The Toy Run for 2005 although incredibly hot for motorbiking, was the biggest turnout SA has ever had. It was 40 degrees in the sun, and I was wearing my full leathers which are black. Just imagine sitting in a sauna for five hours, and that’s exactly what it felt like!
Originally I was going with Luke E. and Chris, Warrick and his mates, and an old XC MTB buddy Luke B. and his mates, all meeting at my place for one massively big group ride. All this organising turned to crap, and it ended up just being Luke E., his mate Troy and myself – we decided not to ride with Warrick and his group because it’d be too difficult to stay together. Being really packed out, and really busy, we were sitting on a VERY low speed all the way to the freeway, so with no wind I was incredibly hot. We had a couple stops up there on the way, and accidentally turned off early into Handorf, which we realised was a good thing since there would be no shade up at the oval where we are meant to drop our toy donations off. We ate lunch at Handorf, and then cruised over to the oval, dropped off the toys and went home back to Luke’s for some bevvies.
Whilst at the oval, I saw a friend (more like a friend of a friend I guess) who’s a reporter, and said a quick g’day. She had a hard time getting people for interviewing because they had to wait for the break in the music of the band playing in order to record sound. As I left to catch up with my mates, the music stopped, so she quickly interviewed me and I ended up on the ABC news that night! Yay, my five seconds of fame!!
You can download the ABC news footage of the Toy Run.
Monica had her 21st party at her house on Saturday night. It was a Gods and Goddesses theme, although I seriously ran out of time to get a costume in order (I was intending on going as a Protoss High Templar from Starcraft). There were a few crazy people that dressed with not much but a sash over their upper body – I think they well and truly paid the price as Monica lives in the hills and it’s a fair bit cooler in the hills at night. It was great to see all the people I hadn’t seen for months, and a great night was had by all.
After the party winded up, Darius, myself, and Ed had planned to head into Earth nightclub to see one of my favourite artists L-Hornett from Pendulum. Morv came with us as a spur of the moment decision, and Sari (Darius’s girlfriend) came in as well. Unfortunately Darius was unable to quickly find a car park, and they (allegedly!) both decided to go home. When we walked in after Morv eventually got a park, it was pushing 2am, and MPK was on – I rate MPK above Pendulum! I reckon MPK is trying out some more chilled-out DNB these days. L-Hornett was almost as good as MPK, but the speakers were distorting and the fine treble was not heard at all. That night I got 3 hours sleep and I had to get up for the Toy Run! (see next post)
Well there’s a first time for everything – and getting hit by a car on one of my push bikes was inevetible. Or in this case, I actually hit a car. But it wasn’t my fault – it was the taxi’s fault!! So this is how it was:
I was riding down my street, about 35km/hr, leaning back on the seat, riding with no hands, it was a beautiful day! A taxi reverses out, doesn’t give way to me, so I was forced to stop for it. In my mind, I disliked this taxi driver already – if I was a car of course he would have waited for me to drive past. So he takes off pretty quickly, and I pedal off pretty quickly. Then BAAAM I hit him. This was due to him slamming on the brakes such that he could talk to another taxi driver parked on the other side of the road. So sure, I should have left a little more distance between him and myself, but the fact that he accelerated so quickly, I figured he was going to go fast enough that I wouldn’t keep up for him for long – but of course I will if he slams on the brakes.
So anyway, I pulled a sweet nose wheelie, but the bike rotated around to my left and I ended up half on his boot. It was actually quite comfortable, and the soft paint of his car shielded the Italian componentary of my bicycle quite nicely. Whether or not I scratched his bumper I really don’t care (but for the record I did. — *YESSS!!!*)
Cyclists 1 :: Taxi’s 0
P.S.
No one was injured.