onward!
let 'em have it!
if you go down to the dell today
January 29, 2007
A lot of people have reassured us that potty training just kinda happens when it happens. You can put the kid on the potty as much as you want, you can encourage them, you can yell at them when they have accidents, but in the end the kid just makes the connection and then they've got it. With a bit of luck, Rebecca's just hit that point. We've just had a weekend where she only wore nappies at night, and didn't wet them anyway. Multiple visits to various toilets occurred, much fulsome praise, and dispensing of jellybeans (our bribery modality of choice). We dispatched her off to nursery this morning sans nappies, in the confidence that a) she'd be OK and b) if she wasn't, it wouldn't be us cleaning it up. And lo - she returned dry and happy. Rock on!
Went along on Sunday to see the final stage of the Trust House Cycle Classic. As expected, it was a nice wee stage. The course at Petone is about an 800m loop based on Jackson St (including a tasty wee hairpin bend), so the riders were lapping at about 1'15" or so. The pace started high, and the first retirement was after three laps - which I thought was quite impressive. About halfway through, Gordon McCauley (Trek-Zookeepers) and Jeremy Vennell (Trust House) made a break and kept ahead of the field. They built up a lead of about 9 seconds on the bunch; on a course that tight, this was actually a very useful lead. Trek-Zookeepers just sat in at the front of the bunch and subtly discourated attempts at chasing, as they had a bloke in the break. The other teams pulled it together a bit and managed to get the bunch up to within about six seconds of the breakaway. At this point, the commentator said, "...and that's it, the bunch is going to catch them up". As Gordon McCauley heard this, he shouted "No!", put his foot down, and went hard. They ended up getting the lead up to 20 seconds, the bunch didn't catch them, and McCauley took the stage via a sprint finish. Good race, with Hayden Roulston going on to take the tour as a whole after what was by all accounts a blistering time trial in the morning. An excellent race, and I'm glad I saw it. Only another month or two until the womens' version, too.
taking the
January 26, 2007
One of the exercises that my physio has got me doing is a simple one-legged balance - standing on my left foot with my eyes closed. This is harder than it sounds (try it) - even on my good foot it's a bit tricky once you close your eyes. So a couple of times a day, I have to stand one-legged with my eyes closed. Now, I'm trying to work these exercises into my daily routine as much as possible. I figure, when's a time that I'm standing still, looking straight ahead? Yup: at a urinal. The other day I didn't hear someone come in, and found them just staring at me when I opened my eyes. It turns out the sight of someone pissing with one leg held up behind them, with their eyes closed, is quite compelling. Who knew?
On the plus side, now everyone thinks I'm a freemason.
only sore after 30 mins of hard work
January 22, 2007
An interesting couple of months for le velo in Wellie. Next week is the Trust House Cycle Classic; it looks like a pretty damn good field. My money's on the Trek-Zookeepers team. The best day for spectating is probably going to be Sunday 28th, with a criterium around Petone. Crits are short (1 hour), fast, hard races of multiple laps around a short (1-5k) course. So they're ideal for spectating - the racers will be coming around every couple of minutes, so you can watch the race develop. So if you fancy catching a gander at some of the local Australasian cycling talent, pop yourself down to Petone on the 28th and have a shufti.
In March, the Women's Trust House Cycle Classic is on. The field looks to be sizzling. T-Mobile were the first big name to commit to sending a team, and now Flexpoint have said they're coming. Since they include the current road champs of Sweden and Switzerland, plus the Dutch TT champ and a former world junior champ, we can expect a certain amount of high-class aggressive riding. As far as I can tell, the women are riding a very similar course to the men - including finishing with a 40k crit around central Petone on a sunday. Roll on.
Saw that Over the Hedge the other day. Overall, fun bit of film, not too taxing, not too memorable. Best bit was seeing Omid Djalili play a Persian cat. The inside joke being, of course, that he is himself Persian (well, Iranian British, but same diff). If you get a chance to see any of his stand-up stuff, take it. Man's a genius.
Two reasons to love Wikipedia:
cabbage of doom
January 16, 2007
Nice one. The aggressive and strong field that ran in the NZ National Road Race champs over the weekend shows that we do have world-class cycling talent in NZ; half the field ended up not finishing, and the ones who did rode a smoking race. In the end, Julian Dean took it at the final sprint, meaning that we'll be seeing the black jersey leading Thor Hushovd out at this year's Tour. Excellent.
Listening to: DJ Yoda's essential mix from last november. Now that's what I call eclectic. 120 minutes, 94 tracks, often multiple tracks playing at once; crossing from hardcore hip-hop to 80s pop to jazz standards to samples from the Muppets; Louis Armstrong to the Arctic Monkeys via Beenie Man, Kid Koala, Ice T and the theme to Magnum P.I. And the Wurzels. It's like being trapped inside an oil drum full of records with a hyperactive (and incredibly technically polished) ourangoutang loaded up on food colouring spinning them out. Shock and awe, indeed.
Otherwise, staying pretty quiet. The ankle is slowly getting better; I managed to go for a brief walk along the waterfront at work today. I can walk without a limp if I concentrate (although not without pain), thanks to the miracle of sports tape and pressure bandages. The physio reckons that I've actually stuffed the ligaments on both side of the foot. This would explain the all-pervasive bruising, and the degree of the pain. On the plus side, she also reckons that I can get onto a stationary bike within a few more days. This would be a very good thing.
Mind you, that sports tape is nasty stuff. Removing it last night was agonising. It's incredibly adhesive. So adhesive that I now have a neat rectangular section removed from my thick crop of leg hair. Heaven only knows how people sit still for Brazilians, is all I can say.
The weather has been warm, sunny, humid; typically raining overnight, then firming up to beautiful sunshine. Ideal growing weather, in fact. The garden has accordingly been leaping forward. We're getting a few strawberries a week, the lawn is a luxuriant carpet of green, the bindweed is threatening to envelop everything. The hedge that I hacked back to bare branches is now bushing back nicely. I love this time of year.
randomity
January 12, 2007
A few thoughts on the recent news about more easily removed tattoo inks. Basically, some researchers have come up with tattoo inks that are very tractable with regards to lasers - they evaporate easily when zapped. This means that tattoo removal will be more effective, requiring only a handful of laser treatments and with the ink evaporating more completely.
So far, so good. What annoys me is that the news coverage of this then extrapolates directly to "and then we'll all be able to get tattoos any time we want, secure in the knowledge that if we change our mind we can get them zapped next week". This is not how it will work, and anyone who goes under the needle with this new ink on that basis is an idiot. Here's why.
Firstly, the process of getting a tattoo will not become any easier. It's still going to involve blood, lymph, pain and swelling. Getting a tattoo hurts. And that's not going to change just because of what kind of ink they're using. You still have to sit still while someone carves the design into you.
The removal will still be expensive and painful. It'll just be more efficient. Now, instead of a series of painful and expensive laser treatments, you'll only need one or two. It'll still hurt, and it'll still cost.
The new inks are good, but tattooing is still a big deal. It's not something to do casually; you're still pushing blood and ink. You're still breaking the skin, exposing yourself to blood-borne pathogens and potential infection. You're still paying a very expensive professional a good chunk of money for a swathe of their time. This is not something to do casually.
Also, on a related point: these inks will presumably be relatively expensive, and will only be used by professional tattooists. This isn't going to do a damn thing about the non-professional tattooists out there - the people tattoing using indian ink and a machine made from an old walkman, the people pushing ink in cell block H. Basically, the scratchers who don't really know what they're doing, and who end up putting some seriously regrettable ink on people. That old bloke down the pub with the dodgy initials across the back of his hand? Those were probably done by hand, using a bottle of standard ink - and those tattoos (which are usually pretty low standard, "blowing out" and losing definition fast) are the main ones that people want to get rid of.
I must get around to getting some more tattoos. I have a few designs in mind - it's just a matter of finding the time and money. Ah, life with young children! I hope to be re-enacting a variant of The Illustrated Mum (well, except for the bipolar disorder stuff) as Rebecca et al mature.
It's going to be interesting to see the results of the NZ National Champs road race tomorrow. There's some really good young and hungry riders coming through, wanting to make their mark. I'm supporting Julian Dean - he's a complete black horse, as he's never ridden a NZ National Champs. This is because he's been off racing as a professional in Europe for years, and has never been able to make it to one of the champs before. On the one hand, there's a lot of younger riders who have good legs and the desire to make their mark. On the other hand, Dean is Thor Hushovd's lead-out man, used to racing at professional race speeds and to getting it in there right up at the end of major stage races. Fingers crossed - it'd be great to see Julian Dean riding for Credit Agricole next year in the NZ National Champion's jersey.
if i find them
January 11, 2007
My sprained ankle is still giving me a fair degree of pain. It's still considerably swollen compared to the other one; secondary bruising appeared around Monday, with bruises right next to the sole on the inside and outside of my foot (extending down almost to my toes) - it looks like the blood from the bruising slowly settled down to the bottom of my foot and stayed there. Since the main damage to the ankle is internal (and thus invisible), I'm left with a series of pretty painless bruises and a very sore joint. Still, I'm back at work (on crutches), and I've got an appointment for some physio. Could be a few weeks before I'm back on two wheels, though.
It's actually quite surprising how hard movement on crutches is. At lunchtime, for a laugh I went around the block. It took an extremely long time and basically knackered me. Swinging your weight around on your arms is much harder than it looks. And I'm getting blisters on the palms of my hands, which I hadn't expected.
We spent the Christmas-New Year period at up Mum's bach at Waikawa Beach. Clearly we are out of step with the times. When we're up at the beach, we tend to casually wander barefoot down to the sand, have a paddle and a splash, go for a bit of a swim. Meanwhile, there's a never-ending procession of (mainly) 2-stroke engines roaring down to the beach. Farm bikes, moto-X bikes, quad bikes, an electric golf cart - they all rumble, rattle and roar off across the sand at high speed (well, less so for the golf cart). Safety precautions are typically nil - helmets are a rarety, usually only seen on the serious moto-X riders (who are typically pretty well padded), driving without lights at night is pretty common, etc. Some of the quad bikes in particular are loaded up with entire families, in the manner more usually associated with passengers on trains in India in the 19th century. It seems that there's quite a substantial presence of people who take off to the beach at the weekend to get out the boys' toys and go for a blat around the sand dunes. Frankly, they're a huge pain in the neck: they're really loud and you have to watch out that they've seen you (and any small children who may be running around). Plus, they rip up the dunes, killing the plants that hold the sand in place and causing serious erosion.
Which is why I was saddened, but not massively surprised, to see evidence that some locals up at Hokio Beach (about 10k up the coast from Waikawa) have been hiding spiked boards under the sand to stop motorbike riders from hooning around in the dunes and private forests. The thing is, motorbikes on the beach are really, really annoying. Particularly if you live locally and get hacked off with people driving in, hooning around, making a huge noise, ripping up your beach and frightening the kids. But to do something like this - it's just vile. By definition, this is an uncaring act: this could badly injure anyone who happens past it. This is an attempt to do indiscriminate damage. It's answering an annoyance with an obscenity.
it's a very funny colour
January 07, 2007
Had an excellent Christmas break up at the beach, thanks. Much time spent wandering aimlessly around sand, coping with breakouts of toddler nudism, and barbecuing things. Good fun was had by all involved. It was a very nice break away.
Rather unfortunately, I then spoilt the whole thing by going and severely spraining my ankle yesterday afternoon. I had a rather unfortunate moment when stepping off our rear deck - which is about 15cm high. The next thing I knew I was lying on the ground with my left ankle giving off the old agony, and swearing at high volume. Arse. A hilarious afternoon and evening in various casualty departments ensued. We started at Kenepuru Hospital, which was indeed nice and quiet and I got seen very quickly. Unfortunately, they didn't have a radiographer. And it took them 90 minutes to establish that they couldn't call one in. So after wasting a couple of hours there, we bit the bullet and headed into Wellington Central. Another couple of hours later, I'd been x-rayed, confirmed that I didn't have a fracture (it had looked like the end of my fibula could be broken), and discharged with pills and compression bandages. I was in the casualty dept when the police started bringing in victims of the Graeme Burton shootings, which was a bit disconcerting - multiple shootings not being a common occurrence around here.
Anyway, so I'm semi-immobilised. I can't walk without crutches (well, I can hobble a couple of metres in a grossly comedic Igor lurch), and my left ankle is twice the usual size and a very alarming colour. I'm going to get a fair bit of stick for this one at work when I can get back to it. For the next couple of days, I'm going to be Mr Feet on the Table, I think.
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