A triathlon of a day

Last time I swam in Clovelly pool the water was lovely and warm so to seems only right and proper that this morning it was cold. Damn cold. Still feeling a bit skanky after last nights overeating I lasted about 500m but enjoyed it. I got out and started to sun myself on the pool edge as the local kids put me to shame with widths of the pool and running around the edge. The wind was getting up and a bit of a swell was building so I was, all in all, glad to be on my way home. I made my way home to find the girls on a cleaning frenzy that I managed to avoid, but I did pick up the task of "clean the bathroom by wednesday" that came with an implied or else. So as they busied themselves and prepared for the voleyball game that I was not needed for (pah!) I had a Skype call with JCJ and we arranged to meet at the cafe in Centennial Park at midday and go for a bike ride.

And that is what we did. I grabbed Sal's bike from the garage as I did not fancy my single speed against JCJ's Scott SubTen. We met and started nattering and I drooled over his new bike and tried to hide mine. He looked very much the part and I looked like a junior laborour on his lunch break. We headed off...

More later, Austin Powers Goldmember calls...

We headed off to the City, avoiding Oxford Street and heading along Crown. I found a line drawn grafitti face that I was obliged to click a picture of. Hyde Park had a food and drink festival going on that we skipped. Plenty of people, plenty of stands, that sort of thing. Then via a camera store in Sussex Street JCJ lead a tour of Pyrmont waterside, over near where Sally works. We headed over the Pyrmont bridge and then took a right, away from Darling Harbour and snaked our way around the piers and bays and checking out the new developments of offices and residences (2 bed apartments starting from UA$1.795 apparently.) We found some weird sculptures that looked like those nodding bird heads that dip into bowls of water but where larger and made of ladders (you had to be there, I'd not know what I meant by that description) and a couple of circa. 1870 boat props that were found in landfill when the site was being renovated. JGJ went for a B&W shot of them that I am sure will be great in the week or so when he gets it back, old skool film hound that he is. The waterfront is very nice, open with green spaces and fish cleaning tables for the local fishermen who must be trying to work on their dioxin immunity. Not sure eating fish from the Harbour is such a good idea, but it is, I guess, nice that you are allowed to fish for them.

Coffee and more nattering later, plus half of one of those gluten free biscuits I mentioned earlier, that actually did not taste like crap, and we headed back to Circular Quay via Walsh Bay and more new development mxed in with the old. We bade each other fond farewells for we would not be seeing each other again for, oo, nearly 19 hours. JGJ headed for a ferry, me back to Randwick where Sal was waiting for me to return so we could go glasses shopping.

And that shopping trip came to not a lot. Seems that most glasses "look OK" on me but none turn me into fabio. A few make me look like a proper geek, but typically I can get away with anything. That and the pet shop opposite the optomotrist left us with a lack of focus on the job at hand and for me, with my euesight. Oh well, we'll try again on Sunday. Sal needed to have a sit down as she was suffereign abit from the volleyball I'd not been neede for and the girls team lost 2-1 in a very competitve match up. Not a total loss, we purchased a new beach volleyball, Mara's original one having gone missing, and then on our return to the flat we (OK, Sal) managed to knock it over the fence into the neighbours garden. The neighbours were not at home, no way to get into the garden, the ball gone for now.

General lack of motivation to do anything much continued, so before the light went I completed my tri-athlon day with a run around the park, this time and for a change ant-clockwise. Without having had much to eat all day - guilt setting in re.Friday night - I managed neither a great time or an enormous sense of achievement. I have, however, onvinced myself that the odd run while "on empty" is a good idea as it will prepare me for the latter stages of a marathon. Is that correct? Buggered if I know. But to recover I allwed myself pizza from Q. P Pizza (Queens Park Pizza) and although what arrived was not the capricciosa I had ordered it was stonking all the same. Loads of fresh ingredients and chunks of steak. Satisfied that it was a healthy choice I had an ice cream too, figuring I was still in credit.

Goldmember watched, chats to Jon, friend a former collegue, Dad, father and current father, clocks sprung forwards as clocks in Blighty fall back I ended the day and prepared for whatever dreams may come tonight.