Monthly Archives: September 2008

A couple of weeks ago I came across these awesome hoodies at Headhoods.com and had to buy myself the Lego one on the spot. Christina also got one for herself and her sister. I love hoodies and I love Lego too. Perfect!

Had a chat with the boys last night over msn about their ride at Lucas Heights/Menai earlier that Sunday. Andy, who only just bought his new bike a few weeks ago, did his first ever trail ride at Manly Dam last Saturday with Felix. That’s doing it tough as the Dam is fairly technical, and definitely not a great place for a beginner, but how’s this… Andy tagged along with the boys (Jing, Clifton and Timmy) to Lucas Heights/Menai yesterday! Brand new bike, never been on a trail, the Dam on Sat, Menai on Sun. That takes the cake!

Menai’s definitely harder than the Dam. I called Clifton pre-ride to make sure he looked after Andy (funny how I asked an 18yr old to take care of Andy, and not Jing, who’s 25 but has the state of mind of a 16yr old lol). I had Andy on my msn last night and he was absolutely buzzing from the weekend, especially going over the handlebars on a rocky section!

Speaking of rocky sections. I thought the boys would be all over this section I did last week, especially since little Timmy had the nerve to comment on my video (he told me to ‘get of the brakes you pussy’) but apparently no one even tried it! LOL! Bahahaha! I heard all sort of excuses (talk). Timmy was sick (awwwww poor timtims), Clifton was casting some negative scary voodoo and apparently is was a hot day and they were tired yadda yadda). I’m a bit dissapointed in them for not even trying it, but at the same time I’m happy that I’m still one up!

In other news: Zi just pointed me out to this eBay auction for a Giant Reign. The eBayer has stolen 2 of my images for his auction listing.

Also: Jing’s got me thinking BMX again (the guy is insane, one week it’s obsessing about dirt jump bikes, the next it’s freeride/slopestyle bikes, the next it’s downhill bikes, this week it’s going to be BMX!). He pointed me out to a store in Newtown called Hell on Wheels which I already had bookmarked a while back for their awesome skate gear. I trawled through the site last night, what a mad shop! I’m sure I could blow thousands in there on T’s and more decks for the wall. Must. Steer. Clear.

Suga had planned for the Saatchi crew to come over to Maroubra for some beach, beer and bbq this Saturday as it was predicted to be a scorcher (and what a scorcher it was!). It was so hot I thought I was going to run out air at one point, but then again that could’ve just been my state of intoxication.

Renato manned the BBQ and served up some rumpalicious churrasco (Brazilian style BBQ). A ridiculous amount of alcohol was consumed by all, music Nazi’s were all over the iPod dock and some furious pong action was had (it was way cooler in the house than out). I was having too much fun to take pics, it was only at 7pm that I realised I’d lost the camera somewhere!

SUNDAY: I had planned to meet up with the boys to ride Menai this morning but I woke up way too late for the ride so Suga and I worked the hangover off with a ride at Lady Carrington Drive instead, which was lovely (despite the traffic to and from). We also dropped in to Kim’s to pick up a few new pieces for the tank (some pics below).

Pong On!

Churrasco!

Saatchi crew.

My mate (he’s my mate now) Kooka.

Cracked iPhone.

Blacke + Christine.

Asahi – My precious.

New cati.

Some new rare purple zoas.

It’s always great to stock up on good Karma. Zi dropped in (with his new Jazz yo!) for lunch today and we stopped to help a lady change her flat tyre. Zi got his hands a bit dirty in the process so I got to drive his new Jazz to lunch.

It looks and feels a lot bigger and more solid than the old Jazz, from the look and feel of the dash/interior right down to flicking the indicator stalks. The smooth CVT transmission of the old Jazz is now gone too, and instead you get your typical auto slush box, but strangely a typical auto gearbox feels and sounds a lot gruntier than the CVT. The car brakes 100 times better than the old one and the steering is a lot sharper too.

Suga owned!

I organise my life one sticky note at a time (lol) which is why I’m always forgetting things, and missing dates, but Christina (my saviour) got me on to Google Calendar and damn it’s frikkin awesome! I love it, and will embrace it. I’m pretty sure this is a life changing moment for me.

In other not as exciting news: I’ve just uploaded some of my artwork to Flickr. I’ve also started a Sex in Art Flickr Group.

Well it’s been 2 years since Suga and I started dating, and what an awesome 2 years it’s been. I’ve just been so ridiculously happy the entire time. When people ask me “Hey Justin how’ve you been?” I don’t reply with “yeah alright”, or “yeah good” I reply with “FUCKING GREAT!”. w00t!

Last night we planned to drop in to pony at The Rocks for dinner and we were instantly greeted by Ioannis, the Restaurant Manager. I’d only been to pony once before and on that night this guy with a shocked expression on his face called out to me: “Justin?!?!!”, turns out he was one of the little kids who used to live on my street in Kensington when I was growing up! Seriously, the last time I’d seen this guy he was 4ft tall, 8yrs old and had a curly afro! For him to somehow recognise me was insane!

Ioannis: He’s the man.

Anyways, Ioannis (pronounced ‘Yani’) was totally booked out for the night. He still insisted on trying to sort a table out for us, and sat us down at the bar, got Christina a lovely glass of red and myself a beer, as well as some finger food. What a guy. Christina and I agreed that he’s just one of those people that you like instantly. I felt pretty uncomfortable with the free drinks and food, as well as him trying so hard to fit us in for the night that I just grabbed his card and said we’d be back for dinner another night (and we’ll be sure to book it in next time!).

Doricious.

So for dinner, Suga and I ended up strolling over to Doyles to feast on some Dori (mmm Dori).

Well Charlie and I snuck out of work again today and we hit up Lucas Heights/Menai this time as Charlie’s not done anything other than Manly Dam. I’m really not sure I like Menai. It definitely doesn’t flow. There’s a LOT of walking to do and overall it just gets repetitive. There are some really nice tech rock bits though that you can hang out at, and that we did.

This massive rock structure has been on my mind ever since I first saw it. We (the boys) had never attempted it the first 2 times we’ve been there but today I was determined to give it a go.

I think I can.

I think I can.

I think I can.

Going back up SATISFIED!

Charlie the man, he did it too and took a way cleaner line than I did. He’s awesome at picking lines and to think he’s doing it all, up and down, on an STP dirt jump bike, that’s just awesome.

Here’s a video:

I just came across this post on John Lampard’s blog: disassociated. Made me smile. I used to live by “go with the flow” but John once said to me “only dead fish go with the flow”, and that kinda changed my lazy way of thinking back then (I love a kick in the butt, well, not literally).

John was there in 1999 at the very first Australian INfront meeting with myself and Andrew Johnstone, founder of Design is Kinky. We were first generation bloggers back then (having a personal homepage wasn’t even called “blogging” as there was no blogger!). Whilst I definitely stopped blogging many years ago I think John has never stopped!

Keep it real John! Much respect.

My Thomson masterpiece (read: blang!) seatpost came in today for the Scott Scale. It’s 191g and brings the weight of the bike down to 9.72kg.

I can now give Jing his Scott seatpost back and the bike is officially complete. I like it a LOT more than the Ti, but I love my Reign a shitload more. Great that they’re both such different bikes to each other though, that’s a good thing.

For Christina, Friday night usually ends with drinks at the pub across from her work but this Friday night her boss was away and so his flatmate Shaun, who lives with the boss, invited us all over to their place for a party (lol). I was already pretty pissed when I got there, a few more mixed drinks later and I passed out, had a chuck, got up and went home (lol yeah one of those nights!).

The girls.

Renato man beast.

Shaun man beast.

Of-course we broke into the Bosses room and jumped on his bed. Here’s his underwear draw.

We played with his pussy too.

SATURDAY – Saturday day Suga, Mum and I checked out some home show out at the Hordern Pavillion, it sucked ass. I’m renovating the house at the end of this year and it’s almost getting time to start buying stuff for the build. Saturday night we went to Azuma Japanese Restaurant for Christina’s sister Jess’ B’day. We stuffed ourselves on the degustation menu, which started out great but just got worse and worse. After dinner Suga and I went into the cross for one of her friends B’day parties at World Bar. I usually hate the cross, but the vibe wasn’t so seedy this night, perhaps because we were early (and they were late). World bar was loud (we couldn’t talk it was that loud). Maybe I’m just old but I’d rather be at a mate’s place, or a pub/bar where you can actually have great conversations rather than sit there trying to look cool.

Jess and Rosemary.

Azuma dish.

I love salmon.

World Bar.

World Bar – Suga loves her iPhone.

Huh?

Suga getting out of her ouchy heels.

SUNDAY – My sisters husband Richie was free today (whoo hoo he got off the leash!) and he was up for a ride with the boys (myself, Jing, Felix and Clifton). I woke up at 5am to hard rain, at 8am it was still pissing down. After a few SMS’es we decided we were still up for it. Jing almost bailed out, and only needed a bit of encouragement to get out of bed. Felix bailed out which was a shame as I think he would have had a ball. We got there to find a few riders packing up, and all of them had massive grins on their faces (oh yes a great sign… surfs up!). As soon as we got going on the single trail we were giggling like naughty boys, the rain made it hard to see. Mud went flying into my eyes and mouth… it was such awesome dirty fun! Definitely the most fun I’ve had at Loftus, hands down. Oh, also… I scored a flat! Yes my 1st flat EVER. That’s just ridiculous hey?! I was going over a pretty sharp big rock structure at the time and I was also running a thinner rear tyre (2.1) and 30psi. The 2.1 wide Nevegals are so much faster than the 2.35 wide tyres I had on there before. I felt a massive difference on longer gradual uphills and cornering is just as great so it looks like I have a winning tyre combo at last.

2.1 Nevegal Stick-e sticky compoud on the front for more cornering grip.

And a 2.1 Nevegal DTC on the rear for faster rolling.

Pissing down at the car park.

I almost got it the 1st time (dabbed a foot on the rock) but made it the 2nd time (and scored a pinch flat doing so). Photo by Jing.

Skid marks (lol). Photo by Jing.

Muddy goodness.

Richie did well to fight his hangover.

Clifton and Jing.

More muddy goodness.

After a quick hose down and a hot shower Suga and I grabbed a hot Laksa at the jungo (that’s Maroubra Junction to everyone else).