The sun room

One of the nicest rooms in our house is the sun room. We've set it up with nice cane chairs, plants and a pile of magazines to read. It's a completely different vibe in there, kind of like going on holiday, but throughout summer it's usually a bit hot and stuffy. Now that the weather is cooling down, the sun room is really coming into its own again. And if you're wondering where Tess is at any point in the day, it's a pretty safe bet you'll find her lurking in there, up to no good with leopard and her band of imaginary friends.

She shifts around according to the position of the sun. For the first half of the day, she loves it on the couch. You can sit in the other chair in the shade with no hassles - apart from a constant pleading stare laserbeam coming your way if you happen to be eating food.

This morning I had my breakfast in there before commencing staring at my computer and tapping out word magic. It was a bit early to catch rays on the couch so Tess had to improvise.

As the day progresses, Tess shifts to the warm embrace of the single chair. You'll find her there until it's time for a walk, I start cooking dinner or the sun goes down - whichever comes first. She really knows how to live, that dog.

Big big bike ride

Over the weekend, I went away with Scottie to the countryside to go on a big bike ride.

It's called Soigneur and it's for people who are really into cycling. I went along because I'm writing a story about it and have never really understood the attraction of the lycra and the jazzy road bikes. I figured the best way to find out was to give it a go.


Here's Scottie with Andy, the photographer who followed us around in a van along with Fergus the mechanic. Andy is cool and reminded me a lot of a young skate photographer. I asked him if he photographs anything besides cycling and he said not really, because that was all he was interested in. I can respect that!


This is Jason, who puts on the weekends with Daniel. They plan it all out, go on the rides and also prepare all the food.


That's Daniel on the left. They organised for me to come along and even sorted me out with a bike and stretchy outfits from Specialized bikes.


We stayed in cottages near Venus Bay, right at the end of a heavily corrugated gravel road. Oh how I cursed that road.

The rides were really fun and intense. I've never felt so tired in my life. I look forward to writing the story about it. Thanks everyone who helped make it happen. Man I'm sore.

update

Last week, our friend Middsy premiered his new skate film Two Up. It took him and the two skaters (Alex Campbell and Nick Boserio) two years to make and also pretty much finished off Middsy's back in the process. Quite an accomplishment. The video is very impressive and will be online later today I believe. The premiere was held in a warehouse in Collingwood, accompanied by Raph burgers, free beer and seats with Nike cushions on them. A guy from Nike gave a weird speech about athletes which made me even more appreciative of what Middsy has done with his job there.

Part of what he does is involve talented friends in things. Riley drew the coins that feature in the film. They made beer holders with Riley's pictures on there and these funny things you could stick your head in.

Yep. Riley also has a show of his work in the city at Chapter House Lane gallery - highly recommended.

It was Penny's birthday on the weekend so she went to karaoke. You'll never see Penny so happy as when she is doing karaoke - it really is her happy place. I believe this is her and Stuart doing a rendition of Islands in the Stream.

Everyone has secret karaoke prowess. I find the whole thing terrifying! Joe showed up and was all like, 'nah, I don't really do karaoke,' then he jumped up and performed a Biggie Smalls song word for word without looking at the screen. Secret prowess.

Achievements update: the new issue of Slam magazine is out, featuring another ramble from me, this time on the subject of cruiser boards. It also features a picture of Morgan riding his cruiser board, so I'm pretty stoked on it.

Also we've been working hard on launching The Good Copy. This is a film we made which doesn't really tell you what we're doing, but at least we're doing it! More to come soon.