Great Vic... A bike ride. Part 1.

The Great Victorian Bike Ride:

Commences Albury, Victoria 29th November 2014.

I am booked to go!

I have a bike...

The bike I'll take to Melbourne, which I hope will be my transport on the Great Victorian Bike Ride

 

I haven’t been devoting much thought to it, or done any training or anything but it’s just occurred to me that in one week from today I’ll be headed to Melbourne to take part in The Great Victorian Bike Ride!  I’ve been receiving reminders and updates from the very organized ‘Bicycle Network’ but to be honest I’ve found it all a bit convoluted and, well, organized for my liking. However the fact remains that there are only 11 days until the big ride and I do intend to participate, so maybe now is the time to start thinking about it.

How surreal it is! This social bike ride is something I had wanted to do for years when I was younger but somehow my life took a turn in other directions and I found myself at motorbike rallies and falling asleep on bar stools instead…

Now, at the tender age of 45 and living at the other end of the continent (Island… whatever!), circumstances, finances and spousal consent have come into alignment and it is possible I may actually get to do this.

 A plan has emerged and my tickets are booked. After 30 years of thinking about it, I’m finally about to go and take part in this ridiculous journey. This self-confessed misanthrope, will join the travelling circus of social butterflies, lycra clad grandpas, cycle chic wannabes, excitable school kids, hormonal teens, trendy looking fitness freaks who don’t sweat and heaven knows who else this ride might attract. I’m imagining a disorganized throng being herded like sheep into conforming lines at amenities by perky marshals with whistles and wearing fluoro green vests. Grumpy tired riders fighting for a camp site and lining up for cold meals or standing in muddy paddocks waiting to use the amenities…. Maybe there will be sleet…? Possibly hail and wind. (They have those down in Victoria!)

What have I gone and signed up for?! God knows why I’m doing this but, next week there will be a gathering of 1,000s of cyclists, pedalling across the Victorian High Country and it’s looking very much like I will be amongst them.

I think I’ll post some of my preps, itinerary and details of my kit on here just for fun and if I get a chance I’ll do an update or at least some photos of the ride or something like that.  

Scapecard

Escape...Card... 

It was my birthday recently and Sam gave me this fantastic card. I love it and I have to share it!


 

This is by far the best 'thing' I've been given for ages! It's like a fusion of stuff that I really get a kick out of!

• Hand made paper
• Bicycle theme
• Recycled materials
• Fair trade

When I opened my card I was besotted with it! The texture of the paper, the delightful image of a couple of figures riding on a tandem bicycle, copper wire (I don't know why I just like copper... it's a beautiful metal)

Stuff like this just sends me off into some kind of romantic ecstasy! Why? I dunno. I guess I suffer from a kind of phobia of being surrounded by 'Fake plastic trees'! (like in the Radio Head song)

If you've seen the film Soilent Green and you remember the scene where  detective Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) tastes  a tea spoon of 'real' strawberry jam then you can imagine the experience.

Handmade paper - When I worked at the University Library I often felt like I was wasting away, stuck inside, ordering stock, doing library stuff which I'd half trained for but was never really interested in. It got pretty tedious! But once a quarter, I think, a copy of the Hand Papermaking journal would  arrive. It had fascinating stories from around the world about people who make paper. It's an art! The thing I liked best though was that the journal always came with samples of the paper. They were all unique. All had different qualities, some made from rice husks, some from elephant poo, seriously you can make paper from all kinds of plant fibre and the results can be awesome! I would really like to make my own paper. I've had a few goes at it with mediocre results but one day I will have the time and I will learn.

Bicycles - No need to explain this one! The other gifts I got for my birthday were a copy of the Save the Children book titled The Bicycle and a Bike Side T-Shirt from New Internationalis magazine... Here's a quote from the book:

One of the most important days of my life was when I learned to ride a bicycle   - Michael Palin

 Recycled materials -  This is just one of those things that I've grown up with. I don't know how but it goes beyond not wanting to waste anything. I actually get a kick out of reusing or recycling stuff. I love to see things turned from scrap into something useful and if I can do it myself I feel like the king of the world. Some possible reasons for this obsession might be:

• Watching the 'Wombles' on TV as a kid
• Wearing mostly hand-me-down clothes for most of my youth. Most of my jeans had been patched so many times the legs were too stiff to bend properly.
• Not having a bunch of money to by new things whenever I want them
• Being a little treasure hunter who'd rather find what I need than buy it
• Being too tight to actually buy new stuff even if I had the money

Fair Trade - Because I hate bullies and greedy bastards. And I foolishly grew up believing that as an Ausie it was my duty to demand that everyone should get a fair go... I think that little myth was a bit like Australia's National Anthem... If you look more deeply into it you'll discover that it wasn't meant to apply to everyone.     ;) Check it out!

Anyway back to the card. It was produced by a group called Kick Trading from Kenya and she ordered it from the New Internationalist Magazine HERE.

I have always hated greetings cards. They seem to be a huge waste of money, but according to cultural protocol a necessary purchase if you want to keep your friends and relatives happy, well at least my mum is always happy if I can say "Yes I bought them a card!". These cards cost not much more than your average piece of cliche junk from the newsagent. I might even willingly buy a batch.

A concept takes flight

More about the aircraft salvage operation.

A few weeks ago a mate of mine told me about a plan that another fella I know had to salvage some aircraft parts. Well the operation didn't quite work out and they were beginning to wonder if they'd be able to find what they were looking for.
Remarkably, coincidentally... whatever you want to call it, I happened to have something pretty close to what they wanted so the project was able to continue.

So without giving too much away I thought I'd post some more photos of the progress that has been made over the past couple of weeks. Conversion from trash into functional artistic creations of  beauty!


(Building an undercarriage of individually curved wooden frame for wings)



(Cleaning and painting tail)



(Fitting hand crafted woodwork to aluminium flight gear)

There is a deadline for this project so I imagine I'll be posting about it's completion soon. It's looking fantastic so far.

Flestering for a saner world!

Have you ever heard of 'Flestering'?
I don't think I had until my wife thought to point it out to me recently. She knows I like doing stuff with junk and when she discovered the word and art of Flestering she had to tell me all about it!

I couldn't find the word in the dictionary so looked it up online and discovered only a few references to it but what I found, I liked!

Here is a definition of flestering according to this site: (Go and read some of their theory, I think it's pretty cool)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09004/939328-109.stm

"Flester (fles-ter), n.,flesta, -am; v.,flesto, -are, avi, -um.

Attributed to Uncle Flester, presumed timeless and ubiquitous.

1. n. Defunct, discarded, things; immediately redeemable. In the post-industrial age, fragments of formerly functional contrivances.

2. n. Any "thing" in so far as one ascribes a presumptive integrity to it, often the result of a visual prejudice.

3. v. The act of flestering, i.e. making proliferative and promiscuous use of what is at hand, closely related to the practice of Bricolage (See French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss: "The Savage Mind.")"

If you've ever seen the film 'The Gleaners and I' you might remember seeing some of the fascinating people in the film who collected junk from the street and turned it into something... artfully transforming trash into objects of curiosity and sometimes beauty. The creators of the River Cube project call this kind of transformation of discarded material Artful Trash Management (ATM) and also use the term Flestering to describe the process. I like it.

There's a satisfying feeling you can get when salvaging stuff, junk, and turning it into something useful. Whether it is intended as art or not, many things transformed in this way appear to take on a magical new quality and an odd beauty! I remember the farm gates on properties back home were often made from recycled beds or other iron, which had been welded and cut to fit. The latches too were crafted from recycled iron.

Darwin has it's own examples of Flestering, some of it I have found to be absolutely inspiring! I can't help being drawn to anything created in this way, it just sucks me in!

Here's a couple of local examples of Flestering that I reckon are pretty cool.

Creative Image Gallery Tin Shed Gallery
I don't think they're showing anything at the moment but you can check out Pedro's handy work at Casuarina Square, you sit on it! (Erratum - the link is to Tin Shed Gallery but the place I'm referring to is actually the Creative Image Gallery... Oooops!)


Darwin Fridge Festival

The event came into being last year. It is produced by Darwin Community Arts. Last year it was a basic exhibition of art done on, in and with discarded fridges (from the tip I expect), In one year it has grown enormously and now includes poetry and performance art! I believe there's still time to get your entries in.

The opening of the 2011 Fridge Festival was held last night at the Darwin Aviation Institute. An awesome open air venue, that absolutely reeks of Old Darwin Town! If you weren't there you have seriously missed out on something special! No dress code, free mangoes and plenty of room for the kids to run around!

If you're into a seat of your pants Adventure Flester check out Monsoon Dervish! If you scroll down you can see the awesome recumbent bike that local adventurer (not sure he'd like to be called that) Kris Larsen has created and ridden where most people fear to drive! If you're curious about his yacht or bike and would like to know how they came into being, with a capital 'B' I recommend reading his books.

As for me I've only tinkered with small stuff, re-using things that have been discarded, and mostly things I find on the side of the road while riding to work. (you'd be surprised how much treasure falls through the cracks in a wealthy society!) There is one project I am following with keen interest though. I managed to rescue some old aircraft bits before they were tossed out for scrap metal and they are now being transformed by a wizard of recycling and his conspirator. I'll try to post a progress report soon.