Day 213: Hot Grips

Having warm hands one a cold ride makes a very big difference to the overall experience, I found the cheapo Chinese Hot Hands that I installed (with help from Pete) on the R1 invaluable on the long ride I took early last month. They stopped working shortly after returning from the 5 day ride which was fine, I figure that as I had paid $15 for them, it only cost me $3 per day to keep my hands warm... money well spent.

When I was negotiating the purchase of my slightly more touring oriented bike last week I made sure that they threw in a set and told them I'd like to fit them myself. Tonight, after the kids had gone to bed, I spent quite a long time in the garage fitting the Hot Grips in preparation for my birthday ride down to Melbourne. I wanted to complete the fitting tonight to ensure I still had time to call in reinforcements if I managed to stuff something up, fortunately reinforcements were not required. The grips went on and functioned as they should with minimal fuss... except for the time I spent googling the workshop manual so I could find the battery.

Todays photo is much more advanced switch for my new Hot Grips, compare this to the one on the R1 pictured at Day 184, there's a clear difference between the $15 set and the $150 dollar set.

Day 212: Good Guests Gone

It's so nice to have the house back to normal after a weekend that saw the population of our home swell from 3 to 9. I do like having people come and stay, it's always fun and usually involves lots of good food and wine, this weekend was no exception. Having so many people in the house has really made us appreciate how much easier this kind of event will be in our new house, but Googong still seems so far away.

My title today, aside from the alliteration that I like to use, is also deliberately devoid of punctuation. I love how a strategically placed comma can change the tone of a sentence: Did I mean 'Good, Guests Gone' or 'Good Guests, Gone'? Maybe I meant both.

Todays photo is the empty guest room, I chose this because both nights that we had guests this weekend Henry ended up in our bed. When the guest room isn't occupied and Henry is having a rough night, Belinda will often curl up in there with Henry to settle him. This is a necessity if either of us want to at least have a little sleep, here's hoping that we don't need to resort to using the guest room tonight.

Day 211: Local Landmark 4

Happy Birthday Henry!!

After all the excitement of Henry's birthday party yesterday we took our guests for a drive out to Googong to see the paddock that will soon become our suburb, from there we went on to have lunch at the National Gallery followed by a stop at Parliament House. As we were driving from the Gallery to Parliament House Henry started to drift off to sleep and since he didn't sleep much yesterday, or last night for that matter, the decision was made that I'd drive around in an attempt to let Henry get some much needed rest while everyone else took in the sights of Parliament House.

After a couple of laps of Capital Hill I became bored and concerned that I might get dizzy so I ventured a little further afield. I'd had an idea that I wanted to take a photo of the National Museum of Australia for my Local Landmark series for a while and before I knew it I was driving across to the other side of Burley Griffin with Henry fast asleep in the back.

It's such an interesting building with so many opportunities for cool photos, unfortunately I was a little limited with my ability to leave the car so I took today's photo from the drivers seat with the window down.

Day 210: Happy Birthday Henry!

It's actually Henry's birthday tomorrow, but we had his party today. There were lots of present for Henry and he was really loving opening them up and playing with them all.

Today's photo is an action shot of Henry, after a few failed attempts, successfully launching his air powered rocket that was a gift from Poppy. The orange and green streak you can see below the TV is the little foam rocket shooting toward the ceiling.

Henry also received 3 different lots of Duplo, provided by Uncle Dion, the Freke Grandparents and Belinda and I. He's been loving playing with the Duplo almost as much as Jenna has.

Day 209: Big, Red and Hopefully Comfy

I picked my R1 replacement up at lunch time today and whilst I've never really been a huge fan of Kawasaki motorcycles I have to say this one is growing on me (just as well hey?). It's effortlessly quick and has a big cushiony seat on it that will make it a much more comfortable experience for the longer rides that I've been enjoying of late. The real test will be next week when I ride it to Melbourne.

I've already started thinking about some modifications: first I think I'd like a Power Commander on it to try and tune out the dip in the power curve that's noticeable in the lower rev range, then I'd like to do something to shorten the exhausts... they're enormous. I'm looking forward to starting to play with my new toy.

Day 208: Self Censored

I've adjusted this photo to its current state intentionally. It's a really cute picture of Henry hamming it wearing nothing but my ugg boots and as funny as this photo will be at Henry's 21st Birthday... it's just not suitable for a public blog. It's also the only photo that I took today so I had to use it in some form, I really should have planned my photography better today.

Day 207: Hello Cocky

I had lunch in Manuka with my mate Robert today and on the way back from a delicious Duck Laksa I spotted this guy on one of the low branches in the tree near my car.

Unfortunately I'd left my camera in the car so I had to whip out the trusty iPhone and snap this shot before he flew away. I had to walk up really close so the Cockatoo didn't look like a white speck in the brown of the tree and I think this made him nervous. I guess I'd be a little nervous if some random stranger was rapidly advancing on me holding out their phone in the paparazzi position too. Or maybe he could smell the Duck Laksa on me and thought he was next on the menu...

Still, I got a photo for today and it's not that bad considering how average the camera is on the old iPhone 3Gs.