Downs and Ups

Yesterday I somehow managed to get through every single email that I had missed whilst in China. I didn’t reply to them all but I’ve read the lot and I’ve added a LOT of things to do in my calendar for the week. I had a few glasses of red last night too and was deep in sleep when the phone rang at 8.50AM. We haven’t got an answering machine and this caller was persistent.

During our overseas trip Christina’s Mum gave us a wake-up call every single morning so I assumed it was her. Christina got up and it turns out it was for me (oops). It was Daniel from Azzurri bikes. Him and George (the big boss from Taiwan) were in Sydney to launch their 2011 range. They had a display for dealers set-up at the airport and they invited me down to check it out.

I spent the morning and early afternoon working on more emails (and China blog updates in between) but late afternoon I headed out to check out the bikes:

The full 2010 range on display.

Killer fixie which has won a World Championship race, thus it’s allowed to wear the world cup stripes.

Hot tri bike.

A while back I designed the entire range of clothing for Azzurri and they had it all there, in the flesh which was awesome to see.

Daniel and George then pointed me over to this beastie which is all mine as a token of thanks for designing their range of clothing! I’ll be sure to post up better photos and a ride report too ASAP. Nice to know I’m the first in the country to own one!

You can view more images from the 2011 showing on Bikes Move Us. Visit: http://www.bikesmoveus.com.au/showthread.php?t=3435

OK now onto some BAD news. On the way back home from the show (with my new bike in the boot!) we dropped in to McDonalds as both Christina and I were starving (we missed lunch). On the way into the drive-through I heard that sound that fucks my world up. Yup… I guttered a rim.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!! I posted the news on Facebook and Pakula left a reply which nails it: “Oh noes. Worst feeling ever.”. Yup I know there are people dying but right now I can’t think about anything else. I’m definitely going to lose sleep over this tonight.

I didn’t have too much time to feel sorry for myself though. My sister Jamie and Richie came over and we were off to Riverwood to check out a litter of baby Russian Blue’s. Christina and I have a Doberman on order, but before we wanted a dog we wanted a Russian Blue and somehow, all of a sudden, Christina really wanted one (again) so she’d called around and found one for sale.

I’ve been to a few cat shows and pet breeders and it’s definitely another world out there (to say the least). I swear you could do a doco on pet breeders and their homes. They’re mostly messy, awards pinned on every free bit of space, the sharp smell of cat urine and freaky cat people. But this was altogether a different experience. We were greeted by a cool guy who held his Boxer back (hey cat and dog owners. Animal lovers!) and we walked into a super clean apartment and were greeted by mamma Russian Blue (Misha), her babies were playing all over their couch.

It turns out that they were a young couple who had a female Russian Blue, hired a male stud to get her pregnant and with guidance from a vet they brought up a litter of 3. 2 of them had been sold (a boy and a girl) and we were checking out the last girl for sale:

OMFG.

Yup… how can you resist?

Half an hour later we had put a deposit down. She’s ours in 3 weeks!

Apparently the Russian Blue is much less of an allergen source than other breeds of cat and amazingly Christina (who is super allergic to cats) didn’t at all have any allergic reactions from playing with all 4 cats (so it must be true?!). For a good part of an hour I had forgotten my guttered rim but alas, as I write this I’m now again feeling shit about it. I’ll have to get it fixed or I’ll endlessly have to have a good gawk at the damage every single time I’m near the car.

PS: I’ve taken all the above pics with my new camera! SLR? Yah I finally did it… kinda?! More on the new toy soon :)