Bloggles

13.09.09 – Appin

We had been to this trail once before at the very beginning of our interest in off-road riding. As a mountain biking novice, the trail was quite daunting and challenging with technical sections that I mostly walked or took the bee-line through. It didn’t help that I hadn’t exercised prior to that in about 5 years but that was almost a year ago and I’d like to think that I have built up some fitness and a bit more skill (and gonads) since then. With this in mind, Appin has been a ride that we had set our sights on returning to (but with some knee and elbow pads). We finally got around to doing this on Sunday which turned out to be a pretty warm day.

We thought we’d be ok to navigate our own way around since Appin is known for being so well signposted but as you would have it, we’re not that observant and missed some turns along the way. Two unsuccessful attempts were made at riding the trail (one of which ending in someone kindly letting us cut through their family’s backyard to get back to the street) but don’t fret, we were lucky enough to bump into two friendly and ultra helpful riders who offered to take us through the loop. They even helped us set our bike suspension up properly! (Third time’s a charm!). Thanks Steve and Luke if you are somehow (but very unlikely) reading this! We were pretty worn down by then and had a hard time keeping up (that and we’re just crap and unfit riders, ha!) but it was still enjoyable. I skipped quite a few of the technical bits I had set out to overcome (that’s ok, I still don’t have knee and elbow pads and will use that as my excuse) but am sure I rode more of the trail than I did when I first visited it last year. I didn’t appreciate what an awesome ride it was back then but will definitely be going back for more since I have developed a taste for flowing single track!

Getting ready to roll at the entrance to the trail

Buggered after getting lost for the second time

Still smiling… this must have been taken on a rest stop on our first attempt at the loop, hah.
Note the riding gloves I am wearing…

… Because they are responsible for this hideous glove tan I have!

I was really excited about trying a nude polish for spring but was disappointed to find that it just blended in with my skin tone. I reassured myself that it would stand out once we started getting sunny skies because I would develop a tan for it to contrast against… Apparently not if I’m spending my days riding with gloves on! I’ll need to do some serious hand tanning to even this out if I ever want Samoan Sand to look good on me!

23.08.09 – Back on our bikes, ohh yeah!

What a lovely weekend! It felt really good to finally get back onto our bikes. Thankfully some of the fitness is still there but it will take a fair bit of work to get it back to where it was before. (David’s photos!)

Grr! We found this at the beginning of the trail. Some wankers had angle grinded the gate open so they could get their 4WD in there. We noticed deep ruts in the trail as we rode through and also what seemed to be the remanents of a little fisherman’s party on the rocks. I have since reported this to the RNP.

Crab banana!… in Paul’s mouth!

It’s such a relief to come home and not have anything to study for! Shame noone is around tonight.

I compiled a whole list of things I ‘needed’ to do during the exam period but it seems I don’t remember what they are anymore! Let’s try again.

Thursday

• Service car
• Go to the gym
• Wash the Mountain Bike
• Change the sheets

Friday

• Get a haircut
• Wash the Car
• Take Phillip to the vet

Saturday

• Marulan Driver Training Centre
• Aileen’s 21st

Sunday

• Give the dogs a bath, weather permitting
• Do something with Nghi

For reference:

The Car

The Mountain Bike

Phillip

Sunni

Brandi

Maggie ~

Lotus ~

Heeeeeeeee-ello! I just knocked down my first exam yesterday and boy, did it feel good. So much so that I’m wasting time blogging instead of studying for the 3 that remain on my timetable. I have suspicions this blog will be abandoned after the 27th of June but until then you can enjoy further my mundane musings.

I had quite a delightful evening last night having watched the latest episode of Weeds and revisiting season 4 of Sex and the City. I looooooove sitting lying in front of the TV and just switching my brain off, probably because this is its natural state. I am a glutton for all things sloth-ly. Ha! See what I just did there? I hereby challenge y’all to construct a sentence with more than two of the seven deadly sins in it.

Speaking of such deadly sins, my lovely boyfriend and I indulged in a dinner from McDonald’s the other night. A medium Big Mac meal; fillet-o-fish meal; cheese burger and 10 pack of nuggets later, we remembered why we should only ever visit Micky D’s when we need to. BLERGH. DAMN YOU whoever it was that had it on their Facebook status when I happened to be hungry! But never fear, I went to the gym again today and participated in some interval training where you go hectic and rest… go hectic and rest… go hectic and rest… etc. It was a wonderful experience during which I felt the urge to go to the toilet… and DIE, haha, thanks Jue! Hopefully today’s work out and more sensible eating for the rest of the week keeps that McDonald’s at bay from my ass… I really love when BOM forecasts a gym session for me since rainy weekends equate to wet trails which translate into no riding and going to the gym to keep fitness up and avoid feeling fat.

Anyway, that’s all I really have to report at the moment… no wait, I want to say happy birthday to my amigos Mano and Paul for the 15th and 16th respectively.

Thanks for hiring out that joint in Bundeena. Much relaxing was done despite not sleeping much on the first night that was Thien’s Puke-a-rama. I love staying in nice houses that I probably will not be able to afford in the future. See previous post.

Adios! Oh, and just FYI in case you were curious, the seven deadly sins are:
Pride – “It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self”. Check.

Avarice aka Greed – “is like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to the acquisition of wealth in particular”. Check.

Envy - “like greed, may be characterized by an insatiable desire; they differ, however, for two main reasons. First, greed is largely associated with material goods, whereas envy may apply more generally. Second, those who commit the sin of envy resent that another person has something they perceive themselves as lacking, and wish the other person to be deprived of it“. This one too.

Wrath – also known as anger or “rage”, may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. And this.

Lust – “is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature”. Yes.
Gluttony “is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste”. YESSSSSS.

Medieval church leaders took a more expansive view of gluttony,arguing that it could also include an obsessive anticipation of meals, and the constant eating of delicacies and excessively costly foods. A list of six ways to commit gluttony:

Praepropere – eating too soon. Oops.
Laute – eating too expensively (washedly). Oops.
Nimis – eating too much. Oops.
Ardenter – eating too eagerly (burningly). Oops.
Studiose – eating too daintily (keenly).
Forente – eating wildly (boringly). How the devil do you do this? But probably yes.

Sloth/acedia – “believed to be the failure to utilize one’s talents and gifts… regarding laziness and indifference as the sin at the heart of the matter”. Definitely.

Hooray, that’s all seven! Not that I’m religious or didn’t already know, but it looks like I would be going straight to hell if I was. Thank heavens I am an atheist! Also, you know you need to GTFO of uni when you spend more time and effort on your blog entries during the exam period than you do on your assignments.

Thanks Wikipedia <3