Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
111/365
Moving house, always stressful. I can't believe how much stuff we had in storage. This was a pic for our friends in Canada, we figured they'd find Quatchi sitting in the middle of it all amusing! We are also repping out new car which has been dubbed as Clancy. This will also be meaningful to our Canadian friends. Right now we are driving down Emerson Grove, departing from the in laws house, en-route to our new pad in Plympton.
Sunday, April 20, 2014
110/365
Today was an awesome day. Beautiful autumn weather, pretty chilly in the morning and then balmy and warm in the afternoon, no breeze, beautiful sun. I started the day with 75kms along the Adelaide coastline, unfortunately getting a flat tire mid ride, but oh well, it happens. Getting home after 2.5 hrs, I made a brekky of epic proportions and then headed to the Parents place for an afternoon of lunch and bimbling around the garden, helping them out here and there. The afternoon ended up with a good bonsai clean up and re-potting session, getting them ready for the nice autumn weather and hopefully some good growing before the dormant weather over winter. Today was one of the main things I was missing while in Vancouver, hanging with the parents on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
109/365
The inlaws just returned from an epic 3 week cruise around Asia. Kate and I headed to the airport to pick them up. It was a surreal experience, as for the past many years, every trip to the Adelaide airport for us has been when we're about to venture overseas for a long time. I guess now we were returning the favour of being the taxi service :-)
The Adelaide airport has undergone some amazing developments lately, and this photo shows some of the great architectural detail that has been incorporated into the space. It is quite a nice airy airport and is a great welcome to Adelaide!
Picking Kates parents up from the airport after their huge Asian cruise. Exciting stories to hear and figured I'd snap some cool shots of the new Adelaide airport while we were there. This was as we were leaving the airport, after rushing madly to get down there thinking we'd be running late. In the end we pretty much arrived as they were disembarking the plane :-) Times to perfection!
Friday, April 18, 2014
Morialta Trail Running
This morning my aim was to run about 21kms, hopefully 25kms. I got up at 5 for a pre run coffee - if you've been following my blog you'll know that I don't operate well, or even bother trying to operate without my morning coffee. I love the ritual and what my morning coffee signifies. The process of making and drinking my morning coffee just sets me up for the day, it is a moment to just chill and let the day start slowly. It eases me into the rhythm.
I decided to drive to the base of Morialta, and then run from there, thus saving a good 8kms or so of just running throgh the suburbs, which wasn't really what todays run was meant to be about for me. I hit the trail just after 6, the sun was just rising so it was a bit dark in the valley. I decided to just do an easy jog up to the main waterfall on the well maintained trail to start, thus preventing risk of rolling an ankle or tripping on something in the dark. By the time I had hit the waterfall it was light enough to get to the good trails.
Running back down the main valley trail from the First Falls, I hooked a right and started the uphill battle with "Center Trail". I cut off the beginning of the "Centre Trail" with a nice bit of single trail that headed towards the top of the first falls. This met the Center Trail a few hundred meters up the valley. I like skipping this first bit of the "Centre Trail" as it is just a wide 4x4 track, and the single trail is far more fun to run. Once rejoining with the "Centre Trail" I proceeded to run for along it for probably 4km or so. The beginning of this trail was ridiculously steep, but then in plateaued out to a really nice gentle trail once I hit close to max elevation. This trail ended up at a T intersection with Moores Track. I took a left, now heading West, and then hung a right (North) a few kms later to drop down Chapman's Track towards Montacute Road. I had never run Chapman's trial before, but I quickly noticed that it just continued descending, and descending quite rapidly. At this point I was almost a hour into my run so thought it would be prudent to turn back and not cause myself too much unnecessary climbing - especially seeming I had no water or food on me. However, by this point the damage was done and the climb back up Chapman's Track was a good effort. It's amazing how quickly you descend and don't really pay attention to how far you have descended until you have to haul your ass back out of the hole you just ran into. I think I only ran down the trail for 10 or so mins, and it was a slog to recover that altitude.
At this point the sun was just creeping above the foot hills, basking the trails in golden light. There were some really dark clouds off in the distance, and the contrast between the golden light on the Eucalyptus and the jet black sky was amazing. The bush land up at this height is amazing, the soil gives way to thin sandy soil on sandstone, and the vegetation becomes almost stunted in appearance with a lot of dense undergrowth comprising of Corrias, Heath and Xanthorrea.
I made it back to the intersection of Moores and Chapman's Track, and passed straight across to a trail I have run on a previous trail run. It's a beautiful single track that follows the ridge and then drops and loops around the city facing slope and back down into the main Valley of Morialta. This trail is aptly named Rocky Hill Track. Yes, it is quite rocky, but beautiful and technical so it keeps you on the ball. Once I got back to the main Valley I wanted to circumnavigate the top of the Valley and make my way to Norton Summit Road. This would be my turn around point at which point I was just headed back to the car. So I followed the main single track around the top of the Valley, getting magnificent views of the cliffs. This led me to Centre Track again for a brief moment, and then I hooked onto a different single trail that headed well above 4th creek out towards Third Falls and Norton Summit Road.
Finally making it out to Norton Summit Road, I was probably about 1hr 20mins into the run and feeling a bit sore in the calves from a hills session a few days prior. It was nice to know that most of my work was downhill from here. Pulling a u-ball, I headed back along the same trail, this time taking the lower trail along 4th creek, instead of the higher trail that I entered on. From this trail I was able to shoot accross the top of second falls and loop around the side of the Valley that I had not yet run along, giving me views of the other side of the Valley. I was now running on the Northern facing slope, and it is amazing how different the vegetation is. This face gets way more sun, and hence it was dry, had way more Casuarinas than eucalyptus, and the undergrowth was more dry arid grasses and spindly shrubs, as opposed to the more lush appearing vegetation that I witnesses at the top of the Rocky Hill Trail.
The trail now led me slowly back to the main carpark, which then left me with a meandering 1km run along the creek back to my car, parked down on the street, avoiding park fees ;-)
Total run time 1hr46mins for only 17kms. That gives you an idea of how steep some of the terrain was. What an amazing run. Such a beautiful part of the world to spend my Saturday morning. I'm so stoked that I run, I have seen many amazing things that I would not have seen had I not gone running!
For more info on Morialta hit the link for trail maps and park info.
This photo helps paint the picture. Taken a few yearsn back while hiking on one of the trails I speak about above.
I decided to drive to the base of Morialta, and then run from there, thus saving a good 8kms or so of just running throgh the suburbs, which wasn't really what todays run was meant to be about for me. I hit the trail just after 6, the sun was just rising so it was a bit dark in the valley. I decided to just do an easy jog up to the main waterfall on the well maintained trail to start, thus preventing risk of rolling an ankle or tripping on something in the dark. By the time I had hit the waterfall it was light enough to get to the good trails.
Running back down the main valley trail from the First Falls, I hooked a right and started the uphill battle with "Center Trail". I cut off the beginning of the "Centre Trail" with a nice bit of single trail that headed towards the top of the first falls. This met the Center Trail a few hundred meters up the valley. I like skipping this first bit of the "Centre Trail" as it is just a wide 4x4 track, and the single trail is far more fun to run. Once rejoining with the "Centre Trail" I proceeded to run for along it for probably 4km or so. The beginning of this trail was ridiculously steep, but then in plateaued out to a really nice gentle trail once I hit close to max elevation. This trail ended up at a T intersection with Moores Track. I took a left, now heading West, and then hung a right (North) a few kms later to drop down Chapman's Track towards Montacute Road. I had never run Chapman's trial before, but I quickly noticed that it just continued descending, and descending quite rapidly. At this point I was almost a hour into my run so thought it would be prudent to turn back and not cause myself too much unnecessary climbing - especially seeming I had no water or food on me. However, by this point the damage was done and the climb back up Chapman's Track was a good effort. It's amazing how quickly you descend and don't really pay attention to how far you have descended until you have to haul your ass back out of the hole you just ran into. I think I only ran down the trail for 10 or so mins, and it was a slog to recover that altitude.
At this point the sun was just creeping above the foot hills, basking the trails in golden light. There were some really dark clouds off in the distance, and the contrast between the golden light on the Eucalyptus and the jet black sky was amazing. The bush land up at this height is amazing, the soil gives way to thin sandy soil on sandstone, and the vegetation becomes almost stunted in appearance with a lot of dense undergrowth comprising of Corrias, Heath and Xanthorrea.
I made it back to the intersection of Moores and Chapman's Track, and passed straight across to a trail I have run on a previous trail run. It's a beautiful single track that follows the ridge and then drops and loops around the city facing slope and back down into the main Valley of Morialta. This trail is aptly named Rocky Hill Track. Yes, it is quite rocky, but beautiful and technical so it keeps you on the ball. Once I got back to the main Valley I wanted to circumnavigate the top of the Valley and make my way to Norton Summit Road. This would be my turn around point at which point I was just headed back to the car. So I followed the main single track around the top of the Valley, getting magnificent views of the cliffs. This led me to Centre Track again for a brief moment, and then I hooked onto a different single trail that headed well above 4th creek out towards Third Falls and Norton Summit Road.
Finally making it out to Norton Summit Road, I was probably about 1hr 20mins into the run and feeling a bit sore in the calves from a hills session a few days prior. It was nice to know that most of my work was downhill from here. Pulling a u-ball, I headed back along the same trail, this time taking the lower trail along 4th creek, instead of the higher trail that I entered on. From this trail I was able to shoot accross the top of second falls and loop around the side of the Valley that I had not yet run along, giving me views of the other side of the Valley. I was now running on the Northern facing slope, and it is amazing how different the vegetation is. This face gets way more sun, and hence it was dry, had way more Casuarinas than eucalyptus, and the undergrowth was more dry arid grasses and spindly shrubs, as opposed to the more lush appearing vegetation that I witnesses at the top of the Rocky Hill Trail.
The trail now led me slowly back to the main carpark, which then left me with a meandering 1km run along the creek back to my car, parked down on the street, avoiding park fees ;-)
Total run time 1hr46mins for only 17kms. That gives you an idea of how steep some of the terrain was. What an amazing run. Such a beautiful part of the world to spend my Saturday morning. I'm so stoked that I run, I have seen many amazing things that I would not have seen had I not gone running!
For more info on Morialta hit the link for trail maps and park info.
This photo helps paint the picture. Taken a few yearsn back while hiking on one of the trails I speak about above.
Easter Friday
I'm not religious by any means, but non the less, Good Friday public holiday was a great excuse to go to the parents for a wicked BBQ and hang out in the sun! It was a great lunch, one of the things I missed most in Vancouver, hanging with family over long weekends! Anyways, Grandma and Grandpa happened to pop by while we were there and I took the opportunity to snap some photos. I got Kate to capture one of myself, dad and grandpa - 3 generations right there, and then I got one of Dad and grandma and grandpa. I love taking good family pics like thses - I think people don't take the opportunity to do it enough and regret it down the track.
108/365
These beautiful Galas in the in-laws backyard. The day started a bit rainy for my morning ride to Lobethal, but turned out to be the most gorgeous autumn day. After Good Friday lunch with the parents in their backyard, I spent the afternoon pottering around the in-laws backyard trying to snap pics of birds at the bird feeder. Nothing like a nice relaxing afternoon in the sun.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
107/365
Another beautiful Adelaide sunset. We've had some great ones over the last few weeks. Adelaide has got the most beautiful sunsets especially with the sun setting over the ocean. I loved this view from Kates parents backyard looking through the branches of one of their eucalypts just after having ridden home from work and prepping for the 4 day Easter weekend.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
106/365
The stark contrast of the bright red fire tap against the harshly lit white wall made a very cool abstract photo. This is in the stairwell of the building I work in. It's quite an interesting stairwell as at each landing is an interesting design style office, each of who have applied their own style to the area so you get 5 floors of different style, and then to top it off there is an old school New York style lift. It's a very cool bulding to work in.
105/365
Strange photo for pattern, and yes it's a bit abstract, but this is the second part of my anniversary present from Kate, a subscription to peleton magazine. I was so stoked that the first copy turned up yesterday. So as for pattern, there will be a pattern of these turning up monthly for the next year. I'm just pumped to have some good cycling reading material!
104/365
Kate got me these awesome born to run stability excercise tools for our anniversary. I had read the book associated with them a while ago, actually I bought the book autographed in Portland last year, and the excercises are amazing. So to finally have the proper equipment to pair the exercises with is great. These will no doubt play a big role in my future :-)
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
103/365
A beautiful day at Morialta Conservation Park. I wanted to go for a trail run, so Kate decided to sit in this part of the park to study. I ran for a hour up a new trail that I had never run before. It was beautiful, and I ran for 12km through some of the most amazing South Australian bushland I have ever seen. I was pretty happy with my pace too, with the 12km completed in 1hr with some super steep climbs in there. I think this has become by far my favourite trail to run. It was also the first time to run in my new trail shoes, and they were amazing. Really stable, great grip, but nice and minimalist with a thin enough sole to feel the trail, but being hard enough in the sole that you didn't get stabbed by sharp rocks. All up a great day.
102/365
A quaint little house and backyard shed out at Mt Pleasant. I have not spent a lot of time here so it was nice to take some time after the Mt Pleasant road race to wander around and check the town out. My first ever road bike race so this was a really fun day! 5th place and some cash back for my first race. Not bad :-)
Road Bike Racing
So I finally got my ass into gear and joined Cycling Australia and Norwood Cycling Club so I could start racing. My first race happened to coincide with the first round of the Norwood Cycling Club winter road race series. Being my first race I was placed in D grade. This was great as I had no idea how my skills related to everyone else, and it would give me a chance to get used to pack riding.
The race was a 14.7 km loop out at Mt Pleasant. The scenery was beautiful, and the course was great with some good cruisy flat sections, a few descents and a few little climbs. A light head wind kept us working on the opening straight.
I felt great the whole race, spending a bit of time leading, and a lot of time in the pack, trying to not do too much work to keep fresh. Then unfortunately, on the last lap I pulled a bad move and ended up in the lead after the first main corner, this left me leading for probably the last 10km, with no one wanting to take the reins. I paced it out and felt pretty good, then on the last two climbs, about 500 m left, I was taken on the first climb. I jumped out of the saddle and managed to hang on to the new leader, but then he smashed me on the descent into the last climb, my legs were toasted by then and a few other riders took me on the last climb.
Non the less, I ended up finishing my first race in 5th, which is a paid placing so I was pretty stoked. I learnt a lot about racing and can not wait for my next race. My parents had also come out to view, and it was really nice to have them there, a bit like the old downhill days - just a bit less bogan :-)
The race was a 14.7 km loop out at Mt Pleasant. The scenery was beautiful, and the course was great with some good cruisy flat sections, a few descents and a few little climbs. A light head wind kept us working on the opening straight.
I felt great the whole race, spending a bit of time leading, and a lot of time in the pack, trying to not do too much work to keep fresh. Then unfortunately, on the last lap I pulled a bad move and ended up in the lead after the first main corner, this left me leading for probably the last 10km, with no one wanting to take the reins. I paced it out and felt pretty good, then on the last two climbs, about 500 m left, I was taken on the first climb. I jumped out of the saddle and managed to hang on to the new leader, but then he smashed me on the descent into the last climb, my legs were toasted by then and a few other riders took me on the last climb.
Non the less, I ended up finishing my first race in 5th, which is a paid placing so I was pretty stoked. I learnt a lot about racing and can not wait for my next race. My parents had also come out to view, and it was really nice to have them there, a bit like the old downhill days - just a bit less bogan :-)
Friday, April 11, 2014
101/365
The end of a long and busy week at work. It was super productive and it's amazing as I looked over the city from the studio window, how quickly the week just flew by. Great week of work, I'm loving the new position and the crew I'm working with!
100/365
The relatives in Adelaide to visit. Nepalese take out in a small cottage on George St, Unley.
99/365
Lunch break, looking down from the 5th floor. Everything always looks interesting from above. Trash cans in the back alley, different coloured lids, different purposes. How intuitive.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
98/365
Flowers that I bought for Kate on our anniversary from the Wayville Showground Farmers Market. A great way to spend a romantic morning full of fun :-). They reminded us of our time in Perugia, Italy when we were staying right on a sunflower field. They were so beautiful. Thankfully they offered an interesting subject for todays pattern and detail photograph, otherwise, as was yesterday, the photo would have been a dull rushed photo full of forced creativity either before sun up, or after sun down! We're just too busy right now - not a bad thing I guess.
97/365
Running out of time, light and motivation for this photo. The days are getting shorter, and I am totally filling all daylight hours with work and sport, hence the reason my photos have been kinda shitty for the past month or so! Oh well, it's the point of the photo a day project, there will always be some days that are an effort!
96/365
A year later, Kate and I headed to Kooyonga for a lunch with my mum, dad grandma and grandpa to celebrate our first year wedding anniversary. Lunch at the same restaurant that our wedding reception was at, exactly a year later. What an amazing year and such a nice way to celebrate the occasion.
95/365
About to hammock it up with a brochure on my proposed new bike, an iPad for a good vimeo session and a book on corruption in the US government. I mainly ended up just zoning out on the hammock. Good Saturday afternoon!
94/365
Early morning, hitting it early for 10km before work. It's all a bit of a blur at that time, but I got out there, from Tranmere, I headed to Kensington Park, Hazelwood Park, Fergusson Park, Penfolds Winery, the Gums and then home. A tour of all the local green space in 50 or so mins. Taking it easy obviously - it's meant to be a rest week.
93/365
Riding to work I quickly stopped at the art gallery to snap this installation that is in front of the Art Gallery! I have not yet checked the exhibition, but if the front installation is anything to go by, I think it will be quite interesting.
92/365
Damn, forgot to upload this and now all my sequencing is out of whak! Shitty photo cos I was running out of time and light...like most of this week.
91/365
My cheat sheet! Rigging and anatomy reference essentials. Now added to that Pile is David Goulds Maya Programming. All of these books have been essential reading and help build efficiencies, core understanding and the ability to replicate realism.
90/365
The future holds rich mahogany. Classic old style desk - I'm ever hopeful that my study may smell of rich mahogany and have many leather bound books!
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