Harvey versus Ailsa: The Rematch

On Australia Day (January 26) I competed in the longest triathlon I have attempted so far. It comprised a 1km swim, a 34km bike ride and a 7km run. That's getting close to the Olympic distance.

Ailsa was back to do battle again this time and Terry from the swimming group was there too. (Ailsa used to swim with us too before she moved to Mildura to single handedly resolve Australia's water crisis.)

The conditions were perfect. The vaguely 'off sardiney' West Lakes was calm and flat like a swimming pool and there was a light breeze but it wasn't a problem in either the ride or the run.

And the results? I completed the triathlon in 1:55:10, one minute ahead of Ailsa. (Woo-hoo, quietly.) I did better times in the swim and ride but she wound that back in the run. It was a close run thing. I can now conclusively claim the World Series Triathlon Harvey versus Ailsa This Time Around crown.

Below are the published results. Click on the results picture or any other picture for further enlargification.




Swimmers head for shore


Terry finishes the swim


Ailsa emerges from the water . . .


. . . like Boticelli's Venus from the clam


That's me. In the larger size you can see my number - 921 - same one I've had all season


West Lakes doesn't taste real good


Just out for a ride. Be back after 34km


At the start line


Ailsa whizzing along


Ride finished. Now where do I put my bike?


Ailsa heads out on the run


Run, run, run . . .


Ailsa finishes


Trying to look like the real deal at the finishing line

Don't mention ze War

Achtung! On the Sunday that hast been begonen now fur ein veek, we gedrived unser freund's neu MercyDoze Benz, a 1989 S Class. In return, Rod gedrove unser MCS JCW. It war fun. But nicht mention ze war. Photographen enlargen ven sie klick on zem. Viedersehen.

Das bin David gedriven Rod's Mercedes Benz durch tunnel

Das Mercedes Benz am Mount Lofty Car Parken Kuchen

Wir Maken Deal. Ich taken Poland. Du Kann vertaken Austria

In ze Mini

Ze Mini auf Mount Lofty

Lycra and Shaved Legs

No, the title does not refer to me! I've been told! I'm not to shave my legs! As for the wearing of lycra - well that's compulsory!

No the title of this post refers to the riders in the Tour Down Under. The third leg of the race was held at Stirling just across the freeway from my work, so I went over and took some photos and a short video of the start. Conditions were great for photography - overcast - so no problems with vast dark shadows as is usual with taking shots in the middle of the day in summer. A couple thousand people came to see the start and by the time the riders were five minutes down the road, the place was deserted. I hope you like the pictures.


Agritubel team member. I saw them riding on Kensington Road practicing last week

Interviews

Team Jacques Chocolade

Members of the New Zealand team waiting for the start

Navigators Insurance team members

Navigators team members and behind members of the Ag2R Prevoyance team from France

Barloworld team member

An Agritubel team member heads for the start line

Set to go at the start line

At two minutes to go

Below is a link to the 30 second film I took of the start of the Stirling stage. The original looks really good - it loses a bit of quality on the website. I've found that the film starts straight away. You don't have to wait minutes for it to download (on broadband). You will need to copy the link and paste it into your web browser.

http://harvey.saint.net.au/displayimage.php?album=31&pos=1

Adlayed@Night

A few months ago, as we wandered around, I took some night time shots around town. (By the way for youse out-of-towners the place is called Ad-Layed or Ad-Laid, Not Ad-el-ayed or Ad-el-Aid. If you pronounce it with the 'e' it shows you're definitely not a local ((and possibly immune therefore from being the target of bizarre serial killers)) ) Three of the pictures are of the new law courts building in Victoria Square and one is of the interior of a bar in an old pub on King Wiliam Street, The Crown and Sceptre. The photos are bordered by rusty galvanised iron - because.
Click on the photos for enlargificationarianism

Coloured glass panels make up a significant proportion of the law courts building's facade.

A water feature and the state's colours (red, yellow and blue) adorn the building's entrance

This helmet like structure in copper adorns one side of the building. Perhaps the former owner was a very large Greek warrior with three set of eyes

I think this set of shelving was available at Freedom. Here they look very chic against a nicely lit mirror

Amanda Queen of the Desert - Partification Photopictures

Amanda celebrated her 40th birthday last Saturday night at Lobethal. Held at her parent's house, the theme for the 'Amanda Queen of the Desert Turns 40 Party' was Outback Glam. It was a fun party.

David in outback mode. The glittery beads supply the glam. Definitely exhibiting a bushie past . . . anyone reminded of Harry Butler?

Me doing my best Chesty Bonds impersonation. Both pics prior to the party.

Sandy looking classy.

Amanda, the birthday girl plus long lashes, sequins, glitter, high heals and feather boa.

Harvey, David, Jeff and Jacqui

Who needs candles when you have sparklers?





Around Aunty Jean's cake. Amanda with Mum and Dad - Gloria and John.

Phonics versus Graphics

Below is the invitation I designed for our friend Amanda for her 40th birthday party which was held last Saturday night. She has lived in Alice Springs for the past number of years and decided that the style of the outback should come to Lobethal, where the party was held. The invitation asked guests to dress in Outback Glam. This was interpreted in various ways as you can see from the photos in the post above.

Burra Pilgrimage

On the last Saturday night of the year and the penultimate day of 2006 a group of us made the pilgrimage to Burra to dine at Francis and Putu's White Cedars Cafe. We initially converged at Neagles Rock Winery and Restaurant at Clare and then, in convoy, we drove onto Burra, half an hour further north(ish). We stayed at the Burra Hotel, which one of our friends would undoubtedly call "cheap and cheerful". Dinner that night was a fabulous banquet of Balinese and South East Asian food prepared by Putu - just delicious!

On the five-star balcony above the main street of Burra attached to the two-star(?) Burra Hotel. From left - Gary, David, Keith and Ellen.

Gary, David, Keith, Ellen, Liz and Peter.

Dining at Francis and Putu's restaurant, the White Cedars Cafe. We had a lovely banquet. From left Ellen, Peter, Liz, Gary, David and Keith.

After coffee at the White Cedars Cafe the next day. Ellen, Keith, Peter, Gary, David, Francis and Liz.

Tri Photos

Here are the photos David took from the most recent triathlon. It's only from the start as we've had immense battery problems with the camera. . . don't know what is going on. The 'so-called' rechargeable batteries just don't hold their charge.


Waiting for it all to start

Bobbing up to show my number

In transition. New bathers - Christmas present

Blog tags

I've added tags to each of the entries. They appear at the bottom of each entry and are words in orange sparated by a comma. They can be used as a way of sorting the blog. So, if you want to look at all the entries to do with the kitchen renovation click on the 'kitchen' or 'renovation' tag at the bottom of one of the entries. Then a page will be produced that has all the entries about the kitchen together on the one page.



A picture I created a while ago. It's here to deorate this othwise dull and administrative blog entry

Southerly Bluster

I completed another triathlon on Sunday, January 7 in fairly ordinary conditions.

On the previous Thursday it was hot, on Friday it was warm, on Saturday it was cooler and cloudy and on Saturday night I heard the rain come down. When I awoke on Sunday morning it looked pretty bleak - rain and strong wind.

Triathlons are run rain, hail or shine so early on Sunday morning I gathered my gear put the bike rack on the back of the car attached the bike and with crew in tow (David and Marlene on a visit from Quorn) we headed out to West Lakes.

As we ventured west the weather improved. In fact, the roads were dry half way across the western suburbs of town. But then we hit the beach area. Here there were intermittent showers and the wind was strong and from the south.

The water in West Lakes was pretty choppy - it felt like you were occasionally swim downhill. It was a bit odd and disconcerting. The ride into the wind was pretty bad, down to 22kmph in places but with the breeze I was reaching speeds of 42kmph or more. On the run we headed south first directly into the wind. At first I didn’t think the wind was hampering the run, then I turned to run the northward leg of the first lap. I surged forward, the wind was indeed impeding progress.

All this is long hand to say that in this triathlon I went a bit slower as you can see from results chart below. Click on it for enlargification.



Below are some photos take from the website of the photographer that has been covering the triathlons.

For some reason we had numbers on both shoulders for this triathlon


First lap of the run, a three kilometre loop

The second lap is just one kilometre long


Graham and Terry cross the line arm in arm in the Tinman


The next triathlon will be held on Australia Day. It's the big one in this series. It comprises a 1,000 metre swim, a 32.5km bike ride and an 8km run. Guess who will doing lots of exercise in the coming weeks?

The big questions

Sometimes you wonder; “What’s it all about?”, “Why am I here?”, “Whose shoes are those?”. . .

You know, you ask the big questions in life.

If you have a birthday and your partner rushes you off to McLaren Vale for three days of luxury, those questions fail to resonate. At these times it’s all about the moment, the food, the wine, the olives, the people, the bike ride, the sunshine, the barbecue, the view, the sleep-in, the cheese, the architecture, the music . . .

On December 26 David rushed me off to McLaren Vale. With bikes on the rack on the back of the new MCS JCW (Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works), we headed south for Willunga where we had a delightful lunch at Fino, a restaurant that has only been open for the past six months.

We sat down and the waitress asked, “Do you want to order off the menu of should we just feed you?”

We went for the simpler option, like baby birds (minus the regurgitation); “Feed us, feed us”.

Around seven dishes later (they were small) we were replete. And what did they serve? Goats fetta in hot oil with spices, liver (for David), asparagus with white anchovies (I didn't know they came in different colours), panfried marinated fresh sardines and chargrilled octopus.

We then headed for the accommodation, Chapel Hill B&B. A chalet-type building, it comprised three bedrooms, three bathrooms, an extra toilet, a full-sized kitchen with dining area and a full-sized dining and lounge area with large fireplace. And we had it to ourselves.

The bedroom we chose to inhabit had a beautiful view across the Chapel Hill vineyards, the Onkaparinga Gorge and the gulf. Just beautiful to wake up to.

One of the highlights of the three days was riding around the valley. As you may have noticed we stayed at Chapel ‘Hill’. There’s a hill in that name for a reason, as where we stayed was at the top of the ridge that defines the topography of the area. Heading off towards McLaren Vale was simple, point the bike down the hill and free-wheel. Easy.

However, a late breakfast, two wineries and half a day later we were faced with a different reality. Up. Gravity did its work but we did manage to regain altitude and get back to our ‘chalet’.

One night we used the monster barbecue outside. David cooked a hearty repast of prawns, chicken thighs and beef steak. Tres Bien!

Another highlight was visiting the new Primo Estate cellar door. Recently opened, and costing $2.5m, it was a fantastic place to try their wines. The pictures tell the story for this one.

We also went to two wineries around the Mount Jagged area south of Mount Compass and a cheese factory. All were well worth the visit.

Photos from the top:
The entrance to the Primo Estate cellar door
The wooden wall at Primo Estate
Chapel Hill B&B living room
The view from the bedroom window (but taken from outside)
Harvey and bikes
The wine tasting area at Primo Estate
Ditto (So stylish)
Ditto (Don’t you love the red transparent stools?)
Rendered walls, Primo Estate
Outside at Parri Estate, Mount Jagged
Grass tree, Parri Estate
Tin shed tasting area at Mount Jagged Winery
Mr Nick ‘Syn’ Knapstein at Leconfield at McLaren Vale
David and bikes

Christmas Day

The Schiller family Christmas Day celebrations were held at Chateau Glenunga this year. Our Christmas Day fare was a break from tradition. After all, who can compete with Mum's roast and plum pudding, or a Weber feast? So we did something else. David devised a group of dishes that reflected Australian Chritmas tradition that included seafood, pork and poultry. So we had prawn and fennel salad, followed by a pork terrine served with a pear and prune chutney; then roast quail on a bed of warm du puy lentil salad. I made dessert, a chocolate and prune torte. Present were my Mum; Ken; David, Julie, Jack, Alex and Meghan; and David and me. During the afternoon Leigh and Hayley popped in.

Photos:
The dinner table
Me, Mum, David and Ken
Leigh
Hayley
The lemon and lime gladiolus arrangement
The menu - in case chef forgot
The chef in cooking mode (nifty shirt)
Alex, David, Julie and Jack with Alex covering Meghan's face (portrait of a happy family)