ajft

More progress on digitising the APS films. Three more rolls of film done, ten done, eleven to go. Now for the laborious task of re-dating them, since the scanning process puts the scan date into the EXIF header, not the photo date that is present in the APS magnetic strip. Once I've added captions and the location information for the ones I'm fairly sure about, they'll appear in my albums: [1], [2] and [3]. There's a scanned hair on every image, somewhere in the lower-left corner, but its not intrusive enough for me to go through the hassles of rejecting the CD and asking them to do it again.

Not a word from Canon on the repairs to my camera! Tomorrow will be another fortnight since I called them, and a month since I dropped it in for repair....

Argh, the itching, the itching!

The peppermint gum in the back garden is full of the little hairy caterpillers again. The honeyeaters are happy, but the gardener is not. I didn't find out until I was half under the tree, doing battle with almost knee-high grass armed only with the hand-powered mower. I'm now covered in itchy welts where caterpillers either fell down my shirt, or prickled me through my shirt and its driving me crazy!

Photos

I was so pleased to have finally labelled and dated the CDs of photos from Portugal and Spain that I posted an assortment from Portugal on Fotothing. Confusion now as a result though, one that I labelled as being of Convento de Cristo, Tomar, one of the Portuguese members believes is of Leiria. I was in Tomar on the 27th, and the date printed on the back of the photo when it was developed says the 27th.... The jury is still out.

Aha! I thought I stayed in Leiria on 26th of September, but I didn't, I stayed in Alcobaça. I rode through Leiria on the 27th, which explains it all. Many thanks Churchill for correcting my labels!

Australia day, a holiday, relief from work but not from the weather. A maximum of around 40°C again, hot winds, and the smell of smoke from the bushfires around Melbourne. In traditional aussie fashion the petrol retailers spiked the price up by 10c a litre for the holiday to gouge everyone going away, and then to ensure that I couldn't sleep in this morning the garbos came around at 5:20, despite the council assuring us that they are forbidden from starting before six.

Definitely not a day to be outside, so I spent most of the morning annotating the photos from back in 1998, the first three rolls of my 1998 trip to Portugal and Spain are now finally on CD and available here ([1], [2], [3]). A total of 21 rolls of APS film over the seven years, seven of them I've had scanned onto CD, fourteen to go....

Multi-cultural food, I think this happened last year too. Lunch of Lebanese bread from the Vietnamese bakery, Italian olive oil, home grown tomatoes and North African dukkah. It all seemed to work out ok, no fighting or racist comments from the plate. Pizza and beer for dinner at Silvios, too hot to cook at home tonight.

Tried to stay up to watch a movie on TV, for first time in months I think, and only because channel nine is supposedly showing Mad Max 2. Ten o'clock they said in the programme. Ten o'clock came and went... five past, ten past, quarter past... still no sign of the movie. The ugly great watermark is plastered over the cricket, the ads keep coming on. I gave up. I remember now — this is why I don't bother with TV. Get stuffed channel nine, you butcher the shows — not that the other channels are any different — and can't even be bothered to show them when you say you will. I'll hire it on DVD.

Photos

OK, here's a mere mortal's view of life on Sunday.

Short version:

Imagine sitting in the oven and applying a belt-sander to your arse for eight hours.

Long version:

BREAK

"Only" the 130km option, Jo and I were planning on doing it on the tandem, circumstances intervened and her lack of riding over summer completely offset the shiny new bike she'd purchased for training on, so it was just me. Somewhere around christmas pudding time I think I realised that I too had failed miserably in the training arena...

07:20 start, suspiciously warm, Chris and Annette saw me as they were leaving on the 140km, I was just trying to keep my eyes open after being awake on and off since about 2am, first with locals gambolling home from the pub, then only an hour or two later with all the motorcyclists starting up to go out and marshall for us.

Seemed to find myself with the same group of four or five guys throughout the day, regrettably one gent in a Rabobank top who ponged something 'orrible, even at 8 in the morning!

08:30 at the top of Tawonga, I think I was still smiling. Nice view, pleasantly warm, lots of forest. Today I decided I like trees, the bigger and shadyer they are, the more I liked them. Weeee down the other side, a fair bit of traffic of other riders, some two or three abreast making life kind of interesting. An ambulance in attendance at one of the corners — I think it was Lawler's spring — where someone had failed to negotiate the bend. Rolled on through Tawonga town and the assorted turns and odd bits of road before stopping to be briefly shouted at by a marshall (for failing to levitate off the road) and refilling my bladder, um, backpack water thing. On to the roundabout, signs pointing off for the 80 and 140km options, nothing for the 130 and 200, I guess we were just meant to know. Long haul up to Falls, trundling along at my own pace, was passed about six or eight times by the same four or five people, I guess they had to keep stopping to rewind the rubber bands. A quick wave to Evan as he passed in the opposite direction, ably assisted by gravity and rice pudding. Was kept company for several kilometres by two young ladies from St Kilda (I think) until they got bored and departed up the hill. Fun and games with a few 45 seater tourist coaches going up the hill, the drivers trying to pick their way around the ascenders, while trying to avoid getting the descenders in through the windscreen. One heart-wrenching moment approaching a corner as three descenders came around, the first two passed in a blur, the third suddenly stood his bike up and to screams of "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck" headed straight across the road towards the gravel, me, and the long drop, swerved back and shot back onto his side of the road about a metre in front of me. Saw Dennis stopped just before the Falls gatehouse, his rigorous training regime had worn away his rear tyre and so he was stopped waiting for spares. A quick hello and then the last two or three kilometres up. Hmm, what happened? I was completely knackered and could barely move. I was seriously thinking that I simply could not get to the Falls Creek checkpoint. I could *see* it, but had totally run out of energy. A very long time passed.... I think it was 11:30 that I arrived at Falls Creek, gratefully stepped off the bike and was squirted with spray from the hose. Muffins, orange quarters, a banana, another muffin, a couple more bits of orange, inhaled a powerade, wondered where it went, had another muffin, decided that the orange quarters were ok and had a couple more, then had a drink of water. Felt better. 12:00. Reapply sunblock, smearing it all into a nice gooey consistency with the mixture of dirt, sweat and old sunblock. Should keep the UV at bay, and if I fall off will help me slide off the road.... Fed, watered, rested, and now heading in a *downhill* direction made a big improvement in my life. I'm not one of the worlds fastest descenders, but several hills worth of following Dennis and Evan must have improved something, because I kept on passing individuals and groups on the way down. A slimy patch of melted tar on one corner reminding me to slow down a little for the rest of the way. Out on the flat towards Tawonga it was now *hot*. I was not looking forward to the second ascent of Tawonga gap. Seven kilometres, a water stop at 2km and a spring 2km from the top should divide it neatly into three — I thought. Turning onto the road up the hill I had to have my first little rest, a minute or two under another of my shady trees. Then on to the first water stop — it arrived blessedly quickly, more cold water and mist sprays, then the very demoralising message that they'd told us the water stop was 2km up the hill but it was really only 1 and a bit, so there was a lot more hill than I expected. Bugger. Not sure how I managed to get up to Lawler's springs, I was stopping every kilometre to rest, then nearly every half kilometre, any time there was some shade. Somebody shouted out that his HRM was telling him it was 49.8°C out here on the road alongside the rock wall. Not sure I needed to know that. Collapsed on the ground under a last bit of shade and someone told me that she could see the spring just around the corner, so picked myself up and went and stuck head in cold water. Most enjoyable. Less enjoyable was the large ant bite from not checking which bit of ground to lie on. A couple of clouds even passed over, dropping the temperature momentarily and causing a cheer from the eight of us at the spring. After cooling down, the last couple of kilometres up were ok — a small celebration being held internally when the speedo indicated I had gone from single digits back to 10km/hr, then even more, back to almost normal! More blissful descending through the forests back towards Bright, hardly any other riders to be seen. Then turn back onto the Bright road for the last five kilometres to town, into the increasing hot headwind — oh yay. Waahoo, 3:30 pm and I was back at the tent, very nearly knackered. Handed in my brevet card and started on more oranges. Just about stepped on Dennis, all my concentration was on the cold drink and more quarters of oranges, he and Leanne pointed out that there was a large, wet and cool river nearby and why didn't I go and sit in it. A very good idea. I sat. 6hrs 39 minutes on the bike, 8hrs 14 by the clock. 19.9km/hr average for the riding time. No, it was not fun. ** Photos

“Seven to ten days,” is the quote when I drop the camera off at the service centre, “you'll hear from us by then.” Well, its two weeks now and not a word so back into voicemail land I go. 13 13 83, 3, 1, “All our operators are busy, please stand by....” At last a human, some questions, here's my repair number and I'm assured that the camera has been received — on the 12th — apparently it took nine days for the camera to get from Melbourne to Sydney! I could have carried it up there on my bicycle in that time!

“We're waiting on parts, this is our busiest time of the year, it should be two to three weeks, give us a call sometime next week.” Two to three weeks, plus the two weeks already, maybe a month or a month and a half of the one year warrantee for one repair!

Last chance training before the Audax Australia Alpine Classic! An early start — early for me, 07:30 — up and out and flying off down the hill to sea-level. Tears streaming from my eyes in the cool morning air, then around the corner and start the climb up the Deans Marsh road. Far less traffic than last time a few weeks ago, but the roadside is still a solid carpet of bottles and cans.

Half an hour later, plus a few minutes, and I'm at the top of Benwerrin, 427m above sea-level, and can pause for a drink and to consider my options. Will it be on to Deans Marsh, back down and up again, or around the dirt road to Erskine falls? I chose option number three; the road is still corrugated, but either I'm more used to it, or someone has lightly graded it in the past week or two...

A brief sighting of the semi-mythical Otway Panther; resolving itself into the far more prosaic fox running across the road. Then back onto the bitumen for the grin-inducing run back down through the hills to Lorne, the sun just starting to break through the clouds and shine off the ocean as I came into town.

Breakfast at a café in town, then back up the hill to house, only to meet Jo on her way out for a ride to Wye river. Will I or won't I go too? Oh all right! Back down the hill and off along the Great Ocean Road we went.

An hour out along the coast to Wye river, a five or ten minute stop to watch the waves crashing on the rocks, then back on the bikes for the ride back to Lorne.

Amazingly, the motorists we met all seemed quite well behaved, only one neanderthal blasted on the horn to show off to his mates. Eleven to twelve o'clock seemed to be tour bus time, we must have seen five large coaches and a dozen mini-bus tours on the way home!

Highlight of the day was the parrot that shot out of bush beside the road and flew along in front of me before heading off into the scrub — I've never seen one before but it might have been an Orange Bellied parrot, either rare or endangered! A browse through the bird book shows that it could equally well be one of two or three other grass parrots that also live along the coast — oh well, it was something I've not seen before!

I guess they're not doing me any good just sitting there. Here are ten of my invitations for anyone who wants 'em:

1. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-cb0180fd64-f854a2779c
2. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-cb25010f61-23a65d3492
3. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-efd24b6a78-58b3f96b32
4. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-cac3065fee-2e0d535056
5. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-aa8fcd2939-4802fbc95d
6. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-e34aca1ae2-b6e1b1060e
7. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-8cf56e0924-5e8761583f
8. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-feec13a4b5-418bbc1c18
9. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-e04de58eef-4e9b48ee17
10. http://mail.google.com/mail/a-8c68b634c0-780207f8c4-2a866a6037

In a magnificent piece of mistiming, I've discovered that Apple have released a firmware update to my iPod, one day after I managed to completely corrupt it and had to restore from scratch! Maybe the new firmware will prevent a recurrence of the corruption if I'm foolish enough to plug it in while there's a network drive mapped to the first drive letter... it might even fix the annoying problem where all my photos are displayed witha date of “Feb 2040”.

Also revisited the XSL and added a few tweaks to my Recently Played playlist. Artist names and song titles now link to last.fm (was audioscrobbler.com). It still doesnt get built automatically though....

A minor stupidity on my part and I plugged my iPod into the laptop while I'd mapped a network drive to the lowest available drive letter. The iPod started flashing its “Do not disconnect” message, iTunes started up and all looked normal... after a long time I had a look and saw that iTunes had decided that the iPod's name was the volume name of the network drive, but still nothing was happening.

Eventually I stopped it and restarted. Next time around iTunes seemed to think that the iPod had been renamed, but then claimed that it was synchronised to a different library, so I had to go through the whole rigmarole of blowing away all 6713 songs and reloading the lot — a ridiculously time consuming task!

Even after it had finished everything is still not right. Somewhere along the way the iPod has lost 23G of storage, only a subset of my library can now be copied! Next step is to restore it via the iPod updater, but that stalls wanting me to plug it into the external powersupply — the USB power isn't good enough! It shouldn't be this hard!

Interestingly, there seems to be a new folder called iPod Control created on the fileserver volume that I had mapped to drive F:, and it seems that iTunes was busy filling it up when I interrupted it! Definitely a no-no there Apple!

Stay tuned for tomorrow where I see if I can successfully access all 40G of the iPod and transfer my entire music library into it....

Note to self: DO NOT plug the iPod in when there's a network drive on the first available drive letter!

A couple of days work and a couple of hundred dollars, it sure beats an infinite delay and me not getting around to doing it myself! Picked up Mr Damage this morning with a new choke cable, a general service, and an operational second headlight (for the first time in its life). It is running far better than when I dropped it off!

Now all I need to do is pay the registration — $488 — and then consider more money for new tyres, and fix the dangly indicators, and maybe get the seat recovered, and then there's always more...

Today's expenditure

Component	cost
Total	$811.00
Choke cable	$27.95
Freight	$10.00
Spark plugs	$22.00
Oil	$32.30
Oil filter	$22.00
Headlight bulb	$15.95
Labour	$192.50
Registration	$488.30

Courtesy of some very helpful ImageMagick hints by Anthony Thyssen, a bit of magic to create a “stack of polaroids” effect. Here it is applied to one of my all-time favourite photos.

convert -size 400x180 hatching.jpg  -thumbnail '200x90>' \
            -bordercolor white  -border 6 \
            -bordercolor grey60 -border 1 \
            -bordercolor none  -background  none \
            \( -clone 0  -rotate `perl -e 'print rand() * 30 - 15'` \) \
            \( -clone 0  -rotate `perl -e 'print rand() * 30 - 15'` \) \
            \( -clone 0  -rotate `perl -e 'print rand() * 30 - 15'` \) \
            \( -clone 0  -rotate `perl -e 'print rand() * 30 - 15'` \) \
            -delete 0  -border 100x80  -gravity center \
            -crop 200x160+0+0  +repage  -flatten  -trim +repage \
            -background black \( +clone -shadow 60x4+4+4 \) +swap \
            -background none  -flatten \
            -depth 8 -colors 256 -quality 95   polaroid_stack.png

First page via Google when asking about the E18 error from my less than six month old Canon IXUS 700. Courtesy of www.ixus-world.de:

The E18 error message is the worst that can happen to an owner of the Canon IXUS. By manky mechanics the camera cannot drive their lens out any longer and displays the error "E18" in the lcd display. If the warranty of the camera has ran out it's not worthwhile to repair it by Canon in most cases. With a little luck you can repair the damage by yourself..

Oh yay!

Then what a coincidence — drive over to the Canon service centre at lunch time to drop my camera off and there's one guy waiting at the counter ahead of me. Surprise, surprise, he's dropping off an IXUS750 with exactly the same problem. Of course the service desk staff claim that they've never seen it before on any camera....