Kickass kite session today.

Oh.....yeah. That's what it's about :-) I had one of the best sessions I've had in a long time today, overpowered on my 12m at Toogoom. There was only 2 of us there, so we had the entire, huge area to ourselves :-) Nothing particularly special about it......it was way too gusty to be trying any real new stuff, so I just blasted and boosted for about 2 hours until it started to get dark. We both came off the water totally spent, but with huge grins on our faces.......I wish all my sessions were like that!

Finally got out for a kite!

The rain stopped for long enough for me to finally get back out for a kite.....I was starting to suffer withdrawl there!! Only problem.....very light wind, meaning I had to break out the big monster 16m kite. Man that thing is a chore to pump up. It's like setting up a goddam wedding marquee. But, being the desperate soul that I am, I did it anyway :)

One bonus about riding the big kites is that every thing you do is super floaty. Transitions seem to take forever and it feels like you've got so much time to think about everything while you're just hanging around up there.....very cool :) Unfortunately, being a light bloke means I get overpowered quite easily. It's only gotta pick up 3 knots and I'm looking to come in for a smaller kite! But anyway, it's a day at the beach, which is infinitely better than a day in front of the idiot box :)

Michelle got up on the board again......numerous times, until we finally ran out of water. The shallows were getting just a little bit too shallow! Just need mother nature to cooperate a bit more when she's not working so she can get going properly :)

Red tape and bureaucracy

To partially quote Ford Fairlaine, "Working for the Government is like masturbating with a cheese grater. Slightly amusing, but mostly painful." Here's why.....

I'm designing a web based data entry system. In order for that system to function, it needs to write to a database. In order for it to do that, I need access to DB2 on our network. In order to get access to DB2 in our anally retentively controlled network, I need to provide a large amount of what is essentially superfluous information to the boffins who are charged with meting out access to DB2. But, in order to provide said information to said boffins, I need access to the database (which hasn't been created yet) to do some testing and work out exactly what I need. See where I'm going with this? Before I can be given access to DB2, I need to provide information, that I can't get without having access to DB2, to prove that I need access. Confused? Good.....so am I.

Incidentally, they don't seem to see this as a problem at all. I don't know why I expected anything different really.

Depressing weather

Is it just me, or does the rain eventually get everyone down? I know we need the water and all, but I'm over it now ok? The sun can come back any time it likes. I badly need to get out for a kite!

An update on the car crash yesterday.

According to the paper (and the witnesses of the accident), the guy in the car that hit our building was attempting to leave the carpark across the road and decided he couldn't be bothered to let the traffic clear, so he just floored it and blindly entered the traffic flow. Unfortunately, the traffic was flowing a little too closely and he got clipped from behind, which speared him into the front of our building. Here's a couple of pix that show you just how much fun you can have if you combine a lack of brain cells with a licence to drive.


Apparently the noise inside the building was spectacularly loud, so I'm glad I was out the back and totally unaware :-)

Some holiday photos

Ok, so now that I've moved my blog to this spiffing new spot, I should probably repost a few photos that were on the original one. These are from a holiday that Michelle and I went on a few weeks ago.

Granite Arch - Girraween National Park

Climbing the Pyramid - Girraween National Park

Second Pyramid, from the top of the first one - Girraween National Park

Balancing Rock - First Pyramid - Girraween National Park

Underground Creek - Girraween National Park

The Spinx - Girraween National Park


Bald Rock - Bald Rock National Park

Natural Bridge - Springbrook National Park

Byron Bay Lighthouse

Tallow Beach from the Byron Bay Lighthouse

Feeding King Parrots at O'Reilly's - Lamington national Park

Rosellas at O'Reilly's - Lamington National Park

Wishing Tree at O'Reilly's - Lamington National Park

We went to Girraween first, then to Bald Rock, then up to Laminton, via Springbrook and Byron Bay.

Girraween is an awesome spot.....it's the most unreal landscape. Huge granite boulders perched on impossibly small bases that look like the wind could blow them over at any moment!

Bald Rock is similar but just as breathtaking from the top.

We only had a brief stop at Springbrook to take some photos of the Natural Bridge (photo above), then it was on to Byron for a couple of relaxing days of too much wine and food :-)

Lamington is some of the most beautiful rainforest I've seen, but unfortunately the weather turned bad for us on the last day, so we ended up having to go walking in the wet.....somewhat unpleasent to say the least :-( However, feeding the King Parrots and Rosellas on the first day was way cool :-)

If you ever get the chance to check out any of these places, I highly recommend it!

Someone crashed into my building at work!

Jeeeesus......they're not content just trying to kill me on the roads anymore.....they've started crashing into the building I work in!! I left the building this afternoon via the back door to the carpark. In the time it took me to put my helmet/gloves on, start the bike and get to the carpark exit, someone had tried to drive their car through the front of the building. I got to the roadway, only to be confronted by a scene of utter chaos, with a car embedded in the concrete building frontage, people standing around everywhere and traffic all slowing to a crawl to have a good old rubberneck at the carnage.

It's truly amazing how much excitement can happen in just 5 minutes when you have drivers of this caliber on the roads.......

Goddam cane trucks!!!

Is it just me, or does everyone else get *pissed off* at the fact that cane trucks don't have to cover their loads?? I'm getting *really* sick of getting peppered with debris from these things every morning on the way to work. And it's not just the small stuff that falls off these things either.....there's *huge* lumps of cane falling out of these trucks all the time. I got hit in the head by a small piece yet again this morning as I went to pass the truck it fell out of. It's only a matter of time before I cop a full sized piece either bodily or on the front of the bike somewhere. I've seen what happens when a good sized piece of cane hits a moving vehicle.....it smashed the headlight of the car I was driving when it happened, so I'm in no hurry to see how my helmet visor stands up to it!

Fabbo weekend!

Michelle and I just spent an excellent weekend in Noosa for her birthday. Swimming, kiting (which was crap), eating out, 4-wheel-driving and generally enjoying ourselves.....it was fantastic :)

I kited lake Cootharabah on Saturday, which is something I don't think I'll ever bother with again. Windy as hell.....I mean *nukin'*....., really choppy water and nothing but mud on the bottom everywhere. All in all, not a very nice session.

We went for a spin through the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park to an awesome spot on the Noosa River called Harrys Hut. Beautiful fresh water, nice and quiet.......absolutely brilliant. Except for the redneck wankers in boats who don't seem to be able to work out what 'no wash' means when they come past. Or the fact that they're not supposed to go any further up the river in powered craft. The only real drawback is the road, which is *rough*.....just about shakes the teeth out of your head.....but it's well worth the effort to get there anyway.

So, a great weekend that went way too fast as usual. I need to become independantly wealthy so I don't have to keep doing this 'back to work' crap every Monday. If anyone can help me out with that, do drop me a line.......

A fresh start.....

Well well well......what am I doing here on a free blog site I hear you ask? Well, it's a very simple thing really......I've finally become sick of the comment spamming, bandwidth hogging BASTARDS that keep hitting my other blog 24/7 and filling it full of total shite (well, worse shite than I was filling it with anyway). So, we'll see how this one goes instead.