Saaaaave of the Century

Apologies to Pete Smith (a.k.a Mr Copperart), for blatantly ripping off his old gig for a particularly poor pun, but I'm going to do it anyway. It happened in the very early stages of this morning's ride, descending a minor "hill" at West Burleigh at 62km/h, I saw the chip-seal on the road late (it was a nasty bit), and hit it with such force, a full water bottle was thrown several metres. I managed to regan control of the bike thanks to a sand-riding trick I learned from Martin -- weight as far back as possible, no savage leans, etc etc.

Of course, my new back wheel was trashed, which meant a replacement/repair. Luckily, my bike shop (Johns) did this for no charge. While they had it, I spent some time walking along the beach -- perhaps I should have taken some pictures too. On the other hand, that is less easy when you look toward the South and see what was once a spectacular coastline covered in tacky, tasteless high-rise buildings. Perhaps one day I'll angle a photo that leaves out most of them, perhaps.

Apparently there was a story in the Gold Coast Bulletin claiming that the M1 motorway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast is reaching the stage of being gridlocked (i.e. carrying capacity), nine years ahead of when they expected this to happen. Their solution? Build another one (probably at great cost). When will they ever learn? Do they really think the new one will take all that long to reach the same stage? I'd give it probably five years at best. Still, that's probably time for at least one state government election, and I guess what they're really spending this money on is vote buying.