climb and boy did I hit the wall! The first section is at a grade of 30% which just killed me (call me soft :-) ), however I managed to get about 2/3 of the way up the mountain before having to make a stop to regain composure. It was really hard to get going again, however I swear I would have thrown up had I have kept going without a break (gross I know).

I got to the top and was pretty happy with my average climb speed of about 12kph. However a combination of me being unfit and Mario being geared for flat terrain (a by-product of having been built in Melbourne no doubt) made it very difficult. I enjoyed a coffee before the descent, of which I won't quote my max speed for fear of my mum reading this. It was a pretty cruisy ride home and from door to door it took about 2 hours (including coffee).

I will be doing the ride again in a couple of weeks and hopefully I'm in better shape by that stage. I've plotted the route on velomaps for those who may be interested. Next time I'll take a camera!

Valley Fiesta

2008-09-15T09:20:00.002+10:00

The timing for my return to full health could not have been better. This weekend just gone was the Valley Fiesta and Kath and I along with Richard and Sarah hit the Valley for some live music, beer and food. Given that I've been cooped up for several weeks with the flu I was a bit excited to be getting out of Highgate Hill for the weekend. I'll try to give a rundown of what we got up to...

Friday: I got home from work after Kath, who had gone to the post office to pick up my latest supplies for the bike. We had planned to ride down to the Valley but spied a thunderstorm approaching and decided on Plan B instead. Plan B involved some homebrew and chips down in the garage, Kath with a new Vegan cookbook, me with my bike. We sat and watched the storm pass over, enjoying the rain and lightning. Once the storm passed we decided to head down for Vego Chinese in Sunnybank instead.

Saturday: We headed down to the markets for our weekly fruit and veg, and I took the bike down to the boys at Bicycle Revolution to pick up my new wheels. Long story short, no wheels... will have to wait until next week :( However they will be yellow and sound pretty awesome! We came home and I serviced Kath's bike (she'd broken a spoke in the prior week). After that we got ready for the Fiesta and jumped a bus down there.
We met up with Richard and Sarah and jumped between the different stages (they had three in total), had some beers and enjoyed the nice sunny afternoon. That night we saw some great (and free!) live music including: Numbers Radio, The Boat People and Blue Juice. The teenagers were out in force and we had some fun bouncing around in the middle of the crowd with them.

Sunday: After a nice sleep-in I made Kath and I a massive breakfast of veggie sausages, home made hash-browns and baked beans. I also put on some homebrew, an IPA (using some nice fresh Hallertau and Goldings hops). We then got on the bikes and rode around to Richard and Sarah's place in St. Lucia. From there we all rode around the river to the Valley, back to the Thai restaurant where we'd been the day before, and to exactly the same table! Got some great food and some well earned beers and then wandered around the markets down Brunswick street. We jumped back on the bikes and headed back along the river. We saw the City cat as we met the river near the Storey Bridge and we decided to race it home (like Kath and I used to race the no. 48 tram from the city to Hawthorn). We won! As such Sarah (who usually gets the cat to work) is now going to start riding to work. Kath and I rode the rest of the way home, collapsed into the couch and reflected on a truly tops weekend!

The Fixie Project (part 2)

2008-08-31T11:34:00.003+10:00

So I was able to get some track cranks of ebay the other day. They haven't arrived yet but I hope to see them in the mail soon. The front cog attached to them is a 40 tooth which is a good size given how hilly Brisbane is. Other than that my cold has put a hold on proceedings, also the wind and overcast skies are holding me from finishing the clear coat on the frame. Once the clear coat is on I will be able to start putting the bike together which will be very exciting!

I've chucked together some photos of the paint job as it stands. The base coat of white worked out great as the colours have really come up well. I painted particular spots in yellow first, then masked them and painted over the entire bike in brown. The masks turned out really well, and the lettering worked particularly well. The letters were from a scrap booking supply shop. I placed the letters and then painted over them, after which I used a sharp knife to lift the letters of to reveal the unpainted surface underneath.

River Fire

2008-08-31T11:13:00.003+10:00

We headed up to the park on top of Highgate Hill (just up the road from our place) yesterday arvo to catch a glimpse of `Brisbane's best night out'. The river fire is a festival which culminates with a fireworks display and fuel dump-and-burn by an F111. The whole thing takes place down at Southbank which you can see quite well from our little park. We rocked up around 2 to get a spot and spent some time chatting to other locals including two of our neighbours.

The rotunda filled up pretty well later on in the afternoon.

The RAAF put on some nice entertainment with their formation flying.

Richard and Sarah (friends who have also moved up from Melbourne recently) joined us later in the afternoon.

The F111 fuel dump-and-burn was pretty impressive, it lit up the entire sky over Brisbane.

The fireworks went for a long time and were timed to music which was simulcast on the radio. It reminded me of the old sky show they used to have in Melbourne.

I'm paying for last night today as my cold has really come on in full force. It is a bit surprising given that we actually got a pretty early night. Oh well good thing it is Sunday and I can stay in bed all day surfing the web.

The Fixie Project (part 1)

2008-08-27T20:54:00.005+10:00

Anyone who knows me is aware that I'm a bit of a gear-head. It's also true that fixed wheel bikes are a bit of the rage in the leftie circles that Kath and I frequent. As such I thought I might try to build my own. A fixed wheel bike does away with conventional multiple gears in favour of one gear that is fixed to the rear wheel so that when the pedals turn the rear wheel turns, in both directions. In essence you can't coast down hills because the pedals are always in motion while the bike is in motion.

I picked up a frame a few weeks ago at bicycle revolution in West End. They specialise in second hand bikes and have heaps of parts on hand which should prove useful in the coming weeks. The frame was pretty beat up with plenty of rust spots, however structurally it is fine. The brand of the frame is Popular which I'd never heard of, if anyone has I'd like to know.

I started by stripping the bike back to bare metal. Then a simple base coat of white and it is ready to begin customisation.

Looks a bit better without the rust. I've already started painting the top coat, brown with yellow decals. I'll be posting up pictures soon...

Brisvegas

2008-08-25T21:18:00.002+10:00

So after completing the PhD I got a job at the University of Queensland. We've made the move from Melbourne to Brisbane and have found a flat in Highgate Hill. Keep posted for some random goings on in Brisbane.

Cowboys

2007-05-08T10:07:00.000+10:00

To ensure that this blog doesn't just become a diary of developments in homebrew I'm going to give a bit of an account of last Saturday.

It all started out with a very loud Kath waking up early for TAFE and a very hungover me battling against the jack hammers pounding away in my frontal lobe. After surfacing around 10am I proceeded to muster up the courage to have some beans for breakfast and go back to bed for an extra hour of horizontal time. Eventually I got on my bike to ride down to meet Kath for lunch. Getting stuck in the rain was less than ideal but at least it meant that there was no sun. A beer over lunch proved good for the general feeling of wellness and I was back on my bike home.

I love riding through footy traffic as I get to watch everybody getting pissed off about sitting in their cars not going anywhere while I glide past on the pushy! I got home and brewed up brew 3. Soon after Kath came home and we cleaned up around the flat before getting ready to go out to the cowboy night at the Royston.

Em and Nath (our UK friends) met us at ours and we all wandered down in flan, boots and other cowboy garb. It was a tad weird in the pub as I almost got the feeling I was walking into the pub in Yea or any other Oz country town. A good night ensued which was followed by some late night Rage and potato gems!

I'll leave it up to Kath to talk about Sunday.

Home brew 3

2007-05-08T10:00:00.000+10:00

Oh the sweet sounds of home brew bubbling in the night. Yes the third batch has kicked off after being set up on Saturday by a semi-conscious Dan. Yet to be named, this brew is a wheat beer which will hopefully be close to a Belgian wheat beer style with lots of coriander and orange zest added to give it a spicy and fruity kick! I'll keep you all posted on the developments but at this stage it smells great!

Home brew 2

2007-05-03T08:57:00.000+10:00

Since the sound of the air-lock bubbling through the middle of the night has ceased and the specific gravity has settled Kath and I decided to bottle the second brew last night. The Church I.P.A. is going to be a rip snorter at an approximated 7.0% alc/vol. The bottling went smoothly and we managed to only have to label 3 of 30 bottles with the infamous pooh bear sticker. The pooh bear sticker is for the bottles that contain a lot of the dregs (only to be used when we can't find any other beer in the house!).

We also prematurely tasted some of The Church Lager (it's not meant to be ready for another two weeks), and it tastes remarkably like beer. In fact it is quite nice if we do say so ourselves. Good sign since it was tasted early and is supposed to improve with age!

Next on the list: wheat beer.

By the way, depending on our consumption rate I have estimated that after the next brew at any point in time we will have an approximated 60L of beer at our flat. This equates to 7.5 slabs in VIC-speak, or 7.5 cases in NSW-speak. Now that's a lot of beer!

Home brew

2007-04-23T09:29:00.000+10:00

Kath and I bottled the first batch of home brew yesterday! It was a pretty exciting morning at The Church St. Brewery as the first batch was a day overdue for bottling, but I have learnt from past experience in these matters:

"Ye who bottles thine brew early doth end up with a dark, sharp and sticky mess on thine hands".

In other words my last brew exploded. In fact not all of it exploded, only about 75%. In my mind that makes what was left that much better, even if it did taste like fizzy Vegemite. After that experience I bought myself a specific gravity tester so that I can bottle according to scientific data rather than my usual she'll be right attitude. By the way the first brew is an estimated 6.0%, so please don't drive after consuming.

The next batch that went into the fermenter on the same day was an India Pale Ale, although it looks more dark than pale to me. After we bottle the IPA I want to try a wheat beer. Kath is somewhat skeptical but I'm sure she'll come around, given my past brewing experience though I understand her skepticism.

So kiddies, look forward to the first batch in a month: The Church Lager

2007-04-17T11:40:00.000+10:00

The red necklace I bought the day we saw Uncle ChopChop is the best $3 I have spent in AGES. Even better (I think) than the bottle of tabasco sauce I bought on Sunday.
definitely better than those cheap nasty Ikea photo frames I got last week too.
Although probably not better than your average $3 schooner.

Cauliflower and Barley Soup

2007-04-17T11:34:00.000+10:00

1 onion
1 clove garlic
3 stalks celery (more or less, depending what you have)
half cauliflower
1 cup pearl barley
1 litre stock (from stock cube, or real if you've got it)
1-2 litres water
1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Fry the onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil, butter, lard or whatever it is you use. Add celery, chopped roughly. Then add the barley, and mustard, stir for one minute, then add stock and water. Bring to the boil, then simmer, covered for 1 hour. Add roughly chopped cauliflower (chop small if you don't want to blend your soup) and simmer for 30 more minutes or until the barley is tender.
Blend and serve.

Alternatively,
Don't blend. Serve.

2007-04-05T21:50:00.000+10:00

I got spewed on so badly at work today that the boss called a taxi to take me home. Mondo grosso. So much so that the boundaries of what is and isn't disgusting are now completely blurred to me and I find myself asking my 14 year old cousin whether leaving condoms filled with shampoo in my brother's bed is over-stepping the mark.
Actually I know that wasn't. The issue was whether to also add tomato sauce to make them look diseased. We decided that this was also OK. But used tampons=too far.

2007-03-25T22:06:00.000+10:00

MY HEAD HURTS. But WOW! Did I have a good night.

Thanks everyone for coming. And for the presents. We can't even move within our kitchen for all the new kitchen goods we have.

Oh, and if anyone wants a knife block, a stick mixer or a toaster, come and talk to Angus Home Set-Ups. Will swap for sewing machine needle.

Something to do with apricots

2007-03-04T19:26:00.000+11:00

Anjoo and his mates stayed at our place over New Year, and kindly (?!) left a large selection of canned fruit at our place. 2.5kg worth. We don't even usually eat the stuff, let alone in such enormous quantities. The peaches I got through by making peach jalousie and peach and mango ice cream cake with cardamom syrup, but the jar of apricots and the can of apricot nectar proved a little more challenging.

I tried to give them away at Dan's boys poker night on Thursday. All would take one container but not the other. Not the solution. Ben piped up with "Why don't you make apricot chicken?" Because, Benny:
1) In accordance with Heather's bronzen rule, Fruit and Meat do not go together.
2) We are vegetarian.

And so today I invented apricot chick-peas. Here's how it goes
1 can of chick peas
1 brown onion
1 red capsicum
1 can apricot nectar
200-odd grams apricot halves
Spices (cassia, cardamom seed, cumin seed, coriander seed, garlic, ginger, turmeric)

Toss all of the ingredients into a casserole, cook for two hours on low heat. We also used pomegranate molasses, but it's already really sweet. We also chucked in 1 preserved lemon quarter, but probably unnecessary.

Serve with couscous, cop with pinenuts and chopped fresh coriander if you've got it.

2007-03-04T19:23:00.000+11:00

Add to that gift list:
* Drinking tumblers, as our matching set now consists of only three, after I smashed one in my sleep last night.
I was dreaming something about Kylie Minogue, Balmain bugs and pashing Dan in a retro bathroom when I was awoken by a not-unpleasant sounding smash and the dripping of water.

Engagement Wish List

2007-03-03T22:49:00.000+11:00

You've all ben asking, so here's some inspiration....
* Tea towels
* Beach towels
* Pillows (Dan's $3 Ikea one was a bargain, but is getting annoying)
* Queen size linen- anything Asian looking or in mint green, black or earthy tones
* Photo frames, with a photo of us in it
* Cheese knife and board
* Vouchers for stuff to do (movies, activities, restaurants)
* Board games
* Cutlery
* Egg lifter
* Spatula (maybe pink and blue so we can have one each?)
* Some nice recipes (we are overloaded with recipe books, but your favourite one, photocopied or handwritten would be a nice addition to our collection)
* Artwork
* Ramekins, so I can souffle it up!
* Pyrex (containers with the resealable lids, baking dishes, any of it)
* Cushions, throws or something that will jazz up our grey sofa bed (something a bit ethnic-looking would be nice)
* Jumbo box of Vita Brits
* Friand pan
* Baking tray
* Vase
* Little dippy bowls

So there's some ideas. But anything is welcome. Especially anything spotty.

Uncle ChopChop and the clearance outlets.

2007-03-03T22:38:00.000+11:00

After a reasonably low-impact night last night, I woke up early and saw off Em and Nath with a bit of raisin toast. I eventually hustled Dan out of bed so that we could go to Smith St to replace his jeans, now embarrassingly ripped, and, as a tidy wee bonus, to go out for breakfast. My favourite.
We took the "sneaky back way" from our place to Johnston St. Dan said to call out if I saw anywhere good. The place I saw in Abbotsford looked awesome, but there was no way we could stop in time, so I said later. We saw another place near the corner of Wellington St, so pulled up a park. On closer inspection, it looked crap, so we decided to peruse the pawn shop next door before continuing our search. There was one other customer in the shop, and I was too excited by the flurry of retro kitchenware to really pay him much attention. It was a tiny place though, and squeezing past, I noticed him holding something with Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read written on it, and later, a case of Chopper beer. The girl behind the counter had an ebay screen open, and Chopper's name appeared there as well. So, on our way out, I thought, "I'll just check out his ears" And it was! Uncle ChopChop flogging his wares in a Collingwood pawn shop.
We went on to Smith St, where we had breakfast (Potato and feta pancake with Sicilian style beans and poached eggs with dukkah and the BEST coffee I have had in months.)
Then we tackled the discount shops, ominously parking in the same spot where I got a parking ticket with Andrew and the A-bomb about this time last year. Dan moaned and groaned his way through a few outlets, moping about how good his old jeans were, and how they were only $40. We had all but given up hope and were going to go back to the first place, where there was a $70 pair, when we stepped into the Quiksilver outlet, the least likely place for either of us to shop, and there they were. For $50.
Rented movies, came home, watched them. And Iron Chef. And cleaned the flat a bit.

Feeling good!

Pumpkin soup

2007-02-22T10:41:00.000+11:00

YUM! Even in this sweltering heat I still can't pass up on soup, and besides I had to do something with all that pumpkin! So simple yet so delicious:

Heat up a pot with a smidge of oil in the base. Add some cardomon seeds, mustard seeds, garam masala and garlic. Wait for the seeds to start popping and once they have finished popping or look like they are going to burn add some red lentils (~1 cup). Give them a quick stir, they don't need long! And then once the pot is nice and dry and the lentils have warmed up a bit drop in some vegetable stock. It's a good idea to have another pot with stock going on another burner and simply transfer liquid as required. Add some brown rice and simmer this mixture for about an hour, or until the lentils are starting to dissolve a bit. Continue topping up the mixture with stock and add some chopped pumpkin and carrot (even a pear if you have one) and cook all those vegies until they are soft. Once everything is cooked grab a stick mixer or transfer portion at a time to a blender and whiz it into a nice soupy paste! Add salt to taste and enjoy!

St Kilda Festival

2007-02-19T13:40:00.000+11:00

Last weekend we went to the St. Kilda festival. On the way to the festival we designed our 'St Kilda festival coolness scale'. We also saw my parents on the tram in a shock case of coincidence, but that's another story. Here is the scale from least to most cool:

Least cool.

Don't know what St Kilda is.
Know of St. Kilda but don't know where it is.
Know where St. Kilda is.
Live in St Kilda but went away the weekend of the festival (ultra lame points here!).
Don't know what the St. Kilda festival is.
Know of the St. Kilda festival but don't know when it is.
Know when the St Kilda festival was but still didn't go.
Didn't know when the St Kilda festival was on, but when you found out you dropped everything to go!
Went to the St Kilda festival. (This is us, so cool!!)
Live in St Kilda and went to the festival.
Manned a stall at the St. Kilda festival.
Played music at the St Kilda festival.
Sold Thai fisherman pants at the St. Kilda festival.
Played bongo drums or didgeridoo at the St Kilda festival.

Most cool.

Tomorrow we are vegetarian

2007-02-19T13:15:00.000+11:00

Our visit to the sustainable living festival on Sunday at Federation Square (Melbourne) was the final nail in the coffin for us to go vegetarian. A friend of Kath's went vegetarian this time a few years back and we thought that tomorrow (Pancake Tuesday) might be a good time for us to go vegetarian as well. The plan is to initially try it for 40 days and after that period assess whether we can continue indefinitely. Hopefully over the next 40 days we can be diligent enough to post up some thoughts about the whole process and maybe even post some tasty recipes.

Welcome

2007-02-19T13:12:00.000+11:00

Welcome to our new blog! Kath doesn't actually know that we have this blog yet. I guess I should tell her tonight... Stay tuned for our rants, odd stories, recipes and travels.