Earlier this year (or was it late last year? I forget!) it was a sunny day on Crown Street and I met up with Daniel Dittmar (who rode in on his killer SE Quadangle BMX) and Ozlem Eskicioglu who were working on launching a new magazine.

Launching my own magazine has always been a dream of mine. At one stage I got very close with ACP Magazines, the guys who publish Rolling Stone Magazine (and a whole lot more) but the money side of things fell through. In restrospect I probably shouldn’t have been so greedy about the money.

Anyways, when I met these guys (Daniel and Ozlem). They had that energy you have when you first work on starting something new, they also had a load of confidence. They interviewed me for an article on bikes and yesterday I got issue #1 of their amazing magazine Happenstance in the mail.

It’s so slick. Opening the first page there’s a stamp to tell me that my edition is one of a limited run of 1000. The design work and writing is amazing. I’m so excited and proud of these guys.

The bike article also made the cut and I love it. I’ve asked permission from Daniel to post up the 7 page article. So here it is, hope you enjoy it:

Click here to read the whole article in PDF format.

They’re already planning iussue #2 and #3 so be quick and grab this first issue of Happenstance from their site, or check out the list of local stockists.

Tweet this twit that WTF is the appeal of it?

I’ve been reading the local newspaper a bit lately (only because I’ve been staying at Mums and it’s always on the table in the morning) and every day I spot the word “tweet” in an article. Whether it’s about the masses tweeting whilst watching Michael Jacksons memorial concert, some gay dancing with the stars judge being told to stop tweeting on advertisement breaks or Lance Armstrong tweeting to avoid real life interviews. The fact that the papers use “tweet” as common vocabulary just further strengthens this crap.

So this morning I get a mail from my good friends Tom and Sue who have just released a lovely line of anti tweeting T’s available from their Tomsuey Store. Me likes :)

I’m not Religious, but this week was super holy.

On Friday night I forgot to bring my camera to Christina’s local Eastwood priest’s Golden Jubilee dinner at Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL (talk about over the top, fake jungles with bird sounds, water fountains with fire features!).

I got a bit excited when we sat down at the RSL’s roulette wheel but just as I was about to slip a fiver into the machine the call came and we had to attend dinner.

Father Kevin’s speech was great, he’s an old guy but he’s sharp and funny. Good to know as he’s most likely going to be the guy who’s going to perform our wedding ceremony.

The back of a man about to get married.

“God thinks sex is great!”

On Saturday we attended a relo’s wedding which was held early at 10am in a lovely church on Oxford St. Paddington.

The highlight of the ceremony was the priest, who gave the most exciting homily I’ve ever heard in a church. He brought up sex, the very word alone, spoken through a microphone in the church seemed a little sharp, a bit out of place. In an excited uplifted manner he spoke “God thinks sex is great!”. I almost gave out a “whoo hoo!” at hearing that, but wait, there was more, he then went on to interpret the joining of man and woman quite literally. Saying that “Sex is the glue which binds man and woman” and he also explained that when a couple’s sex life starts deteriorating, so too does their marriage.

Taking the mirrors off without damaging the plastic clips was a little nerve-wracking but we did it no worries.

Mirrors on.

Nice tight carbon weave.

Front carbon splitter installed.

R32 vs TDI

On Saturday day Suga and I fitted some sexy carbon mirrors and a front diffuser to her R32 Golf.

3 yo!.

Jamie, Keith and the face of Guinness advertisements in Ireland (for real) Luke.

On Saturday night Richie had his 32nd B’day dinner at Kensington Peking, which I think is the best Chinese restaurant in the whole of Sydney (big call I know). We’ve been following this Chef, Peter, since we were little kids. He used to work across the street, then in Coogee beach but he’s been a hit ever since opening this restaurant in Kensington (next door the post office). We also ducked into the Doncaster pub for a few beers after dinner, which was all done up (impressive actually).

On Sunday I was hungover all day, and night. We had another B’day dinner for Richie, this time with the family, at Kelly’s Grill in Bondi Junction, whilst they aren’t always consistent (my steak was a little overcooked) I still think their Ribs kick ass over Hurricanes in Bondi Beach.

I dream of Wood Rotax:

Today I got some chopper forks on the bike. I think I’ve finished it!

View it in higher resolution here.

From left to right: George Hu (General manager Azzuri), Grant Kaplan (MC Cyclery), Brett Dutton, Me, Daniel Jungfleisch (Sales Manager Azzuri).

I forgot to mention, the other day I got to meet the guys behind upcoming bicycle manufacturer Azzurri. George Hu is the man behind Azzurri, he’d flown in from Taiwan and Brett Dutton (he’s one of Grant’s suppliers) hooked us up for lunch.

We talked about the local market, and how culturally different it was here than in Taiwan. The Azzurri web site and branding really fails to work for me. I can see what they’re trying to do and have a few ideas that George got excited about (he was a super excitable guy!). After much discussion it looks like I might get a chance to help them re-brand and re-launch, exciting times!

I also learnt that frames are not robot welded in Taiwan. In fact they’re hand welded. There are a LOT of people on internet forums out there saying robot welded this and that, goes to show you can’t believe everything you read out there, especially on forums.

Damn I love getting rad shit in the mail! Crazy stickers thanks to Ioannis at Speed Junkies.

Mondays are when MC Cyclery owner and friend Grant and I get together at a lovely little bookshop cafe at Bondi Beach to discuss world domination.

So I finally bit the bullet and got myself a new iPhone. I was a bit excited about it until I realised I’ve got no contacts on the new phone and there’s no way for me to port over the contacts from my old phone (the Nokia was a POS and the USB cable connection has never worked for me). That means I have to enter all my contacts in by hand (grrr).

Looking at all the numbers on my old phone brings up some memories. I’ve got a fair few numbers in there that I don’t ever, or have never called, some names don’t even ring a bell (I am getting old see?). One thing I’m pretty sure of. I won’t be entering in all these numbers, way too lazy for that!

I like to keep my phone in the same pocket as my keys so I’m off to buy a screen protector thingy for it (modding it already?!).

First a house rennovation update:

Clear roofing over the deck is on. Bird shit free for now. Also check the great timber which had been hidden behind paint all this time.

The main bathroom and wardrobe has been demolished. We’ve demolished the wall between the wardrobe and bathroom (so stupid putting a wardrobe next to the bathroom in any case as I had a bad mould issue). The bathroom is twice as big now.

New powdercoated aluminium windows to replace all windows on the house.

On Saturday Jamie and Richie got Suga and I tickets to the Sydney Good Food and Wine show.

Suga’s R32 in the carpark. It’s not so clear in this picture, but the R32’s excessive brake dust covers the wheels and is making them look dark brown instead of glossy black. We might have to look into some better brake pads soon.

Hey! Decent food at the Darling Harbour exhibition halls for a change!

Armed with a wine glass each, the wine testing was on and we were all spinning in no time.

Entry included an allocated seat for the Master Chef show, which to be quite honest, was heaps of fun. For these chefs (who are usually behind the scenes) to be so great in front of the camera and on a stage in front of 2000 people, that impressed me, they were hillarious.

Death Star on the harbour.

Despite there being a lot of great food and wine at the show the one thing that impressed Richie and I the most was the beer served up at the James Squire stall (try their Sundown Lager! It’s fruity goodness). So we headed to the James Squire bar/micro-brewery at King Street Wharf for more.

On Saturday night Jing called me up and said a ride was on Sunday morning. Pressure’s good. That’s what mates are for and I needed to work off the alcohol in any case so I set my alarm and got up early on Sunday morning for a ride at Appin.

Clifton at the start.

“Bei”Jing showing us all how to do the China squat right. As usual on rests the gay jokes started flowing.

What Jing would look like on the dancefloor at a rave?

Thanks to Timmy, Cliffy and Jing for waiting up for me at every opportunity. I just didn’t have any energy at all and was feeling the pain 10 miuntes into the ride. The boys pushed me to do a 2nd lap and whilst I went even slower than the first lap I’m glad I did it.

I rode clipped in for the first time ever on the Reign, the Shimano DX pedals are awesome, so easy to clip into and you can actually use them as a platform pedal not clipped in too.

I failed to clip out a few times though on techy stuff and went down 3 times. 2 times were slow falls uphill but one was a little nasty on the way down and I’ve got a bruised up knee but it’s nothing major so… all good! I’m pretty determined to stick with the DX pedals, at least for a while.