I’m looking for ideas for a social group outing in #Brisbane or #Toowoomba region in spring for a group of international colleagues. Its been a good 14+ years since I’ve lived in QLD, so I'm not sure what's good to do...
Any thoughts are much appreciated, thanks.
Until I was 12, I grew up on the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range in Australia in Toowoomba (Prince Henry Drive). At this particular point, it rises between 700 and 900 meters above sea level, on its run down the entire east coast of Australia. Here cloud masses rush in from the coast, hit the range and drop their water down the gullies and ravines, where pockets of rainforest cling and mists and fog would often change the world into a soft blind white. Through the entire continent, it divides and separates populations, landscapes, and climates. Historically, it has provided challenges to the colonial process while protecting the Indigenous people. Its liminality is almost spiritual.
Boring #WeatherToot from #Toowoomba: it's now 34 in my loungeroom again. At just after half past one. Ooofff. BOM has just cancelled the severe heatwave warning, but I don't think the weather here has got the message yet 
. And no, not a drop of rain last night, those storms didn't eventuate. This summer is going to be a bad one.
The music scene in #Toowoomba in the late 1980s and early 90s was amazing. Dedicated people like Bailey Hilliard (anyone remember The Rocktapus at The National?), Peter and Inge Fenton (licensees of The Gladstone Hotel) and Dylan Hughes (who booked for The Courthouse) were driving so much of the scene. There were a lot of local bands plus touring bands had a choice of venues. Jimmy Aspromogos had the Powerhouse and Rumours where many national and international acts played. The Refec out at the uni was buzzing too. I saw Madness and Hoodoo Gurus there in the mid-80s along with many more. No poker machines in those days so pubs chose to develop live music as it made money. As my old friend Ian says in the video below, The Glad was a constant with bands and events. There was a real community around it. Later on The Lake opened where I remember seeing Painters and Dockers and The Wreckery among many others. Sad that this isn't an option for young people today.
On Sunday I intended to go for a ride with the Toowoomba Region BUG but got up too late. I went for a solo ride. I rode up to Picnic Point, past the city airport and showgrounds, then to Westbrook. I crossed over the highway and through farmlands to another main road.
As I rode, the assist bar the motor controls and rear vision mirror are mounted on came loose and fell on my lap, only held on by the electric wires. l stopped and fixed it.
I followed that road until I realised that it joined back onto the highway that I had crossed. I did a U-turn and continued on almost to Wyreema before I turned off and looped back to Toowoomba.
The ride was 55 km and battery number one lasted almost all the way home.
Sad to see Toowoomba rated 31 out of 100. But I'm not surprised. We may have just got Queensland's first Safe Active Street but we've got a long, long way to go!
Seeing the monsters people call "cars" here, I am not sure I would feel safe having them behind me even on a 30 km/h street. It's one moment of inattention or malice for them, death for me.
Interesting article though:
This morning I went for a ride with TRBUG. Seven of us rode out of Toowoomba to Wyreema, then around to Wellcamp and back to Toowoomba.
The weather was good for winter, slightly overcast for some of the time and fairly windy. By the time we got back to Toowoomba some batteries were getting low and the riders were having to nurse them. My bike changed over to the second battery.
We finished the ride at a coffee shop at Whyalla plaza shops. After that I rode home part of the way with a couple who live on the same side town.
By the time I arrived home I had done 60.8km.
My trike was getting a squeaking noise that I determined to be in the rear hub SRAM Dual Drive. Last week I removed the actuator rod and squeezed some semi liquid grease into the hub.
On Friday I went for a ride and the squeak appeared to be gone but in the last couple of kilometres it came back.
Today I laid the trike on its side and removed the click box and actuator rod. I got one of my fountain pen filling syringes and extended its needle with a length of heat shrink. I filled the syringe with grease, fed the tube down into the actuator rod hole and squeezed all the grease into the hub.
On my next ride I'll find out if it worked!
#SramDD3 SramDualDrive #cycling #BikeTooter #GreenspeedTrike #RecumbentTrike #eTrike #BafangBBS01 #Toowoomba #ToowoombaRegion
This morning I went for my first trike ride since last Sunday. As usual I first rode up to Picnic Point, where I found that stalls and a stage were being set up.
I rode over to the Uni, then back through town and back up to Picnic Point. A Harmony Day event was in progress.
I sketched a dance group led by a young fellow named Dom. Then I sketched an Indian dancer, followed by a Tai Chi instructor. I also sketched a family with a dog, and a former candidate for the recent council elections.
My final sketch was of a Chinese gentleman in the audience. We spoke later and I learnt that he lives in North Carolina and is visiting family in Toowoomba.
#MastoArt #art #sketching #PenSketching #watercolour #watercolor #PleinAir #UrbanSketching
Well, another #EmergencyCommsExercise at Southbrook, ~27km south-west of #Toowoomba. Members of both #BrisbaneAreaWICEN and #IpswichWICEN are here. I am just meeting the new neeeeigh-bours (#horses). I guess we'll find out why the long faces.
@caity Have you seen the big storm headed your way?
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR662.loop.shtml#skip
This afternoon I went out to sketch. I sketched a building on Herries St that was originally a house.
I started doing the line work with grey ink but half way through the ink dried up. I found another pen that worked but the ink was blueish so I drew over the lines I'd already done.
I was pretty happy with the pen sketch as my measurements using my pen at arm's length were pretty close.
As soon as I started to paint I realised that the blue ink wasn't waterproof!
Two pieces I did for the Feb life drawing exhibition at Toowoomba Art Society.
#MastoArt #art #sketching #PenSketching #watercolour #watercolor #PleinAir #LifeDrawing
#ToowoombaArtSociety
#Toowoomba
I haven't been on my trike since early January. I've done 12000 km since I bought it and it's still on its original triple length chain and rear cluster.
The gear changes have gradually gotten worse until it's now noisy and clunky even set on friction rather than indexed.
I checked the specs and ordered an 11-34 tooth cluster.
I just removed the old one and found that the largest ring has 32 teeth. They must have changed the specs or didn't bother using a 34 tooth ring because I'm running a SRAM Dual Drive.
Now I'm just waiting for the chain to turn up.
This morning I drove up to Picnic Point to sketch. I stopped at Tobruk drive and sketched the lookout. It was pretty hot and the ants were hungry!
I then drove down to the cafe where I sat in the shade, drank an iced coffee and sketched the view.
In the middle of last year I decided to try and reach 3000 km. Not a big goal for some, but big for me!
My last trike ride for 2023 was on the 31st of December. I reached 3005 km for the year.
It was a ride in the countryside with the Toowoomba Region BUG.
A recent fountain pen and watercolour sketch of a Toowoomba house. I was on a recumbent trike ride and parked on the grass in the shade of a tree on the opposite side of the street.
#MastoArt #art #sketching #PenSketching #watercolour #watercolor #PleinAir #UrbanSketching
#cycling #BikeTooter #GreenspeedTrike #RecumbentTrike #eTrike #BafangBBS01 #Toowoomba #ToowoombaRegion
