Uploading pics from MotoGP and stuff.

So, as promised about a month ago (already?! Holy rusted metal, Batman!) here are some of the photos from Philip Island MotoGP. Also, a couple of really cool videos that I took. The racing motorbikes is the 250cc race, not Stoner's efforts as we couldn't get NEAR the fenceline for that one, as we set up camp on the hill (we had binoculars instead :D), but the crowd shot is from the 500cc race. Not that you can see the racers, but I wasn't trying to get them.

So without further preamble, here they are:

Chuck attaching his birthday present - a tank bag. GREAT investment (wish I'd bought me one at the same time *sigh*)


Pitstop! Funny how the cold weather gets to you after awhile . . .


Angel of heat and coffee, number one. I don't know the guy behind the counter's name, but I want to thank him for giving us coffee and helping to defrost our frozen hands!


Angels of heat and coffee, numbers 2 & 3.


We made it! And it was just starting to rain again as we pulled into camp.


Angel of heat and coffee, number 4. Without this guy, we would have been setting up camp in the dark and the rain, then trying to reheat pasta sauce and cook pasta with frozen hands. Paul, you're a legend.


Our spacious wing of the tent that Paul brought down. Can you tell he takes his family camping alot? :D


Camping ground by daylight. There were some pretty amazing structures around, let me assure you! If you can make out the bus behind the 4WD and tents in this photo, that's not the Stoner family camp, it was inhabited by a family of five (mum, Dad and 3 kids under 5) who had brought with them the sandpit and trikes as well!


Specifically our camp site by daylight. This is taken from the door of our tent looking through the "kitchen" to Sue's tent and the motorbikes beyond.


Our structure for keeping the wind off trackside. It worked a treat too, but I was still frozen! Hence the big jacket and the water/wind proof pants over my jeans! Fashion is not a consideration when I go camping!


Just a shot to check out the capabilities of our new camera. Keep in mind that a) we bought it the day before, so I didn't actually have it on the right setting for super fast photos and b) that these guys are doing 300 kph plus at the point on the track (having just come out of Doohan's corner) and I'm pretty impressed with this photo. I like our new camera.

And here's the videos that I took as well:
The 250cc bikes.


The big boys!


Note the difference in the noise level from the bikes between trackside and our shelter? Yes, this was deliberate ;)

It's just too good to be true . . .

Well, after an unexpected week-long trip to Honolulu, it's just too good to be home again! I can't complain about the food in America enough! :D The reason for the trip (for those of you who don't know) was that on his way home from the business trip from hell (read post below), Charles suffered from chest pain and thought he was going to die from a heart attack, so his plane was diverted from San Francisco to Honolulu and I got a phone call at 1am to let me know. Of course, being so early, there wasn't much I could do about it then, but when I woke and let immediate family and his boss know what had happened, the company he works for had put me on a plane and organised accommodation in Honolulu for me so that I could just be with him and I have to say, it was truly appreciated and thanks so much to all his bosses and workmates. Even though they probably don't read this blog!

Anyway, while Charles was away, I had done some further research into country properties for purchase and decided that up around Seymour in the Strathbogie Shire looks really good. They have water (big bonus these days!) and are the only GROWING shire in Victoria according to the ABS. Also, quite a few younger families around apparently. And it's only about 80mins drive from Melbourne on the "new" Hume Freeway, which is pretty easy going. We had planned a jaunt out that way for this Sunday but, given exams and the interruptions of last week, have ruled it out for the moment. We can't go next weekend as we're off to a friend's 30th birthday party in Neerim South which is a part of the world I've not been to before, so it should be nice. Will be good to see said friends anyway, and meet the newest addition to their family, seeing as he's now about 6 months old!

My grand plans for our slice of heaven (?) :D are to turn it into a CSA farm. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and if you search for the term then there are plenty of hits, most of them American. If they are enlightened enough to know about CSA, you'd think they would have some decent food?! I guess land is at a premium in Hawaii though . . . I also managed to find this YouTube contribution which helps to describe it:


I've never tried embedding things before, so I hope that worked! I know it all sounds kind of idealistic (and as some of the comments on YouTube say, very communistic!) but I think it would be an awesome way to farm because you get to go back to nature (I would love a biodynamic farm), everyone gets healthy produce, it helps save the planet, if we found somewhere to farm up around Seymor then we'd be conforming to the 100km diet for people on the fringe of Melbourne (which is only going to continue to grow) and it helps to iron out some of the fluctuations (especially the negative ones) of farming. I really think it's the way of the future for food production. And with that in mind, I can't wait to give it a go. Oh, and so I've decided to change my uni course again to reflect this ;) I'm going to do Agricultural Sciences instead of Animal Science. It's not such a huge change, I'll get credit for everything I've studied so far except this semester's Biochem and, when I graduate (it will happen, I swear! LOL), I will actually have a Bachelor's degree and a Diploma in Agribusiness, which will look good. Although somehow I don't think that the Biodynamic philosophy will be looked into all that much . . .