Queenslander!!

A special night for Queenslanders – four years in a row!  You guys over there – talk amongst yourselves…

A Week in the Life of Our Man in Kent…

My first fishing trip… “You’d be proud of me today.  With a few other chums from Ickham, we went fishing in the Channel out of Dover.  I caught a couple of cod, a couple of whiting, and some nasty little critter which has a stingy barb as sharp as a hyperdermic needle on its back.  P says it is the tastiest (and freshest) cod she has ever eaten…”  “Ascot next week and then I’m in France for a week, then Henley.  But apart from Scotland we’re here all the summer…”

Wot – no pictures of Joan Collins?

A Gutsy Effort!

Last weekend I saw one of the gutsiest efforts I’ve ever seen in sport.  I got so caught up in the action – forgot the race – and the camera – and almost missed… more here.

Plus ça Change, Plus c’est la Même Chose!

WTF is a Valve Extender?

They started the day well… he had a good swim leg – then punctured on the first bike lap and did not finish… muttered something about a valve extender. Vicky (on the other hand) ran 4th!  More here… Don’t feel too bad for him – they seemed to have quite a nice time!

Allez JB, Allez…

He’s racing in Noumea tomorrow - and I’m stuck here… Go buddy!

JRP’s New Photography Site…

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I’m starting to take my photography a little more seriously [here]… Let me know what you think.

Gold Coast Triathlon – Luke Harrop Memorial…

He won the Junior event in 2007 and 2008 – but this time he was up against the big kids…  Detail?  The 1500 metre swim is never his best leg - can be pretty much a free-for-all.  He came out of the water in 42nd place – 1min 50secs down.  Swim time: 19min 38 secs.

He then produced the best 40km bike ride I’ve ever seen him do – 2nd best time for the day.  Bike time: 59min 45secs.  He entered Transition 2 just 15 seconds behind the leader – but this effort cost him plenty…  It was going to be a battle of attrition for the survivors of the 37 degrees celcius heat… 14 dropped out.

His average 10km run is around 31-32 minutes – and he’s had 2 sub 30’s in the last year – so he’s top class on the run – but not this time!  Last summer he was Brad Kahlefeldt’s training partner (in Aix les Bains, France) leading up to BK’s Olympic run in Beijing.  JB can generally stay with him or close – but Brad ran 31:03 (5 months after hip surgery!) and JB ran 36:13 – his worst time in 2.5 years.

So – Brad won in 1:50:13 from his Olympic partner Courtney Atkinson in 1:50:25 and then Dan Wilson (also AUS) in 1:50:51.  JB finished 20th in 1:55:37.  He’s happy – his coach is happy. 

More pictures on the Flickr site – go to the third page – find the seagull, and work backwards!

New Toys…

Road testing a new lens… and discovering that large white Canon ones also gain access to far better vantage points!  Focusing, with an attempted shallow depth of field, is still an issue – but results (so far) are on the Flickr page.  The race?  Oh yeah – he won it.

They Like Her…

I’ve been cleaning out my photo archives lately – throwing out the crap, and putting the better ones into our old Flickr site.  Seems this one has ‘taken off’… 18,000 photos – and I get one good one!

Thirsty Koala…

There have been thousands of frightening bush fire images in our media during the last week – but this one says it all.  No Koala EVER lets a human this close…  More images here.  RSPCA donations here.

Yesterday – in Kent…

This was the Orchard yesterday!  All gone today!

More from the Little Lawyer…

She just completed her first open ocean swim (2.7km)… More here…

Just in from the Little Lawyer…

This morning’s Sydney Telegraph – Uhm. Well. That’s one way of putting it…

The Old Black Boat…

Two days ago an email appeared - from Sumatra!  My old friend (Peter Greenland) was searching the web for pictures from his (our) Offshore Powerboat Racing days.  ’Gold Coast One’ was a… more…