De La Soul

De La Soul
Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

I had been waiting for this for months but couldn't find people that wanted to go. So you can imagine my excitment getting a phonecall from Megan the champ that she had some free tickets from Diana L for me and Ed.
Awesome night I had a ball as did the other punters who scored free tickets Sal and Lizzy.

Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony

Went with the whole family to the G to see the Commonwealth Games closing Ceremony a Christmas present from Mum.The scared weird little guys did the pre-show entertainment the highlight was the mexican wave of camera flashes awesome.
Saw a poor little Formula 1 girl lose it on a corner popping out of the car costume. Reminded me of Go-carting the day before and some of those sharp bends on the Port Melbourne track- congrats dave on taking the title for that. The footy club ballerina costumes were also cool. Similar fireworks to the opening however this time I noticed they launched some off the deathstar.

Commonwealth Games Mountain Biking

Commonwealth Games Mountain Biking
Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

I had been waiting a whole year for this.
Thanks Gerard H for the tickets.
Having ridden most of the track myself I cannot imagine how hard doing several laps in the scorching heat must have been.
We set up at the top of the rock. There was a mauritian rider who hesitated at the top looking pretty freaked out, when he finally rolled down he managed to smack straight into the tree at the bottom. Pete got it on video. Also saw an Isle of Man rider take a tumble in another section. And a Welshman go off the track snapping the barrier ribbon then he just rode through the ribbon again to get back onto the track.

Pubgaine

RMIT Outdoors Club Bi-annual Pubgaine.
A pubcrawl race what could possibly go wrong?
We had 2 hours to visit as many pubs on the prescribed list as we can. To prove you made it there you had to answer a question about that particular pub. If the entire team drank at the pub that gave you double points.
Team boozé (Pete (NZ), Jeff (CAN), Ed (SL) and myself (PL when the comm games arent on)
thought running between pubs was silly so when the starter pistol went off we began our leisurely stroll to the first pub. When the countdown approached our competitive urges kicked in and we started running between pubs (it may have been more to do with our need for more sanctioned drinking). Needless to say we didnt place but had a great time and when I get the photos from the after race shennanighans I'll post them here.

Commonwealth Games Swimming, Triathalon and Marathon

Thanks ayresie for the discounted ticket for the Commonwealth games Swimming on Saturday it was awesome. I realized how much of a nerd I was getting more excited by the robotic cameras than the world class athletes. The highlight was definitely the inspirational elite athletes with a disability. Once again I was more interested in the logistics than the amazing athleticism on display. Of special note was the blind Canadian swimmer whose coach would signal he was nearing the wall by banging him on the head with a giant q-tip. After the swimming we rode to St-Kilda to catch the end of the tri-athalon. It was really fun riding the width of the Nepean Hwy since they sealed it off from vehicles. I was supposed see the Marathon go by Sunday morning but slept in - I feel a little bit guilty that I lacked the energy to walk 20m to cheer on these guys and girls who by that point had done 10km and still had 30 to go.

Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony

Went down the road to check out the opening ceremony on the yarra.
Check the comments for a link to Davo's photos he took with his snazzy new compact Leica (the video quality is absolutely amazing as well). Val email me yours if they are any good. Thought it was quite good would have been better from 242 and absolutely awesome from 35 Collins. I thought there would be more on the river and didn't realize they would launch fireworks from the buildings surrounding the Gezekoids former residence.

Grampians Intro Trip 2006

hiker group shot
Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

An excellent trip organized by Grant. Top work Michelle for driving. I have to get a photo of Petey the car and all his tats. Apologies to Pete(the person), Sabine, Julia and Michelle for getting us lost in the western suburbs. We got there in the end, thanks Billy for the guidebook otherwise we might never have found the campsite. Found what seemed like the perfect tent site unfortunately our neighbour was a tad aggressive so like refugees we carried our tent away the next day. Highlight was desert cricket and trying to explain it to northen americans. Climbed Queen Bee with Paul and Mark, thanks Paul for leading and getting me through the hairy section. Mark I will have to see that video. Its easier taking photos hiking 2 as opposed to climbing so thats where most of them are from great work by Rachel for leading the hike and Derek for catching the stragglers. When I tried to do the same on the way back I managed to get the tail group lost (bad sense of direction I guess).
Nick showing us how its done.
Me climbing123

Commemorative 50th post

kudos
Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

The 50th post since recorded history.
Here are the stats of people who have got a thank you for something along the way.
Looks Like Ayresie just pipped in front of Jez in total Kudos competition.
I wanted to get stats for comments but blogger doesn't let you search comments. I searched through gmail and tried to decipher all these anonymous comments at least 7 from formica so he gets the crown, although Dave would be right up there as he wrote a lot before I switched on email notifications and he doesn't make me decipher who is writing.

Hopefully something interesting will happen soon. At least its got a few more people blogging - check out the links on the right. Its a good way to record stuff.

Half Moon Bay

blackrock
Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

Chicken Magoo constantly raves about a fish and chip shop on Half Moon Bay . The weather was so awesome on Saturday Gerard demanded an outing to the beach I suggested we see for ourselves if the legend was true. Thanks Dave for driving. We didn't find that fish and chip shop(ended up getting some ok fish and chips from Sandringham - Gez reckons they have probably the best potato cakes in the world) what we found instead was a really cool little beach enclosed in cliffs. We swam from the beach to the shipwreck. I found it surprisingly easy(must have been all that swimming training using the no yardage Teleformica method), Jason was almost cleaned up by a sailing boat and then a Jet ski and Gerard almost died when he finally made it to the deck. I will definitely be going back first chance I get and this time I'm taking my fins and snorkel. I have to take my waterproof camera to the wreck for some underwater shots as well as a mid-air, cliff in the background, jumping off the deck pic also.

Word amigo!

word amigo!
Originally uploaded by tommygunns.

The above photo was found by coach Murphy in the internal telstra mag, our future. Since its andy's fave farewell gesture I thought it only right botting it up a bit.

One of the best grads around Andy Botting dot Com is off to VPAC to get his hands dirty and like Jeremy Quek before him stop the big corporate crushing his soul. Wish him all the best, commend his decision, and like most of the grads we will be sad to see him go (even though its only up the road). Please write your farewell message in the comments. Don't bother registering do it anonymously and sign off with your name as Andy did in the previous post.
or comment on Andy's blog here