It's finally happened. Tasweb turned two the other day, but it's birthday present was delayed in the mail. The present arrived yesterday but I was a bit confused as to how to present it. Tasweb isn't exactly a person and the server is in another country, so I decided to submit it as another news story. Cheque it out below!

It's probably time for another update. Last weekend we went to Richmond to grab some lunch and lollies. We did the whole tourist thing and wandered around the streets a bit. The teddy bear shop on the green is pretty cool, but people that lived in Richmond about a hundred years ago must have all been midgets as the ceiling in the back room is soooo low. We grabbed some "duck bread" from the bakery, but the ducks were lucky to get any as it turned out to be a bag of really yummy looking fresh bread rolls. 

 

 

On the Friday night we watched the Hobart Chargers win a very exciting basketball match at the Netball centre in Moonah. I don't know why we don't have a proper basketball centre, but thats another story. We had never been before and next time we will know to take a blanket as the seats are hard and the temperature is very sub tropical. They were down and out at three quarter time, but came back to win in the end. We took our mate Mel along and some of her/our friends were in one of the corporate boxes. They didn't send up any food or beer, but they did lend us a small but very warm and much appreciated blanket. I think this might become our alternative to the Tassie Devils as they suck ever since they did that stupid merge with North Melbourne and our State Government would stop at nothing to  ensure that we don't get to watch any sort of half decent football in Southern Tasmania. 

I was talking to Donna a few days ago and she was telling me about how she rode her mountain bike up the pipeline track in the snow. It was a beautiful day today with no wind so I decided to copy her. I rugged up with thermals and stuff and headed for Ferntree. I reckon the pipeline track is one of Hobart's hidden wonders. Not many people know about it, but it is a great track to ride. It's a gentle incline all the way to the end. Exactly where the end is varies depending on who you talk to. There is a locked gate about one kilometer from the "real" end. There used to be a sign prohibiting entry due to a land slide up ahead, but that sign has been removed/ripped off. I lift my bike over the gate and go on to the end where there is a lovely little waterfall above a small weir that feeds a pipe "hence the name". Apparently this then supplies the water to my place. This time there was wall to wall snow from the gate on. I had to walk in a few places because the snow was too deep. One other bike had been through (I rode in his tracks) but for some strange reason he turned around before reaching the end so it was awesome to ride on fresh snow with no other tracks about. I had a bite to eat, shot some photos and then left before I got too cold.

After the ride I went to the pool for a few laps and a spa/sauna. It was a bit weird to be in a hot sauna less than an hour after playing in the snow. I have to mention the crazy jockeys that I chat to sometimes at the pool on weekends. These guys will starve themselves for days, drink nothing and then spend two or three hours in the sauna to try to loose weight. Apparently the owners have to nominate the jockeys weight early in the week before the horses race that weekend. If you are a senior rider then you can choose your ride depending on your weight, but the little apprentice I was talking to today told me that his boss told him he had to ride at 53kg this weekend. He went for a jog this morning and lost 1.5kg but he was still at 56kg before he hit the sauna. If he doesn't make the weight then the trainer/owner has to find another rider and the jockey cops a $120 fine. Thats on top of loosing his fee for that ride which is about $200 (I think thats what he said) so it could cost him heaps if he looses all his rides that weekend. This guy told me he had been in hospital twice due to dehydration. Then when he is absolutely stuffed he jumps in a car and drives home, does it again to get to the course, and then takes control of a big powerful animal. I can't think of any other industry where encouraging/forcing people to do that sort of thing would be legal.

Unfortunately there have been a few car problems lately. Maret was driving their car in Launceston recently when a guy went straight through a red light in front of them. They couldn't stop in time and their car collected the side of his spinning him around before they all came to a stop. The whole family were in the car at the time so their first concern was for Luke and Zac, but luckily they were all OK. The old guy who ran the red light was very lucky as well because they hit him just behind the drivers door. Just one second earlier or later and the result would have been much worse. There is a photo of their Nissan Xtrail below.

It doesn't end there though. Today we were driving down the Southern Outlet towards Kingston  when we saw thick black smoke billowing up into the air. Everyone was trying to move out of the left hand lane so we assumed there had been a car accident, but it was actually a Volvo station wagon that had caught fire. Luckily the driver was able to pull it over onto the side of the road. A police car had just arrived, but the fire brigade weren't there so the fire was raging out of control. The poor guys car would have been a write off. I'm sure there is a Volvo joke there somewhere, but I'll let it go just in case the poor owner stumbles upon this story. Emma snapped a photo with my mobile phone as we passed.