Curried Fish Head

I'm currently in Singapore for business and I went for lunch with a co-worker who recently moved from London to Singapore and 2 locals. We went to the South Indian restaurant. Craig (the bloke from London) and I agreed to let the 2 locals order.

Well, we had curried fish head (there were other dishes, but none blog worthy). Which is pretty much exactly like sounds. It is a single fish head (probably a 1/3rd of the total fish), we think it was snapper, it was pretty big, like 3 inches thick, 7 inches long and 5 inches wide, floating in a bowl of curry sauce. You basically have a big spoon and you dig in and break apart the fish head and eat the meat. Someone would have the lower jaw, another person, upper jaw and remainder of the head area. It is a very interesting experience ;) It was pretty good tasting, but there were definitely moments where I had to remind myself not think about what I was eating, or look at it, but just eat. ( I ended up eating most of the "normal" parts, i.e. no tongue, eyes, any thing dug out skull, mainly stayed toward the middle part of the fish)

As I said, it wasn't bad, but I don't think I'll be rushing back anytime soon.

My Second Trail Ride

Yesterday I went out for another circuit trail ride, but this time with my friend Zac. It was a pretty good, ride. Zac felt much of the pain I felt last time. Not quite in riding shape, not quite used to the terrain. A little painful on the legs and lungs, but when you get to that occasional stretch where you can cruise, feel in control, hits some bumps...Feeling like you are flying through the bush, you realize this is great fun and feels fantastic. (tomorrow your body may disagree however;) It makes you want more.

It was good to have someone along for the ride. In fact, it paid huge dividends later on. (you'll see how in a bit)

I still have few moments where, I had to dismount in a hurry, so to speak, but it better than the first time. Still not at the level that I'd like to be, but I guess I'm improving. There is one brutal hill, that hopefully I'll be able to ride all the way up with out getting off my bike, but I'm going to give my self a few (like 10) more rides until I start to feel defeated with that. It is steep, and pretty rocky/rough, so it also helps to pick the correct line, so you don't end up trying to go straight up a rock.

I still have the occasional moment of what I call tentative aggressiveness, which is very bad. It puts in no-man lands, if you are going to go for a jump, etc, you need to go all out. To start, and then say, uh, well, maybe I should take it a bit slower, uh, maybe a lot slower, is a recipe for not very positive out comes. So I was coming down this hill, and there was a series of S turns, it was fun, I was cruising, then there was a section sort of bounded by trees, that let in to a rocky (but small drop off) followed by another turn. SO I was cruising, and about halfway though these turns, my tentativeness kicked in, not quite sure what happened but basically jumped off my bike while trying lay the bike down as gently as possible. I my rear wheel, must have hit a rock perfectly as the wheel came off the frame ( I don't think the quick-release were as tight as they were supposed to do). After investigating my frame and wheel and not seeing any damage, I tried to re-mount the wheel... Well my hydraulic disk brakes, "locked up" and there was no room between the pads to get the disk/wheel back on the bike.

Thank goodness I was about 200 m from the end of the trail. SO I walked my bike out, Zac cycled on home, got the car and picked me up. (The afore-mention dividends ;)

I'm still not sure what happened to my brakes, hopefully the bike shop will be able to tell me.

Even after all the adventures, I'm still looking forward to my next ride.

Footie

On Friday night I went to my first international Soccer match, between Turkey and Australia. It was not a prime nit for the Socceroos (you love the Aussie team nicknames) as they lost to Turkey 3-1.

It was pretty clear that Turkey was the better team (they actually got 3rd in the last (2002?) World Cup. It was my first High level soccer match I've watched live. It is a pretty fun to that quality of sport live. I don't know if I'll ever become a soccer fan, but I don't think I'd turn down a chance to see live, good soccer either.

I'm pretty sure the Turkish fans out-numbered the Aussies. But something like 28,000 people were in the Stadium so it was big crowd none-the-less. And it was fun be among a very passioniate crowd (even if was leaning towards the Turks)

One confusing thing about Australian sport is that when someone says football or footie, it can mean Rugby Union, Rugby League, Australian Rules Football or Soccer....So it can be utterly confusing trying to keep strait which sport they are actually talking about. Another interesting note, is that they call American football Gridiron, and they also think that is a term we use frequently to describe it.

First Trail Ride

Last week I bought my first mountain bike. (I know growing up in Montana and not getting a mountain bike until your 30 should be against the law. I guess I'm an abomination in the eyes of Montana, but that's what happened.) Anyway I bought a GT Avalanche 0.0, and today I took it out to Manly Dam for its first trail ride. (and mine really for that matter)

I discovered three things:
1) that I am not yet an intermediate level mountian biker.
2) what intermediate technical really means. (or that my guide book does not sand bag its ratings)
3) how out of shape I am.

The trail I rode was the Circuit Trail at Manly Dam, it definitely has technical sections, for the most part is fun, but in those intermediate technical sections I managed to go over the handle bars (no worries mom, I was able to bail and land on my feet), hit a tree (thought I ducking enough to clear the branch, but it turned out to be not quite low enough), and had to walk up and down a few very steep incline/declines. (better to walk and ride another day, then fly and have broken bones).

I actually blame going over the handle bars on two things, one being too cautious, and two, the front wheel brake being controlled by my right hand (now it may be the case that I haven't been on a bike in a long time, but I really think my right hand is suppose to control the rear brake.)

Other than the the few times I felt like was in over my head it was very fun, and to be honest I thought I did pretty well for my first technical trail ride. There are few riding areas in the Nothern Beaches, and I hope to hit one of them a weekend. Hopefully soon I will be a legitamate intermediate level biker. I'm sure the next time I'm on this trail it will be much better as I'll know where I'm going (a little bit).

Can't wait to see what I feel like tomorrow after realizing how out of shape I am. May not be able to walk.

It's good for me I suppose.

Over The Rainbow

I'm not the worlds best comminicator, and I'm sometimes too lazy to send out group e-mailing, and phone can be a pain to catch people due to the time zones, so I thought I'd take a stab at chronicling my time at Australia. Which leads me to the title of my blog, "Over the Rainbow".

I was trying to come up with a witty title, for me being in Australia, Couldn't come up with one. Was about to settle on Tyler in Oz.... Well I was listening to the Rent soundtrack and La Vie Boheme was playing, and I was singing along with "Why Dorothy and Toto, went over the rainbow, to blow off Auntie Em".

I liked the reference better than saying "My time in Australia"

so here we have it, I make no guaranetees about the quality or quantity of the posts, but I hope you all enjoy.