not even pete townshend does pete townshends anymore

pick. mute. strum. bend. loop. pedal.

pedal, pedal, pedal. racing against the clock. racing against time.

time is the ultimate victor. so, mediocrity, or a shot at glory? take your pick.

doremi

oceansize

found out recently one of my favourite bands have split up.

done

after 3 windy events back to back, today's breeze ended on a bit of a whimper, 8 knots hiking petering out to a patchy 2 knots of breeze. at least we got 2 half races done - the radials only did a few practice starts before racing was canned for the day.

a quick roundup of my results from this latest european circuit:

hyeres SOF regatta - 21st in silver fleet, 73 overall, difficult, frustrating light air regatta, many learning points, some happy moments from the first and only strong wind day where i posted a 17 & a 14, as well as the 6th on the final qualifying day.

delta lloyd regatta - 53rd in gold fleet. the windiest regatta i've ever done! happy to make gold fleet but unhappy that i was unable to handle the survival conditions as well as the guys around me...

skandia SFG regatta - 58th in gold fleet. good first day, just about hung on to make gold fleet again, but failed to really make an impression again, didn't have the legs to last the duration of the regatta.

kiel week regatta - 28th in gold fleet. good moments, some good starts, but still making mistakes around the race track and not always thinking clearly and making good decisions.

i did manage an impressive start in the kiel week day highlights video though, hiking hard out to the right with simon and kristian. watch it here (i appear 3 times!).

elizabeth is doing the medal race tomorrow!

bon iver - woods

uh oh

more changes on the horizon...

matryoshka

xkcd hasn't been maintaining its standards, but here's a peek into the nanoscale world...

when i first read 'never make a layout of the area you're in' i thought it sounded really similar to what that juno girl (ellen page) was told in 'inception'.

the sweet hereafter

i have grown very excited about the new album from jesse sykes and her swell crew, called 'marble son'.

pleasuring the divine.

ceiling's high.

birds of passerine.

they play in stuttgart on 30 april. hmmmmm... this might make up for my missing eric bibb, rodrigo y gabriela, vienna teng...

one little step at a time.

this song made me ridiculously and disproportionately happy this evening. 

the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.

little wing by jimi and stevie.

i think i've found out why i don't enjoy clapton's style of soloing, especially live. it's got no sense of direction, as though it's rooted firmly to the same spot. little wing's solo is travelling, it's on the move... and it doesn't really matter where it's heading really.

in fact, get a little lost.

and celebrate the little victories, however little they may be.

barcelona 0 - 5 arsenal

turn some more leh!

'i downloaded a book, and it hung on my kindle.'

how times have changed. how tides have turned.

if we turn, turn, turn,

turn turn turn

we might learn, learn.

bleah.

leyton orient 1-1 arsenal

validation that the world has been turned on its head.

arsenal 2 - 1 barcelona

the world is turned on its head.

unimpatient

my post-lunch nap turned into a 2 hour snooze, slightly throwing out my plans of an afternoon study session.

(instead of making up for it, here i am blogging.)

i dreamt that my P6 English teacher had given us a test, where we were supposed to watch this wacky video of a bunch of people in a car being tailed by another car, and write answers to questions like 'what did the lady in red do before she yelled out' or something like that. it would be an interesting idea compared to passage comprehension in psle i guess. i wonder where my teacher is now... she's one i won't ever forget i think. she made me cry once.

the school term finished yesterday. amazing eh, only 5 blog posts ago i was just starting this 10 week long course. one week of study before the exams, and then i'm flying home for cny on feb 11.

to celebrate the end of school, i first went to prince of wales hospital to help a friend do a breath test as part of his medical research. reminds me of my vo2 max tests which i haven't done in a while. i look forward to seeing what can be analyzed from that!

then i went exploring on two wheels, planning to head in the general direction of georges river. i found a cycling track that follows the road to the airport before crossing a bridge and then winding through some grassland and finally emerging alongside the botany bay waterfront, whereby after 23km and about an hour's cycle i pulled up at georges river sailing club, venue for the recent nationals. great route, like east coast parkway but infinitely better, i must bring kwong some time.

australian open concludes tomorrow with the final between djokovic and murray. a few things have really impressed me.

1. both novak and ferrer were remarkably error-free. even while scurrying around the baseline for upwards of 3 hours, they were still hitting groundstrokes from every part of the court with unbelievable consistency. the single-handed backhand simply cannot hold up to this much punishment, as evidenced by the alarming number of shanks federer made.

2. nadal won me over in his post-match conference. despite the significance of the match, and even though he looked like shit, he refused to discuss his injury and only insisted on giving credit to ferrer.

as usual, there's some music to be shared:

dzihan and kamien - stiff jazz

found out this morning that dm stith was opening for sufjan stevens at the state theatre tonight. i knew about sufjan being in town but didn't care so much for him... but stith! so of course the tickets are long sold out.

gotta be un-impatient for the climax in this one.

rodrigo y gabriela play at the enmore on 20th april. i've been ridiculously late in giving their 3rd album, 11:11, a listen (stream here), but i've been very impressed, and the title track especially has captured me on first listen. a 11/8 tribute to pink floyd.

ok, to the air conditioned common room to study. and be distracted by kim and li na.

hipstamatic

i spent my 2 week christmas/new year break babysitting. 

spent christmas clambering up to a lighthouse and picnicking at avalon beach.

launching brett's zhiked out boat to go catch the start of the sydney hobart.

discussing tactics.

jaw-dropping photos from the official site.

this one is for rohit.

pretended to be rock stars while waiting for the new year fireworks.

warbling 'the wind cries mary'.

2011!

dinner at hurricane's, 1st jan.

a handsome bicycle on our way to paddy's markets.

smoke and mirrors.

guitar store.

foul thing.

new hat and a new e-string.

going out to watch junip!

we spent 10 min trying to confirm this gentleman's identity after i'd posed for a shot with him. he's the drummer, elias. that was a pretty funny 10 min.

the opening act, ghoul.

sadly, junip was underwhelming. i'd admit the big draw for junip is jose gonzalez's guitarwork, which discredits the rest of the band. but even if not for that it's a huge disappointment that the guitars were so soft in the mix that i had to imagine the chords to 'black refuge' in my head.

finally we heard his strings start to sing for the last few songs, and they closed on a high note with 'without you'.

striking visuals though. courtesy of shu fen's colourful lenses.

well hello 2011, time to get back with the program.

river man

i've become obsessed with this nick drake song. it's when hermann hesse's siddhartha meets robert frost, and in 5/4 time at that. fabulous.

on boxing day i caught the start to the sydney hobart race. undoubtedly, one of the most exciting things i've ever done, chasing wild oats and investec loyal down the coastline in brett's puny boat. buffetted by cross waves, brett had his hands full working the steering wheel and the throttle, while shu fen tried her best to keep brett's camera out of the spray. we simply couldn't keep up with those supermaxis - even in a soft 12 knot breeze. 

later on brett said he had seen us on the evening news. we could be seen from the helicopter's overhead shot, a small grey speck bouncing about in wild oats' wake. 

unbeatable!

i've just finished my 5th aussie nationals, 2nd time in a laser full rig. botany bay provided us with consistently good breezes, around 15 knots almost every day. i have discovered some upwind speed and think i've finally realised my annoying knack of turning my starboard broad reach into a square run and letting boats reach over the top of me. i scored 2 2nds on the 2nd last day by playing some big risks, which is unlike me - going to the left when the fleet is going right and finding a persistent left shift. all in all a good regatta, and now i look forward to getting fitter and heavier over summer in preparation for another year of racing.

the last 2.5 months have been a whirlwind... like spinning plates.