That time again

Hmm, well time seems to have slipped away again ... but at least I can (or pretend to) say that I have been busy:

• Did the Bellarine 100 Audax ride. After some considerable negotiation with Bruce and Felix, resulting in Felix just getting the required monies and giving it to me, thus committing them to the ride, we were off. Coming up Shell Road, Felix cramped, fell off his bike, so we decided to pull the pin and ride back into town, by going along the Bellarine Highway. Twice the chain fell off when I was chasing them, they having got the idea that it was not okay for me to ride off and leave them behind (a la Portarlington Hills, although they did wait for me on the outskirts, as I had stopped to fix up my jersey), but it was alright for them to ride off on me. Blew a tyre just outside of Leopold, and ended up repairing it was a $5 note. At which point Maxine pulled up :o Another girl blew a chain climbing up into Drysdale, and had to abandon the ride all together :( Fantastic lunch in Point Lonsdale (although was a little bit further than I had anticipated by the instructions) prepared by Maxine, etc. consisting of sandwiches, cakes, drinks, etc. Then there was a BBQ with snags and potato patties at the end, with more drinks, salad, bread, etc. Never let it be said that we would ever starve! At the beginning, I (as I usually do) let everyone else roll out, went to chase the boys down, and found that they had 'disappeared'! Was not helped by dropping chain just past Tryboys, either. Anyway, could see Simon + recumberant in distance, just before the Leopold hill, so decided to catch him and ride instead with him ... but then found the boys tucked in around him! Spent a lot of time doing the pacing and leading, especially when riding into the wind. Bruce and I had decided to shelter Felix as much as possible, but then I protected both as much as I could;
• Been doing the GTC rides - 50k on 25/11 and 20k on 02/12. Both were lead by Steve. On the former, we wended our way out through the suburbs, eventually ending up in Moriac for a (long) coffee. When Maxine said that she was off home, and the others were going to Torquay, I thought I would pull the pin too, offer to shepard her back into town. Bruce and Rolf decided to venture back as well, which meant (I thought) that we could have a rotating protection around Maxine ... but they stayed behind her all the way back into town!!! Indeed, the only time the came forward was to roll down the hill on High Street in Belmont shortly before we each went out separate ways (after the bridge) ... Gosh it was a lot of fun! Many people that I have not seen (or ridden with) in quite a while, including Geoff/Heather ... and Simon was there too :) Made sure to express my gratitude to them all for the beanbag and the house ... The ride itself was quite a challenge - it may have been because of the Bellarine 100 the previous weekend, but my thighs were extremely heavy, and so as we 'climbed' up to Mount Duneed Road, I took off to go spin high revs to clear the legs, which seemed to work :) As for the latter ride, it was an 'Easy' ride, just going over the top of town, out through North Geelong, then getting on the path and rolling over to Cementies, DOWN, and then back along the path next to the river. Stopped for coffee at the Bouthouse, chatted to Wendy and Brother John (who has got a really nice new D-600), then meandered along again ... was an extremely easy ride, although it did start rather fast! The main attraction was again seeing people who I have not seen in awhile :) Bruce is certainly getting a little more enthusiastic about these rides, which could be a good thing?
• Have gone back to doing four (4) long days at work - calculated that from door to door, I am expending 52 hours a week on this working stint, and 56 hours if working a 5 day week :o
• Have set up a savings account for excess monies - it offering 5% interest ... and the term deposits were ~4.5% p.a. Also, turns out today that the Qld PT will no longer accept any money from me :( Turns out that after a 'review' it was decided that any customer who was not under administration (i.e. a relationship where the PTQ was the Trustee) would be excluded. The money can stay there, but no further deposits would be accepted - no distributions to be reinvested, no regular savings amounts to be accepted, no further deposits accepted ... sounds dire! Sounds like it might be time to look further afield, either for different opportunities and/or for different fields?
• Since getting the new bike, have not actually ridden it anywhere ... :o
• Pete came to visit, so we had a rather nice lunch hour together - I had a quinoa salad, and was rather pleased with it. He had come down with his daughter, who was off giving shows to finishing year Dentists re. their insurance obligations and needs. Turns out that they were off to Bendigo, to go to the campus there, and he was hoping to catch up with Mel and/or TracE ... but they were not available, so he had to put up with me ;)