Picture of Robin and Flo (Belgium and Germany) from the trip.So I made it back to Adelaide safely. I know all my followers (mom) were extremely worried about that. It was a good thing I stayed, got to hang out with the guys for a bit after a while with the gals, but I may have already mentioned that in a previous blog. So, as ideal as it can get in a visitor to Australia, I step off the plane and am in the airport and get a text about if I got back safely, and was told that a couple friends were at the beach, so with all my stuff in tow (a book bag and a camera bag) I went down to the beach for some fun in the sun and some swimming. How amazing is that? Even in Cuba you've still gotta get on the resort before you can dive it. It was amazing. That night was pretty lack luster as I remember it, but I can't really remember what we... oh wait, I got it. After dinner on a beach side and cheap patio, we met a crazy drunk guy from Senegal, took a tram ride with him, and then met up with an Aussie and went to the bar, and him and I spent a good amount of time talking bike/swim training, and the citrus farm his family owns and the availability of work for me in July (not specifically at his farm, just period). So that was actually really fun, informative, and ended nice and early.
The next day, I bought my beauty. I finally have possession of the bike I've been trying to find/get since I got down here. Unfortunately, its not a Cervélo P1 like I wanted it to be, but I'm extremely happy with it. Its a 2007 Giant Trinity Aliance 2, certainly not the top end of the scale but I think a good starter triathlon bike. I took it out for a ride after I bought it, and immediately broke a derailer cable, but thats okay, got it fix right away. We did about 20k together today and she handled beautifully, its kinda front heavy but all triathlon/TT bikes are, so thats just gonna take getting used to. I didn't really struggle on the hills too hard and coming back downhill, I was effortlessly FLYING down the street. A light turned red and I had to brake so hard (and because its front heavy) my back wheel got atleast 7 cm clearance off the road and swung out about 30 degrees to my right. It was good to know that that happens way before I'm surrounded by traffic. I woke up at 6h30 today to go for the ride, and the weather was incredible because at that time its nearly the coldest time of the day. Amazing. And I've got more and more people telling me about different rides in the area and training groups too hook up with, which is great.School starts on Wednesday, which should be great. I was kinda hoping that maybe someone/a whole group of people would rather just go out to the cinema tonight but unfortunately, thats not the case. Oh, there's also two other things of mention before I head back down to town;
1) My friend that I met (a different but equally cool Dane) called Annette is starting this flirting this with Stuart O'grady's brother. Anyone that follows cycling (and from the people that I know read this, that's none of you) may find that incredible. It was hilarious because as soon as she told the story, someone told her to tell me because of course, I think its amazing (S. O'grady is a Tour de France rider from South Aus.)
2) Today I played squash against a former Icelandic national team player. She was good, it was fun to run around after the ball and I'm sure I impressed her a total of four times, but it was a blast. Dagny said she broke a little bit of a sweat, so that just means look out for the rest of you if you ever challenge me.
Training is getting more intense, and today I bought enough fruit for fruit salads every morning to fuel me, and five lamb shucks for $10 which was amazing deal too me (chocolate bars here are $3) and some nice stuff for salad
s. And laundry detergent, that was a desperate buy as I have three pairs of underwear remaining, and they're still clean only because I just don't like wearing them (yes, that means there have been some repeats). I'll leave you with that nice information.Picture of Glenelg beach from the patio during supper.
Btw - Simon Whitfield wrote on his blog yesterday/today about Hawksley Workman (my favourite musician still making music) and how cool of a guy he is. Small world.
