Monthly Archives: March 2009

I took Christina’s cousin Norman on his 1st ever trail ride last Monday night and 15 minutes in he scored a cramp in his leg and just fell over screaming. 15 minutes later he got back on the bike, a few pedals and he went down again, this time getting tangled up in the bike screaming as he had the cramp return but in both legs! Weak Norman! You’re 19yrs old, you should be fit! Un-able to go on John (jlam off the BMU forums) and I escorted Norman back to the carpark and I drove him back to central. I was both super frustrated and angry that I didn’t get my big Monday night ride in, but seeing him limp along as he got out of the car just made me laugh out loud.

Poor Norman.

Down he goes again.

In other news I’m feeling pretty sick! I’ve not had the flu in over a year now thanks to riding and being fit. I was starting to feel rather indestructable to be honest. But I put it down to a combination of things. Drinking too much last weekend saw me wake up with hangovers, being out in the cold when the sun went down at Renato’s outdoor wedding, drinking some more that night, stress from work (now that Caryn’s taken on a full time job I do all the work that comes in the door) and being woken up at 6.45AM by the workmen working on the house every morning means I’ve not been getting enough sleep for the past week.

I’m pretty determinded to knock it on the head before it gets worse though, helps that it’s raining heaps outside. I’ll just stay in and be miserable.

House Rennovations are on day 4 now and the guys are starting to remove all the waste from the garden culling.

All decking is being replaced.

On Saturday we had the JDMST EOMM at JDMyard. Nice day for a meet. More pics here.

On Saturday afternoon Suga and I attended Renato and Thais’ wedding at Manly Beach. Renato is a designer at Saatchi’s where Christina used to work, great guy. The wedding had to be the most laid back wedding I’ve ever been to in my life. Casual dress meant that there were guests in thongs as well as suits! There was a celebrant, and friends, no music, no fuss.

The man.

The woman.

Vows.

Nyaw.

The cake, which they cut upwards with the knife because Brazilians believe in going up in life.

The women going wild (note Christina’s big effort).

Sunday we had Christina’s Mum’s B’day.

Fox and the Locks.

Mark Berry’s new car. OMFG. Go Aussie!

OK so instead of doing hours of research on the best XC shoes I just walked into MCC and tried on a pair of Louis Garneau MONTANA XT’s and I liked them. Grant said the shoes are mine for free if I could figure out how to undo the strap retention system in 30 seconds and no matter how hard I tried to break the things open I couldn’t. LOL, turns out it was a simple case of pushing them down to undo them (I swear I thought I tried that!).

They’re 905g a pair with cleats (heavy!) but damn stiff and I can walk in them fine but they do look gay (IMHO) but not as gay as some of the shoes I’ve owned and worn in my past (try purple rollers, michael jackson style pixie suede boots with buckles all over them or black leather boots with 15cm heels lol?).

We’ve found a crew (Christina’s family builders) and they got to work today on removing the vines which have overtaken all the windows on one side of the house, they also took off the lattice fencing along the entrance and trimmed out the trees in the backyard which hadn’t been touched in 4 years.

Cancer vines are all gone.

Rotting wood.

Weed bed is gone. Never knew there were rocks back there!

I can see ocean!

Oooh Ocean!

Benjamin Ruhe says:
and I am going to be a dad in September

justin@australianinfront.com.au says:
Dad? Fucking hell what is it with everyone?! 09 year of the Dad! Congrats mate.

Benjamin Ruhe says:
hahahah 09 – fathers year

Benjamin Ruhe says:
come and join us

Benjamin Ruhe says:
JOIN US NOW!

“Do it, it’ll be the best thing you ever do!”. – I was surfing Facebook the other night, something I don’t do very often, and it seems like everyone’s becoming a Dad (or have just become a Dad).

This was always going to be hard. Only 5?! I can think of 10 easy… the Chilli Peppers, Metallica, Kiss, Michael Jackson, The Prodigy, The Beastie Boys, Portishead, The Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against The Machine… such amazing memory containers, but here we go:

My 5 (in order of my life):

I got given this album on cassette tape by a relative in Indonesia (was a copy tape!), the inside cover art by Robert Williams depicting robot rape was over the top and one listen to “It’s so easy” where he sings “Why don’t you just… …. FUCK OFF!” and I was hooked. PS: I never ever did get over Sweet Child’O’Mine and the CD’s still on high rotation in the car, always.

The 1st CD I bought, the 1st song I ever learnt on the guitar (Epic) and the band I’ve seen live the most times.

This is a big one. He was left handed, he understood how I felt (teenage angst?). His music justified my anger. He made me write music and armed me to get out there playing gigs.

This was my departure from rock’n’roll as I knew it. I first heard the Prodigy when I was at a girlfriend’s house, her flatmate was blasting “Voodoo people” and I’d not ever heard antyhing like it in my life. I didn’t think anything could get heavier than death or thrash metal but I was wrong. It was this Chemical Brothers album though that won me over, it is rock’n’roll and it re-defined rock for me. I went from being a drinker, to a smoker, popper and a snorter.

He sings like an Angel. I hadn’t cried to music before but this album was there when I broke up from a 7year relationship. Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley… I can’t believe you guys died before me. I’m not worthy.

She did great! More here.