Summer Journeys - The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road was a magnificent leg of the trip. Michelle and I competed it in two parts. the first day we left all our luggage in Torquay and traveled through to Port Campbell and watched a motorcyclist nearly die.

At a deserted beach

In the second part we followed the Princes Highway to Port Campbell, completed the Great Ocean Road, nearly died, and than rode to Nelson (near the SA border) to celebrate New Years Eve.

Small kids with big ideas - they know how to enjoy camping

The traffic was a bit thick, but the scenery made up for it. We were either following the coastline or winding our way through forested national parks.

Bushwalking action shot

It was in a national park that some fool on a motorbike attempted to overtake a whole line of cars, only to have some vehicles round a corner traveling in the opposite direction. The oncoming vehicles had to swerve off the road to avoid a collision.

Not all motorists are as lucky ......this is a speed deterrent at Port Campbell

We stopped in Lorne for Brekkie, and then went bushwalking to Cumberland Falls (advice I received from a store owner in Cann River.

Michelle points out Cumberland falls

Lunch was at a picturesque pub in Apollo Bay followed by a pretty average dinner in Port Campbell.

Lunch at Apollo Bay (Day 1)

After a days rest in Torquay we loaded up the bike and finished our sightseeing on the Great Ocean Road.

The Razorback

At the twelve apostles I was amazed to see someone who was a splitting image of an acquaintance of mine, and than astounded when ten minutes later it turned out to actually be Camilla from Canberra.

Some of the twelve apostles

After leaving the GOR Michelle and I were greeted by stupendously high and erratic winds. The buffeting wind wold blow the entire bike across the road and for half an hour my sole goal was not to crash.

The Grotto

Ten minutes before Warrnambool whilst on a bridge crossing a river the wind suddenly changed direction (again), sending us careening towards the railing of the bridge.

The Lock Ard Gorge

For the second time in ten years of riding I saw a life ending crash, but thankfully I was able to regain control moments before impact.

Gratuitous tourist photo

We stopped for a poor lunch to celebrate life in Warrnambool.
During the final leg of the journey Michelle and I stopped in Port Fairy, an absolutely lovely little town. We stopped by a pub and visited the beach. Unfortunately there wasn't any accommodation left so we pushed on to Nelson.

A beach (at Apollo Bay though)

We found a small caravan park where we set up my hootchie buy tying it to my bike. The other guests were absolutely amazed that we would sleep in something that offered such little protection (they all had massive caravans and tents). It was New Years Eve, so Michelle and I went to the pub across the road for dinner and a bunch of beers. We retired to our humble 'tent' just after midnight.

A spectacular photo that sums up the entire trip

Fremantle Conference

Fenner Hall, being the fine establishment that it is, sent me to Fremantle at the beginning of July to learn how to improve the first year experience in higher education. As far as conferences go it was okay, but the real bonus was being able to catch up with old Fenner friends who have moved to the large state of WA.

Fremantle in 2D form

On my first night Simon and I met up in a pub, sampled a couple of paddles of their (tasty) beer, before retiring to his place. We then plugged in his old playstation and indulged in the original Time Crisis.

Paddles of what was once beer

I saw the sights of Fremantle on the Wendesday and Friday. I went for a short run along the coast - heading south - passing places such as the Round House, the Little Creatures Brewery, and the Fremantle Beach.

On Friday I visited the Shipwreck museum

Part of a restored ship

A cannon - I think I could find a use for this in the Fenner Carparks

and went on the Fremantle Prison 'Ghost Tour', which was surprisingly good, and in all honesty gave me the best ideas to implement back at Fenner (a gun tower maybe).

Whipping post for 'post' Thursday night antics

The gallows - set up on the roof of Fenner for extra excitement

Saturday brought Jeremy up to Fremantle and we joined forces with the meager Gold Coast fans to support the Suns in their endeavour to defeat the Fremantle Dockers in Perth. It was Pavlich's 250th game to which added to the occassion.

A ball up at the Sun's attacking end

This was followed by dinner and a bucket load of beers with Sim at the Little Creatures Brewery.

Little Creatures Brewery from the outside

Little Creatures Brewery from the inside - Sim and Jeremy sharing a few obnoxiously loud ones with me.

It was with a heavy heart (and throbbing head) I had to leave behind footy and this fabulous tasting mango beer and return to Canberra.

Summer Journeys - Torquay

So, I’m in Melbourne with as motorbike and a grand scheme to travel the 850km or so to Adelaide with Michelle via the Great Ocean Road. It was a pretty simple plan with some minor difficulties, they being sports bike, passenger, luggage, Lorne Festival, and weather (that final comment will make sense later).

Michelle, or, as her T-shirt states - SuperWoman

The luggage problem was solved with multiple occy straps and the rest with sheer minded doggedness . I am always nervy riding around bigger cities because a) lots of traffic makes is unsettling in a strange place, and b) I don’t have any street directories for them and getting lost is easy. So Michelle and I wobbled off from my brother’s house on the 28^th of January heading towards out first destination: Torquay.

One gearsac, one hiking bag, 1 sleeping bag, 1 sleeping mat, 2 backpacks, 4 occy straps, 3000 kms

I giggled at the amount of traffic heading in the opposite direction for the cricket, but this humour was short lived as I took a wrong turn and immediately found myself stuck in said traffic. I swore multiple times whilst sweating in high heat in the traffic.

A beach at Torquay (not Bell's)

We were in traffic for the next 107km because of the Lorne festival and because the Great Ocean Road and Christmas a synonymous for the majority of the population of Melbourne.

Kleemo and I in our natural habitat performing an ancient meeting ritual

3-4 hours later we pull into Torquay stopping at Kleemo's humble abode, which we made the base of our operations for the Great Ocean Road. I was great catching up with old mate again and we got up to our usual tricks. We drank copious amounts of alcohol, played copious amounts of pool - I even won the first couple of games before Kleemo got his eye in (I lost the next million).

The intense concentration speaks volumes of the importance of this game

Kleemo surfed, I ran, and Michelle sun baked (literally). In between doing all this we feasted at Australia's best Coffee Club and scoffed amazing amounts of Gelato. Only once did I mention I'm friends with Layne Beachley's sister.

Also, what is a trip to visit Kleemo if you don't get to see your name written in pee!

Welcome to Australia!

Summer Journeys - Melbourne

There is not too much to say about this part of my summer holiday. I stayed with my brother for Christmas and we did our usual things got drunk, watched the Boxing Day Test, etc.

My first Ashes Test! Katich and Watson played well...2 out fo 11 isn't too bad.

I got to see Ruby and Cooper for an afternoon before they were whisked away to stay with their maternal grandmother in Newcastle.

Drinking beer, a usual Melbourne day

There was one intriguing aspect to the visit though. Due to multiple unexpected victories in an annual 8-ball tournament I had to return to Canberra for one night so as to play in the ACT champion of champions Grand Final (we lost to a 1st division team). I chose to fly up to Canberra, play in the tournament and then fly back the next day.

A street band in Melbourne

Lucas and I decided that instead of spending money on a taxi ($50 each way) or him driving me and picking me up (1 hour of hassle) I should ride my motorbike to the airport, leave it in the overnight parking and pick it up the next day.

My bike at the airport. There is something hugely wrong with this picture - can you see what is is?

It costs $50 to leave a vehicle for 24 hours so that seemed like a good idea (they had security guards and cameras on the boom gates so riding around the gates wasn't an option). Did you spot what was wrong in the photo above? Don't worry, I''ll zoom in for you.

Luckliy for me, no one else spotted that either

Yeah, I realised my error just as the airplane was taking off and I spent a nerve wracking 24 hours praying that my bike would still be there the next day. Also when I first returned to the car park I went to the wrong level.

Look a those eyes, I'm been judged by my two year old neice.

While I believe I am super lucky to still have a motorbike I have since idiotically repeated this feat, only this time at Fenner. On this instance two guys saw the keys at about 9:00am and tried to start the bike but apparently they had been taking the same stupid pills as me and couldn't figure out how to get it started (I checked the security footage). Instead they returned the keys to the Front Office after turning the ignition to leave my parking lights on and draining my battery.

Cooper's look of incredulity when he heard I had done it again

The Computer that Phill Built: The background story

Late one night (or maybe early one morning) I was sitting at my desk opening my laptop to do a little bit of work. My old trusty Toshiba, which had been left turned on for quite a while, was up to its old tricks again in that the screen remained black and would not respond to any stimuli from the keyboard, mouse pad, or the power button. Usually I would smile at its antics, turn off the power at the wall, unplug the battery, and then restart the machine. This time was different.
With a howl of rage I threw the infuriating beast against the wall, smashing it into a hundreds of pieces.

A computer in a thousand pieces

No not really, I swore once or twice and called Dan Rose, IT expert to ask his advice on how to build a bitchin computer'. The following is the result.

Me and my motherboard

It turns out that building of a computer is the exact opposite of building a bicycle. The actual building of the unit is fairly straightforward because everything is standardized, unlike a bike which requires quite a lot of practical and mechanical knowledge.

Briggs, Michael and I putting the computer together

However, the choice of components is extremely complicated. For the bike you decide what you need, how it fits on, find a brand you like and item purchased. For a computer you decide what you want, realise that there are two types, spin you head around the various numbers that get thrown at you, pick a model type and then realize that company that develops the technology doesn't make it. All of a sudden you find a hundred companies take the technology all with their own spin on what peripherals should be added, make a few different versions and then sell them off at a variety of prices that seem to make no sense. For the rank amateur such as myself it is stupendously overwhelming...but possible. And you learn a LOT!

Even professionals occasionally need help

After lots of consideration (I won't bore you with the details), this is what I bought:

Processor: AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition
Memory: 2x2 GB Kingston HyperX RAM
Motherboard: Gigabyte 890GPA UD3H
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon 6870 OC
Power Supply: Corsair TX-650(v2)
Hard Drive: 1TB Samsung f3 spinpoint
CD ROM: LG GH22-NS50 (OEM)
Case: NZXT Guardian 921
Monitor: Samsung 23.6" B2440L
Mouse: Tte sports black gaming mouse
Keyboard: Logitech USB illuminated
Operating system: Windows 7 64 bit (OEM)

including postage it cost $1385.69. There is a further $95 added to that for my logitech Z523 2.1 sound system, but I am waiting on it to be repaired as it arrived broken.

This is the inside of the case after everything had been installed

After the bits and pieces arrived I gathered the most technically savvy people I knew and we got to work. After about 2 1/2 hours of humorous antics and it was finally ready for a test run.

Turning it on for the first time

I am super satisfied with the results, and personally I think I have the prettiest computer in Fenner - which was my original intention the while time.

I'm all about pretty!

Summer Journeys - Bombala to Melbourne

Entering Victoria - a crucial part of any trip to Melbourne

Day 2 dawned bright and cold. I attached my wet clothes to the bike bag for drying and set off down the Monaro towards the south coast of Australia.
The road and scenery were amazing all the way to Cann River.

I went for a bushwalk along the Genoa River in Coopracambra National park looking for a waterfall

Just before reaching Cann River I came across Australia's oldest school, located in the tiny village of Noorinbee.

I followed the coast to Nowa Nowa and then meandered through country Victoria, passing though towns such as Bruthen, Glenaladale, and Maffra.

The Lindenow pub - good lunch and great people

It rained intermittently the entire time. If I had my clothes out it would start to drizzle. When I put them away the sun would peep through the clouds.

A brewing storm

The section from Nowa Nowa to Bruthen was particularly dangerous. Rain bucketed from the skies, obscuring my vision.

The serviceman's monument at Lindenow

I spent most of the time following the tail lights of the semi in front of me. Coming into Maffra I witnessed a spectacular accident that left two cars totalled. Luckily no one was hurt.

There was also a dog in the tray of the back truck. Poor thing never stopped shaking.

From Maffra I headed south towards Stradbroke and then cut west towards Gormandale and Mirboo North on some pretty dodgy roads. I stopped off at the Grand Ridge Brewery in Mirboo North and quick game of the original Time Crisis (my favourite) before striking out to Leongatha and the Gippsland Highway. This leg was made a wee more interesting by the constructs of a witty farmer.I saw the punchline first and actually rode for ages looking for the set up before I realised they might both be on the same row of bales

I made the final leg of the journey into Melbourne along the Gippsland Highway and then Princes Highway. I had an awesome pizza for dinner but I cannot remember where it was (probably Leongatha). Once again the stupendously heavy rains hit as I came into Melbourne in the evening, reducing my visibility to dangerously low levels but I made it in fairly safe and somewhat damp.

A powerplant I passed on the way. These things a MASSIVE. I also can't remember which town it was attached too. Koo Wee Rup perhaps?

It was a good trip, marred a little by the rain as I was keen to travel along the Grand Ridge Road – supposedly a great trail. However I was a bit concerned at its reliability in the wet so I gave it a miss this time around. There’s always next year!.