Terrigal, NSW – Part 1

On Saturday 21st we set off to Australia to spend a couple of weeks with Priten in Terrigal. Flying with Air Asiana, we had a stop in Seoul, South Korea, and landed in a cold and grey Sydney on Monday morning. We took the train out to Ourimbah where Priten met us at lunchtime and dropped us at his apartment in Terrigal.

Terrigal is a small town on the coast, about an hour North of Sydney – the kind of small town were Sydney-siders like to have a beach-side apartment to escape from the City. As a result it is quiet in the week, but busier at weekends. From Priten’s apartment it’s a 15 min walk down to the beach and sea-front shops, where there are a few coffee shops, eateries and surf-shops.

The area itself is very pretty: winding coast roads, lots of little towns and beaches. To the South is the mouth of the Hawkesbury River with it’s big expanse of open water leading to the sea, and the surfers’ beaches of Avoca, Copacabana and MacMasters. To the North is The Entrance, with its large lagoons and the massive Lake Macquarie just below Newcastle.

Priten lectures at the University of Newcastle’s Ourimbah campus, so in the mornings I would sometimes drive him to work so we could have his car for the day to explore. We’d usually stop at the excellent cafe ‘The Green Room’ on the way out of Terrigal.

Before leaving I’d arranged to meet various friends at The Oaks in Neutral Bay – a massive pub where years ago I’d been playing pool with Phil and Lee after Phil’s wedding in Auckland, and also went there with Kevin and Di when I stayed with them in Sydney. It’s kindof home-from-home 🙂 Me, Smeeta and Priten were there at 7ish, and met up with Phil and Fleur, David and Steve Blake and his wife-to-be Helen, and also Jo Pritt (aka Joanne Perry) who I’d not seen since we were both good friends at St Brendan’s some 25 years ago…!! It was great to see Jo – just like old times, and I’d seen Adrian only the week before and passed on his regards. We also met up with Martin (who’d left Spreadex a month ago to emigrate to Oz) and the lovely Rima, now happy to be back home. Martin was all smiles as usual and the two them had both found work since arriving and were looking forward to life in Sydney.

Great to see David and Steve and Helen seems like a lovely lady. David’s now been in Sydney for 5 years and was working just around the corner from The Oaks – lucky fellah! Fantastic to catch up with them both and made me feel right at home sitting around a table with them and Phil & Fleur too. A really fab evening!

Disc upgrade

Good old Laurence at the BenelliForum recently arranged a group purchase of some fab and shiny new ‘wavy’ brake discs – straight from the manufacturer in China. I plumped for a set of fronts with black rotors and titanium bolts, plus a rear disc to match. Total cost (including shipping) was £145. Since you could easily pay at least that much on ebay for some used Brembo discs I was pretty pleased with the deal! I fitted the fronts this weekend and have to say they look pretty smart: the black rotors complement the Dymag wheels and the disc pattern makes the bike look a bit more modern. More importantly (of course) they seem to work well – much better initial bite and overall a more positive feel. I’ve not fitted the rear yet, but will get around to that at some point.

Standard Brembo discs:

New wavy discs:

Lightweight Dymag race wheel:

Front disc mounted:

Job done:

Uncaged Monkeys – LIVE

We were at the Corn Exchange, Cambridge with Dave and Lynn tonight for an evening of comedy and science, courtesy of the “Uncaged Monkeys” tour: a collection of scientists, writers and humourists such as Brian Cox, Steve Jones, Simon Singh and that great exposer of pseudo-science, Ben Goldacre. Simon Singh kicked off with a fascinating look into the world of cryptography, illustrating how the brain naturally looks for patterns, and therefore sometimes sees cause and effect where there is none. He talked about the basics of code-breaking, using some simple examples, before describing the amazing work of Allan Turing and Bletchley Park. He also had a genuine WWII Enigma machine with him on stage, which he demonstrated in action.

Steve Jones combined an overview of the fundamentals of Evolution with amusing side-swipes at Boris Johnson, Creationists amongst others, and moaned that he’d only got the gig because he was ‘cheaper than Richard Dawkins’. Another guy gave an overview of genetics, pointing out that despite the fact that we have now ‘decoded’ the Human genome, there are still only two genetic traits that we can say for sure are hereditary: one of which is whether you have soft or hard earwax…! I can’t remember the other.

After a musical break Brian Cox strolled on stage to rapturous applause and proceeded to show some stunning pictures of far-flung corners (?!) of the Universe, before giving us an overview of the latest understanding of Quantum physics, elementary particles and forces. He then outlined how it was hoped that the Large Hadron Collider at CERN would reveal the next level of detail in this ongoing story. He also looked at Government financing of Scientific Research, pointing out the the recent UK Bank Bailout amounted to more money than ‘had been spent on Science since Jesus’…!!

Finally Ben Goldacre of (badscience.net fame) leapt about like a hyperactive but very engaging child, tackling his pet topic of poorly planned and executed scientific ‘studies’; he also poked fun at the Daily Mail’s never-ending health stories (several foodstuffs have been shown by them to both cause AND prevent Cancer…).

It was a fun night: interesting and amusing, and with a room full of Cambridge egg-heads this was probably the most receptive audience of the tour – the speakers seemed very relaxed and looked like they were enjoying it as much as the crowd.

• Review from the Independent
• Uncaged Monkeys Podcast

Royal Wedding Weekend

Thanks to William and Kate we had an extra day off this weekend so decided to take the opportunity to go and visit Mum in Brecon. We drove over on the Friday, listening to the Wedding on the radio (couldn’t avoid it completely!) and got to Brecon late afternoon. The weather was generally very good and the Brecon area looks really stunning in the Spring.

On Saturday we set off to walk up Pen-y-Fan, Mum dropping us by the Mountain Rescue Centre on the Merthyr Tydfil road. We hiked up the steep ascent in ever-thickening cloud, wondering if we should turn back… The summit itself was completely wrapped in low cloud and drizzle, but as we left heading East along the ridge to the next peak ‘Corn Du’ the clouds parted and we were bathed in bright Spring sunshine for the rest of the walk. Continuing East from Corn Du we stopped for lunch on the hillside, lounging on the thick grassy slopes in the sunshine, with fabulous views over the valleys to the South.

The next stop is Cribbyn, which is a pyramidal pointy peak with spectacular views back to the higher Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du, but also of the rolling hills dropping away to the North and South – pretty much 360 degrees of beautiful Welsh hillsides. My favourite spot I think..!! From Cribbyn we carried on East to the next peak and then took a left turn to follow the spur of the hill as it gradually descends back down, disappearing into the fields just South of Brecon. Mum met us at Mike & Anne’s Farmhouse near Cantref. After six hours on the slopes we were fairly tired but refreshed and really glad that we’d made the effort: it’s a fabulous route and we were lucky with the weather.

On Sunday we popped up to the Kite Feeding Station at Gigrin Farm, near Rhayader. On our first visit, maybe 5 years ago we saw 40 or 50 birds, circling in the sky above the feeding area. This time there must have been over a hundred?? The sky was full of Red Kites, circling and calling to each other, swooping down to pick up the scattered bits of meat. There were a couple of buzzards and quite a few crows, but all outnumbered by the huge gathering of beautiful Red Kites. Great to see them so close up, and doing so well in mid-Wales. Admittedly we often see one or two over our garden in Bovingdon, so they are not as rare as they once were but it was amazing to see quite so many…!!

We also discovered a fabulous wood full of Bluebells, courtesy of Mum’s friend Eugene. It was absolutely stunning – a never-ending carpet of blue, with a narrow path winding up and round through the woods near Llowes on the A470 North of Brecon. Picks here on Flickr…

More pics here on Flickr…

Red Kite photo courtesy of Andy Randle: