A Lone Wolf through the Wilderness: Just Another Day

As friday night's farewell do at the Exchange Hotel in Little Collins St draws ever closer, it was a case of "another day another adventure'...

Today started off with an early morning (6.30am) final ride down the You Yangs National Park, only this time with Charity, and in the other section of the Park known as the Western Plantation. This particular trail is a 12km loop that winds it's way through the scrub, and really lets you pick up some speed as you weave your way through the trees.

First lap, though, was a casual ride to introduce Charity to the trails, and also try my hand at a little self portraiture, before we spent a bit of time at the "skills park". This section contains several things that you can 'play' on to help improve your riding skills and confidence. I was most impressed that Charity took on and had a go at everything there. More so because her bike isn't really a mountain bike which you'll notice in the photo of her on one of the "ewok bridges" below.

Back onto the trails, and we encountered a few wallabies, a group of kangaroos, and the usual assortment of birds. (well, we heard the birds even if we didn't see to much of them!).

Lap two was another skill tester and confidence booster for Charity, while I just went full gas for my final lap out there. Great lap too! All coming together nicely, with the ipod giving me a excellent backing track! First track up was Dial-7's ''Crazy", which summed things up fairly well. Followed on with artists like Coheed & Cambria, Apollo440 and others... Needless to say, that I'm now sold on riding with an ipod - probably not for road riding just yet though!

What a great way to start the day!

This was followed later by my final session of Network Spinal treatment, and very good of Frank to have found me a Networking practitioner in London so that I can continue with my treatment and progress even further with it!

Tonight saw the delivery of the final pieces of my furniture that sold the other night.

After delivering my desk on the roofrack of my small car, I and the fellow who bought it all, reloaded the roofracks with the remaining table and pieces of my bed. (we also loaded the rest of the chairs and bed parts inside the car too).

On our way back to his place, one of Melbourne's brightest drivers decided that he'd do a right turn around a roundabout without using his indicators. Fine, just brake a little harder than usual and avoid plowing into him - or so you would think! I stopped in time, only one of the pieces of my bed didn't. It went flying down the bonet and onto the road only to skid past this turning vehicle.

"It's a bit scratched, but it's fine. No problem," he declares after having jumped out of my car to retrieve the wayward item, and after some re-tying, we get it all back to his place. Just in time for his wife to come out and "assist" us unload the car.

Resplendant in pink terry towling dressing gown, she basically just ordered us around and told us where to put everything. Poor bloke - even poorer after he handed over the cash for it all.

Ah, just a bit of fun before another night sleeping on the floor...