Worth reading: If you are a fan of Top Gear then this is a good read.
Summary: Richard's battle back from brain damage and memory loss

I really like the BBC Top Gear series and was interested in the events surrounding Richard Hammond's crash while driving a jet-powered car. In his book, on the edge, he talks about the events leading up to the fateful moment and then his recovery after the fact.

What is rather interesting is the dual points of view. Richard's wife, Mindy, actually writes most of the book. It is from her point of view that we learn most of what Richard is going through. After all, he was suffering memory loss at the time and even now probably doesn't know what occurred during his recovery. As Richard is recovering we get both points of view, the frustration he shows at events and then subsequently, Mindy's view of the same situation.

Hats off to Mindy and the limitless support she has shown during and after his ordeal. If only we could all end up with a partner as strong as her. We also see the person who is "Richard Hammond" and insights into his family life.

What was also rather interesting was the tid-bits about James May and Jeremy Clarkson. I think the personas they portray as part of the very successful Top Gear show are not necessarily who they really are, and perhaps just what is needed to make the show the success it is.

To get a full appreciation for this book I recommend you watch the show and get an appreciation for the other characters. Richard's book is written for the fans.

Another Top Gear link.

Tags: books, top gear, richard hammond

My Wee-Strom at work, nestled safely among the BMW's. These aren't owned by Academics... but a more intelligent, likable crowd.

Tags: motorcycles

WTF?
OK. In the interests of National health, I'll explain.
(I can see hordes of academics running to the dentist asking for more teeth in their mouths just to squeeze a few more metres per litre out of their BMW's)

If you read through my blogs under "Motorcycle Madness" you'll see that I put a 16 tooth front sprocket on my bike.

I can confirm that in addition to giving the bike extra top end range equivalent to a 7th gear, it has increased the km/L from 22 to 24.5. This essentially gives me a slightly uncomfortable range of 530kms per tank. This may actually be more as I was riding the bike a little harder over the test period because of the extra reach I had in top gear.

I will settle down over the next couple of months and will keep an eye on any further increases in economy.

brrrrmmmm brrrmmmm.

Tags: motorcycles

Today is the day that Australians celebrate living in the best country in the World.

* Prawns are thrown on the BBQ.
* Cricket is watched.
* Beer is consumed (national drink)
* Beaches are visited.
* Cares forgotten (if only temporarily).
* Fishing becomes the national sport for the day.
* Grass is mowed.

I'll be doing the latter. I have let the grass run away again so I need to reel it back in. Curse this sunny weather!

Congratulations to Steve Parish for being recognised and receiving Australia Day honors.

Congratulations to Lee Kernaghan for receiving "Australian of the Year" (Can anyone remember when he did the McDonald's ad. for the McBeef Burger? ... he earned the nickname of "McBeefers")

Congratulations to Novak Djokovic for making it to the Final of the Australian Open.

Commiserations to both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. They have both been knocked out of the Aus. Open. I was really hoping both of these guys would be in the final and that Nadal would win after a brutal encounter. Maybe next year.

R.I.P Heath Ledger

Aussie BBQ - Lyrics by Eric Bogle

When the steaks are burning fiercely
When the smoke gets in your eyes
When the snags all taste like fried toothpaste
And your mouth is full of flies
It's a national institution
It's Australian through and through
So come on mate and grab your plate
Let's have a barbecue

When the summer sun is shining on Australia's happy land
Round countless fires in strange attires you'll see many solemn bands
Of glum Australians watching their lunch go up in flames
By the smoke and the smell you can plainly tell that it's barby time again

The Scots eat lots of haggis, the French eat snails and frogs
The Greeks go crackers over their moussakas and the Chinese love hot dogs
Welshmen love to have a leek, the Irish like their stew
But you just can't beat that half-cooked meat at an Aussie barbecue

There's flies stuck to the margarine, the bread has gone rock-hard
The kids are fighting and the mossies are biting, who forgot the Aerogard
There's bull ants in the Esky and the beer is running out
And what you saw in Mum's coleslaw you just don't think about

And when the barby's over and your homeward way you wend
With a queasy tummy on the family dunny many lonely hours you spend
You might find yourself reflecting, like many often do
Come rain or shine that's the bloody last time that you'll have a barbecue

Happy Australia day!
C'mon Aussie C'mon... C'mon.

Made from the chewed-up-and-spat-out-by-elephants fruit of the Marula tree, a native of the African continent, Amarula is truly African. Ok so maybe the elephant thing is a bit far fetched but regardless this is a very distinctive spirit.

You could almost say it's like an Irish cream, but it's not. You could almost say it's like one of those chocolaty spirit concoctions that are horrendously sweet, but it's not. In fact it's not much like anything else you're likely to find.

When you sip at your Amarula cream, you can hear the trumpeting of elephants. The roaring of lions. The screeching of baboons. The laughing of hyenas. The coughing of leopards. The braying of zebras. All sitting around the campfire out on the veld, clinking their glasses of Amarula as they toast themselves to their "African-ness".

Amarula is as smooth and resonant as the voice of Kamahl. It is also deceptively strong making some people cut it with milk, it's easy to keep going back for more and before you know it your legs won't work properly.

I like it straight over ice. I'm a purist when it comes to Africa

Tags: spirits, africa

So.
Have we all been watching the Tennis?

Lindsay Davenport - when she smiles she's a completely different person.
Amelie Mauresmo - ah, the French!
Anna Ivanovic - need I say more?

Men's tennis? Is there such a thing?

update: 19 January 2008 9:00pm
Ok. I'll concede the point.. there is such a thing but it was OUT DAMMIT!!!.
I just watched the marathon match between Roger Federer and Janko Tipsarevic. Federer finally took the match, but only just. Beating the Serb 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-6) 5-7 6-1 10-8. Roger was off his form, and Janko had nothing to loose which made for a fantastic tennis match.

Roger Federer - Greatest tennis player of all time.
Rafael Nadal - World number 2 and closet Ninja Turtle.

Worth reading: Yes
Summary: What a parent will do to protect their child.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this book. I admit that I gave the back cover only a cursory glance as I chose this one for a freebie in a "buy two get one free" deal at my local Angus and Robertson. I wasn't expecting much because I haven't read any of the other titles Jodi has written, nothing to do with the quality of the writing or the flow of the story, just that I'm not familiar with the author.

Well, all that has changed.

The story flow and characters are excellently developed and I didn't really want the tale to end. I wanted to know more about what happens after, what happens now, a continuance if you like.
I'm going to hunt down a couple more titles from Jodi. If anyone can recommend some please let me know.

Perfect Match is the story of Nina Frost. She is a successful lawyer prosecuting the animals that molest children. Her life seems, if not perfect, then close to it. Husband. Son. Then, one day a horrible realisation hits Nina. Her five-year-old son Nathaniel has been sexually abused. Now she is not fighting for a child of another parent. She is fighting for her own son.

Nina's fight to protect her son at all costs shows us how blind to all else we can become, how easily we can jump to all the wrong conclusions, do all the wrong things, for all the right reasons. Just what a parent is capable of, should someone or something hurt their child.

I'm not a parent yet, but even I could empathise with Nina's anguish and the steps she took in trying to somehow right an abhorrent wrong.

Tags: books

I love the Whiskies of the world. I don't drink much of this elixir of the God's but I enjoy it when I do, and I don't go over the top. Straight up or on ice... the only way to drink it in my opinion, and more than two drams in one sitting is too much for anyone to continue enjoying it.

Jameson's Irish Whisky is silky, smokey, smooth. I prefer this one straight, or cooled... but not on ice.

When sipping away on Jameson, I can easily picture myself sitting in a smoke filled reading room, cigar in hand (I don't smoke), next to a smouldering fire in a hearth, reading glasses perched on the nose (I don't have them), reading one of the classics. Somewhat sophisticated, and far from the reality of my world, it's a perfect escape for a while.

Being of Scottish heritage, I do honestly believe the Scots are the true masters. However, Jameson's Irish is a standout that surpasses many of the Scotch Whiskies.

Do try it!

Tags: spirits

The rain cleared enough today for me to get out on the bike. As I had half a day to spare I decided to knock off one of the 100 top rides in the Australian Motorcycle atlas, produced by HEMA. The ride I chose was number 5 which is in my neck of the woods.

This particular ride starts at Eumundi and, via Kenilworth, ends at Maleny on the Blackall range.

There were a few light showers during the trip but these only lasted around 30 seconds or so and didn't put a dampener on the experience.

I carried on through Maleny and headed to Nambour via Mapleton along the range. I then turned in to Eumundi again and headed to Noosa. From Noosa I tootled back inland to Cooroy and then followed the old Bruce highway to Pomona, rejoining the highway south of Federal State School.

All in all a very enjoyable ride, with differing road conditions. There were plenty of bikes out which is always good to see.

The next ride will probably number 11 which goes from Nambour to Caboolture via Landsborough.

Tags: motorcycles, road trips

It arrived today, actually I picked it up. Introducing the Canon 5D, released in 2005 it is still considered one of the greatest digital SLR cameras on the market today. But I'm not going to review it because I only just got it.

I've spent the past 2 years gearing up for this purchase, it isn't an insignificant one.

This camera will sit along side my current 10D. The 10D was the 3rd generation digital SLR from Canon and in my mind still one of the best cameras for the money, I have seen. My 10D still takes stunning photos and I look forward to using it for many years to come.

The 5D doubles the effective number of megapixels of the 10D to 12.8. But this wasn't the reason I finally bought it.

Reason 1: Superb ISO performance even up to 1600iso.
Reason 2. Full frame sensor giving my wide angle its true width.
Reason 3. Spot Metering.

I'm looking forward to getting down and dirty with the new 5D.
(Image courtesy of Canon Australia)

Tags: photography, cameras

Some people just won't learn from the accident reports and deaths from speeding in wet weather... or dangerous driving at anytime.

This is pointed directly at the couple of idiot drivers on Black Mountain who, on the afternoon of Thursday 10 January '08, with children on board decided to race down the left hand side of the lane in peak hour traffic, try then to merge at high speed when the rest of the traffic was doing 60, just to get 50 metres ahead of where they were. One even had a "Baby on board" sign in the rear window. I hope you're proud of yourselves for acting like complete f*cking irresponsible morons.

Those drivers need to be removed from the gene pool, unfortunately it will probably be done at the expense of their kids. I just hope child services intervene before it's too late.

You two deserve the "salute" the kind lady gave you after you nearly pushed her into the oncoming traffic as she tried to merge right.
Please hand your license into the nearest Police station and tell them why you shouldn't be driving.

Worth reading: Yes
Summary: Diary entries and notes from his experiences in Africa over 30 odd years.

Bob Geldof, I can take him or leave him. But, I do respect what he's doing to help the situation over all Africa. I've been to Africa myself and I agree with all that he says in this book, but still it is shocking to read of the atrocities being conducted by the warlords and self-styled leaders of most african countries. His insights into where the developed nations are going wrong as they attempt to help the situation are revealing and he shows his great depth of knowledge of the African cultures as he discusses ways to better aid them.

Regardless of what you may think of Bob, this book is well worth reading and well written. You can hear the Irish lilt in his words as you read them. His writing style will have you laughing one moment, shaking your head at the idiocies he encounters, and then almost crying the next as he describes the horrors he comes across.

Tags: books

Worth reading: Hell yes!
Summary: The world gone mad, a modern day Sodom and Gomorra.

I will never look at blogging the same way again. I am a recent blogger.. in the last couple of months. I used to wonder who reads all the crap that people blog about and why on earth would they read it? Now, I don't really care who reads it, I have fallen foul of the supposed anonymity of the Internet age. There are a group of us at work who blog about different things and it's interesting to read the thoughts that are put down. Sometimes I guess it's easier to write it than to say it. Would we blog about what we personally would consider private? I seriously doubt it. I do consider blogging as an interesting exercise in communication, however.

In Ben Elton's Blind Faith, blogging is now compulsory. In fact privacy is now considered unhealthy and is actually illegal. The world he describes has turned away from scientific reason and fact and instead has corrupted the word of God, and making it illegal to be an individual thinker. Vaccinations are outlawed as being blasphemous. One in two children die of preventable diseases for this is the will of God. By Law you are Famous. By Law you cannot be discriminated against regardless of the circumstance. You are required to blog at least once a day and stream your every waking moment to the net where it can be viewed by all and sundry, including the Temple and their Confessors who require it of you.

Ben Elton describes a scary world. One in the post apocalyptic time after the flood caused by global warming. A world that is oh-so-very-close.

Tags: books

Chinese year of the RAT.

We are supposed to be in the height of summer. Sweating. Cursing the heat. Instead, we have unseasonal rain and cool temperatures over most of the continent.
I've been getting around in slippers and a coat today, the first day of 2008. Do I care? Not bloomin' likely. I'm a cold weather person.

Happy New Year everyone. Hopefully this one won't go as fast as 2007, which for me seemed to fly past in a blur.

I'm not really a resolutions type of guy. I like to remain flexible. However, I will be making one or two this time, that I will write down, as I intend to place these a little higher on my list of "todos". No numbering of importance here, like I said, I like to remain flexible.
I should mention before I move on, that one of my resolves for 2007 was to ditch a lot of my computer stuff. I managed to just squeeze this in last weekend. I took a load of old working computers to the tip. 486's, PI's, PII's and a few other bits 'n bobs. I had considered salvaging parts from some of these but in the end decided that if I hadn't turned them on in over 2 years then I probably wasn't going to need any of the flotsam and jetsam. I offered some of the stuff to the local "tip man" but as there were no monitors with the collected computing history, he didn't recognise any of them as "computers". He's a fairly simple kinda guy. I can recall a TAFE teacher with the same level of PC savvy. I must admit a sense of evil joy as I threw them from height into the skip, watching them bust to bits.. MMWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA

..ahem.

Resolutions for this year.

Spend a bit of time communicating with my World Vision sponsor child. I'll send photos and letters a little more often than I did last year, which I am ashamed to admit was not very often at all. In one of his letters he did say he wanted me to go over and visit him, which I'm not sure I can accomplish this year, but you just never know. If you have thought about sponsoring a child (not necessarily though World Vision) it's a worthwhile thing to do.

Spend more time on photography. I let this slip rather badly in 2007 and it's starting to show in the quality of images I'm producing just at the moment. Laziness is what it boils down to. I hope to purchase a telescope this year to do some astro-photography out in the dark skies of central QLD. This, along with an upgrade to my camera. My trusty Canon 10D is still going strong, but long exposure noise is starting to irritate me. Maybe even a lens or two, who knows.

Do some riding. You may know that I upgraded my motorbike this year. The intention is to do some serious tripping around the place on it. This is the year. I'm a solitary fellow and riding a bike gives me the solitude I crave. I just need to pick up some panniers and I'm off. My first real trip looks like it will be to Longreach via Emerald. I have also been looking into some guided/self-guided tours of Tasmania, NZ, and Africa. I think I'll do them in that order over the next couple of years. I could try to tie in the ride through Africa with a visit to my sponsor child. That should be fun!

The ticking of the clock behind me is saying 2008 is moving steadily forward. I'm off to have a coffee and fortify myself for the coming 12 months of joy and frivolity. I hope yours will be a good one too.