I went to the letterbox to get the mail this morning. After reaching in with my bare hand to take out all the mail, I noticed something at the back of the letterbox…

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It’s been announced - EastLink will be officially opening on 29 June 2008. The first four weeks will be toll-free. This means I’ll get to use it a few times to see how nice it is and how convenient it is to get to my parent’s place. After that I’ll probably never use it again because it will cost $3.27 each way.

There will be an open day on 15 June “to give people a once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk, run or cycle on the road before it opens to traffic.” That should be interesting day to see all sorts of bikes, trikes, kiddie trailers, tandems, rollerblades, skateboards, scooters, walkers, joggers and whatever else out on the road.

Given that it’s so close, let’s put some guesses on paper (or screen).

My (and Gin’s) guess for Keith is 8th May, and a girl…

What a bunch of freaks, geeks, hipsters and trendies that showed up for this years Melburn-Roobaix. It was the first time for me, second time for my brother. Some hot bikes although not as many as I was expecting. We met up with some BV forums people at Fed Square and decided to do the ride with Martin, he of the many nice bikes.

First destination was Sidney Myer Music Bowl so we had 200+ riders heading en masse from Fed Square down St Kilda Road. There were a few stupid punks wandering out all over the road but for the most part it was pretty orderly. From there we had the option of heading to Richmond or South Melbourne for next checkpoint. We picked Richmond we knew the area better. It didn’t take long before we formed up with other riders heading the same way. Between 5-10 people, it was a pretty good chance that someone knew the area because they lived there or worked there. I got split up from Martin and HYG so I just rode along with my group.

The next series of checkpoints led us pretty much past my place. The arrows directed us to ride across the Victoria Park station railway yard. The guys on MTBs belted along while those of us on fixes and road bikes just picked our way through the rocks and gravel carefully just hoping that we didn’t face plant. Amazingly my bike and my body survived that bit but I managed to get a flat in Clifton Hill. As my group was riding down a cobbled alley, I was just chatting with a guy about our gearing because it looked like he was pushing a big gear when I heard a PSSSSSHHHHH from my rear wheel. Rats. I had to pull out from the group to fix the flat. Martin and my brother rolled by just as I just got the fresh tube in. Ahhh, the convenience of CO2. I think that was the quickest tube change I’ve ever done.

From Clifton Hill, we headed back to Collingwood, Fitzroy then Carlton North. We saw another stupid punk get nearly cleaned up by a panel van because apparently he was riding no-hands coming out of an alley onto the road. I sure he must have had stains in his jocks from that. The rest of the ride is a bit of a blur of cobbled alleys and more cobbled alleys. We went through Fitzroy North, Thornbury and Northcote, eventually ending up at Brunswick velodrome for the finish.

Post-ride refreshments included beer and dim sims at the pub. Haven’t had those since high school! The dim sims, I mean. I missed out by one number in the prize draw at the pub - bugger!

It wasn’t a huge ride but the early MTB ride in the morning followed by a mad dash around Melbourne meant I was pretty pooped by the time I made it home. Top marks to Fyxomatosis for organising the race… I mean… ride.

Thanks for the rides, dinners, housewarming/baby-shower/BBQ event/function/reunion thingies. I must say I still like Melb more than London.

You guys just consider yourself lucky that the weather was too hot for me to drag you out for a 160km ride.

HP and Ash - all the best with the new jobs.
HY - be sure to send some pics in 29 days time.
DJ - get a MTB!
Al and Lish - I’m sure everything will be fine!
Keith and Minh - not long to go now! (until Keith totally gives up cycling that is )
Phil - good seeing you and Mads again. Good luck with the house hunting/wedding arrangements etc. Go resurrect the Triads team!

P.S. A few photos from the BBQ on my FaceBook.

Friday 8 February 2008, 11:23pm:

This occurred after having dinner at Docklands. I was on-call at the hospital and Ash and I were heading back to the hospital as I needed to see a patient. I was driving along Princes Highway near Monash University Caulfield Campus when I saw, at about 50 metres ahead, a 4WD T-bone a Ford Falcon who ran the red light. As I drew closer to the scene of the accident, I saw a motorcyclist on the ground. He was moving, trying to get up but couldn’t. Ash then said to me that I had to stop to render assistance (probably fearing that I wouldn’t stop because of the medical emergency incident on the plane where I had asked her if I should help).

I then pulled the car over to the side of the road and the two of us ran to the guy who was lying on the ground. He was conscious and talking which was a good start. There were two plump annoying ladies standing around. One was just calling out to the crowd in general, “Someone call the ambulance, someone call the police. No one touch him.” One fat lady then annoyingly started bumping me out of the way; I believe this is called ’shepherding’ in AFL football. I then told her I was a doctor and she began apologising profusely.

I then had a chat to him and he had said that his leg was bent to the side and he had straightened it. I tried to reassure him and so did other people who began to bring bottles of water to him. A Chinese guy even had a can of Cadbury drinking chocolate in his hand! I told them that he shouldn’t eat nor drink anything in case he needed to go for surgery that night. Some people were helpful bringing blankets and a pillow to him.

The patient was lying with his knees bent. As I continued to talk to him, this Indian guy came along and was about to straighten his knees; I quickly stopped him from touching the patient!

The ambulance and police arrived not long afterwards and I had to help lift him onto an ambulance trolley on which they wheeled him into the ambulance. At this stage, one of the plump ladies mentioned to the officer that she didn’t mind if they kept the pillow, on which the patient’s head was lying,as it had only cost $2 at Ikea!

The ambulance officer asked me to have a look at his leg after they cut off his pants. It was certainly deformed and he may have had dislocated his knee which is a medical emergency (it can threaten the blood supply to the lower leg). The ambulance then drove off to The Alfred.

This is the first time that I’ve had to help at an accident. Luckily he only had a single limb injury (with which I deal very frequently at work) and not had a problem with his airway nor conscious state (with which I’m not as familiar).

Top marks to Ash who helped direct traffic around the accident!!!

Hopefully, this is not a trend for the year!

I’m back, Baby.

Packed our Adelaide place from the weekend before and all through the past week. Took ages to do.

Ash and I drove off from Adelaide Saturday afternoon and stopped overnight at Coonawarra, South Australian wine country. Finished the rest of our leg Sunday afternoon to watch the Australian Open Final.

I’ve got time off this week to settle back in and unpack things. Gotta stay at parents’ place while waiting for Carnegie house to be vacated.

Adelaide was a good place to work and we bought a great place there. However, socially it was a little sleepy.

It’s good to be back home…

The Melbourne Summer Cycle is on again this year on Sunday 24th February. I’ve offered to shepherd some of my newbie friends around, so I obviously won’t be setting any land speed records, but it should still be a good day out.

So, are TYP going to make an appearance?

Just think… you’ll be getting one more present from your next birthday onwards.

Your BBQ last year seemed so long ago. Anyway, hope you have a good one.