ajft

The Telstra bigpond package turned up at home this morning, it contains one "insert and run" Microsoft Windows CD and one PCMCIA wireless card as well as the ADSL modem and ethernet cable.

I had carefully told the nice man with the almost unintelligible Indian accent that I needed the wireless card for a DESKTOP PC and that both PCs ran Linux and not Windows. So I've been given a CD I can't run and a wireless card I can't plug in! Absolutely zero instructions on installing any of it in the box.

Surprise, surprise, the account name and password I setup when I booked the service won't let me login to the bigpond website. Just spent three minutes in voicemail menus entering my phone number etc, only to be told “technical assistance is currently unavailable, please call again.”

Two hours later... second call, four minutes on hold listening to mindless music then I can get my password changed. No idea what the original one is, they can't tell. Tried to login with that password and it won't work, but the support person tells me it can take up to quarter of an hour to go through — i.e., if I still can't login call back and it'll be someone else's problem....

Another two hours then what a surprise, the new password still won't let me in. Three tries and the account is locked, time to ring technical assistance again.... Now I've been told that the account isn't active until after I've plugged in and connected the ADSL modem from home, so I have to wait until I get home and go through the whole rigmarole again.

Long delay, go home, unpack boxes, play with wires, put shiny CD into Windows laptop and follow the bouncing ball... Oo-err, now we're connected to the internet. Assorted bits of web browsing and software updates to check that all is working. Ten o'clock at night and I try to login to the Bigpond website — still no luck! Yet another call to that 13xxxx number, more voicemail prompts and a different story from a different helpdesk person: “there's a problem with the servers since about six o'clock and hardly anybody can login, try again tomorrow morning.”

My name is Mohammed a merchant in Dubai, have been diagnosed with Esophageal cancer It has defiled all forms of medical treatment, and right now I have only about a few months to live, according to medical experts.

Well, Mohammed, a merchant in Dubai, I can recommend grammar lessons. Defiling medical treatment is probably not what you intend.

A slow start, and a cold morning. After breakfast it took forever to get coordinated and underway — last night's red wine taking its toll. The coffee shops of Yarra Junction beckoned, we'd only just started riding by the time we got there and settled inside to thaw out and apply coffee to aching heads.

Leaving Yarra Junction the local traffic was a bit too obnoxious — as the drivers along here often seem to be. We retired to the Lillydale-Warbutton bike trail to see whether this improved our outlook on life; far quieter and better for the aching heads, but now very much in need of regrading, repair, and resurfacing, and packed with recreational cyclists of wildly varying skill levels — definitely a track to ride along at a very sedate pace, and paying extreme attention at all times! Somewhere around one of the smaller towns we even came upon a car driving up the bike trail; apparently it is part of their driveway, but nobody has thought to put a warning sign on the track telling cyclists that they may come head on around a corner and meet cars!

At Mt Evelyn we left the trail and returned to the road, and one of the most fantastic road surfaces I can remember riding on for some time. A magnificent swooping curvy run down the hill, effortlessly reaching the 70km/hr speed limit on the way down!

The rest of the way home was the usual ride from the outskirts of Melbourne back to home, unlike a lot of easter holiday rides we were thankfully free of the dangers posed by caravan-towing motorists — motorists who forget that the 'van is half a metre wider than their car as they pass. Into Melbourne along the highway, stop for lunch at a suburban bakery in Heathmont, back along the highway then head south when we got to Warrigal road. Warrigal road is known territory, up and down, crossing the lines of the hills till we're back in Oakleigh, home for a shower and a change of clothes!

As usual, the official meeting place and luggage drop off was at the Wayfarer Inn in South Melbourne; I've no idea why, the place isn't a pub anymore and seems to only barely tolerate having a bunch of a hundred cyclists turn up. A hundred hungry cyclists; but they close the kitchen while people are still trying to order food. A hundred thirsty cyclists, but they haven't turned the beer taps on, only bottles are available. They really don't seem to care, but I guess this is the last time. Lack of food meant that Jo and I only stayed a while, one drink and a few goodbyes, then off to get some food in more pleasant surroundings — Silvio's pizza, piping hot and on the table in under ten minutes with a smile and a beer and a wave from the staff.

The Easter Deadly Treadly is over. The last ever Easter Deadly Treadly is over. What will we do next easter...

Where?

Wesburn 37° 46' 0S 145° 37' 60E

From Neerim South to Noojee the road climbs steadily up for at least ten kilometres, then climbs more steeply up for another few before swooping down through the forest in wet twisty curves. Magnificent riding, but a little unnerving with the wet leaves and the narrowness of the roads. Inflight discussions between tandem pilot and stoker resulted in the decree that the tandem would travel at a reasonable speed downwards through the forest....

Noojee pub is a magnificent building, and has a wonderful open fire. The only problem is that when you arrive at quarter past eleven you find that the pub doesn't open until noon, and even the presence of fifty thirsty cyclists can't convince the publican to vary those hours. Some people decided to stop for coffee at one of the two cafés in town, the rest continued on along the river valley towards Powelltown and then on to Yarra Junction and Wesburn.

A second and completely unexpected long climb before we reached Powelltown, seemed to plod endlessly up through the forest, I'm sure the road is meant to be running along the valley. The Powelltown shop and pub has been renovated and is no longer the pokey old country store I remember; now a warm and inviting bar, restaurant, café, shop and agency for the local bank, it is all the facilities in Powelltown other than the sawmill!

After lunch it was a cruisy ride along mostly flat roads to Yarra Junction, then turn off and a only a few more minutes before we were at Wesburn and time to set up the tents for the last time this ride, and the last time ever on a Deadly Treadly tour! Plenty of time in the magnificent autumn afternoon to sit around in the sun and drink a few beers and reminisce and relax.

Where?

Wesburn 37° 46' 0S 145° 37' 60E

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Blessed are the tandem-riders, for they shall manage to ride all day and escape the rain — at least it seemed that way today! A lucky start when we woke in sunlight and with a bit of prodding managed to leap into action and pack the bags and tent before breakfast and more importantly, before the next squall and rainfront came through. Even more impressive was the one after that, not just icy rain, this one had ice in it — a few minutes of hail that caused general mayhem on the campground.

Korumburra to Poowong, where we would have stayed last night if the pub — the only food source in town — had been open on Good Friday. The last five minutes into Poowong an exercise in vector analysis as we plotted speed and direction of the tandem versus the speed and direction of the next big black rainfront. Jo and I stood around dry and sipping coffee while Evan and Andrew rolled in ten minutes later having sheltered under trees and in a muddy ditch.

Photos

Where?

Korumburra Poowong Drouin Neerim South

Where?

Kilcunda Dalyston Loch Korumburra

A what! Yes, I spent half the morning at an open-garden out near Noojee. An obvious sign of senility, but a site for some very autumnal photographs. “Tall Timbers” had opened their garden to the public, and what a garden it was! I think its taken them about thirty years to get to the stage it is currently at, and probably takes up most of their time to keep it that way.

Cool and misty weather when we got there, the rain held off for the two hours or so that it took to fully explore the gardens, then started just as we decided we'd seen it all and it was time to leave. Kind of scary with the four of us being the only people there who didn't have senior's cards....

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Something seems to have gone someway awry with the configuration of a supposed announce-only mailing list from Novell! Cutting out the names and headers, the following three messages came through in response to a routine announcement:

devnet-announce@forge.novell.com wrote:

> I am out of office until the 10th of April. Your mails will not be
> read or forwarded. Best regards: Rxxx Sxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>> no problem. if you want, you can stay out of office till 11th or
>> 12th.

>>> Better yet take the whole month off - relax and enjoy

There's a cycling film festival on at RMIT for the next four days called Celluloid Cycles, we didn't think we'd need to pre-purchase tickets to the first night's session. We were wrong! After racing home from work, leaping on the train and getting into the city for 6:30 we found that it was completely sold out.

A beer for consolation at Transport while we plotted our next move.... Yeow! A $6 beer for consolation, that'll probably be the first and last from there! Back up to RMIT to purchase tickets for Sunday night — at least we'll get to see the other movies we want to see — then an evening walk around the CBD. I just never go into the city, I've no idea where anything is. There seem to be even more small asian cafés and bars than ever before, or maybe its just the turnover in streets where there didn't use to be bars.

The other movie? That was a DVD purchase of The Triplettes of Belleville, an odd mix of an NTSC region 4 DVD, hopefully it will play at home! Also accompanied by CD boxed sets of both the Laughing Clowns and Johhny Cash at Folsom Prison and San Quentin.

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A placeholder of sorts, of a bunch of AJAX-ish portals. All the rage, latest buzzword compliance and all that. Annoyingly, and as always, there's arguments for and against each one so I can't make up my mind if I'll use any of them.

• http://www.google.com/ig/
• http://www.netvibes.com/
• http://www.pageflakes.com/
• http://start.com/
• http://live.com/

Interesting changes to the wording from the first report which appeared on the Age website credited to AAP, and the second one, printed in today's paper.

The website version:

Webber urges drivers: watch for bicycles

April 3, 2006 - 6:24AM

Formula One star Mark Webber has urged Australian motorists to take a leaf out of the European book and pay more attention to cyclists on the road.

Webber, who admits to being a huge cycling fan, said while motorists in Victoria had improved in their attitude towards cyclists in the last five years, the rest of the country was not so patient.

Sometimes road users may not have an idea how much room a cyclist needs," said Webber, who is a patron of the Amy Gillett Foundation, launched in Melbourne.

"I've ridden my bike in many different parts of the world, the culture is different in Spain, in Italy and in the UK, and in Victoria the culture is very, very good.

"But there's probably other parts of Australia where (cyclists) are not as well accepted."

The foundation has been set up in memory of the Australian cyclist who was killed by a motorist while training with five teammates in Germany in July 2005.

It aims to promote a safe relationship between cyclists and motorists, provide an annual scholarship for emerging female cyclists and help the five women injured in the crash.

Up and coming cyclist Jessie Maclean, from Canberra, is the first recipient of the scholarship.

The printed version — can't say anything bad about Australia's drivers now can we!:

Webber promotes safety

Mark Webber, Australia's F1 hopeful, has lent his name to a foundation urging motorists to look out for cyclists, following the death of rider Amy Gillett in Germany last year.

Webber, who yesterday flew out of Melbourne, was in Germany last July less than 200 kilometres from the accident where Gillett and five teammates were struck by a car.

He has now accepted the position as patron of the Amy Gillett Foundation. The foundation was formed to promote a “safe and harmonious relationship between cyclists and motorists and assist Gillett's five injured teammates.”

I did promise them! It took me a while, but I've come through with my promise to send a copy of the photo taken back on March the 1st.


For such a small place, I think they deserve a little extra attention! You can find Brungle yourself care of Google Earth.

Each year Jo and I head down to Red Hill to help with the harvest at the Duke Vineyard, owned by her uncle and aunt. This year was no different, just a little later than other years due to vaguaries of grape varieties and ripening.

Number one problem was getting out of bed; even harder than usual for a Saturday morning, last night we'd been out to the Goat brewery, dinner in Victoria street, coffee in Brunswick street, then off to see Mick Thomas and Nick Barker at the Rainbow hotel. The end result of all that was not getting to bed until 2am and a very rude awakening in the dark by the alarm clock. Somehow we did manage to get up and get going though!

We made it down to the vineyard by half-past nine, probably the earliest we've ever arrived! Unlike previous years, today was almost the last of the harvest, three rows of incredibly dense Pinot, thick with leaves, and with leaves and grapes the same colour!

Half a day's solid work, some of the patches of vines so dense that we filled entire bins with grapes without moving from one spot. Spiders, leaves, stems and the odd mouldy grape all hopefully discarded, the rest dropped in the tub for Geoff to collect on the near-antique of a tractor that somehow my father-in-law keeps running with judicious applications of engineering and inventiveness.

Following the picking is the main event of the day — lunch. Each year Sue outdoes herself to produce magnificent bowls of thick tomato soup and seemingly endless supplies of salads and other foods. Of course these are always accompanied by a glass or two of the previous years' vintages, otherwise why else would we keep turning up....

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