Just a couple of pics I rattled off this morning.

My budget banger Fuji Track whore bike (what better a way to get people into Fixed gear than to let them borrow one?!) is finished.

Lovely.

Vero crankset, MKS GR-9 pedals and Brooks toe clips. The oedals and clips are a bit rich for a ghetto build so I might take them off and replace them with something nastier.

Nitto bars came with the frame (so yummy). I had to use these Tektro cyclocross levers as the bars were too fat for normal BMX style levers.

Plastic chrome bar end caps finish her off nicely.

More details here

The guys on BMU started up a Tattoo thread which spurred me to reply:

I got my Tatt’s done in 1995 on April the 7th which was the day in between my fathers death (1 year after) and Kurt Cobains death.

I booked in to 2 Tattoo parlours that night. One was Mischief Moon and the other was The Illustrated Man. I started at Mishief Moon on Oxford Street. Happy was the Tattoo artist. His studio was super clean and cozy, not the type of studio where you pick something off the walls, more like the studios you see now on TV shows. He shut the shop for me, which was awesome. He also let me choose what music I wanted to have playing in the background (I chose the Stone Temple Pilots). Great conversation, great guy, amazing experience (he even counted me in!).

The feeling was a lot like putting a blade in your arm, then dragging it along. Looking at it hurt more than not looking at it and the cold antiseptic spray he used to wipe off the blod felt so good.

Happy gave me a care sheet and nice bandaging and I was off for a walk down to Central to get more tattoos at the Illustrated man, now this shop was a lot different. We’re talking the walk in and choose something off the wall type of shop. The guys were bikies and they had the footy on TV, they didn’t give a shit who I was, didn’t bother talking to me and they did a shocking job to boot. The only good part of the experience at The Illustrated Man was that my best friend Edwina, who I was totally in love with (sigh), sropped in for some support.

I wrote a visual diary in those days. I was super emo. This is my diary entry on April the 7th 1995 with the image I created to go with it:

epilogue number two

DIVINE

It’s the word I have tattooed into my left arm. It’s the seventh of April, the day in between the death of my father and the death of Kurt Cobain. It has been a year now, it feels like it has been a lot longer. I booked in to two tattoo parlours, one on Oxford street at six and one on Elizabeth street at nine. I got three tattoos done tonight. I feel numb now but the pain was nice. I think I love my tattoos more than anything in the world right now, just knowing their there is so satisfying, almost God damn exciting.

OK. It’s hard taking pics of your own Tatt’s but I’ve tried to:

My 1st tattoo. Yes it’s a symbol of biological waste. Kinda where my head was at, what I thought I was. It looked like a flower to me, and also represented a yin yang.

My 2nd tattoo. It’s been done so bad and gets worse and worse without even seeing much sun. It’s an MC Escher piece. 4 lizards (I love lizards). Again, also a yin yang to me.

My 3rd tattoo. I found strength and this was the word which defined where I was at a year after my father passed away. Henry Rollins had a song ” Divine Object Of Hatred”. Some of the lyrics go:

They’d kill to have me
They’d have to kill me
Their hatred’s pure, I am divine

When you kick me / When you rape me
When you burn me / When you break me
When you cut me / I am divine

This was my 4th tattoo, which was a fair bit after the 1st three. It was more because I felt an addiction for getting more ink done and it was an image which was up on Edwina’s wall throughout all the years I hung out with her. Again, it’s the yin yang to me. Happy did this one too. I was meant to go back in for a touch up but I never did go back in.

I finally got around to getting some rechargable AAA batteries for the GoPro wide camera yesterday. Took me a while as I had to specifically find some Sanyo eneloop ones which are apparently superior to other brands (cheers Jing!).

Low light this morning but I had to rattle off a few test shots:

Amazing how wide the lens is, it’s more like a fish eye.

It’s so wide that it even got my finger in the shot, my finger was nowhere near the lens!!!

I took these Kitchen shots for memories as I’m about to demolish the whole thing!

My weekends are now spent looking at house stuff. Driving around from place to place looking at toilet paper roll holders, sinks, door handles, appliances, toilets, the works.

I’ve somehow managed to get everything I need for the new kitchen, but the kitchen itself. And I’ve also got everything I need for the new guest bathroom. A bath tub for my own bathroom too, basin, taps and a few more things. It’s damn hard to decide on something as simple as a tap. Does it work well? Does it stick out far enough? It’s been hard and trial and error is something I’d rather not be doing.

I’ll post pics as soon as the goods roll in. But for now here’s some pics from the weekend:

The deck is almost done.

Swans at Centennial Park.

Lamb was amazing. Jamie and Richie’s for dinner.

Kellie and Matt (I went to uni with Kellie). Always great to see these guys.

Matt’s crazy drum set-up for the X-Box.

Got the single speed out for a ride at Loftus. I made it up the big hill, so proud of myself even if I did feel like throwing up once I got to the top.

Jing and Timmy.

Jarod’s single speed 29’er.

Matt’s single speed.

Muddy goodness.

On another note, MCC are slashing prices off the Surly Steamroller and the Salsa Casserole as part of a group buy on Bikes Move Us. Take it from me, this is not a bullshit offer. It’s more of a PR Excercise (Grant’s been known to give away bikes before to get the MCC brand out there). More info here.

Oh, and another note: The Softride frame I found at MC Cyclery sold on eBay for $163.50. I figure it would have cost me at least $700 to get it to a state I would be happy with so I’m glad I’ve sold it (I’ve got enough bikes as it is right?!).

The days are flying by and everything is a blur to me these days. I’m still not feeling 100%. I feel weak and tired all the time. I get up early to beat the builders, coffee and emails are done before the banging starts. I then deal with the banging and sawing noises all day long. Sometimes I blast the music, but Daft Punk on full blast sounds just as hardcore as the hammering does upstairs.

Guest/common bathroom is now demolished.

Looks so much smaller without anything in it!

The last guy who lived here was an architect himself and he did a lot of work with the ceilings. This bathroom, though super tiny, has a really high ceiling with a skylight in it.

Laundry will score a new top loader, wall mounted dryer and some tiles for the floor and walls.

I’m finally over the flu! Time to get back on the saddle and get back to where I was at, fitness wise, pre-flu.

Some pics from this last Easter Weekend:

Great stuff over at the MCA right now. It’s always a hit and miss but this was a hit, for sure.

Signs bought off the homeless.

Bicycles in Art!

Suga in one of Yayoi Kusama’s rooms, talk about being immersed in art.

And another room, this one was awesome!

On Saturday we checked out the Easter Show (more like the Bogan Show, not a yuppie in sight!). You can’t expect much from the show, we were’nt dissapointed, but we weren’t overly blow away either.

Bogan events aren’t complete without pluto pups (always a great excuse to have one!).

On Sunday I joined Christina’s family and friends on a road trip out of Sydney to pick chestnuts!

Fresh, straight from the oven hot apple pie stop!

We’re not in town anymore.

Nice logs, would love to line some of these up in my garden.

Sign.

Picking Chestnuts. Prickly things!

Loot!

Yum!!!

On other news, the house rennovations are coming along slowly. The boys are still working on the deck, here are some new shots:

Saved from the bin at MCC. Not sure if I’ll do anything with it though! More here.

Love ya Dad.