It’s the dreaded time to say farewell again. This trip has gone by so very fast! I had lots of fun and somehow managed to learn and share a lot more with you guys… I thought that the more times I go through this saying farewell thing, it would be easier… but I guess not… Anyway, it is JUST farewell and I’ll definitely be back! Just a few word to all MELBOURNITES…

…in Melbourne:
Thank you for taking time to meet up. Even however busy you guys were. I was glad of the turn up for the dinner nite at H’s especially! Got to see everyone that is still in Melbourne, even met new friends - Minh & Keith and Heidi & Kevin.

…in Adelaide & UK:
Missed you guys. Hope things are well… hope to see you all soon again someday! Please do keep in touch even if it’s through qweop. Ignore the cycling comments if you’re not into it and post up things about UK… And the one in Adelaide, post up gross surgery stuff.

…going to UK:
Gin & Norm - All the best for your trip. (If your plan does go through) Please do keep in touch… You both have entertained me tremendously… errrmmm… your antics will be missed?
Heidi & Kevin - Congratulations again on your wedding! Good to finally meet and all the best also for your trip to Ireland.

Well, see u all when my Malaysian maid contract is renewed! HUGS to all!!!

Panoramas of various places and events

Can’t remember if I’ve emailed this site around before. Needs quicktime though.

Took me a minute to get my head around this when I first saw it.

It’s an ultimate wheel, basically a unicycle with no seatpost and seat. More info about ultimate wheels here.

Not as unusual as the last lot, but still slightly different. Trigon carbon saddle with Ergosofa padding.

haha… Ergosofa padding. It’s right up there with the weight weenie saddles. However, it’s not on this list. Hmmm… looking again at that list, quite a few anorexic sub-100g saddles. One even says 49g! I’ve eaten sandwiches weighing more than that!

Sad ending to the MG Rover Car factory in the UK

Some toys

The Malaysian maid is staying for another week.

Note to self - when you get a breakaway, commit to it 110% and go with it for as long as you can.

Tried my second race today. Didn’t sleep well the night before but woke up anyway and gave it a go. Felt like a much bigger and faster bunch today with a quicker pace. Lots of surges early on, with all the breakaways reeled in quite quickly. I sat mid-bunch for most of the ride, launching my own little attack about 35mins into it. It was quite a lucky break for me since the same time I decided I wanted to break, this other 16 y.o. kid whizzes by me and so I just jumped on his wheel. Lasted probably about 1 lap in front of the peleton (maybe had 200m lead at one stage??), before ‘getting reeled in’ by the peleton (although it really did feel more like I just sat up). I dunno… just couldn’t get the break to work. I feel that on another day, maybe I could’ve just put my head down, and pedalled on for another few laps at least. Didn’t feel like I gave it my all today…

Zara and I took a walk to the farmers market at Collingwood Children’s Farm yesterday morning and we bought some stuff for lunch there.

“…I’ll go back and jiggle [my] bits.”

-Ash

Okay, can’t sleep… too much exercise at night tends to do that to me.

Just when you thought the ‘cycling faction’ had quietly slipped away to hibernate for winter……

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