Tom’s Dispatch has a very interesting article on the future emergence of China as a true superpower. While the article starts off documenting recent U.S. and Japanese attempts to rile China, and the potentially disastrous consequences of a Taiwanese secession-bid, it then goes on to give an insight into the deals China is making with many countries around the world, and how it is rapidly becoming the major trading partner with Europe, Iran and Latin America among others. Worth a read.

It’s been a hectic week this week. Mum & Dad arrived last Monday for their first visit to Australia. Met them at the airport, brought them home, then took them on the cliff walk down to Bondi, stopping by Duncan Page Reserve so they could get a great view back over the city. Walked along the beach, then had breakfast in the Tratt.

On Tuesday, we left my place and walked along the cliffs in the opposite direction, down to Watsons Bay where we had fish & chips at Doyles, followed by a ferry ride into the city. It’s the best way to approach the city – great scenery and you pass right by the Opera House. Walked around Circular Quay a bit, then checked out the Opera House for a while, and finished off with a walk through the Botanical Gardens (where we saw all the fruit bats roosting in the trees), up Macquarie St., past Parliament House and down to Martin Place for the train home.

I worked on Wednesday, then we went to see the Sydney Symphony Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky at the Opera House. Worked again on Thursday then we played a round of golf in Moore Park with Tom on Friday. I played pretty badly, though there were a few good shots to draw solace from! That evening Mum & Dad got to meet Jacqui’s mum, Denise. Saturday saw us visit Paddington Markets, then we had a barbie back at our place in the afternoon with Jacqui’s family. A great time was had by all and I managed not to poison anyone with my efforts on the BBQ front. Sunday was another family day as myself, Jacqui, Mum, Dad & Denise drove up to Palm Beach, then met up with Mark and his friends for lunch and a swim at Whale Beach. Dad nearly got swept away by the undertow, which was bloody strong if you weren’t used to it, but we made it to shore fairly easily in the end.

They both love the place and can’t get over the fact that the weather is so great and that they sky is a beautiful clear blue every day. I also bought Mum a pedometer to encourage her to get out and exercise, as she’d mentioned one of her friends having one. She was delighted and has been tracking her progress every day. I think you’re supposed to do 10,000 steps per day. As it happens Tuesday was the first day she used it and she racked up 17,000 straight away, though we were pretty much walking almost all day.

Off to the Blue Mountains tomorrow!

Had a good week down in Canberra last week. Matt had organised a work golf day for Friday, so we hit the driving range on Tuesday night to get some practice in. Wednesday night saw myself & Paul bring Daniel out for his first MTB ride, which he enjoyed immensely. I got a puncture right at the end, so had to walk home as, while I had a spare tube, it was for my old bike and didn’t have the right valve to fit through the hole in the rim. Even though Daniel walked with me it still took ages as we wandered the meandering back streets of Canberra in the pitch black. We made it eventually.

I bought new tubes on Thursday, then ended up riding around Majura for 2.5hrs on my own which was great fun. I was bloody exhausted at the end, so a kangarro steak washed down with few Belgian beers in Debacle worked a treat. Friday was the golf day and after getting off to a shocking start with an 11 on the first hole I settled down into relatively normal play, finishing up with a 57 for the 9 holes. Myself and Tom have decided to get some regular driving range practice and round of golf in this year, having hardly played at all last year.

B: 55km (MTB)

Bought my first car today! It’s an automatic 1986 BMW 535i with 192,000kms on the clock, but only 15,000 of those since an engine rebuild. It’s in perfect condition and has been looked after extremely well by its previous owner. Myself and Mark went to check it out this morning and it looked great. Bodywork & engine look great, no rust. The only signs of wear were that the two front seats were a little threadbare and the top of the dash has a crack due to the sun. Other than that, it’s perfect, so agreed a price of $5750, and I’m picking it up next weekend.

Got some good cycling in yesterday. Cycled in and out of work, then met up with a few Transitions people for a couple of laps of Centennial Park. Kept a pretty good pace going and arrived home pretty tired.

Just got back from sqim squad and things are definitely getting tougher. The new fast guy, James, was joined by his equally fast girlfriend, Vicki, so the pace is not going to slow down at all. Turns out they both went to the World Masters Games in Itlay last year ;-)

400 warm up
3 * 400 FS on 6:25 (5:40)
200 FS
2 * {
    2 * 100 IM on 2:00 (1:25)
    2 * 100 BC/FS on 1:45 (1:28)
    2 * 100 FS on 1:40 (1:21)
    2 * 100 FS on 1:30 (1:22) }
Total: 3400m

Also cycled 15km in and out of work.

S: 5800m – B: 49km

Got back in the pool at lunch after 10 days off sick. I can still feel the remnants of the cold, with the spark gone from the session. There were two new guys who showed up today, both of whom are faster than me, so that will help push me along in future. The full session was 3600m, but I was exhausted after 2400m and I want to try and go for a jog this eveninf, so I called it quits.

400 warm up
5 * 200 Pull on 3:10 (2:50)
200 BC on 4:00
2 * {
    2 * 100 IM on 1:50 (1:30)
    1 * 100 BC on 1:50 (1:33)
    1 * 100 FS on 1:40 (1:25) }
Total: 2400m

S: 2400m

One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.

Source: USA Today

“Ah, the freedom. Look, we have the gas-line freedom, the looting freedom, the killing freedom, the rape freedom, the hash-smoking freedom. I don’t know what to do with all this freedom.” – Akeel, Iraqi Translator

…for nothing left to lose.

This is hilarious. Book sales are down, and people are reading less. Publishers in the US feel that the reason is text which is too small, making it uncomfortable to read for long periods, and they plan on introducing many more large-print books. Next they’ll be complaining about all the big words and we’ll all be walking around with My First Reader in a few years.

Myself, Kevin, Niall and Billy went up to the Blue Mountains for a bit of mountain bike riding yesterday. I left home at 7.25 and cycled up to Niall’s, got the bikes in the car, waited for Kev to arrive and then left in convoy for Newtown to pick up Billy. After messing around for a bit in the warren of streets that is Newtown, we finally got on the road and drove straight to Blackheath.

As Billy hadn’t been MTBing before we had chosen to do two shorter routes, rather than one long one. It also helped that none of us had been on these rides before. The first of the two was a 14km out-and-back to Hanging Rock (pictured above). As you can see from the picture, the rock (on the right) has almost separated from the main land mass, on the left. There’s a one metre jump to get across onto the rock, which you’d think would be piss easy. However, there’s really only one place to cross, and as you stand there contemplating the jump, about 1.5 metres to your right is a looong drop into the valley below. Basically, if you screw up the jump, you’d probably have time to ring someone and deliver a parting message before you hit the valley floor. It’s amazing how this fact managed to change the perspective on what should be a walk in the park.

You have to walk down a steep track to get to the jump point, and on the way down I was thinking to myself “I’m just going to walk up to it and do it”. However, as I approached the edge, and started noticing the drop my legs started to get the wobbles! It’s quite funny really as it’s obviously your subconcious’s way of saying ’you’re going to kill yourself’. After a bit of hesitation, we all made the jump and hung around for a bit to admire the view before jumping back onto the ‘mainland’ and climbing back up the track to our bikes. Everyone was a little hyper from the adrenaline rush which made the steep climb a little easier. Rode back the car, had some food and then headed for Faulconbridge.

This was another out-and-back route, this time 8km each way, ending in another spectacular lookout. There were no jumps required, just a 270^o view of heavily wooded valleys with a river running through the one at our feet. I keep meaning to bring my camera/video on these trips, but in the early morning rush I usually forget it. Yesterday was one day when I definitely regretted not having it, though I suspect we’ll end up doing those rides again.

PS: I downloaded the photo above from the web, so that’s not one of us sitting right out at the edge. Maybe next time!

S: 6600m – B: 88km (30km MTB) – 2 weights/core