Wandering Off at Last

Well, we've been in Perth for a couple of weeks and now down at Denmark/Albany for a week. Time to move on! Hey, we did love that Mandurah area and the ride from Perth to Mandurah!
We're off to Esperance tomorrow (Saturday) and then north to Kalgoorlie before heading across the Nullabor. Last time I did this trip it was by bicycle - 2 years ago. Yes, Perth to Adelaide and then on to Sydney. The trip of a lifetime - 4309 km.
We've really appreciated the friendships with WA folk around here. Bob and Wendy and family, Gai & Geoff, Barb and Dave, Sid and Edith, Rodney and JD and the cycling crew.
So, if you see a silver Pajero with 3 bikes on the roof towing an Avan, that'll be us! Stop us and have a yarn. Life is too short I reckon.
Hopefully Fay will let me take a bike off the roof and do some cycling as we cross the country so I can have some cycling legs for my coming week long ride which starts 24 September in the Blue Mountains in NSW. (More later.)
Thanks again to the many folks in WA who helped us have a most memorable time here. See you again.

4th Class

When I was 10 yrs old I was caught cheating in an exam. (Of course I denied it!) The teacher punished me by telling me that I would learn Psalm 51 and recite it in front of the class. Each morning I would recite what I could. Each morning I could recite a bit more than I could the day before. It kept going until I finally was able to recite the whole of that beautiful psalm of David’s. I believe it is David asking God for forgiveness and mercy following his affair with Bathsheba. Yes, Psalm 51 has a special significance to me. I still love it, though I probably didn’t in 1953 when I was in 4th class at Liverpool Boys’ Primary School. So, if you’ve had an affair or you’ve cheated in an exam, I thoroughly recommend you at least read Psalm 51 if you can’t memorise it. And even if you haven’t done either, it’s worth a read.

Bike Ride

The best bike ride I’ve done on the roadbike for quite a while. (Yes, we brought 3 bikes on our travels…. a mountain bike each and of course my road bike. They travel on top of the Pajero – unless we’re cycling!)
We rode 84 km (some rode about 100) from Perth to Mandurah (a city of about 65,000). There were 7 cyclists all up and Fay and I got to spend time with people I’d cycled with from the Bike for Bibles ride Perth to Adelaide in 2003. What a great ride that was.
We are currently on track to get back east to Dubbo as I have another BFB ride from the Blue Mountains to Dubbo and back. It’ll be 1,000 km in a week commencing 24 Sept. I’d better head off and do some more training, even though I’m holidaying in Denmark – near Albany!!! Any addicted cyclists out there other than David K and Rodney O?

COMING ITINERARY

By the time you read this we'll probably have left Perth and headed south. We're departing about 10:30am on Saturday 20 August from Wembley (Perth) and going to Mandurah which is about 100km south of Perth. I will be CYCLING there with some folks I rode Sydney to Hobart with in 2003. Pray for my knee will you!!!
After staying the night there Fay and I will drive to Denmark/Albany area (another 5 hours) for a bit before commencing the next part of the journey. In short it MIGHT look something like this:

• 28 Aug Kalgoorlie
• 31 Aug Eucla
• 02 Sep Ceduna
• 03 Sep Adelaide
• 06 Sep Mt Gambier
• 08 Sep Portland
• 15 Sep Dubbo

Hey that's ROUGH and I haven't passed it by the chief navigator yet!!

Username and Password

I wonder how my parents would have managed if they were alive today when it comes to handling usernames and passwords. I seem to need such things for access to just about everything except climbing into the marital bed at night. If my wife ever twigs and introduces it there, I'll be locked out for sure! It seems I have usernames and passwords for so many things. I'm sure nobody is as good as me at forgetting such trivial but essential security details. This week I used up a heap of Rodney Olsen's http://www.rodneyolsen.blogspot.com/ time as together we tried to get into THIS BLOGSITE! So, now Rodney knows the names of my wife, children, their pets, my in-laws, and every car I've owned for the past 18 years! Congrats to Rodney for helping crack the code. Now if I ever need to know it again, I'll just ring up that bloke at www.sonshineFM.ws - was it Robert? Or Roger? Or Ronald? Now, where's his business card? I know my Mum, Willie, would have had heaps of trouble remembering her username and passwords if she was alive today.... so guess who I take after? Does anyone else out there have a similar problem?

Self Control

I think I need a good dose of self control or something to help me focus on my cycling. I find it too easy to just say to myself, "Oh, you don't have to ride today, Gra." Maybe some of us operate best when we have a buddy to help us achieve tasks. I know for me, what works really well is when I tell a SIGNIFICANT OTHER what I plan to do. I then feel I MUST do it. Are you like that or can you just do things without such a helper?

Checking out Western Australia

Wow! What a great time we're having here in Perth. We're staying with old friends of ours, Bob and Wendy Pritchard. They're as old as us, and Bob, an engineer, is in the throes of retiring. Maybe it's not as easy if you're an engineer.
Hey, I recently celebrated 2 years of retirement! We're getting towards the end of our NT WA trip where we've covered 18,000 km so far, and we're still on the wrong side of the country! We expect to be home by September. What day in Sept is still open to debate.... between my lovely wife Fay and myself.
We're due to head to Albany/Denmark area down the south coast of WA. If there are some things you think we should see or do, please let us know.... we'll try and fit it in.
So far the Pajero and the Avan have done wonderfully. Still a bit to go yet though.
Oh, and I'm starting to do some cycling too. (About time you reckon!) We have 3 bikes on the roof of the Pajero. That's nearly enough toys. Seeya next time. Gotta go watch the Aussies playing England at cricket.
Keasty