Being less hungover than usual on Sunday, I took the opportunity to ride up Mt Majura.

I rode up it once before, in March or April – I forget. That time I went up the south western side, on the dirt trails, and spent most of the “ride” walking my bike because it’s so step.

Not a bad old day.

This time I headed north up the highway, then along Majura road and finally up the bitumen road which goes up the back of Mt Majura. Then I rode down the crazy-steep dirt tracks.

For the doubters, a pic from the very top.

It’s still pretty steep even on the bitumen. First gear for most of the climb for me.

Vital statistics were:

Ahem. Pretty piss-weak really, especially if you’ve been watching Le Tour as I have.

As a comparison (ha!), some interesting historical stats on the Tour here. Here’s a graph of average speed over time:

As you can see, on the most recent Tour Lance Armstrong averaged 41.654 Km/h over the 3,608 Km length of the Tour. That’s graph’s not quite the whole story, for some of those years the total distance was much longer, but still an impressive trend.

It’s sort of sad to see Armstrong retire, he certainly doesn’t seem like he’s starting to fade. If anything he was more dominant in this Tour than previous ones. On the other hand next year’s Tour will be the most exciting in years, because there’s no clear favourite.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest …

Spent the weekend scrubbing fridges, well two, and moving furniture. Sarah and Nick have got a gorgeous little place in town and funnily enough she wanted all her furniture back! It’s actually left the lounge looking better, it was a tad crowded before.

Gilby brought his dad’s (?) trailer, which he towed with the newly purchased (from Sarah) Big Red Beamer, ’tis a nice piece of machinery, pity it chugs so much oil or I’d love one.

Wednesday night Jess was in town, back from Vanuatu, and we headed to see Sarah Blasko at ANU. I missed most of 78 Saab which was a pity, I haven’t seen them for years.

Ms Blasko put on a top show, I didn’t really know many of her songs, but she’s got some really good ones. I particularly liked a few she did with just an acoustic guitar.

In other music news I’ve been consumed the last few days by “Frances the Mute” from The Mars Volta.

It’s a bit prog-jazz-funk-rock I guess, a bit of a breath of fresh air after the last few years’ selection of minimalist rock, Grinspoon it ain’t. I never really got into At the Drive-In, which was the precursor to The Mars Volta, but I’ll have to look them up now.

I’ll certainly be grabbing a copy sometime of the MV’s first album, De-Loused in the Comatorium.

I’m also loving Ani DiFranco’s latest, Knuckle Down, it’s one of her best I think, although it’s not like she’s ever done a bad album, so it’s probably just enough to say it’s an Ani DiFranco album – buy it.

There’s been some concern expressed that perhaps a paper clip isn’t engineered to quite the right tolerances for use in a car.

Although it did the trick, the only stress on it is what comes from your arm via the gear stick, I have replaced the paper clip with an aircraft-grade Titanium split pin. For a total cost of $3. And I had to by 20, so if you need one let me know.

Been lazy lately, and busy I guess, so haven’t been keeping the blog updated as I should!

I guess last week was inevitably going to be a bit lack lustre given that I was just doing the same old, in cold rainy Canberra, rather than being elsewhere. Time to get skiing I think, at least make the most of the cold.

Some brave soul climbing Tai Chi, ~21 (??), above Calpe.

Annnnnyway. Had a quiet weekend, bike riding and bouldering on Saturday while the sun (sort of) shone.

Yesterday Tom and I headed up to Fish(ing/erman’s) gap in the Tidbinbilla valley. It was a pleasent stroll, beautiful sunny weather, and an amazing view down to Canberra which was still cloaked in low cloud. Unfortunately my camera wasn’t happy so I didn’t get any shots.

Popped down to Trinity and then Dickson Asian Noodle House for dinner after, with Tom and Catherine. Trinity was lively for a Sunday night, a bunch of people, even a DJ, but we were still able to get a couch which was nice.

ANU wall’s open again! Tour de France is on! Alli’s back soon (I think)! (we’d better clean the kitchen!)