I wouldn’t always wear them, until I hear of the joys of de-gloving injuries (it doesn’t mean taking off your glove). Now I wear them all the time.

That would make sense. Thanks.

Gone from being Australian to Armenian. Onthe plus side my new nation is ‘the 39th most economically free nation in the world’ and for the arts ‘Armenian music is a mix of indigenous folk music, perhaps best-represented by Djivan Gasparyan’s well-known duduk music, as well as light pop, and extensive Christian music.'(wikipeidia, the source of all knowledge)I do love that christian light pop.

I’m also an AS sufferer, luckily for me its only mild. It mainly effects my back and hips.
On my Rheumatologist’s advice I take daily anti-inflamitories (ketoprofin SR). I’m supposed to stretch daily (which does happen semi-regularly, I did stretch daily for a couple of years). One thing which makes a big difference for me is exersise, especially climbing. I haven’t been outdoor climbing for about 6 years, but I go indoors every week. It really helps with core strength and flexibility (although I am one of the most inflexible climbers I’ve ever seen).

The anti-TNF’s are hard to get onto here in Aus and I’m reluctant (and don’t see any need) to go that route given my AS is well controlled at present.

Cheers

Got sick of the rain here in melbourne over the school hols so went up to the murray to ecchuca to camp, lovely sunshine, but bloody cold in the mornings, ice in the kettle one morning.
Trouble with camping with the family (other than the limitations for riding time) is the need to unpack and clean everything when you get home.

We got rid of our second car, the old banger (drove it to the wreckers, it only just made it and died on the forecourt). Instead of investing in another car, decided to live with one and stop the kids doing anything we had to drive them to after school. I reckon I easily spend more on bikes than registering, insuring and repairing the old banger. It has committed me to cycling to work though come rain, hail or shine. Dont’ want o think what I spend per year, my wife might try to sell me (and the bikes).

On a side note, when I bought my garmin from the bike shop, the bloke there asked me how much I wanted put on teh reciept, apparently alot of blokes (for some reason it is only the men) ask for a much lower amount on the reciept they will show the wife so she won’t realise how much they spend on thier toys.

Teaching definately isn’t something to go into half-arsed. I’d done a fair bit of running practical sessions and tutorials at uni while I was post-docing, and had also done private tutoring.
The first couple of years as a teacher are bloody hard while you find your feet. I have also seen burnt out teachers who are despirit to get out of the profession. Once you get to that point, there is no point being there. It does challange you. I’ve taught a variety of sciences, maths and IT subjects in the last few years. I’ve had to learn or re-learn a great deal. You do have slack periods and then incredibly busy periods (report writing and exam marking time has just finished here yesterday)

Double post

I went into teaching about 8 years ago after working as a post-doc genetics researcher. I really enjoy it, plus I get 13 weeks off a year and go on 2 week long outdoor ed camps a year (Hiking/climbing/ski-touring/cycling depending on what comes up).
Rarely bored (other than in meetings,of which there are a few). It can be frustrating and maddenning at times, but never boring. Most of the time it is great. Having said all that, the first two years working in rough london schools were a nightmare and I wondered if I’d made the right decision. My wife was going to make me quit (or kill me).
I dragged her back to Melbourne (I’d qualified in London at the IoE)and got a job at a catholic boys school in the outer eastern suburbs. Much easier, although the expectations are higher.

As a melburnian, I spent 10 years in europe, 8 in london. The thing which really got to me was the really short winter days. I hated getting up in the dark, going home in the dark and grey outside most days. Just looked at sites with day lenghts to check, melbourne’s shortest day is 9 hours 33 mins, london is 7 hours 49 minutes (who thought anyone has enough time, or inclination, to organise and post lists of sunset/sunrise times for an entire year?)

I was 32, wife was 39. She had a misscarrage at 3 months, a month later was pregnant again, this time all went well. 15 months after the first, the seccond was born. Two was definately enough for us.They are great kids, but it was a hard couple of years at the start.

Can’t find any at the moment (at work) but I definately mean to get to NZ to ride at some point. Australia has good trails, but NZ definately has the reputation for the big mountain riding. They Definately ahve a better system for adventure tourism. NZ is also alot more compact so much easier to get to different areas. Many Europeans seems to underestimate the distances in Aus. I went to Canberra for a race on the weekend from Melbourne, 8 hours drive on the motorway, and canberra isn’t far north in Australia

I cycled there for years as a commuter, the only places I hated it were the Elephant and Castle, Marble arch and Vauxhall cross intersections/roundabouts. Otherwise it was great. The only time I had a problem was in the wet coming down hill towards Kings Hospital (Dog Kennel Hill?)when a white van did a right hand turn across the road in front of me. Had the slow motion realization ‘I’m not going to come close to stopping in time’. Left teh superman inprint in the side of the van. Bike was OK, think I was a little concussed, but got back on teh bike and wobbled home.
Cycling in London is much better than here in Melbourne, where drivers scare the crap out of me often when I ride into town.

I detest Ikea, but wife is a big fan, worst shopping experience of my life was being dragged through the Croyden Ikea with a thumping hangover and two screaming kids, there didn’t seem to be any way out other than following the shuffling hoards through it.

Best: any one of Pixies (2004) in FInsbury I think, Alabama 3 (2007) London, Weddings Parties Anything (Melbourne, 2008) or Beck (2002 ish) Brixton Academy,
Worst would be America and Chicago on supporting Brian Wilson (wife bought the tickets), not really my type of music.

Melbourne, Australia

I got an edge 800 a few weeks ago. I’ve used it for nav and tracking fitness, great piece of kit. Had one or two probs with the garmin website software though, can’t seem to edit courses I’ve created.

Its probably a single-speed fixie type thing

Had a great early morning ride here, up to kinglake one the dirt tracks (skyline and Mt Jerusulem tracks), even found some nice single track. Even got a KOM (only 3 other people had riden the track though on Strava).

A few other places near to melbourne which occurred to me include Buxton and Lake Mountain, Mt Buller, Red Hill (down the peninsula, never been there but they have a club). There is probably stuff near healseville (there was a downhill club out that way I think). FUrther out is Beechworth and Mt Beauty. Sure I’ve missed lots of places.
Cheers

I am, SteveG, but I don’t tend to lon in as much

double post

On a side note, the bars don’t really go off, eaten ones 3 years out of date (same with Gels)and didn’t notice they tasted any worse than new (not that they were great to start with)

I’ll be getting out tonight (local ride, starting warrandyte-ish) and thursday morning (9ish for a few hours), the joys of being a teacher in school hols (and managing to farm out the ids for a few hours)

I get it a bit, get onto the doctors, antibiotics usually clears it quickly (24 hours or so when I’ve had it the last few times)

Mind them drop bears, vicious claws and teeth on them.

Other good places are Wombat state forrest (near woodend, the You Yangs near Geelong (never ridden there but lots of people rave about it) and Forrest (past Geelong towards Colac) which has great tracks. There is good single track along alot of the yarra als. Follow single track which leads off the main bike trail anywhere along it. Some is great, some sections not so great. You need to be careful as it is multi-use and some nutters use it as a training track, causing issues with walkers. I know of a cople of people who have had head-ons there with overly fast riders.
Off for a sneaky early morning ride now before our (non-cyclist) visitors awake.

Drop me an email (sgoodall2@googlemail.com) some time and I can show you around out there, I do out early on weekends (pre dawn) as it means I can get back 10ish for family time. I go out evenings also when time permits, often riding from here in warrandyte.

There is nice single-track down the side of ridge road from near the sugarloaf gate, also all the stuff near smiths (the paths near rob roy and off the happy valley track). There are a fair few paths around there, lots of up and down hills.

Moved out to melbourne about 4 1/2 years ago with the family and dog (I grew up here but spent the previous 10 years working in europe and my wife/kids were english). From my wifes point of view, the whole visa thing was a right pain. Lots of paper work, filling out forms, immigration losing the forms, sending the forms back, immigration requesting new information etc). We’d been married for a year, living together for 5 years, two kids together and joint mortgage and bank accounts. For anyone moving out as a spouse, get joint bank accounts ASAP as that proves you are financially dependant. My wife is a GP (don’t get her onto the comparision between medicine in Australia and the UK), a career australia is crying out for, but still had to jump through lots of hoops. Strangely enough, hair-dressers were on the desired profession list.
We bought out our dog also. Very expensive process which was almost thwarted at the last moment. GOt all the vaccinations done, then the bloody vet did the antigen tests and the dog came up positive to one of the diseases she had been immumised against (strangely enough). For those that don’t know (as the vet mustn’t have) you get a positive immune response after an immunisation. The vet wouldn’t listen to expanations but luckily we’d gone through a god pet transport company who got ti all sorted at the last minute. Make sure you use a reputable company to handle all this stuff even if it costs more.
I don’t think Australia is any more racist than England, it varies depending on where you are. A small town in ass-end-of-nowhere will be more racist than a large cosmopolitan city. Area’s within cities vary also depending on the mix of people living here. Having taught in London I came accross a fair share of BNP types, I haven’t seen that overt level of nutterdom here, but then I live in a very different enviroment here and teach at a very different school.

Have to see how it pans out. Brother -in-law isn’t the most reliable when it comes to long-term plans. I’ll let you know closer to the date.
Cheers

Would love to ride adelaide. Might be there for christmas (I know its a long way off still), but unlikely to have the bike with me. It’ll be a family holiday with the brother-in-law who is visiting. If I can swing taking the bike I’ll get in contact

I’m getting out at nights here in warrandyte, ride either local trails or out towards sugarloaf and smiths gully. You’d be welcome to join. The guys from the local bike shop go out most tuesday/thursday at about 6 ish also.

Happy to show you around whenever you get out here mike.
Cheers

We moved out to melbourne about 4 1/2 year ago. I did the whole scrubbing of the family bikes when we came out, including the recommended dissinfectant stuff. Think that was what knackered the rubber on the grips of one of the bikes. Nothing in our container was checked on teh way into melbourne.
Happy to take any visitors for a ride around the trails out here

I’ve got the Cannon G12, slightly bulky but will fit in a large pocket/cammelback. Takes great photos

I got an Exped recently, one of the down-filled ones. Really warm to sleep on, even in snow camping. Comfy as well as its 9 cm thick (appaently, I’ve never measured it). I’ve got a bad back and don’t get sore using this. It rolls up as small as a thermorest also. Great for hiking. They are expensive for a samp matress though. Depends on what you need.

During a race here recently (the otway oddysey 100) I was behind a girl on one of those twisted tube lynski 29-ers, stunning looking bike (and not bad rider). I couldn’t catch her up the hills (because i’m old and slow).

I’ve got 120mm on my anthem x1. I had an older anthem 0 100 mm front travel which the frame cracked on and got the x1 frame as a warranty replacement. The slightly longer travel at the back and extra 20 mm at the front make it much better for me, and definatly let me go faster with more confindence, especially on the descents, and doesn’t really slow me on the climbs. They really compensate for my lack of skills/confidence on the downhill bits.

Wedge-tailed eagles, barn owl (almost collided with head on on a night ride), sulphur crested cockatoos, gallahs, rainbow lorrakeets, rosallas. Been swooped by magpies here also (they are more like a black and white raven than the english magpies and swoop people during mating season). We get lots of birds here.