Selective Perception

Jun 7

Great NOSH running race on the weekend (Photo from Leanne of her new Brooks runners after 15K of mud) this is pretty much my favourite running event of the year. It’s usually 300 or so runner and walkers of all shapes and sizes and is from Lindfield Oval to Seaforth Oval all on a mix of bushtrack, some scrambling across rocks and mud and firetrail. I reckon I was on for a sub 90 but had to rescue some poor girl who fell on some rocks (walked her out and had a cup of tea and called her Mum!) such a fun event and seems like the changes I’ve made to my running style/form have helped.

May 22

Visited the new Kaldor section of the AGNSW firstly to see a breakdancing demo but then to wonder around the new gallery and listen to a talk by Alex Danko (love his artworks but especially one he was talking about called ‘Log Dog’ that he apparently registered with Council as a dog and Art Curators walk from time to time! It’s a lovely space and a great addition to the Gallery.

May 21

Laotian food in Fairfield with old mate JG at Selina’s - SUPER tasty and the place was totally packed. Mad decor with pictures of religious icons and a wall devoted to Ferrari cars of the 1980’s and an old school poster of a Jaguar XJ220 for some reason. We ordered papaya salad (they checked if we wanted it spicy, which of course we did) it came in a really dark but tasty sauce which we discovered later was flavoured with Tamerind and crab sauce and we were ‘other thing’ lots of ‘other’ things mixed in.. whatever they were it was superb. The house speciality was deep fried quail so we ordered some of that, really tasty except the side sauce which was a strange peppery lemon tasting sauce which reminded us of bath cleaner. I ordered the ox tongue (I should be beefed out after my beef and tendon Pho at lunchtime but I wasn’t) which was nice and chewy, all of this washed down with lots of hot tea. Finished it off with some Gelato on the way home because the lebanese sweet shop was closed.

May 16

Inspirational morning, rode into town to spectate the SMH Half Marathon and to cheer on an old friend L. Met C under the harbour bridge on Hickson Road at 6.30AM and watched the sun come up, both of us in lots of layers because it was lovely and chilly. I always love being close to the bridge and looking at the detail around the construction too.

First came the wheelchair athletes (escorted by cyclists) they go first because they are faster! Then came the leaders which always blows me away, just the speed and efficiency of movement (arms and stride being identical from step to step). Next came the flood of runners of all shapes and sizes.

Somehow we missed L the first time around but we moved up the road and caught her at the 18K mark. Due to a foot injury (and having to stop to be sick) she was in lots of pain and almost broke down when she stopped for a quick hug but being as determined as she is went on to complete the race in a very respectable time, inspirational and a wonderful gift to me to reinforce the fact that hard work and determination pays off with running.

Was also just really invigorating getting up that early on a Sunday, another good reminder not to be lazy on the weekend.

May 10

U.N.K.L.E at the opera house - Amazing show, huge talent and the screen at the back of the stage worked perfectly in fact it added to the show. Instead of one ‘guest’ vocalist we got Ian Brown, Sean Rider, Nick Cave and Ian Astbury and more. Highlight would have been Burn my shadow and Reigh. The sound in the Opera house was spot on. Really diverse crowd, mostly what you’d expect fellow Gen-Xers in Jeans but the odd preppy Gen-Y and smart casual walking around (probably a hangover from DJ Shadow days!) really good show (Pictures by Jaston)

Mar 12

Taste of Sydney 2011 - Fun eating times with Justin and Christina We went down nice and early (4PM) and waited at the gate for the 5.30 start no queue and a top spot in the shade.

Advice from Justin and Christina was to choose carefully (avoid the carbs, all killer, no filler!)

Started with Seared scallops, but the highlight for me I think was Salmon Carpaccio with orange, fennel, wine/citrus dressing and salmon roe (pop) from the Otto tent.

Finished with Macaroons washed down with a tasty beer.

I thing I enjoyed most of all was shooting the breeze and watching the (older) crowd enjoying tasty food and wine. Lots of happy round people with big smiles!

Farewell (and birthday) for Adam at Harts Pub got there super early (and sort of crashed the ‘family’ bit of the farewell I think…. oops….) so was a bit tipsy when my brother turned up (You know you’ve had a few when you greet people by shouting a name and extending it… Dannieeeeeeeeee!)

Excellent beer tasting tray ($10 for four tasty beers, makes buying rounds easy) and great company. Not sure what the fuss is with Cider though, tastes like rotten apple and smells like Pee… ek..

Really impressed with Adam following through with his plan to go OS, a dream he has had for ages travel well mate! take lots of photographs.

Feb 13

Running in the bush - It’s been ages since I ran this track up near my parents house in St Ives. The track isn’t offically mapped anywhere, when I lived up there with Liz my next door neighbour (who must have been pushing 70) was a runner too and he and his lawn bowls mates had taken it on themselves to link up a few local trails and fire access roads to make a good circular run. He used to walk through there with a whipper snipper and pruning shears to keep the track open, sadly the track looks like it’s now been left to become overgrown (I heard he moved away after his wife died) but I could still make it out and bush bashed bit of it.

Because it’s unknown it’s rare to find anyone else on the track it starts behind lindfield oval and to get to it you have to run through a few peoples back yards like Ferris Bueller’s running scene…. “smells delicious…. dinners ready!”

Then there is about 20 mins of undulating firetrails and the track tightens up to singletrack for another 20 mins and then starts to wind down to the river (what river I don’t know, part of the Hawksberry I guess) there are some tiny little sandy beaches down there with no footsteps, I’ve been for a swim and it’s really fresh even on a hot day.

Along the river it’s pretty technical with lots of slippery tree roots and drop off, then there is a good climb, rocky in parts that is ‘just’ steep enough to run up if you push hard with an awesome flat bit at the top with lots of pine needles on the ground (which has to be the BEST surface to run on)

The last section is a bit rain forest like, an a bit dark with lots of moss covered rocks and rotting logs and even a cave to run underneath with dripping water and pools of water, I call it the Dagobah system.

Apart from the Cobwebs it’s an awesome run and very different running offroad.

Dinner again at Mamak in Chatswood with Dannie, super tasty and good value Malaysian place, the best thing we have found on the menu is the Roti W/two curries (mine was stuffed with chicken mince and cabbage) This is a picture of a dude making one. Also one of the few places I know of that serves Milo on the menu, awesome.

Feb 9

I really like having dinner out during the week, less crowded, less pressure and generally better service and fun specials (that aren’t ‘off’ the menu because everyone has had them) Was going to go to an old favourite Sushi dive but it closed in August sadly so Ray suggested Baroque Bistro in the Rocks, can’t go wrong with French food after all.

Because it’s on a corner there is a great open space out the front with Leather couches which is welcoming because there are already a few people drinking fruity drinks and such. This leads to a great big bar in the entrance to welcome you.

We were there (as usual) for some serious eating and of course the usual serious talking. I swear each time I see Ray we have both changed our lives dramatically and it’s always good to talk Business and give each other a different perspective on how we both work on challanges at work. So we heading directly to the dining room.

I think the waitress thought we might have been a couple! because we ordered the same drinks (Lemon Lime and Bitters) and Steak Tartar.

I haven’t had Steak Tartar in ages, pretty old school 60’s/70’s dish but I’d forgotten the texture and lemon zing, really delicious I’m no expert but it was seasoned to make it just meaty enough without being overpowering.

We both got different desserts, I always have to have crème brulée (with pistachio ice cream this time) if it’s on the menu and Ray elected to have a Passionfruit soufflé, with ice cream and a macaron which looked amazing, both presented on a little serving board. My brulée was spot on, not a scrambled egg bit in sight.

Highly recommended, or you could have Entree and Main here and head to a favourite of mine down the road to complete the french experience at La Renaissance Café for a Cream Cake and a french coffee, Magnifique!

Feb 8

A Midsummerish - Midsummer Night’s Dream, this was super fun grabbed a BBQ chicken and met up with James and Jill (who supplied amazing treats thanks guys) for some outdoor Shakespeare action at Bicentennial park (Annandale way) . Got there 30 mins early to have dinner first. MSND is probably my favourite Shakespeare play, nobody dies, everyone ends up pretty happy. It was the perfect night for it too with a breeze off the water. Great production, the cast really seemed to be enjoying it as were we. Awkward/funny moment was Jill and I accidentally looking behind the mixing/lighting desk where the cast was half naked/in white Y-fronts etc, broke the illusion!

A fun evening, didn’t have to dress up either, you should check it out.

Sydney Shakespeare Festival

Feb 6

How I’ve kept running in the heat and why.

Excuse the sweaty photo I’m not naked, promise, although I do look a bit alien.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks to try and continue to keep my mileage up and can be pretty dangerous (my bro ended up in hospital this week on a drip from running in the heat) but for the most part I’ve been able to continue and have been able to pound out 40K this week (down from a high of 51K last week) certainly not heaps but quite enough when it’s been this hot thank you very much.

Hydration obviously is important and running by the coast has helped, putting my runners in the fridge (Lister style) is a bit of a luxury. For the most part just keeping my pace down and just grinding out the KMs has been my focus.

Why? Couple of reasons:

1. I don’t think I am naturally gifted as a distance runner so large breaks in training tend to hurt my performance (and make it hard to build back up to any significant milage)

2. Running in very hot weather if I can stand it generally improves my fitness more than if I was running in cool/normal weather, googling suggests all kinds of reasons (increased blood volume, ability to produce more sweat without losing sodium, magnesium, potassium etc) not sure of the exact physiological reasons but I feel fitter, part of it is that for the same pace your heart rate is higher in heat and humidity so in effect it’s like a multiplier of effort on your cardiovascular systems so there is a net increase in fitness just from that.

3. It’s a big mental boost and later in the year when I’m in the middle of a race the hours I spent running in heat and humidity crawling along painfully this week will give me mental strength. Much more than if I was lying on the beach reading or in front of a fan at home.

4. I actually feel cooler the rest of the time and when people have been complaining about the heat I’ve been fine. I sweat very very quickly when I’m outside but this apparently is a good sign the quicker you start sweating the fitter you are. Essentially your circulation improves and you are able to release more heat and actually grow more sweat glands (gross)

Jan 16

Rocking Joe Jackson at the moment, thanks Uncle Andy for playing this (and other brilliant stuff) in the car when I was a kid in the UK.

Jan 15

Ghettocise - Being allergic to gyms (and anywhere where groups of people I don’t know are sweating inside including Bikram Yoga and Saunas) limits me when it comes to weightbearing exercise. I know it’s good for me and I enjoyed feeling stronger -when I was more tolerant and had a gym membership through work-. Without the space (or desire) to get myself a weightbench or similar I’ve been limited to pushups and chinups but pushups in particular are only as challanging as my body weight allows (even if I do a million of them I won’t get that much stronger).

1. Ghettocise solution is as pictured two housebricks (still filled with concrete) and a bunch of tiles wrapped in an old towel and inside a backpack. I’m not sure how much it adds but it feels heavy and makes pushups roughly a third more difficult and I feel stronger already.

2. I do have some light barbells which again won’t make me stronger as I can do bicep curls all day with them (I think they are designed to go walking with?) so the Ghettocise solution is to tie them together with an old belt which makes them twice as heavy which should do for now.

3. My trusty pair of runners my 17th pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS at $200+ hardly Ghetto but when averaged out across the the number of runs a pretty budget form of exercise. I’m closing in on 50K a week now and getting some speed back into the old lamb shanks. Adding mileage slowly and including rest days to try to avoid the injuries that has plagued me the last few times I’ve tried to get to big weekly mileage (peaked in mid 2007 when I was close to 100K a week)

Ghettocise works for me, I couldn’t possibly face any form of bootcamp (someone shouting at me before 7AM would likely result in manslaughter) and gyms are for young people and investment bankers so yeah, go get some Ghettocise of your own.

Jan 2

New years day adventure - Left late on NYD with Dannie to camp over night in the blue mountains (Hard to get up after NYE late night times) and headed up the mountains to walk down Perrys lookdown to Blue Gum forest the track down is only 5K or so but it’s one of the steepest I’ve walked down in the Blue mountains, tough going down and up. We took a swim in the river and set up camp at Acacia flat. Dinner was noodles and spam cooked on Dannies awesome new Jetboil stove, washed down with Red wine from a plastic bladder, lovely! Spent the evening chating and reading and woke up to the sound of the river for a coffee and a steep walk out. When I got home my fishtank had a bunch of new babies I’ve counted three so the rest of them must have been eaten. It will be fun to see what they turn out like (if they don’t get gobbled up first by the other fish)