Busy Day

Today was very busy with the girls first day back at school and media attention hotting up.

Wendy and I went in to Ultimo to do an interview at 2SER with Sarah Hanniffy

After that we headed up to Oxford St and did some intensive postering. Posters are starting to run a bit short, we might have to print more next year.

Wendy at the Tool Shed.

We popped into Wooly's Wheels and ran into Philip Gomes of Spinopsys fame. They already had our poster up in a prominent place so that everyone coming into the store would see it. We spent some time trying to persuade Phil that he should be one of our Silver Marshals and gave him a handful of postcards for him to distribute to especially favoured customers.

Got back home in time to pick up the kids and then fielded calls from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Southern Courier who both wanted pictures for articles they are writing about the ride. I also spent some time trying to organise a BBQ for the morning of the ride so that everyone can have some tucker while they are waiting to head off. I'm trying to persuade the volunteers that we need a vegetarian option. Meanwhile Wendy is still chasing prizes and someone to make coffee. I heard from Red Captain Tania today, she has moved to WA so the Red Captain position is now vacant.

Mekanarky

Today the girls and I went on an epic trip South to Turella to visit the artists at Mekanarky Studios. We rode along the Cooks River bike Path to Edgecliff and then up over the mighty ridge. It was very steep. On the other side we were in uncharted territory and struggled to find a way down through the jungle and cliffs to Wolli Creek. The Wolli was a pretty deep creek so we had to spend more time finding a place to cross it.

It was hot work.

Eventually we found a narrow footbridge that led us into Henderson St in Turella which was full of factory workers lazing in the shade during their lunch break. From there it was only a short ride to the old Ice Cream Factory which has been transformed into a magical creative warren full of sculptures and busy artists (and their dogs).

We met up with Des (Second Marshal and Chief SBAR Fixer) and then discussed plans for our paint enclosure with a lanky fellow named Ran. The designs look great and for the same price as the temporary fence we hired last year we will get a much more attractive enclosure that we can paint with our own designs and keep for future rides. I will probably go down and put a base coat on some time in the next week or two with some cheap blue paint that Des has found. So if you're handy with a roller and would like to give me a hand...

After that Ran showed us around and then we went down to Arncliffe to draw some money as a deposit on the fence. That done we chucked our bikes in Des's trailer and headed over to Adora Chocolate shop where we had some enthusiastic discussions about how we would decorate the new enclosure. After eating lots of chocolates we said goodbye to Des and then rode back along Cooks River, putting up posters wherever Steve had not already hung one.

Paul Johnson dropped in this evening and took more posters and cards to cover some of the Southern suburbs and Reshan called to say he has already used all the ones he picked up on the weekend. Tomorrow I have an interview on 2SER at about 10.05am and then Wendy and I will be going postering up Oxford St to Centennial Park. Come along if you'd like to lend a hand.

SBAR Captains

Dear SBAR Captains,

It's time to get organised. Please contact Headquarters asap!

Julie (Captain of the Greens) and I are going out postering on Thursday and we need some volunteers to help us. Anyone fancy a trip to the Beach?

If you'd like to help write to sbarhq@yahoo.com.au

For event details visit www.sydneybodyartride.org

bike messenger san francisco 1992

Angels with attitude

Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald are the Ditty Bops, a band from Los Angeles that play a blend of jazz, folk and ragtime combined with 1920's theatre. They recently celebrated the launch of their second album with a four month, coast to coast tour of the USA by bicycle. Very cool women and they even ride Surlys! So impressed.

A performance for the sand and sky in the empty Utah desert

Make Love not Traffic!

Portland Bike Kiss In

Newtown

The first posters arrived from the printers today and I rode over to Newtown to put a few up. As usual there were so many cyclists around I couldn't resist snapping a few. If you have anywhere you could display one of our A3 posters please write to me and I'll mail some out to you.

Poster for 2007

Catherine has finished our poster!


Let me know if you can help with distribution.

Chemical Free Swimming

Due to popular demand here is an entry about our chemical free swimming pool.

Instead of pouring chemicals in to poison every living thing, (including the swimmers) we use natural methods to filter and clean the water. As a result we have a beautiful water garden which is an environmental positive instead of a dead body of water that has to be constantly maintained to stop it from coming to life. A natural system provides habitat for frogs, dragonflies and many other creatures (but not Mossies.) Our daughters can observe the life cycles of plants, frogs and insects while being spared the asthma and other side effects of swimming in chlorine.

This method is becoming quite common in Europe but hasn't really taken off yet here in Australia. Of course the swimming pool industry is not very keen on promoting it because they can't make much money out of pools that don't require expensive chemicals and machinery.

The water is completely clear as there is not enough nutrient left in the water for algae to grow.

A small low voltage pump from Creative Pumps runs on less energy than a light bulb and keeps the water circulating 24 hours a day. The water is drawn out of the Southern end of the pool and pumped up into a series of three ponds before returning to the North end of the pool via a waterfall. Normally pool pumps are the biggest energy consuming appliance in houses with a swimming pool so we save a lot of energy as well.

We have a bed of reeds in the main pool as well. The reeds are used by CSIRO to turn sewerage into drinking water so they can easily keep pool water clean. Our reeds and rushes were donated by Australian Wetlands they are planted in beds of Zeolite which was also kindly donated.

Pond number one

Pond number two

Water overflows into second pond

Some new plants acclimatising

The pool fence is covered in flowering vines, this one is a banana passionfruit

The exisiting Monsteria is much happier now that it can dangle it's roots in fresh water

Pond number three

The waterfall at the Northern end of the pool