Buninyong Aust Road Championships

Went back to Buninyong today to check out the Bike riding. Last time I went to this race it was in Port Arlington on a much flatter course. This circuit is tougher especially on a hotter day like today. Around 120 started and less than 20 finished. We parked in the KOM car park and walked down into town for the Women's presentation and the start of the men's.  The bakery was flat out. We found Bill's set up (or his sister's Pauline) near the KOM compound.  This was a good vantage and we saw the diminishing peleton pass 18 times. The TV showing the live action was also the signal to grt your backside trackside as the riders came past.

Cow Bells

Mt Buninyong

Mussel Festival Port Arlington

And I don't mean Arnie Schwarzenegger. It was an ideal 23° and the sea food beckoned. One time in France we had a bucket of mussels. They were small but there must have been over a hundred. This time we had about 15 each but they were large. The crowds were large but manageable. Our mussels took 15 minutes but we had a walk while we waited. There were three sound stages all playing different music and all for a $2 entry fee.

After that we called into Jetty Rd beach where I tested my theory on the north facing beach being a better option when the Ocean Groove has an onshore southerly. The theory is good! No cold wind just occasional breezes. It is a flat beach with moss beds close to shore.

Mussel Beach

Cooking Demo

Jetty Rd

Warlock

I have read some of the Wilbur Smith African books but this is the first of the Egyptian themed books I have read.  I can't resist going into the 2nd hand book shop but I need to sell some back or there wont be any space to put them.  This time it was a salvo's shop in Williamstown and the book was $2.  This one may have been better as an e-book, 500  heavy pages.  It is quite a yarn, though the title seems out of place in Egypt as warlocks are more like Middle Ages to me.

 Magus or Necromancer

Monopoly Revisited

 I can't remember when "The Monopoly" day occurred but it would have been around 1997 at Christmas and the game was started and finished in its full splendour taking at least six hours to do so. Last night the "Game of Thrones" edition was got out but this time only for a two hour taster. The conversion to a GOT theme involves all of the game squares and playing pieces with one glaring exception which are the corner squares. I can understand you would leave the GO square and you need the gaol (Jail) but you could at least rename it to the Dungeon. However the shocker is the Free Parking square. 
 What right thinking GOT devotee would allow a square named Free Parking complete with a car painted in the centre. How far removed is Westeros from cars? At least a 1000 yar! I've a mind to write them a letter.  The existence of that corner is as a rest area so how about putting a sacred Weirwood tree there. This is a designated peaceful place.

At least one game piece should have been a Dragon.

The Force Awakens

I experience a forced awakening every morning. Some people have already seen this film more than once. Usually I am on spoiler alert and don't try to eavesdrop if I am trying to get to a popular flick. They say they need to go back and pay attention to some sections.  Now that I have seen it I am a bit confused with the SkyWalker family tree. The Dark Side seems to miss a generation and then go hard for their children. For some reason I thought Stormtroopers were robots but now that I think back there hasn't been any wires sticking out and all the other robots and drones are obviously robots and drones.

Humans in armour

Annual Review 2015

I have stuck with the Retirees Occasional Blog Of Time (ROBOT).  In the last year I added 236 posts compared to 90 in 2014.  The record month was July where I put in 41 highly entertaining observations of travel in Europe. So it seems the hum drum home life doesn't require as many posts.  The record for the most page views is 49 for a post almost a year ago and I have no real idea why that one stands out. Of course it does feature a hastily drawn cartoon of mine which must be the reason.  This graph shows a recent spike last week but it is part of the blog mystery as to why. Comments are few. This could do with a boost but registering on Google + requires an exactness.

Spike shows around 35 pageviews on 28th Dec

NYE 2016

This morning's jog was a struggle. Managed to get to bed around 2:00am however the combined 60th birthday and NYE barbie was a great idea.  The last time I saw the city fireworks show was when Pablo was still living in Port Melbourne, that was seeing in the new century as well as the new year.  We had a great vantage from the Quarry Park showing the whole length of the cityscape. Nothing like a good fireworks show even at midnight.

On Quarry Hill

10 tonnes of fire crackers