Got up earlier than usual so as to begin preparing for my (fuckful) early teaching starts in a couple of weeks. Not too early (only 8.30), but I find it very difficult to change my sleeping pattern, and it’s a long road from 9.30am to 6.30am when you’re going at half hour intervals. I’m considering just moving all at once, but I don’t like the way I’m going to feel that one day of craptitude. I also find my body just ignores that sort of massive all-at-once change. I am a creature of habit. This will, of course, make late night DJing tricky. The early start is a Monday, with a day of lectures and tutes, then a day of tutes on Tuesdays. So Saturday late night DJing will be a bit of a pain. Last semester I found the traffic noise on our busy road very difficult to deal with and had to resort to ear plugs. I hope – and don’t think – that’ll happen again as I’ve adjusted to the noise.
Rode my bike to Petersham for lunch (why Petersham? Well, two words: Sweet Bellam the ‘cake boutique’). Had bunny and a nice broad bean salad at a Portugese joint. Watched a bunch of middle aged blokes from the train station eating whole chickens and chips. Then realised that they were actually only young men, just carrying the bodies of middle aged, beer-belly-wearing, overweight, unfit men. It was a bit scary. I’d seen the same lot having lunch there the day before. Bunny and salad was kind of a special meal for me (it was quite nice, actually, though I hurt my tooth on a bunny bone), but to eat chicken and chips every single day? I was just thankful they had to walk up the hill to the restaurant. Though they probably drove. I wanted to yell out “Don’t! Don’t eat that again! Have a salad! Have a sandwich!” but I figured it wasn’t such a good idea. I did plan on a cake, but decided to push on to my next destination first.
Printed out a road map from our place to Newtown. Petersham, I discovered yesterday, is only 10 minutes (if that) from our place. Which is such a tiny distance. On the map, that’s only about a third of the way to Newtown. But the main roads to Newtown are scary: narrow, busy, fast-moving traffic on a single lane, poorly surfaced road. All bad news for a baby bike rider like me. Then I noticed this:
View Larger Map
Street view showed me this:
View Larger Map
Which is pretty exciting. You can’t look at them using street view, but Sydney has a whole system of these sorts of alleys. They’re not cobble stones like Melbourne’s, though – they’re sealed. Now, alleys are notoriously dangerous ways of getting around by bike. Things come out of blind corners, cars drive down them at speed, weird blokes grab you off your bike (that’s my nightmare).
So I was kind of careful. But I chose to ride along this one anyway, all the way to Newtown. I’m really glad that I did. I saw lots and lots of good scrumping opportunities. Lemons, Grapes (ripe! accessible!), longans (you know I have no clue what to do with them), plums… all sorts of neat stuff. I also came across a few doozers and their mini digger. I couldn’t get past on-bike, so I had to carry my bike over the ripped up concrete, and then up and over the edge of the digger. The doozer bloke (young, mediterranean, well-trained) offered to carry my bike. I smiled and said “no thank you” and hefted it over. I’m glad I’m not one of those steel-is-real nuts. I’m also glad I didn’t bring a big bottle of water this time. But dang, I felt tough. It was all very interesting. And riding there from Petersham was ridiculously easy and quick.
Dropped in on a friend’s shop to say hi, then went up the road to the bike shop.
Bought stuff at the bike shop. I bought a new helmet (because mine was old and skanky and really kind of crapped up through mistreatment), new lights (because we’ve lost our lights and I needed new ones for getting home from yoga) and new grips for my handlebars. It cost me far too much money.
I also looked at cleats/click shoes (I am mad keen on these ones, but not too hopeful). I’m not sure of their names, though I did ask the bike guy. Wikipedia tells me cleats are just specialist sports shoes with spikes. So who knows what you call the cycling ones. Basically, they’re special shoes that have a little locky thing on the sole that clicks into a locky thing in your pedal. Why bother with that rubbish? It makes pedaling more efficient – you make better use of your muscles and your foot moves around less on the pedal, stopping you wasting energy with wiggling. So to get this set up happening, you need special pedals and special shoes. The shoes are quite stiff and can be super-daggy or fairly ok. I think I only want them because The Squeeze has them. New click-wearers tend to stack it a few times at first until they learn how to work the quick release.
I’m not sure whether these things will make me cooler/a better cyclist/a consumption stooge. But for a girl who’s been browsing far too many (make sure you check out the little movie on that one) bike sites, it’s actually pretty impressive that I haven’t suddenly decided to dump my perfectly serviceable Apollo road bike for something ridiculously expensive and terribly sexy. ..
…
.. it is sexy, though.
Anyway, after a little wander through the bike shop and a quiet (private) mock of the fashionista bloke buying his first fixy (enjoy that no-gears, no-break thing, dood – especially with your perfectly white dunlop volleys, immaculately shaved and tanned legs and perfectly perfect designer shorts), I left Newtown.
And went to Petersham for a cake. The flourless chocolate cake at Sweet Bellam is fabulous. Their coffee is ordinary, but it’s a very nice place to have a sit and a read and a cake. Petersham was rocking with groups of senoras on the lookout for spunky older gentlemen and “coffee! coffee!” so I had to be very careful making my way down to the other back-roads path home.
There is a system of back-road designated bike routes which I don’t really understand. The one I used a lot is the ‘L5’, though I’m also into the ‘L10’. I thought they were prepaid only bus route numbers. But there’re also pretty well-signed bike routes. Roads are usually shitfully bumpy and crap, but they’re quieter, wider, safer roads. Don’t seem to join up properly, but that could be because I’m not following them properly. Anyways, they’re worth the look.
Looked at lots of bike pron. I’ve just waded through a heap of sites, including:
– this RTA bike route map collection which I can’t seem to understand.
–the city of Sydney’s new Cycle Way, which ties into the Jan Gehl assessment of Sydney (as discussed here on City Of Sound. I don’t really understand the new cycle way yet because I don’t know the city roads or areas well enough to understand the practicalities and issues involved.
– a lecture on the Powerhouse’s bike collection via their their weekly lecture series
– bike bus project website, where I felt a little bit frustrated. I’m not interested in getting into the
– and, finally wished I’d seen this rider spoke thing earlier.
Had a little think about my ‘goals’, as a badass cycling feministah. I’m very attracted to the steel is real/fixy thing. If only because it is so tattooed, no-cleats, RAHR! badassin’ hadcore. And male-dominated. I like to think of myself as all those things (sans tatts, though), and I do like to push myself into male-dominated scenes. I also like it as an alternative to the happy-clappy, hand-holding hippy cycling world. Or to the shave-your-legs, wear-lycra, ride-down-highways-really-quickly crowd. But I don’t think I could really be bothered.
I want equipment that’s tough and hard-wearing, so I don’t have to replace it.
I’m not really interested in brands, but I’m not like those fixy-fashionistas who peel all the stickers off their bikes to be cool in a sort of faux-op-shop Revival sort of way.
I want to get maximum efficiency from my body by using the right equipment, but I don’t want to buy stuff ‘just because’. My old bike is perfectly adequate. My flouro yellow rain jacket is daggy but safe (and kind of stinky atm). My new helmet isn’t skatin’ rad, but it is safe and good quality. Do I need clicks? Do I need lycra pants? In the latter case, I definitely need some sort of new shorts situation – I’ve lost so much weight none of the shorts in our house fit me any more.
All of this is, of course, some sort of desperate attempt to distract myself from not dancing. It’s classic transferral. I need to resolve my feelings about not being able to dance. Or I could just throw myself into another activity obsessively. I’m sure as shit not doing any sewing these days. But gardening… that’s another story (remind me to blog our seedies’ progress).
So it’s been kind of a big day. I’m so glad I’m back on my bike, and back exploring Sydney. Next I’m going to find some way to explore the beaches. Possibly a train/bike combo.
Yes, please.
Author Archives: dogpossum
redesign!
I’d really like to redesign this site. It’s been ages since I gave it a new style sheet – years. I have no idea what’s cool in the css world these days, so I guess I’d better have a look.
I actually use my ‘blogroll’ all the time, so that should probably be further up. I could ditch a lot of that other stuff in the side bar, though. Maybe drop menus for the categories – or is that _so_ four years ago? Are we all into clouds? I’m not sure I like the messiness of clouds.
I think I want the sidebar on the right. That’s where everyone else has it these days.
I might make it so that more entries are displayed on the first page, and then do the ‘older’ link at the bottom, so people can navigate backwards through time, a chunk of entries at a time. That’s how I like to navigate people’s blogs.
There are quite a few spacing issues that need fixing – some proportions need tidying up. I think I’m ready to go border free. Completely border free. Kind of a big step for someone as ob-con as myself; I like the order of boxes.
Most of all, I need to remember to do all this styling on the laptop, not on the imac. The imac has a fully sick screen, and the laptop is smaller and squashier. Using winblows? Well, I won’t be taking your needs into account. This will be firefox/safari friendly only.
Urambi Village Housing Cooperative, Kambah, ACT [6]
Urambi Village Housing Cooperative, Kambah, ACT [6]. Originally uploaded by canberra house.
There’s something fascinatingly ordinary about this Sydney regional architectural style. It makes me think of the SF I watched as a kid, and of my friends’ houses in the newer suburbs in Brisbane’s north.
what a lovely pic
I just had to share this lovely photo of two of my friends. I would have blogged it straight from flickr, but couldn’t. You can see it here, but make sure you check out the rest of this photographer‘s amazing pics.
This is a good bud of mine who’s living in New York, though she’s been living in London for a few years now (four?). The guy is another friend, an American who was living in Melbourne but now lives in the Netherlands. I love this pic because of the shapes and pose (they weren’t actually posing – just dancing), but also because I love the expression on D’s face. She’s having so much fun. We miss her a lot, but we’re also proud she’s off being jetsetting Woman of Business. This photo also makes me a little bit sad, because it’s all the things I love about dancing – having fun, being creative, figuring things out, making beautiful shapes, experimenting with weight commitment and leading and following. I also like the way G hasn’t dragged D over too far – he’s actually extended his arms. And that’s something a lot of guys can’t seem to manage (often because they carry far too much tension in their shoulders and just _can’t_ extend that far). I also like it that they’re wearing normal clothes, not vintage gear – this is everyday dancing for everyday people.
So I like this photo a lot. Nice framing, nice light – just the perfect moment capturing two lovely people doing something they both love very much. Sigh.
i have a thing for early 20th century australiana
We went to see the modernism exhibition at the Powerhouse a little while ago. Well, we actually went to have a look at The Museum, and this exhibition was on. It was, overall, dull. And not terribly well curated, I don’t think. But it had some fully sick stuffs in it. I was, of course, captured by the 20s stuff. But also by the late 19th century bits.
I have the beginnings of a full blown Thing for olden days Australiana. I like the stylised kangaroos. Flipping through a design/architecture magazine at the sports specialist a little while ago, I was struck by the set and prop design for the ill-fate Lurhman ‘Australia’. Gorgeous. There’s something about the super-kitchness of Australian animals (with their utterly bizarre physiology) done up by art deco or modernism (don’t really know the difference between the two, I’m afraid). I like the way the bizarre is made streamlined and beautiful. The way a kangaroo is styled up like a greyhound.
golly
New Matilda give good style sheet. Can’t wait to get in and have a gander at the code.
I know it suits my general aesthetic (ie white with pale grey borders), but there’s a reason newspaper pages are white. I really like a site where the design is invisible, or so very ordinary you have trouble figuring out how it works.
river and train obession
I can’t stop listening to this song. Not this precise version, but one that’s very similar.
It’s the first song in the film ‘Jazz on a Summer’s Day’. I’m obsessed. Suddenly, not dancing means that I’m actively listening to jazz that can’t be danced to. I’ve even dug out my Miles Davis CDs. And I’m liking it light and nice – nothing too challenging. No bop, thanks.
level of awesome: 10
more Loutit awesomeness:
Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.
city of sound
I think it’s the post-ride endorphines. They’ve jolted me out of my unemployed, understimulated lassitude.
Found city of sound and suddenly my cultural studies interests have merged with my (shy) interests in design and architecture and urban planning.
the way i feel about sydney: busy, all water and sun and people
I’ve been living in Sydney for six months, and I still feel like a tourist. It’s that sense of excitement and exploration that you get living or visiting somewhere new. It’s wanting to go out and just _look_ at the things around you. To take photos. To see interesting things and then tell people the story of your day.
I lived in Melbourne for eight years, and in Brisbane for about fifteen before that (and lots of other places in the years before). Living in Melbourne I never felt the urge to live near the sea, or even to visit it. The Victorian coast line never really woke the inner-swimmer in me. The person who used to live in Fiji and learnt to swim almost by osmosis. Living here, in Sydney, I think I’d like to live in one of those posh beach-side suburbs. I like the sound of Bronte. Sydney is a city all-about-the-ocean. Keith Loutit‘s little clips are the way I feel about Sydney: busy, all water and sun and people.
Bathtub II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.