Inside Cheech's Mind

Surfing in the Park.

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:13:00 +0000

Well, thought i'd drop in a quick one here. but here are a few pictures of people surfing in the park. This is in Munchen, Germany in a park called the English Gardens.

The wave is caused by rushing water and some construction levels in the waterways. But it looks pretty cool. So here are some pictures

Up close and Personal.

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 03:44:00 +0000

Whales, awesome majestic creatures of the sea. My brother went to see the whales off the coast of California somewhere, and he got, well you could say quite close to them. Here are some photos.

Truly amazing creatures they are. I thought we got lucky in Hawaii, but he got so lucky i'm so jealous.

How long will these be clean!

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:02:00 +0000

Got myself some new trailrunners, after my old pair were "taken" away from me. I had an old pair of Salomon Comp 2 before and they fit me awesome. But I did take them to hell and back. Eventually the indestructible laces frayed and I went to replace them under warranty.
But to cut a long story short, they threw them away and gave me my money back, alas they don't make them here in oz no more. So I have been racing with normal runners and boy can you feel the difference. Heavy, no grip, harder to clean, and laces come off.

But new story with these new babies!! my Salomon XA Pro 3d. Take a good look at these cause they are brand new now and all clean and colourful.But by this time next week after the race on weekend, don't expect it to be even close to that. I wonder how long they will last before they turn dark and disgusting. Been wearing them in for this weekend and they are so comfy. Forgotten how good these laces were and how i missed them. Last Summer Series run had to stop twice to tie my shoelaces. Not anymore baby.

How to get from Niseko, Japan to Kauai, Hawaii USA in the shortest time, NOT!

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 06:35:00 +0000

Started the day before In Niseko Japan at 8:30am woke up to a nice day. It was snowing lightly, and the place was full of activity as everyone got ready for riding. As for me, I was busy packing and saying my last goodbyes to friends. Next stop was Hawaii, but before that a monster transit. The following is a breakdown of how I got to Kauai.

1) “Start clock now. 10:30am!” Shizenkan, Niseko – Lift to Main Bus Terminal to transfer to Chitose Airport.
2) Catch the 10:40am bus from Niseko to Chitose Airport arriving at 1:00pm (stop off at Mushroom world for 15 minutes) [Elapsed travelling time 2hrs 30 mins]
3) Get on Flight to Osaka at 2:30pm arriving in Osaka at 4:00pm. [Elapsed travelling time 5hrs 30 mins]
4) Caught the bus to Renki Premium Outlet Centre to shop for a few hours and grab some food. Back on the bus at 8:00pm to head back to Airport. Chilled out and walked around a bit more. [Elapsed travelling time 9hrs 30 mins]
5) On the 9:45pm flight back to Sydney Via Brisbane. [Elapsed travelling time 11 hrs 15 mins]
6) Arrive In Brisbane 9:45am Local Time. Sat around in the airport terminal waiting for them to clean, plane delayed for about 30 minutes. Plane ready to leave at 10:30am, and off to Sydney. [Elapsed travelling time 22hrs]
7) Arrive in Sydney at 12:10pm. Grab my snowboard bag which came out very efficiently for Sydney standards, now I had to transition and meet up with Shenton who kindly offered to take my bags home. Had a brief lunch with him and then back to the Airport waiting for Check In to open at 3:00pm. Once Check in Opened and we got the security issues through I was off to the Qantas Lounge (big thanks to Shenton again) to shower and relax for a while. Waited in the lounge area for Luke & Tsalina to arrive so we could get on our plane which was scheduled to take off at 6:00pm. [Elapsed travelling time 29hrs 30 mins]

8) Arrived in Honolulu at 6:50am Local time. We quickly raced off to get our bags and then we had to rush off to get our next flight which was to take us to the island of Kauai arriving at 9:40am. [Elapsed travelling time 40 hrs 10 mins]

So after close to 40 Hours of travelling I have now reached the beautiful island of Kauai and time to relax. YES?? NO its time for action!! WOOHOO!

Just a distant memory now.

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:47:00 +0000

I've just returned from a great Powder Junky Tour of Japan and then some thawing out in Hawaii. What an awesome holiday. But it all ways moves so fast. Everything is fading away. Like a distant memory now. But I can still recall some of the great moments.

Had some awesome powder days in Japan, awesome partying, then in Hawaii it was like a huge adventure. From rushing around to catch a plane, to gently hiking the Napali coast, Sleeping in the car to Sleeping in a Mansion, swimming with fishes to swimming with Turtles. It was great time there in Hawaii and Japan.

In both countries it seems everything is totally different yet great experiences. Japan is organised and clean, US is disorganised and slightly dirty. Japan is cold and snowing, US is hot and raining. Both are beautiful and must be experienced again.

So i better get off my ass and update my travel blog of Hawaii. Stay tuned for that.

Powder Junky Tour 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:59:00 +0000

Well, I'm off on my Powder Junky tour of Hokkaido Japan. For travel journal check out my Travel Blog.

Pretty good to be back in Japan, still get mistaken for a japanese which is pretty good and bad. Also with the broken japanese that i speak a lot of the time they start to forget that i'm not japanese and get fully into speaking at speed.

heaps of times i pick up every 4-5 word and can break it down but then it just gets faster. AHAHAH.. oh wells..

The snow has been ok, way better than oz, but not the awesome stuff yet. But hopefully soon.

Snowboarding in the land of the Rising Sun

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:00:00 +0000

Here is a little story that a friend of mine wrote about Japan Snow. Well he ain't too far off the mark. So please read, and if you intend to visit please treat the place with respect and be willing to learn from the place.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 03:11:00 +0000

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Hope you all had a safe holiday time and celebrated with all your loved one. Lets hope that this year is an enjoyable one and that we all strive to push ourselves as far as we can go and get the most out of our lives.

thanks to those who shared with me many memories and can't wait to meet all the new memories to be created in 2007!!

Enjoy life to the max, get out to the Snow and enjoy nature..

PEACE OUT!
Cheech

Wigs, tight pants, makeup, and walkman’s

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 23:30:00 +0000

It’s been a while since the last dress up party, but this year for Damien’s Bday an 80’s theme party was organise. I had no idea what the 80’s was about as I was still a young’un and running around in shorts and t-shirts. But for the laughs decided to wear some old looking clothes and super tight pants.

How this started was I raided dad’s wardrobe. Firstly trying on a few T-shirts and shirts. Once I picked out the shirt it was onto the pants. I have a waist size of 33, and have always hated tight pants, but thought ok, it’s a party might as well dress up, so decided to try on dads Size 28 pants.
This was a painful experience but highly entertaining for my brother. Eventually, we figured that it was too tight and if I wanted children in the future, it was best to try something else. Now my brother has some size 30 pants and they seemed to match the pants so I gave them a go and low and behold I could just get in., but I doubt I would be able to sit down. So I went with that and next thing to do was to get my hair done.

Karina and I went around Paddy’s market looking for some wigs to buy. But the first few stores the prices started up around the $50 mark. For a once off thought hmmm, I’d have to say some of the styles they have there were pretty cool. The first store I went to all I can remember is the mullet styles, but also the shop assistant who was putting the wig on had some really bad breath, and she kept breathing on me, didn’t want to tell her I wasn’t going to buy the wig cause of her breath.. sheesh. Breath Mints anyone.

Eventually we found the wig and the costume was ready to put to use. Karina managed to borrow an outfit from someone who went to an 80’s party so all it took was make-up and we were ready to go. Except I had to take the pants off and put them on at Damien’s place.

Everyone got into the party theme and dressed up a bit. There was a bit of bling bling floating around and a lot of the girls were wearing some funky outfits. Doug never ceases to amazing me with his cataloguing skills and produced an awesome outfit of overalls and his walkman. But to top it off he brought his Cassette music collection all organised.

So now it was the moment of truth everyone waiting around the corner quietly ready to surprise Damo, it dragged out for a bit , but eventually he rounded the corner to be greeted by 30-40 ppl dressed all weird looking screaming “SURPRISE!!!”

What followed is priceless, Damo, jumped like he stepped on a rat, then ran down the road like lava was pouring down the mountain. (video will be up soon of this) After he calmed down and managed finding it safe to return to his own home, the celebrations began. Poor little Jaiden was terrified after hearing the screams, but he too settled down after a drive around with Linda.

Great night of laughing at everyone’s outfit and thinking, we should do this again! I might give the tight pants a miss tho, had to spend the whole night standing in fear of ripping my brother's pants. But really cause I couldn't really bend down to sit. But it was all in the name of fun. Here are some photos from the night. More to come.

Urban Max

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:32:00 +0000

After last years super wet race, this years race had super fine weather. Dekiru Yo this year featured YY as the running mate and things didn’t start all that smoothly, with YY turning up hung over from partying the night before which could mean a long day. We managed to combine the teams with Andrew/Julie, Tsalina/Luke and formed a huge team of six to race as well.

First stop this year was to meet at Sydney Aquarium. We boarded a cruise boat taking us to the start of the race, which was to run to the opera house from circular quay. Once there we set off to decipher the clues. This year’s race seemed to take us a lot further out of town than we expected, which meant more running for the dumb and more buses for the smart. Of course we were the dumb ones.

The checkpoints were Harry’s Café for a photo, followed by a wharf in double bay, Centennial Park, Mission Australia to use the Motorola Phone to take photo, Paddy’s Market’s and build a puzzle, Travel & Adventure expo to use the new Bluetooth headset, KGV to shoot some hoops and kick a goal, a boost juice to guess the taste of the flavours, Pyrmont Fish markets to find the Aboriginal Culture boat (major issue here, explain later), then over to St Leonard’s Climb fit to do some rock climbing, back to North Sydney to find the Rag & Famish (but no free beer), and then final destination in Glebe for a historical park, clipped and after also collecting donations of $10 from the public we ran back to the finish at Sydney University.

The race was hot this year and we ran heaps of it, due to stupidity. The biggest error we made was trying to outsmart ourselves and look for the Aboriginal Culture boat in its normal docking place of Circular Quay. So we basically ran Bridge street all around circular quay to KGV and then ran to the fish markets. Woohoo!. But after locating this we still felt pretty decent as we saw the race leaders at that point. But, alas we still had 3 checkpoints and they had 1.

But today was a fun day, especially racing in a bigger team. Managed to have heaps of fun which was great and also felt real good after the race, so my fitness must have improved heaps. Even ran back to Pyrmont from Sydney uni after the race and then got a quick shower and then drove up to Hunter Valley for Mel and Jehan’s wedding. The 3 teams managed to finish all together in a poor time but still lots of fun. Can’t wait til next year!!

Flying Monkey's, Sudoku and reading errors.

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 23:33:00 +0000

The TEVA race was again held in Belanglo State Forrest, but this year there was no rain. Nice cool weather. Dekiru Yo now features the talents from Jindabyne. Dan & Yuli had both made the trip down to race with us. Few other teams we knew were Just Trippin (Luke/Tsalina and Adam Chase) and Stir Fried Dragons in Black bean sauce (Cherie/Vonnie/ Yoo Yong).
The start was quite frantic with a prison break required for us to get 3 “get out of jail” cards and release our other team mates, this took a while scrabbling around but eventually we got out and were off and racing.

This race we all felt great, however once again we were destined to learn a valuable lesson again. Last year was , to bring a pump and spare tube. So this year we did that, but this year’s lesson was to READ INSTRUCTIONS PROPERLY.

At Checkpoint 10 we were doing really well in 3rd place, after overtaking team Just Trippin due to our superior Sudoku skills. We didn’t read the instruction of splitting up the teams and everyone doing different tasks. In the end this cost us a good placing but we managed to rally and come back to finish strongly.

Some of the memorable challenges completed by the team were Music & Movie name deciphering which Yuli and Dan absolutely smashed, Sudoku which was cleaned up by us in 4 minutes, building a sling shot and flying some monkeys, and sorting ourselves through a tight rope mess.

The last clue was the good old “GO DO BE” decipher code. After running into the dam, and getting the code we had to do a run of around 1500m and tell a volunteer the code of “GO DO BE” however after 15 minutes of trying to convince him that “GO DO BE” was the answer we eventually managed to get the answer he thought of “GO TO BE” so we ran home to the finish line and jumped for joy! (except the photographer had gone home)
Just Trippin managed to come home in 2nd place in the Mixed and 8th Overall to take the prize of the Shoes, while Dekiru Yo, finished 8th Mixed/19th Overall and Stir fry dragons in black bean sauce finished 38th Mixed/70th Overall. So overall was a great race and heaps of fun which is awesome, can’t wait to do more races. Its so addictive, if only the body could do what the mind wants.. ahhhhh dreams..

Dress Sense.

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 01:18:00 +0000

Have you ever been asked what your style is? Here is an extract from one of my favourite movies "Enter the Dragon":

Set on an old Hong Kong Junk as they sail toward the Han's Island. With an Irish fighter trying to assert his dominance, and the man, Bruce being super cool!

Irish fighter: Whats your style?
Bruce Lee: My style?
IF: Yeah!
BL: The art of fighting, without fighting!
IF: art of fighting without fighting? show me.
BL: what here?
IF: Yeah.....
BL: don't you think we need more room?
IF: where then?
BL: On that island, we can take this boat.?
IF: OK!

Then we see the fighter get on boat first and Bruce lets out the rope and wins the fight!!

Anyway don't know what the point of that is, but was thinking about dress sense and dress styles. What style do you have. And I was thinking that My style is unique. Currently most people see my style as being Linebreaks (full length tights) and shorts. Usually when i'm working out I will have my Linebreaks on and if not people say "hey whats going on? you ok?"

After the workout I'd just go out to eat with them on and walk around with no care in the world. This is usually followed by all the gawkers scoping me out, most likely thinking damn he looks sexy, but probably thinking "look at that knob".

But it seems that the trend is catching on. After our latest jog, Cherie seems to have joined the elite athletes class and got herself some linebreaks, and last night she wore them as we went for a jog ot the city. However this time I didn't bring them cause I had beach gear. So after we finished we walked around the city which wasn't too embarassing for her, but then we needed to eat. So we decided on the fine dining place of Coronations Hotel (nothing that fancy) But as we walked in, I was wearing my boardies and T-shirt, Cherie insisted that I go in first so people don't see her in the linebreaks. You could feel her embarassment building!

I agreed but as she walked in after, the eyes came a looking! Everyone was checking out this funny looking girl wearing shorts, training top and full length tights! Was pretty funny, especially when the place seemed a bit fancy for a pub. Now if only I took a picture!! No wonder she wanted to get out of dinner so quickly!!

One person converted leads me closer to my quest to get everyone in Linebreaks!! SPONSOR ME LINEBREAK!!

The Great North Road.

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 12:44:00 +0000

Well it was a fine day today, sunny, blue skies, not a cloud in the sky. However it was also going to be hot.

The plan of attack today was to ride the Great North Road down in Wiseman's Ferry. The team to tackle it this week consisted of the Andrew's (Graham & O'Brien), Rich, and me.

Started the ride at 9:30am and the heat was pretty mild. However the first thing on this ride is a climb to start it all off. Was about 2km uphill stretch with a lot of water bars along the way. The pace was decent as we all started to warm up and then now at the top riding along flatish areas, we got to the first exciting section with Andrew Graham launching over the handle bars after dropping down a few rocks and fully clearing the bar by about 1m and landing on his feet. (8 out of 10 for dismount, but 10 outta 10 for landing)

After about 1hr and a bit of riding we had our first problem. Puncture. Easily fixed. We decided to patch the tube, they were pinch flats so we had to cover both slits. Obi had a new special fast stick patch which we used after trying to change one tube with an older patched tube. That didn't work so we had to try patch the old one. Eventually we managed to fix them and started to use the new pump that I got which pumps at either "high volume or high pressure"

Eventually we got the tube inflated and we were raring to go. We had reached close to the peak of the climb and now rode down another 200m and the intersection to head down to Clare's Bridge. Decision was quickly made to head down this track and then ride back up. It should take us 45 mins return.

emphasis on the "SHOULD". about 2 mins into the downhill and everyone ripping down. Graham swerves to the side and all you hear is PSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTT.... there goes the back tube again.. and its game over.. another few tubes and patches later we get it going.

Now finally riding down past the buddist retreat/sanctuary and down to Clare's bridge we stop and have a nice relax. Clare's Bridge is basically 4 mass stone blocks with no actual bridge. Looks kinda cool.
Finally after relaxing, enjoying the serenity, we headed back. It was a nice gradual climb and the pace was ok. But we still have one more moment of madness.

This moment involved a quick downhill section, and Rich decided to fly down the harder bit in the middle that everyone avoided and lo and behold carnage. Firstly front wheel straight into a rock and boom!! Rich over the handle bars and still clipped in. This resulted in a flat tyre and busted elbow. Well its come down to patching the tubes as all our spares were gone. But Rich's rear derailuer is having a problem and is not changing properly so uphill is a drag. Eventually tho we make it all the way back and the final down hill section begins.

This last section was pretty uneventful but heaps of small waterbars to jump off which was awesome. Only thing was one corner i took a bit wider than i wanted and almost ended up in a ditch. But all in all this ride is damn good. Hard start as you just go straight up but very enjoyable. Make sure you bring water tho, as its long and dry. Do it early too as it does get super hot.

Looking for Teammates for Dekiru Yo

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:18:00 +0000

Its come, time to gather a proper crew together to further advance my adventure racing. For the past races that I have done, none of them have been with a completely in tact team.

Started out with 3 of us wanting to give it a go, one deciding its not it but was fun, the other thinking its fun but hard work, and now can’t get anyone else that I know to join me in doing races or training together.

If you don’t know what Adventure racing is check out www.arocsport.com.au . these guys put on some good races, and what they consist of is Trail running, Mountain biking, kayaking, a bit of swimming, navigation and FUN! All mixed together. There are other races as well that I will want to look into more and they may include racing at night and other challenges.

So I am looking for 2 members either male or female. (ideally one of each as the mixed races are better) who likes to challenge themselves, is reasonably fit, wants to train, can mountain bike and run, and loves adventure and to get dirty.

Me I’m not that fit as most of you guys know. But I want to train up heaps.

So if anyone knows of people who wants to try adventure racing let me know. I’m keen to form a good team and competitive. Competitive meaning not finish last and have fun. Really, that only means I aim to finish before the presentation, and eventually as the team progresses finish in hopefully top 20 overall.

TEAM “DEKIRU YO” is going to be a force!!
Waiting to hear from people.

The Vertical Puzzle

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 00:20:00 +0000

Headed down to St Peters Indoor Rock Climbing Centre with Richard, Cherie and Mike last night and got introduced to a whole new sport. Indoor Rock Climbing!

Initial thoughts ranged from “this is going to be so fun” to “man I need some strength in my upper body”
Some other thoughts included. “Uh what am I doing?” and “this is so cool!”

Its like a vertical puzzle with all the colours stuck on the wall. You just have to figure out how to get up its pretty cool. Mind you I was only on the green lines and tried one blue one which seemed pretty easy when I did it.

Not exactly sure how many climbs we actually did, but it was pretty damn fun. My arms got sore too, and I guess I want proper climbing shoes next time, was slipping a bit so that probably didn’t help. It’s a good workout as well, not cardio but more strength. Forearms were sore particularly my right one. Back of shoulders a bit sore as well but nothing too bad.

Funny moment was towards the end, my last climb, got stuck on the wall, as my arms just didn’t want to move any more and I was losing grip on my foot. Just couldn’t get up to the next hold, and on the final attempt, maybe 5th, I got there and then couldn’t get to the next. This was a sign to call it a day. But damn its pretty fun. Looking forward to going again.

Thanks doods.

Racing season starts!

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:06:00 +0000

Well the adventure racing season started and this time I teamed up with Luke and Tsalina in Team "Just Trippin" The race was held in Umina at Pearl Beach and the weather that we got was perfect, couldn't ask for better weather. Blue skies, 22 degs, not windy at all just a slight breeze.

The pace of the race wasn’t going to be that fast as Luke was sick, Tsalina had a late boozer, and I’m just way off the pace of those 2. This could be seen by the start which involved a 500m beach run which turned out to be a light jog for us. Our boat was then stolen right in front of us and then our strongest leg to start us off, kayaking.

As normal we struggled with the kayaking straight away, hitting about 2-3 other kayaks on the way out. Eventually we made it to the shore of the next beach, even managed to over take a few teams. Then it was time for me to go for a swim to get a clue and for Luke and Tsalina to load the kayaks.

We finished this and now time to go for a run, which was then followed by a mountain bike up hills which sucks. We were probably stuck in the top 25 for most of the time and now it was riding uphill. Which slowed me down heaps, have to train on this one. But going up hill meant that we got to run back down hill. Which was good but we kinda walked a bit.

The slow downhill might have cost us a top 20 finish, because there was a split in the field for the top 20 places if we could get there in time and we saw the last 2 kayaks filled which meant we would be out of the top 20. We continued on tho, and the pace for me was pretty good, but a bit fast on the uphill sections.

We had now completed most of the CP around this area now back to our bikes parked all the way back up that hill. Damn! Back up the hill back on the bike, and what else do we get, the dreaded “HIKE A BIKE”. Tahts right you read it right. We had to go hiking and rock climbing with our bikes. But once we got to the top it was all downhill and back home. Finally we saw the end in sight with a last bike ride down the beach and run to the finish line. We finished in 3hrs 44mins and 57 secs. Very slow I guess but good way to start the season. We managed to see the winners come over the finish line too. If your wondering why its cause they had to do an Extra 1 hr bonus leg, that we missed out on.

This race had a different little twist in it where we could answer trivia questions and you could win a prize for it. We had no idea for the first few CP where the trivia questions were but eventually we found them and managed to answer a few.

We ended up winning this prize which was a shock to us all, but really funny. Cause the three of us were sitting down watching the presentation when Alina announced that the teams that won the prize was teams 127 and 128. Luke thoughts were “wow those numbers are close together”, followed by my thoughts of”ohhhh sick those numbers are consecutive” and of course the brains (Tsalina) in the team was jumping around saying hey that’s us, which saw both Luke and I turn to Tsalina and give her a strange look, only to realize that hey! We are team 127!! So now I’m a proud owner of a new bike pump to replace the one I lost.

Overall this was a great race to start off with, taught me a few things too. These are:
- I’m so unfit its not funny.
- So much slower than those 2 on the uphills.
- Damn those 2 are fit
- I managed to finish the whole race with the Green Xbox Goggles on.
So I guess for future races I’m goin to work extra hard on uphills both on the bike and foot. Can’t wait to the next race too. Thanks Luke & Tsalina for a great race.

Dekiru Yo takes Trivia prize

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 05:38:00 +0000

Tonight, Jason, Cherie, and I met up for dinner after work. With no set place to go, we wondered the streets of Pyrmont and finally made it down to Quarryman’s Hotel. Nothing special here I guess, but then it was trivia night. So we decided that had won us over and we would give it a go. Missed the first round of questions but we made up for it by logically guessing or collectively agreeing 9 out of 10, but actually knowing only a few questions.

There was also a word trivia game which the 3 of us breezed through, we got one wrong but that didn’t stop us from taking home the prize a 1.5K bottle of Penfold’s Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet. Pretty sweet deal, we then kept on guessing our way through the rest of the rounds but finished in 4th spot I think. Out of like 7 teams. But still we won something. Jason had to carry it home to work out his shoulder. Damn heavy that thing. But woohoo cracked the winners circle!!
Who’s up for the next trivia night?

Photo censorship

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:03:00 +0000

Recently I read an article about how people should watch out who they take pictures of, and stuff. Make sure you don't offend no one or else they may come back and get you back financially.

But maybe its the way we are heading. We don't want people making fun of us, or ridiculing us, or profitting off us. what do people think?

Some call it art, some call it intrusion.

Spanish & Malaysian Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 06:19:00 +0000

Great weather this weekend, with a lot of celebrations around town.

We started at the Malaysian festival, for some lunch. Was good to get some satays, Nasi Lemak, and also some Roti. But, I guess we didn't like waiting 1hr 30 mins just to eat.

Fun day, with lots of live performances and shows. But I guess the excitement died down so after we headed to Liverpool street to checkout the Spanish Festival.

The spanish festival was packed out in Liverpool street and lots of food and dancing.

Some spanish singers and dancers gave some great entertainment. Only we didn't know what they were singing, but sounded cool and it was an awesome party atmosphere. Definitely made me want to goto Spain.

For the rest of the photos from the festival check out Spanish Festival Photos at our photo website

Sydney Treasure Hunt - Just Trippin Dekiru Yo

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 06:18:00 +0000

On Saturday we competed in the Sydney Treasure Hunt which is a fundraiser for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. This is basically a team race around our great city in which your team gets clues and puzzles that you have to figure out to get to your next location where you get your next clue.

Usually a great day with lots of running and head scratching and today wasn’t going to be any different. This year our team consisted of Tsalina, Luke, YY, Karina and me. We were called Just Trippin Dekiru Yo.

The first clue saw us scratching our heads and running in a general direction. The clue was something like “After you eat 3 of these Ribs & Rumps, you may get your name on the wall but you won’t be able to climb the stairs” Which YY and I took as being Ribs & Rumps where if you eat 3 servings you get your name put on the wall in a brick. But the one I thought about was in Manly, and the one YY thought about was in Gordon. Karina suggested a place in Woolloomooloo which has some stairs that you run down. So we headed over there. But there was nothing.

So we just kept running around and around to every set of stairs in our zone. This one took us about 35-40mins and in the end we decided to run down to Opera House and luckily there it was. But one thing, they weren’t even on the stairs or near anything that resembled where they should be.

But anyway this really made us feel like being in the game, running around with no clear place to go. Oh what a feeling. Well after that first set back the rest was super cruisy. We raced from Opera house through to the Art Gallery, down to the pig near the State Library and then cleared the first two zones really quickly.

The next zone was around the central part around Hyde Park, down to QVB, Hilton Hotel, and Centrepoint. Our running was getting a bit fast and we seemed to be clearing the stages real quickly. Therefore based on our early forecast calculations we had time for a toilet break for the 2 girls.. I mean boys, YY and Luke.

Once we were all back into the action we headed to Darling Harbour area to “Share our story” down at the NT Tourist Office and raced around World Square, then to do our Chinese Laundry.

Clearing this zone we now had to head to the rocks which usually has causes some problems in the past. But this time we managed to get 4 out of the 5 real quickly and then we hit the super hard one which was something like “This hill was not cleared by a GBU28” now there was a few hills around the place and we figured it be some sort of gun placement or military thing. As we figured out that thee GBU28 was a bunker buster missile. But after running from Dawes Point Park to Observatory hill and back again, we couldn’t find anything and was starting to run low of water and getting tired.

We started to get really down. We been here for about 25mins now looking everywhere we thought we could think of, then we discovered a place called Bunker Hill and thought hey let’s give this a go. Low and behold we found it, and now the race was done. Time to run back to the finish line. I tried to take many short cuts but due to the multitude of construction happening in the city had to run a lot more than I thought. But in the end we sprinted home just in front of another team. We were quite confident we had won now, but finishing 20 mins before time and the presentation being 2 hours away the decision was made to go freshen up and stretch at fitness first.

Spent a bit of time stretching and mucking around on the bongo board, watching Luke and Tsalina trying to do moves on the bongo was funny. But after about 25 mins YY hadn’t showed up. Maybe he fell asleep in the car. But finally at about 2:50pm almost 1 hour later he shows. Tsalina, Karina and I decide that hang on, we better get down to the presentation by 3:30pm at least. So Luke waits for YY.

As we crossing Elizabeth St I look over and see that people are gathering around the podium and that they are clapping as people head up to the stage. Maybe they have started presentation and all. So we scoot along to the stage and just as we get there, you hear “and in third place” we thought ahhaha Luke and YY aren’t going to be here if we win this. “in second place was ….” Forgot the name.. the 2 still ain’t here. And finally “and the Winner of the City Treasure Hunt for 2006 is …. Just Trippin Dekiru Yo” Tsalina and Karina jump for joy as I run up with them to accept our prize. We pose for all the winner photos, with big smiles on our faces. There is still only 3 of us on the podium we keep thinking where are they… Now the winners had been announced everyone started congratulating us and mostly people filed away. But those 2 lovers still hadn’t showed. Until another 15 minutes passed. So we told YY and Luke that we hadn’t won and that we missed out. YY was devastated as he had done his hair and make up just for the occasion.

But in the end after all the laughter we let them in on our secret and we were now all going sailing. WOHOOO!!!!! Til next year!

Sutton Forrest Smash

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 11:43:00 +0000

Well we are currently on the way to the snow... but what do we get.. read the RTA report below, and we are about 6km from the epicentre.

RTA report.
Hume Highway - at Suttons Forest
Accident - Car
RTA advice:
Traffic is able to pass the accident scene using the breakdown lane. Motorists are advised to expect delays.
Affected direction:
Southbound
Effect:
Extensive Delays
Response:
Police AttendingAmbulance AttendingFire Brigade AttendingRTA Traffic Commander AttendingRTA Maintenance Crew AttendingRescue Crew AttendingTMC to MonitorElectronic Signage Updated

Battle Scars from the Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 07:03:00 +0000

Victim # 1 Jason
Attempted Move: Front side 540 off the 35 foot kicker.
Real Move: Front side Corked/inverted 180
Injury Received: Fractured collarbone and separated shoulder.
Sideline Time: 2 months.
Novelty Rating: 5/10 (didn’t get to see it but from what I have heard it was funny, but after it waiting for him, he was in pain)

Victim # 2 Doug
Attempted Move: Switch Low down camera angle riding on heel side.
Real Move: Face plant over hard ice
Injury Received: Overextended right pectoral muscle and elbow bruising.
Sideline Time: No time expected, however constant niggling pain.
Novelty Rating: 4/10 (But captured on video)

Victim # 3 Ronnie
Attempted Move: Nose Manual to Front side 180.
Real Move: Nose Whip to Face plant
Injury Received: Black eye and concussion.
Sideline Time: 1 week while bruised ego settles down.
Novelty Rating: 6/10 (funniest moment was this “where am i?” ouch!

Victim # 4 Yuli
Attempted Move: Front side tweaked out board slide on the Nokia Fun box
Real Move: 50-50 to hip plant on box to shoulder press on ice
Injury Received: Winded on shoulder press, bruised right thigh (with snowboard tool imprint), tear of the joint capsule in shoulder
Sideline Time: 3-6 weeks
Novelty Rating: 7/10 (was funny to see, but not when your next on the box)

Best wishes and get well soon to all you guys. Glad that it wasn't any super serious life threatening injuries, and also remember we all there to share some great memories.

Oaks Trail

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 11:21:00 +0000

Well we have gone down the oaks trail from Woodford to Glenbrook, so why not ride up??? This time, Richard, Tsalina, Luke, and I decided to ride up from Glenbrook to Woodford. It was a tough ride up hill but totally worth it when we came flying back down. Finally discovered the Single track at the oaks and yeah it was worth it alright. All up it was about 20km up hill and 20 back down. Great ride.

My Australian Snow Season Kicks off

noreply@blogger.com (Cheech) — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 12:49:00 +0000

Well finally, I got down to the snows. This year the Australian snow season has been pretty ordinary. With not much snow falling and a base that stands around 45cm. I haven't got down to the snows much, that and a few niggling injuries have slowed me down. But finally made it out there this last weekend. Good old Shredders was very icy and patchy in places. Lots of ice and rock and it was highly advisable to stick to the groomed areas.

But we had heaps of fun anyway. The terrain parks were open with mainly boxes and rails which were fun. Except for those few who found the box and rails a bit too hard! Ouch!!
Sunday it was really windy so most areas were really slow to get access to, which sucked but that’s the story of thredders..

One highlight was on Sunday when I had to chase some strangers snowboard down through the terrain park. He let it go and it hit 2 people (then his binding came off) and then it kepted going. As was flying after it and I remember thinking, hhmm what happens if I do catch up with it what do I do?? Anyway as I rounded the corner I had to scream out cause it was flying so fast. IT eventually hit someone sitting down but luckily the board took most of the impact. Ouch. He was spewing at me for a while but after a few moments he realised I was helping out and had nothing to do with it! Then the loser came walking down and picked up his board. Stoopid foolz.. Always have a leash on if you don't know what your doing!

Anyway the snow started falling last night so hopefully more snow and a base the next time I go in 2 weeks time. Fingers crossed..