MrBonk's Blog

ANZ Banking Corporation - Taking incompetence to new heights!

2011-12-23T13:13:00.000+10:00

This proves beyond all doubt that you can still post record profits, even if your corporation is staffed by idiots!

After the debacle with my loan extension last xmas, I've had a particularly low opinion of ANZ and their shifty business practices. Now, they've excelled themselves again over the cancellation of my Merchant Services account and associated EFTPOS terminal machine. Back in October, before I closed my business, I contacted Merchant Services, arranged the cancellation of the account and organised to return the terminal to the local branch. After I closed, I dropped the terminal off, gave the guy the reference number and asked him to arrange for the machine to be returned to Merchant Services. At that point, I considered the matter closed and promptly forgot about it.

About a week ago, I got an account statement from Merchant Services, showing that the account was still open and I was still being charged a monthly fee for the terminal. To cut a very long story short, apparently the branch didn't bother to have the terminal collected. I lodged a complaint about the failure of that process and I've just been contacted by a guy from their complaints department who told me they've been unable to locate the terminal and that I would have to pay several hundred dollars for it! I said "Wait a minute.....I dropped the machine off at the local branch. They've lost it and now you want to charge me for it? Surely you can't be serious?!?" Apparently he was. I informed him that I would now be placing the matter in the hands of the Financial Ombudsman Service, at which point he asked me if I would like him to escalate the matter to a higher internal department to have it investigated more thoroughly. I kid you not. I said "I would have expected that to have been done already, before deciding to just lump me with the charges!!" I told him to go right ahead, but I've lodged a complaint with the FOS anyway.

Mind you, this is only the final part of a whole host of customer service failures. Simply trying to contact these people by phone sucked up 45minutes of my life that I will never get back, during which time I was disconnected twice, transferred to another department 3 times and then told that it was up to me to follow it up with the branch personally anyway. I said "I am following it up....I'm speaking to you, so sort it out!!" The excuse for why she couldn't contact the branch? "I'm sorry sir, this is an incoming call centre....I don't have a queue to put an outgoing call into." Seriously. I indelicately suggested that she find a piece of paper and a pen and simply write it down, but by that stage it was already obvious that I was dealing with someone of truly awesome ineptitude and I wasn't going to get anywhere. That's when I gave up and called their complaints number.

If I could extricate myself from any further involvement with ANZ, I'd do it without a second thought.....customer service? What a joke!

It's good to be back :)

2011-12-23T08:54:00.000+10:00

After spending the last couple of months sitting in front of a keyboard, I can honestly say it feels good to be working as a programmer again. I'd forgotten how thoroughly satisfying this type of work can be. The intellectual stimulation is something I have really missed. So, fingers crossed....hopefully they like my work and want me to stay. I'm on holidays for xmas now......what a novelty :)

Moving right along.......

2011-09-23T21:10:00.000+10:00

Isn't it amazing how your state of mind has the ability to warp your perception of time? I often hear people cite that old adage "Time flies when you're having fun", but I always think to myself "Yep, but I bet you've never thought about what happens when you're not." After trying to run a hobby shop in a small rural town for the last 3 years, I can tell you. You know those fucked up dreams, where you're trying to catch (or run away from) something, but it feels like you're running through quicksand and you just can't seem to get there, no matter how hard you try? Well, that's what it's like. It's like I imagine trying to ride a pushbike through molasses would be, but without the entertainment factor. Time seems to take on this horrible, boggy quality and drags along like it's got absolutely nothing better to do.

However, I'm happy to say that I think the bog is drying up (and yes, I do realise that, for the small number of people who follow this blog, it's become a very negative place these days). I've been offered the opportunity to go back to what I like to do best (computer programming), so I'm taking it.

Henceforth, I shall make the effort to post at least *some* positive entries between my rants.

Please wish me luck. I have no idea whether I'll need it or not, but it can't hurt now can it? :-)

Government assistance? Yeah right......

2011-01-14T13:06:00.000+10:00

So much for the offer of assistance for small businesses after the floods. I was unable to trade between xmas and new year, which is normally my biggest week of the whole year, but apparently that's just bad luck. I don't qualify for any form of assistance and my bank doesn't give a shit either.

On the first day back after xmas, the water was on the way up and it appeared likely it would reach my shop. I was advised to remove my stock from the shop, so I did that. The water eventually peaked about 30m from the door, blocking access to one end of the street. The other end was blocked by emergency services. Then the power went off for a couple of days. So, even though I had no stock, no access to the shop and no electricity, I still don't get any help. According to the 'fact sheet' for the govt assistance, "The scheme is not intended to compensate for loss of business income." So, I phoned the bank to ask if I could maybe skip a month on my payments on my business loan, so that I could at least pay some bills and buy some stock after the loss of that week's trade. Nope. No joy there either. Not even prepared to discuss it. I then decided to see about one of the 'low interest loans' being offered by the govt. Nope. Can't get one of those either.

So, thanks for nothing guys. You've been a big fkn help!

Social decay

2010-12-08T07:50:00.000+10:00

I noticed a story in the news this morning about the potential banning of the serving of energy drinks mixed with alcohol. The cited reason was that it would help to curb the steadily increasing level of 'street violence'. Oh really? That's a bit like saying we can eliminate forest fires by cutting down all the trees! Honestly, where does this shit originate?? Any person (and I use that term very loosely) with a propensity for engaging in 'street violence' will continue to do so, regardless of the method they employed to become intoxicated. Hell, some of these dickheads don't even need to be drunk! Let's face it, the real problem here is that the shit end of society is (and has been for too many years) in an out of control breeding frenzy. If you really want to stop the problem, introduce a 'procreation licence' instead. Stop the grubs and bogans from breeding in the first place! But, alas, it would be too little, too late. Worse than ever now, society is straining under the collective weight of multiple generations of worthless, unemployable, oxygen thieving wretches. I weep for the future, I really do.....

I'm over it.

2010-10-20T11:49:00.000+10:00

I'm over ignorant people who think the rest of the world owes them a favour. I'm over commodore driving bogans who have no respect for people on push bikes. I'm over people who expect free help with cheap crap they bought on e-bay or at crime converters. I'm over people who waste hours of my time asking questions about products they have no intention of purchasing from me, simply so they can go and buy them online cheaper. I'm over distributors who won't back their product when it fails. I'm over the spectacularly bad level of driving skill in this fkd up town. I'm over being broke.

Basically, I'm just over this whole fkd up ride and I'd like to get off now......

Smooth sailing

2010-05-17T14:46:00.000+10:00

I did some of the nicest glider flying I've done so far on Sunday. It was totally overcast, so there wasn't a spec of lift around, but it meant that the air was as smooth as silk......extremely nice conditions for flying :-) Off the winch, trim for 40kts and just cruise. The flights are short, but man oh man is it nice while it lasts!

A couple of weekends ago I got to do the hangar flight. The hangar flight is the last flight of the day and we had been taking off from the Southern end of the main strip, so in order to get the glider back to the hangar, you simply fly it up the strip and land it at that end. The awesome part about that is the fact that you're cruising up the strip at 50+kts and only a few metres off the ground in 'ground effect'. Very, very cool :-)

I hope it never happens to me.....

2010-05-06T13:28:00.000+10:00

That's it. I'm now 100% convinced that getting old means that you no longer have to give a damn about anyone or anything else around you. I've just driven to work amongst some of the most spectacularly unaware old folks I've even encountered. Honestly, they just wobble around aimlessly with a total disregard for anything outside their own little automotive world. A perfect example of this is the old dear who entered a roundabout in the right hand lane and exited in the left hand lane, without the use of her indicator, her eyes or her brain. Unfortunately, there was already a motorcycle in the left hand lane and he, not surprisingly, took great offense to almost being run down by someone who clearly had no idea where they were going. Then there was the bloke doing 30 in a 60 zone, looking left, indicating right, but driving straight (and I use that term very loosely) ahead while straddling the center line. I've heard of keeping your options open, but that's just ridiculous! Oh, and here's a tip for those of you who think that doing 40 in an 80 zone somehow makes you a safer driver.....it doesn't. Not at all. What it makes you is a mobile chicane and *very* irritating to other drivers who actually have somewhere to be and are trying, in vain, to get there sometime this century.

This sort of behaviour also seems to translate to shopping centres. If you're being propelled up the escalator with your wheelie-walker without having to move your feet, it stands to reason that everyone who entered the escalator behind you is also being propelled up the escalator in a similar fashion. Therefore, if you reach the top of the escalator and fail to move forwards, everyone behind you *will* pile into the back of you and you *will* end up in a tangled mess of arms, legs, oxygen tubes and wheelie-walker bits. But you know what concerns me about this more than anything else? The fact that someone who is so knackered that they can barely push the wheelie-walker into the shops has, immediately prior to causing a multi-person pile-up on the escalators, just been driving a motor vehicle about the place.

Hmmmm

2010-05-04T21:08:00.001+10:00

Well, Mother Nature hasn't done anywhere near as much cooperating as I'd hoped. In fact, I think I'm going to officially call this the worst season I've had kiting since I started. Of course, it's not ALL her fault, but on the times when I've been able to actually get to the beach, she's been sending all the wind to Tarifa or somewhere......

I've recently taken up full size gliding and I must say, it's provided me with a whole new thing to be addicted to. It's *very* good fun and comparatively cheap when compared to flying powered aircraft. Add to that the lack of engine noise and vibration and the spectacular visibility afforded by a glider cockpit and....well....I can't imagine why you'd want to fly anything else really! This is where I'm learning to fly. If you've never flown in a glider, I highly recommend taking the opportunity if it ever presents itself.

I'm not dead!

2009-11-20T07:26:00.000+10:00

I'm still here. I haven't been abducted by aliens (although I suspect I'm being visited by them from time to time.....) or something equally fantastic but entirely unlikely. I still have the shop (check out the shop blog HERE) and 99.9% of my time and energy goes into running that. I *have* managed to get a bit of kiting in, but even Mother Nature has ceased cooperating in that respect. It's been a woeful season for useable wind so far. Bring on the SE winds after xmas!!

Catching up

2009-04-13T15:27:00.005+10:00

Well.....it's certainly been a *loong* time between posts on here, but I have an excuse! I'm lazy.

There, now that we have that out of the way, I can actually explain what's been going on. You see, I've been having so much fun working for myself in the hobby shop, I've hardly thought about any of the things I used to do when I worked for CentreFlunk. I used to blog at least semi-regularly then, but I've got so many other things to do now. So many toys, but so little time :-)

I've been doing a little bit of RC flying again recently. I've put another nitro helicopter together (since I sold my old Ergo50), but I still have my electric TRex450SE V2. I've also become rather keen on electric flying for my planes. I converted my World Models Super Sports Senior over to electric and haven't looked back since (apart from the minor crash that is....). I just electrified a 120 sized Ultimate Biplane too, which is 'kn awesome!

I finally got around to test flying my Faser glider a couple of days ago and all I can say is 'wow'. Being a fully composite moulded plane, it's incredibly strong but light too. I was hoping to get some onboard footage today but it hasn't stopped raining since early this morning, so I guess that's out. I'm competing in the QLD thermal championships with it next weekend, so some practice would have been nice :-)

I haven't had much of a chance to kitesurf since I got the hobby shop. It's a bit hard finishing at 17:00 when you're used to bailing out at 15:00!! Never mind.....eventually I'll work out a way to get more kiting time in. We *did* go for a drive to Middle Creek yesterday, but it wasn't windy enough for me to get going (so all I got was cranky....). At least Michelle got to kite......

Shop lifting scumbags

2008-09-26T20:30:00.003+10:00

I've decided that I'll never understand what motivates some people. So far, I've had 2 cases (that I know of) of shoplifting in the new hobby shop. The first one I only found out about by accident, when I went looking for an item I knew was there a week ago, but had mysteriously vanished without having been sold. Sneaky bastards got away clean on that one!
The second one was committed by one of two blokes who I'd bent over backwards to help. To summarise events, they came in and purchased 2 indoor electric helicopters, but managed to lose one outside in the wind (after being told not to fly them outside in the wind......) at an altitude of about 60 meters and some 6 blocks away from themselves. I gave them a replacement the next day at cost price. When I ducked out the back to see if I had some spare blades that I was going to give them, free of charge, one of them decided to rip open a box and steal the spare blades out of a new one! Another customer who was in the shop at the time told me what had happened, but only after the thieving bastards had left (probably a good thing anyway, or I'd be speaking to the police for entirely different reasons, ie assault charges) :-( Now, I can accept that some random someone might come into the shop with the intention of stealing, but after the help I'd given them, it was the last thing I expected them to do!

Career changes

2008-08-05T07:19:00.005+10:00

Well....it's amazing what happens when I don't drop in here for a while. Since my last post, I've managed to move house, quit my job and bought a local business! That's right folks....I no longer work for the Federal Government! It's a long story, but to provide a very brief summary of the reasons why, I got sick of working for wankers. Clueless nobs the lot of them, so I decided it was time for a change. So what did I do? I bought a hobby shop called Bundaberg Hobbyworld and I'm having a ball :-) I'm still trying to get the website domain transferred into my name, but the URL is HERE.

I moved house because the neighbourhood had turned to crap. Redneck neighbours living on both sides and a bloody cane train and major road being built right behind my back fence. The noise was ridiculous. So, now I'm living by the seaside where all I can hear at night is the waves and the crickets. Noice :-)

R/C heli flying

2008-06-03T20:03:00.004+10:00

I took my newly acquired Align Trex 450SE V2 out today for its first proper flight (other than hovering in the back yard to make sure everything was working properly). Man.....I'm certainly rusty! But, I suppose that's to be expected, having not flown a heli in over 2 years. It's definitely going to be a long road back to where my skill level was at before I quit :-(

Mechanical abuse

2008-05-26T10:28:00.005+10:00

Or....how to waste about $600 in a week.

Recently, after having replaced the piston/liner/rod in my off-road buggy engine (OS.21VZB V-Spec), I went to the track to do a spot of tuning. After having some real trouble trying to get a consistent run out of it, I started to attack the track with a little too much enthusiasm (read: hitting all the jumps at full noise). At some point, most likely during one of the rather heavy landings, the air filter popped off the engine (that's bad, mmmkay?) and I did around 6 or so laps sucking all manner of dirt/grit into my nice new piston/liner :-( Scratch $125 worth of parts right there.

Not to be dissuaded from my current addiction to all things R/C, I put a new piston/liner/rod (which I had on hand for just such an occasion) in the engine and ran it in. Now, it should be noted at this point that it seemed to run faultlessly throughout the entire running in procedure. Revved out exceptionally well after run in and idled like a dream. All good, right? Wrong.

I put the car away until race day on Sunday, at which point I couldn't get it to run. It would start ok, but then wouldn't rev out. Then, after it got hot, it wouldn't idle. Then, it wouldn't start at all. So, after missing the start of my heat, I went back to my pits and pulled the engine out to have a closer look at it. After blowing it off with the compressor, I found a nice crack running along the entire bottom of the crankcase :-( That's also bad, mmmkay? Scratch another $125 worth of piston/liner/rod, plus a crankcase. Basically, that means a replacement engine, at around $400 or so.

Turns out when I replaced the first piston/liner/rod, I neglected to check the crank pin on the bottom end. A fellow racer gave me the tip after I displayed my newly destroyed crankcase to all and sundry in an attempt to share the grief. When I got it home, I stripped the engine down completely and checked the crank pin with another V-Spec engine I have. Sure enough, it's nowhere near the right size/shape anymore. Looks like it's been letting the bottom of the rod contact the case and....well....the rest is history :-(

Bugger.

Inappropriateness

2008-04-28T21:21:00.002+10:00

A few days ago, I got an email from a fellow called Jack Widal, telling me how unimpressed he was with one of my blog posts. I took a look at the post again myself and thought "Whoa....you're not kidding....". It was somewhat profane, to put it mildly. Upon reflection, I realise it's not at all the image I'd like other people to have of me. So, I've resolved to keep my blog posts much more socially palatable from here on in.

If you're out there Mr Widal and you're reading this, give yourself a pat on the back sir. I thank you.

Fast toys!

2008-02-15T08:58:00.003+10:00

Considering how shit the kite season has been so far, I decided to find something else to do while there's no wind. Years ago, I used to race 1/10th scale nitro powered radio controlled road cars. Lots of fun, but not very well organised, so when the engine in my one and only car finally died, I gave it away. I recently sold my R/C helicopter and one of my large R/C planes, so I had some spare cash kicking around and decided I might like to try my hand at 1/8th scale off-road buggies this time.

I popped in to one of the local hobby shops to see what was around and there was a second hand car in there, complete with absolutely everything I needed to get going. Turns out it was a Hobao Hyper 8 Pro with an O.S. .21 VZB V-Spec engine in it. The guy had spared no expense and had a ton of extra bits and pieces with it (including a whole, near new V-Spec engine that he had blown up on its very first run!), so it ended up being a steal :-)

I'm still struggling with the fact that the car spends half of its time off the ground.....it's a lot different to on-road racing, that's for sure! I'm slowly getting a handle in it though. It *is* a hell of a lot of fun too :-)

Social degeneration?

2008-01-17T09:07:00.000+10:00

Every morning, I go for a walk around the corner to my favourite coffee shop for my daily caffeine hit. In order for me to get to said coffee shop, I have to walk past one of the astoundingly high number of pubs in this town. What's even more astounding, however, is the fact that virtually the same assortment of no-hoper types are invariably there, every day, without fail.

This really does beg a couple of questions. Why on earth does anyone need to be pissed at 08:30 in the morning? Honestly, even if you weren't gainfully employed (as this collection of miscreants clearly aren't), surely there's something more productive you could be doing with your time at that hour of the day?? Of course, that begs another question in that if you weren't pissed at the pub at 08:30 every day, perhaps you may find it easier to become gainfully employed?

Now, don't think I'm only talking about blokes here. Roughly half of the aforementioned group are women. And what a delightful bunch of ladies they are too. I don't think I've even heard sailors swear as much as this lot. Just lovely :-/

Helmet cam buggy footage

2007-12-23T16:02:00.001+10:00

Here's another onboard buggy vid, but this one is shot with the new helmet cam I just got from Launch Helmet Cams. I got to 52.7kmh on this vid, but later in the day (after the camera tape had run out) I clocked 56+kmh :-)

More pain......

2007-12-16T08:36:00.000+10:00

Ok, so there's been 1 day of decent wind here in a whole week or more. The day before had no wind at all, so we took the mountain board out to practice. End result, Michelle crashed and got a mild concussion. Mountain board 3 : Us 0.

On the single windy day, I spent about 5 hours on the water, trying out riding blind and trying to do handle-passes. I also botched a kiteloop, resulting in a reasonably heavy crash. So, I was pretty sore at the end of the day.

Next day, no wind again, so we took the mountain board out again. We went looking for a steeper hill to try to get some more speed happening. Michelle sat this one out though. So, after finding a 'suitably steep' hill (read: too steep for my skill level), I proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes or so falling on the ground in various ways, including one fall that was heavy enough to hurt my back again. Mountain board 4 : MrBonk 0. *sigh*

Mountain boarding

2007-12-13T10:58:00.000+10:00

After finding such a good spot for the buggy, I decided to get hold of a mountain board to use with the kite. I got myself a Dirty Theory Blackhawk "S" and decided to give it a whirl out the back of my house where they're putting in a new road. There's a long, gentle slope there (basically the road they're putting in) which is still just that red volcanic dirt we get around here. So, with helmet, rollerblading knee pads and my wrist guards on, off I went. Not hard at all really, except I didn't expect the board to be so hard to slide. At the bottom of the hill, I leaned back and tried to push my back foot out. Wrong......the board just held its track and I fell on my arse, cutting my hand on the gravel. Mountain Board 1 : MrBonk 0.

There's another area across the road that they're using as a base for all the heavy equipment etc, and also where they're driving the trucks over and back from wherever they're getting all the dirt/soil/gravel/whatever they're using for this road. I could see a steeper hill over the back there, so I wandered over to give it a go. When I got there, the area at the bottom was badly churned up from the trucks, but the hill itself was pretty smooth, so I gave it a go. Half way down, picking up speed......uh oh, should have planned where I was gonna go at the bottom! I aimed for what appeared to be a reasonable flat bit, but when I hit it, it turned out to be a truck wheel rut and had been filled with loose gravel/dirt. The board pretty much stopped, but I didn't and ended up on my arse again. I landed heavily on my left 'cheek' that time, made the cut on my left hand even worse and cut my elbow. Mountain Board 2 : MrBonk 0.

I had a couple more runs and walked home :-)

Notes to self: Get some gloves. Get some elbow pads. Don't wear your work clothes when you go mountain boarding. It's gonna take a lot of soaking to get the red dirt out of my beige shorts....*sigh*

Kite buggy onboard video

2007-12-13T09:47:00.001+10:00

Last Sunday, when the wind was too light to get in the water, we decided to take the kite buggy down to the beach on the Southern side of Woodgate. Turns out this is a great spot for it, so I grabbed the handycam and shot some footage onboard. Unfortunately, I had to hold the camera by hand and fly the kite with the other hand, which wasn't exactly ideal, but it still gives an idea of what it's like cruising along the beach :-)

Busy busy busy!

2007-11-12T07:53:00.000+10:00

How time flies! I've been so busy I haven't had time to think about posting here lately.

Decent winds have finally started to crank back in here, so I've been kiting as much as possible. My new Peter Lynn Venom2's are just awesome! I had an absolutely epic weekend, kiting both days. I think I put in about 5 hours on the water yesterday (feels like 10....I'm broken today). Big wind, big jumps and some awesome wave action :-)

I'm just about to do my IKO course (from the 19th of this month), so after that it's full steam ahead with the lessons and the new biz.

Slackness

2007-09-30T21:26:00.000+10:00

Well.....what a slack little blogger I've been of late! I didn't realise it had been so long since I'd posted......I guess time really *does* fly when you're having fun :-)

So, what's been happening? We went on holidays a little while ago. We camped at a few places on our way up the coast to Airlie Beach, before heading over to the Pepper's Palm Bay resort on Long Island for a week.
The camping was absolutely fabbo! We stayed at Cape Hillsborough, then a beautiful little spot on the way into Finch Hatton Gorge called the Platypus Bush Camp. We were going to stay at a camp ground up in the Eungella range, but to cut a long story short, we rescued an injured possum and had to drive him back in to Mackay for medical attention. It was too late at night to head back up the range, so we ended up staying in a caravan park at Bucasia Beach, just outside Mackay (even longer story).
Next stop was Long Island. The Peppers Resort over there is absolutely fantastic. No TVs, no phones and best of all, no kids! The entire week was so relaxing, but we ate way too much food....it was just too good to pass up! We took one kite/board over, just in case, but it was no good for kiting there. Too much reef etc on the shoreline. It wasn't windy enough anyway.

I've started a kitesurf business! It's called Kitesurf Obsession (the website is still in development). I'm booked in to do my IKO instructor's certification towards the end of November, so after that I'll be all set to start doing lessons. I've got a couple of brands on board already (Peter Lynn and Best), as well as pushing my mate's kiteboards (www.cardboarding.com).

I'll pull my finger out and post some photos of the holiday when I get some more time.

Ciao!

The audacity of some people!!

2007-07-15T13:22:00.000+10:00

Yesterday morning, while I was sitting here having my coffee, I heard the water tap on the front of our house go on. "How very odd" I thought, so I went out to have a look. There's a house being built next door and it appears the builders (and everyone else) has just been helping themselves to our water! Fkng thieving bastards. There's the plumber (of all people, he certainly should know better!) with a hose hooked up to our tap and just running, full bore, out onto the dirt.

I said "Uh, what's the story with the hose??"
He said "Oh.....yeah.....you can probably turn that off now."
I said "Yeah, no shit....it's MY fkng water, which we have to PAY for! Make sure it doesn't get turned on again."
He said "Uh....yeah....ok."

So now I've had to buy 'vandal proof' tap tops, at MY expense, to stop the thieving bastards from doing it again. Unfkngblvbl.

Games games games!

2007-07-06T10:29:00.000+10:00

My ageing computer has been unable to keep up with the latest games for some time now. Unfortunately, I'm one of those poor souls who still has pre-PCIe hardware, so in order for me to get the thing up to 'gaming spec' again, I'd have to pretty much replace the innards and start from scratch. With this in mind, I was wandering around the shops a couple of weeks ago and found myself standing in the local EB Games shop. About 30mins later, I walked out with a new Playstation3 :-)

The last console I owned was a one of the original Playstations. I must say, I'm rather impressed with the performance of the new model by comparison! It's got more than enough grunt to put any PC I've built in recent times thoroughly to shame. Add to that the fact that I can sit in the comfort of the lounge and play on the 42" HDTV with 6.1 surround sound.....well.....it's a much more enjoyable gaming experience :-)

The only downfall is I turn into a couch potato every night :-(

Winter doldrums

2007-05-15T06:33:00.000+10:00

Bugger.....looks like the Winter doldrums are upon us :-( I just missed a whole week of 20/25kt SE winds here (for various reasons), but it looks like that might have been the last of the kite-able wind until Spring time. Bollocks to that......

Flying and children

2007-05-03T20:19:00.000+10:00

It's no secret that I don't like kids. However, if there's anything I dislike more than kids, it's whining, screaming, piss poorly behaved kids. So, what do you get if you combine a bunch of those with me and 5 hours stuck in an airplane? Well.....let's just say it's a good thing you're no longer allowed to take sharp objects in your carry-on luggage.

I had to fly to Canberra for work this week. Because there's no direct flights from here (surprise surprise....), I have to do it in 2 legs......here to Brisbane on a Dash8, then Brisbane to Canberra on a 737.

When I got to the airport here for leg 1 of my trip down, there was a woman with a screaming child sitting in the departure lounge. Excellent. So I went outside, where there was a guy with his daughter, who appeared to be hyperactive. She spent the entire time I was out there (some 30mins) running around and around and announcing, very loudly, "THERE'S A PLANE! THERE'S A TRUCK! THERE'S A.....". You get the idea. The guy seemed completely nonplussed by this and made no attempt to control this behaviour in any way, even though the other people (who had also presumably vacated the departure lounge on account of the woman with the screaming child) were clearly becoming as annoyed by this as I was. Unfortunately, they were getting on my flight (as opposed to waiting for someone to arrive on another flight, as I had originally hoped). Even more unfortunately for me, they sat right behind me, whereupon the child kicked the back of my seat for the entire 50 minute flight. The woman with the screaming child from the departure lounge was also on the flight, but thankfully at the other end of the plane. I managed to keep my cool, thinking to myself "It's only a short flight....just ignore it and you'll be rid of them soon."

I changed to the 737 in Brisbane for the second leg of the trip, only to spot the guy and his daughter getting on the same flight as me again!! Not only that, but they sat right in front of me! As if that wasn't bad enough, the woman with the screaming child from the first flight sat right behind me.....I kid you not. I briefly attempted to read my book, but gave up and resorted to using my MP3 player to drown out the screams from behind me.

That was on Monday. Today I flew home.
I boarded the Canberra to Brisbane flight, only to spot a woman with 2 kids, who were already crying, walking down the isle. You guessed it.....right behind me. Fkng brilliant. Then a couple with 2 young kids arrived and started getting organised to sit in the same row as me, but on the other side of the plane. The youngest child was put in the window seat, whereupon the older one immediately started whinging and crying because she wanted the window seat. This eventually became screaming and ranting that lasted for almost 20 minutes. Basically right up until we were about to take off and the hostess eventually came and politely told them to shut the fkng kid up and buckle her into the seat. Then the kicking from behind started again. Fkng unbelievable. Their mother made absolutely no attempt to stop them from kicking my seat, jumping up and down and thumping the window and all manner of other generally irritating behaviour. Then, when the hostess told her to sit them down for landing, they started pissing and moaning, which eventually became screaming and ranting (complete with kicking once more) when they *had* been sat down and buckled in, which lasted until we had stopped at the terminal.
Fortunately, my flight from Brisbane to home was completely uneventful.

I'm seriously considering lodging a submission with Qantas, outlining the utterly piss poor experience I had to endure on their flights and suggesting that all children under the age of 12 should be tranquilized (read: comatose) if they are to travel on aircraft. I wonder how that would be received.......

Big kite weather

2007-04-26T20:02:00.000+10:00

Looks like the kite season is all but over here. The wind dropped off just after easter and there hasn't been a decent kiteable day since then :-( Of course, it's 'round about now that I normally resort to dragging out the big guns (my 16M monster) when I get desperate enough to go for a kite. Oddly enough, as soon as I get on the water with it, I immediately remember why I invariably decide to never fly it again......until the next time I get desperate enough ;-)

Living in a place like this, it's easy to forget just how slow these big kites are in light wind. The biggest thing I've flown since I moved here at xmas time is my 12, although I could count the number of times I've had it out on one hand. The rest of the time, I've been on the 10 or the 8. Anyway, yesterday was one of those days when I got desperate enough to get the 16 out. Man oh man, talk about going from a Ferrari to a semi trailer......it's like everything happens in slow motion. But, at least I got out. Better than sitting on the couch or in front of the computer :-)

Kites ain't kites....

2007-04-13T20:45:00.000+10:00

Just before Easter, I managed to get my hands on a Peter Lynn Venom2 kite to try (thanks to Lachy at Kiteworks, who kindly offered to send it to me) while I was off on holidays. I'd been keen to try the 'foil' style kites for ages, but no-one around here flies them and there's no kite shop here.
So, when Lachy offered me a 13M to demo for a while, I wasn't about to refuse :-) Man...what an awesome bit of gear! I did the highest jumps I've ever done, with huge hangtime and the most floaty landings ever. The first couple of really high ones (after I got the timing sorted out) were downright scary! It also made for big, floaty front-roll transitions with very little effort. It soaks up the gusts like a sponge and has fantastic wind range too.

There's only one drawback.....I had to give it back :-( I went out for a session on my own kites this afternoon and, well, they suck by comparison. I didn't realise just how bad they are (twitchy, poor gust handling and woeful depower) compared to the Venom2. I know what I'll be buying when I can afford to replace my kites now!

Yeah baby!

2007-04-03T20:42:00.000+10:00

Holidays and already 3 solid days of kiting.......now that's what I'm talkin' about :-)

Holy windy batman!!

2007-02-10T07:47:00.000+10:00

Seems I spoke too soon about the wind. Yesterday afternoon, I thought I was finally going to get out for a decent kite......forecast looked good, BOM observations looked good, so I raced home and headed down the beach. When I got there, it was averaging about 20kts, gusting to 26 or so. Ok, fine. Forecast was for 20/25kts, dropping to 15/20.

Unfortunately, as I was laying out my lines and pumping up my kite, the wind kept getting stronger and stronger. Eventually, it was averaging 25 and gusting to 30+kts! Even on my smallest kite, I'm still too light to hold down that much wind, so all I could do was stand there getting sandblasted, waiting for it to drop off (which it didn't do). I gave it 45 minutes and packed up.

One thing though.....at those wind speeds, the huge drifts of sand being blown across the beach and the sand flats out the back look just like moving water in a long exposure photo. It's very cool to watch actually.

Moving house.

2007-02-08T13:46:00.000+10:00

I've moved! I finally got to move to Bundaberg, which puts me nice and close to Elliott Heads for when I want to go for a kite :-) Not that I've been doing a lot of that.....the wind has been rubbish since I moved here :-(

Here's a tip....don't move over xmas/new year. What a drama. None of the regular moving companies work over that time, so we had to do it outselves. I've sworn that I'll never do it again. No matter how much it costs, I'll be paying a removalist next time. Multiple trips in my Patrol (towing a trailer) *with* Michelle following in her car, plus 2 trips in the pantec we hired to move the 'big' stuff. How the hell can you possibly fit that much stuff in a 4 bedroom house??

Anyway, it's done now. Now all I gotta do is work out a way to bring the south east winds back and I'll be set :-)

Clipless pedals rock!

2006-12-07T10:19:00.000+10:00

I've been doing quite a bit of biking of late, trying to get back into shape after the winter woes of my sore joints etc. Yesterday afternoon, I finally got around to trying 'clipless' pedals (the sort you have to 'click' into with special cleated shoes). All I can say is, I don't know why I didn't do this sooner.....these things are absolutely awesome!

I went for a set of Shimano M520 SPDs and a pair of Specialized Sport MTB shoes. My bike (Giant VT3) actually came with a set of cheaper SPDs, but after a bit of research online I decided not to use them (bit dangerous....can be hard to get out of apparently).

On my first ride yesterday, I couldn't believe how much more power I can make. I can easily hold one gear higher than before, although one thing I noticed is how much more it allows you to thrash your legs....my quads were demolished when I got home :-)

If you haven't tried SPDs before, give it a whirl.....it's definitely worth it!

The mysteries of urinary accuracy.

2006-11-10T09:22:00.000+10:00

RANT

There's not many things that annoy me, (actually, who am I trying to kid here? Lots of things annoy me, but this one is a real pet peeve.....) but WTF is it with guys who can't manage to urinate without pissing on the floor/seat of the fkng toilet??? Our urinals at work are broken at present, so we're having to use the stalls. Every single one of them has a puddle of piss in front of it that you could just about fkng drown in! How the fk can you *possibly* miss a hole *that big*, while you're standing *right on top of it*?!??!

Is it just the fat bastards who can't see their own penis who are at fault here? Surely you don't need to be able to see it to know which way it's pointing?? I mean, *I* can manage to take a piss in pitch darkness in the middle of the night without hosing the place down and I don't think that makes me extraordinarily talented in any way, so that can't be it.

Perhaps it's the 'gotta shake the fk out of it like I'm being electrocuted' types? A tip for those guys.......did you not notice that roll of paper on the wall right next to you??

Public loos are even worse.....it's like everyone who uses them has a fkng lawn sprinkler attached to the end of their dick.

Maybe I need to get some signs made up and surreptitiously installed on the walls in there. "Don't Boast, Stand Close" or "If You Can't Slam Dunk It, Sit This One Out" would be a good start I reckon......fkng grubs......

/RANT

Joint pain and back pain is bad, mmkay?

2006-11-06T19:38:00.000+10:00

I've been struggling recently with some pretty bad joint and back pain. Pretty much constantly since the post I made in March about the wrist pain that I suddenly started getting for no apparent reason. Knees, ankles, wrists.....you name it, it's been hurting. It stopped me from doing anything over the winter, so my muscle tone quickly disappeared and left me with debilitating back pain as well :-(

I eventually got sick of my GP charging me $49/visit to take wild stabs in the dark about what might be wrong with me, so I went and saw a rheumatologist, who told me that my condition is more than likely the result of a particularly nasty gut bug I had back in August last year, the night before we left for a hiking holiday in Girraween National Park (where I ended up with crippling knee pain). A gut bug which.....and there's simply no tactful way to say this....gave me the worst case of the shits I've ever had in my life. For those of you who've seen Trainspotting, the scene with Renton in 'The Worst Toilet In Scotland' was a walk in the park compared to what I ended up with. I was out of commission for the entire 7+ hour drive down there and had to stop at virtually every service station toilet we encountered on the way. Not pleasant at all. But anyway, the other side effect is apparently this crippling 'poly-arthritic' pain that can last 6 to 12+ months! Nice huh? Can flare up at any time, for no apparent reason.....perfect one day, agony the next. A complete pain in the arse (and everywhere else).

To top things off, during the course of trying to find out WTF was going on with my back, I insisted on getting it CT scanned (something that my GP assured me was a waste of time and money I might add.....). I discovered that I have 2 bulging discs in my spine (L3/4 and L4/5), plus 'degenerative arthropathy' at the L5/S1 level. Excellent....*sigh*.

Luckily, the joint pain is slowly starting to taper off. I still can't run, but I'm told I shouldn't do that anymore anyway because of these bulging discs. I've been told I shouldn't really do *any* of the things I like to do (like mountain biking and kitesurfing), but I've been doing both of those and my back pain also seems to be slowly going away......fingers crossed I'm finally coming good!

Moral of the story? Be very careful what you put in your mouth! If it's that easy to catch something that can totally fuck up your lifestyle for over a year, I'm tempted to never eat anything that doesn't come out of a can from here on in!

It's Magpie season again......

2006-09-25T21:36:00.000+10:00

For those of you who have no idea what a Magpie is (colloquially known as a 'maggie'), think of a medium sized black and white bird with a very sharp beak. Then, think of said bird hitting you on the top of the head at warp factor 9. That's a maggie. During breeding season, these things defend their 'territory' with a verve that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. Of course, by 'experienced', I mean getting hit on the top of the head by one.
I went for a walk at lunch time today, just to stretch my legs and get out of the office. Little did I know that I was about to enter a battle zone. Less than 5 minutes after leaving the office, I had a gaping wound on my head and blood running down the back of my neck! Well, when I say 'gaping', I mean more like a minor flesh wound, but it *did* bleed like crazy. I'd been attacked by one of the psychopathic feathered fiends and he'd got me a beauty!
Anyway, obviously I've lived to tell the tale (thus far anyway....who knows what horrible diseases I'll get from the wound.....best not to think about it!), but I'll certainly be taking a different route to the shops from now on!

I've gone wireless :-)

2006-08-31T18:39:00.000+10:00

It's about time, but I've finally updated my ADSL hardware with something infinitely more useable.....a Netgear DG834PN wireless access point. I'm kicking myself that I didn't do this sooner. It's *very* nice to be able to connect the laptop to the internet, while sitting in the lounge, *without* having to trip over a bloody network cable running half the length of the house :-) Not only that though....I'm actually getting faster download speeds than I was before, even *with* the uber security enabled! Gotta be happy with that :-)

I finally got an IT job!

2006-08-18T17:42:00.000+10:00

WOOT! After nearly 2 years of trying, I've finally managed to get a full time programming gig! I'm chuffed :)

Snowboarding in New Zealand!

2006-08-02T10:10:00.000+10:00

Woot! Michelle and I just got back from a week of skiing and snowboarding in New Zealand, which was absolutely awesome again :) Things weren't all smooth though.....I had to go to Canberra for work in the week before we left for NZ and, thanks to some ill people who decided to come to work and share it around while I was there, I managed to pick up some sort of cold/flu type virus from them. At least that where I'm laying the blame anyway.

So, I flew to NZ anyway and ended up with barotrauma and an infection in my left ear, a bit of a chest infection and a hacking cough that still won't go away :( Didn't stop me from snowboarding though ;) Man it takes it out of you being sick though......walking through deep snow dragging my board was way harder than it should have been! No concussion this year, which was a bonus :) I bought a helmet just in case (a Giro G10 in snow cammo colous), but didn't end up needing it thankfully.

It hadn't snowed since the 21st, so the snow was starting to get pretty thin on the ground by the end of the week, but there was still plenty in most areas.

We spent our 1st day at Coronet Peak, just to get warmed up again seeing as we hadn't been for nearly 2 years. We went back there on our last day too, but the weather had well and truly turned to shit by then and it was raining/sleeting some of the time.

Our 2nd day was supposed to be at Cardrona, but thanks to yours truly forgetting to change the time on his mobile phone to NZ time, the alarm I set was actually 2 hours later than it was supposed to be (oops!), so we went to The Remarkables instead. I have to say, I wasn't that impressed with it, but Michelle found a good run (one of the intermediate ones from the Sugar Bowl lift) that she could get some really good speed on (even in loose ski boots!), so she thought it was great! Too icy for me on the less-than-perfect rental gear I had (old model Burton Clash 154 with pretty loose boots and bindings), but still not too bad.

We spent our 3rd and 4th days at Cardrona, which is my pick of the fields we've been to so far. Nice wide open runs! Unfortunately there were some areas where there was grass and rocks exposed, but for the most part it was good.

We did the Shotover Jetboat ride on the day we got to Queenstown....that's a hell of a blast! Those guys must *really* know their way around in those canyons. The speed they do in such close proximity to the canyon walls is a huge rush, but I hate to think what would happen if you got it wrong!

We went for a trip up the Skyline Gondola and did the Luge on the last day. That's heaps of fun! A handy tip though....bring your gloves and your beanie....it's bloody cold when you get moving on the Luge track! I accidentally left my gloves in the car....I couldn't feel my fingers by the end of each Luge run we did! Still great fun though.

We also took a look at the Kiwi Birdlife Park on our last day. They've got all kinds of cool critters, including Kiwis (obviously), Keas and even some Tuataras! They're all cute too....here's a couple of photos:

Michelle having a chat with a Kea with a sore wing

Tuatara at the Conservation Show

You're not allowed to take pictures in the Kiwi House (as they're nocturnal), so no pix of them.

It was nice to have clear sunny skies, but it would have been nicer if it had snowed every night. But, you can't have everything! It was still awesome and now we're even more determined to get our own gear and to try to make it to the snow at least once a year every year.

We're going to try somewhere different next year.......maybe Australia. We'd like to try Canada or Europe, but the cost is right up there :(

Tips for the budding Keyboard Warrior

2006-06-21T12:13:00.000+10:00

Just lately, on a couple of the forums I frequent, there's been an increase in the number of Keyboard Warriors presenting themselves. God knows why they bother.....too much time on their hands perhaps? Either way, it's a complete pain in the arse and it ruins the board. What I don't understand, however, is why these guys are almost always the same 'clueless, can't spell, never seen a punctuation mark in their lives' types. So, for anyone considering a foray into this sort of behaviour, here's a couple of tips:

#1. Credibility - Learn how to spell. Also learn how to punctuate. If you don't, you're just going to look like a knob-jockey.
#2. Anonymity - Don't ever tell anyone who you are or where you are. Otherwise, some psycho 'Charles Manson' type might track you down after you ruffle their feathers.
#3. Know your opponent - Try to at least have *some* idea of who you're dealing with. See tip #2 for why this might be a problem if you don't.

There you go.....that should at least get you started ;)

Bad vibrations.......

2006-06-16T23:43:00.000+10:00

I've been doing quite a bit of r/c helicopter flying of late, now that I have a shiny new OS .50 Hyper engine in it.......can you say 'power'? :) Unfortunately though, my helicopter has suddenly decided it's going to try to shake itself to pieces in the air. I've picked up a rather annoying vibration problem that's had me stumped trying to fix it. I've replaced (in no particular order).......
Mainshaft,
Tail output shaft,
Tail blade hub,
Clutch shoe assy,
Cooling fan (I got the shiny bling K&S one.....it's niiiiice),
Tail pitch slider assy (some more K&S bling)
Washout assy (yet *more* K&S bling!)

All of that to no avail....other than adding significant cost to the upgrades I've got on this thing. BUT.....last night while I was refitting the engine after painting the back of the new cooling fan black (so my new optical govenor sensor wouldn't get confused and keep turning itself off in mid flight), I discovered that I have a wobbly clutch bell. So, having replaced a whole pile of bits that didn't need replacing, I think I just might have *finally* worked out where the vibes are coming from.

I'm now waiting for some more 'upgrades' to replace those bits :-)

Long weekend on Fraser Island!

2006-05-02T20:28:00.000+10:00

Michelle and I just spent 3 days exploring some excellent spots on Fraser Island. It's never enough time though :( I reckon I could spend a month over there and *still* not see everything! Here's some random images from the weekend.....

I decided to push my luck.......

2006-04-15T21:59:00.000+10:00

I went for a kite today.....for the first time in over a month.....and it felt good :-) I probably shouldn't have.....my wrist is a bit more sore than I'd like right now, but it's certainly better than I thought it might be. One of the other guys I kite with wasn't so lucky though. While the rest of us were packing up, he managed to crash heavily on his ankle and may have broken it. It might be just badly sprained, if he's lucky.

I tried backroll kiteloops for the first time today. I've come to the conclusion that I need to either only do these on my 10m or 8m kites, or buy myself a much faster 12m kite. My Airush Lift ('04 model) just doesn't turn fast enough to do these without getting *well* spanked, even in moderate winds. It loops way too slowly for me to even consider using it for that again! Maybe when I've got some more practice at these and I can handle more power.......certainly not good for learning them anyway :-) The first couple I tried on the 12 resulted in a couple of spectacular superman impersonations, which has left me pretty sore from the impact on the water. I managed to land a couple, but I crashed more than I landed on the 12. The 10 was a whole lot different.....much faster through the window, so I got yanked a lot less and managed to actually land most of the ones I tried on it. I'm looking forward to heading out again tomorrow with a bit more wind to see how it goes, depending on how the wrist is when I wake up. There's a strong wind warning in effect for tomorrow though, so I might have to chicken out yet :-)

First R/C flights in 2 years!

2006-04-02T21:28:00.000+10:00

Given that I'm not going to be able to kitesurf again until next season (thanks to my wrist tendonitis), I decided that I might dig out my radio controlled planes and helicopter for something to fill my spare time. I dragged them out and checked all the gear out, only to discover that the receiver pack in the helicopter had give up the ghost. Everything else seemed to be perfectly fine though, much to my surprise, considering I hadn't bothered to cycle any of the packs while they were in storage. Nor did I do any storage preparation on my engines.

Anyway, I replaced the receiver pack and gave the heli engine a quick test run in the back yard the other day and it ran fine, so I took it all to work with me the following day so I could go flying after work. Of course, it rained the next day. I went to the field anyway and had to stand around for nearly 2 hours waiting for the rain to stop. When it finally did, I got organised to fly but for some reason the engine decided it was going to play up on me and not run past about 1/3 throttle without suddenly stopping. It did this about 5 times, after which it started to rain again anyway, so I went home.

Next day, I decided I would try to sort out why the engine wouldn't run. I had it in the yard again, trying to start it, and my power panel blew up. No warning....just suddenly died. So, I went to get another one from the hobby shop. By the time I got home, it was too late to try again though. So, I packed the car for a day at the field today instead. When I got there and tried to start the heli, the brand new power panel also blew up! Not having much luck here! So, not to be dissuaded, I hunted around in my car until I found a couple of 1.5v batteries. With some electrical tape, 2 banana plugs and some aligator clips, I had myself a makeshift glow plug igniter :-) It worked a treat, so I was *finally* able to get airborne.

I tell you what.....after 2 years of not flying anything, you certainly get a case of nerves when you lift off with the helicopter!! But, after a couple of flights my thumbs remembered what to do and all was well. I took my World Models Super Sports Senior to the field with me too. No such problems with the YS.91FZ.....started immediately and ran like it had never been sitting in a room for 2 years under a sheet. I hope the YS1.10FZ in my Ultimate Bipe behaves as well when I head out later in the week with it!

What a fantastic afternoon too....clear blue skies and light winds. All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon :-)

Wrist pain.

2006-03-18T20:01:00.000+10:00

Just recently, I've been starting to get really sore wrists.....the right much more so than the left. I put it down to too much computer work, but it's been steadily getting worse and worse. I tried to go for a kite a little while ago and had to come back in after only 2 short runs because the pain was unbelievable :-( I went to the doc....he tells me I've got Tendonitis. Great. He tells me I shouldn't kite for 6 to 12 weeks. Awesome. I'm supposed to be spending a week at Elliott Heads with the rest of the local kite crew in the week before Easter. Given that's only 3 weeks away now, that's not looking good :-( I figure I won't kite at all in the meantime, so I just *might* be ok to kite at Easter. Fingers crossed!

I got me a new toy :)

2006-03-02T20:04:00.000+10:00

I just got myself a new 19" LCD monitor (a BENQ FP91V, for the other geeks out there...). How nice is it being able to look at my screen in 1280 x 1024 and have the entire picture crystal clear over the *entire* screen? I'll tell ya.....it's fkng great! My ageing 19" Mitsubishi CRT can't cope with that res and stay in focus for some reason. Even though it says it can in the manual. Mind you, it's been in for repairs 3 times during the time I've owned it.....I'll never buy another Mitsubishi monitor as long as I live.

So, anyway....given that I've been a Slack Bastard® and haven't bothered to post here in a while, I suppose I should mention a few other things of note. First and foremost, Michelle is up and going fine on the kite now. Going upwind and all :-) Now I reckon that's pretty damned cool myself.....there are presently *no* other girls kiting around here! We've had some pretty crap weather of late though.....as I type this, it's been raining pretty well constantly for the entire day now. When it *has* actually been blowing it's been ok, but those days have been few and far between just recently. Michelle got a couple of awesome shots of me at Elliott Heads in early February:

And before the 'leash police' start getting all bent out of shape, I *am* wearing a leash.......I never kite without one. It's just very difficult to make out in those 2 shots. It's a 'through the bar' 5th line safety, so the connection is obscured behind the chickenloop in both those shots.

Work is still progressing nicely, although a bit slowly owing to the fact that I've had to fill in for someone while they were on leave for a week.....so my programming project basically got put on hold during that time. I tried to keep going on it, but it was a waste of time really.....I'd just get started on something and I'd get interrupted and lose my train of thought.....hate that!

Programming goodness

2006-01-24T21:32:00.000+10:00

It's been a while between posts, but for good reason......I've been trying to learn 3 programming languages at once, as well as work on a few Macromedia certifications in my 'spare time'. However, I must say it's been time well spent. I've recently discovered Javascript, which is a very cool thing indeed! Very, very handy. But there's a downside to tackling 3 languages at once......after a day of trying to write code that covers all 3 in one app, my brain ends up sitting in a corner by itself sucking its thumb. I'm told that'll pass.....eventually. Christ I hope so!

New Year's Eve

2006-01-02T14:57:00.000+10:00

We went to Elliot Heads with a couple of kiting friends on New Year's Eve and had a *huge* session on the water....easily the biggest I've had for a while. Not immensely windy or anything, but just a good solid session. Had a meal and a few drinks and saw in the New Year quietly (we were all so tired from the day at the beach it wasn't funny!) in the hope that it was going to be windy the next morning. The forecast was good, but as usual, it was wrong. Too light to make it really worth going, but we went anyway. That's addiction for you :-)

If that's xmas....I've done it.

2005-12-28T14:06:00.000+10:00

Well, that's another xmas down. Between too much food, too much drink, too much heat and too much kitesurfing, I'm going to have to go back to work to recover :-)

Xmas day was the windiest I've kited for a long while......27knots and some decent waves at Mon Repos near Bundaberg. Even on my smallest kite (8m) I was overpowered 90% of the time, but it was still good fun! We drove home that night through a massive thunder storm, complete with the most awesome lightning show I've ever seen. Mother nature never ceases to impress the shit out of me :-)

Severe time shortages

2005-12-13T19:39:00.000+10:00

Between work, xmas parties and the weather being generally uncooperative, today was the first kite I've had in almost a month! No wonder I was starting to get edgy.

I had to fly to Canberra last week for work. For the 2 weeks before that, the weather had been *really* ordinary....lots of storms etc. So, no kiting for me. Then, on the day I flew out, it was perfect.....clear skies, blowing a good solid 15knots+. Man I hate that! I even tortured myself all week, looking at the wind readings for home.

However, things are finally looking up on the work front. I inherited a pretty big project while I was in Canberra.....one that goes hand in hand with one I'm already working on actually. All going well, I might finally be able to swing a permanent outposted job!

Today's kite wasn't great.....*very* windy and quite gusty too, but it was fantastic to be back on the water again :-)

Kitesurfing goodness :-)

2005-11-21T13:14:00.000+10:00

Well....it's been a couple of reasonably good days here on the kitesurfing front. Not least of which is because Michelle is starting to really get going on the shorter board properly now! It's a good feeling, watching her power the kite up and just cruise away :-)

We had a fantastic day at Elliott Heads on Friday......I took the day off work and we went to the beach for the day. It was light to start with, but by mid afternoon, it was cranking in nicely.....so much so that I ended up on the 10 :-) Saturday was light, but kiteable.....I had to fly the 16 and couldn't do much, but it was a nice easy session. Sunday afternoon was much better.....Michelle had some great runs on the 12 until it picked up a bit too much. A great weekend in all :-)

Bloody kite maintenance :-(

2005-11-11T09:48:00.000+10:00

I'm still looking around for the chinaman I've apparently killed recently......

A few weeks ago, I blew a strut bladder in my 12. Of course, it was while I was pumping up and it was perfect conditions. Pain in the arse, but no real problem.....went out on my 14 and got demolished all afternoon, then went home and fixed the 12 bladder.

I got to the beach a couple of days ago and it was light wind, so I got my 16 out. In the course of pumping up, I found 2 strut bladders that were so badly twisted that they were severely deforming the strut. No amount of flapping/jiggling/swearing worked, so I gave up and put it back in the car and got the 14 out. Half way through pumping the LE up, the centre strut bladder blew. FFS....... So, there's that session buggered.

Yesterday afternoon, while pumping up my 12, I discovered that the tip batten pocket stitching had popped at the TE of one tip, over about a 2 inch area. Being desperate, I flew it anyway, but by the time I got back in it had reached about 6 inches, so I had to spend an hour or so in front of the telly last night, hand sewing the fkng thing back on.......hate that!

I can't help wondering what's next?

Will this rain ever go away??

2005-11-07T11:38:00.000+10:00

Damn.....someone has really turned on the taps at the moment. Every time I walk outside it's raining lately! I even had to kite in the rain on Friday afternoon......how's that for desperate?!

Michelle and I spent the weekend in Bundy so we could kite at Elliott Heads, but that didn't work out so well. No wind to speak of on Saturday morning, so we went snorkelling instead. We were surprised at how much coral/wildlife there actually was at the spot we went to.....Michelle managed to touch a turtle and we even saw a stonefish! First time either of us had seen one for real.....ugly little suckers, for sure.

Went for a short kite on Sat arvo when the wind finally came up, but Sunday was the better day. We went to Toogoom and Michelle got a few good runs on the shorter board before it *really* picked up......then I went out and was overpowered on the 10! Very gusty and not much fun for Michelle to be learning in, but better than not getting out at all!

Roll on the fine weather!!

Kickass kite session today.

2005-10-25T22:14:00.000+10:00

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!

2005-10-23T20:09:00.000+10:00

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

2005-10-18T20:17:00.000+10:00

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

2005-10-17T18:16:00.000+10:00

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.

2005-10-11T08:10:00.000+10:00

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

2005-10-10T20:47:00.000+10:00

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!

2005-10-10T19:51:00.000+10:00

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!!!

2005-10-10T07:10:00.000+10:00

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!

2005-10-09T21:26:00.000+10:00

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.....

2005-10-06T21:25:00.000+10:00

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.