Last Sunday I walked down to my old place to pick up my bike, the only thing left there. I realised when I did that the tires were rather flat. I was also bored. So, I naturally went by and hassled Ashley, Tom & Adam. :D
Ashley had just bought a RC helicopter recently, so I thought he might be playing with that too. As it turns out, he’d gone out earlier and broken it already. D’oh. :)
Everyone I know who’s picked up a RC helicopter has smashed them on their first flight. They’re very tricky to fly, I’m told. I wouldn’t mind having a go with one, although I don’t think I’m that intrigued to fork out the cash to buy my own. (they’re about $150 for the entry level trainers, I understand)
So anyway, Adam had a cool pump that included it’s own pressure gauge, so my bike’s tires are probably now for the first time in their life at roughly the correct pressure. He had also been planning to go for a “hike”, I discovered, and invited me along as well. Sweet – I’d been planning on going for a ride, actually, and was going to invite those guys along on that, anyway.
So, we drove off up into the hills via highway 9, to a place called Castle Rock. Well, the car park, obviously – there we dismounted the ve-hick-ul and started walking.
I was surprised at how nice it was, and how quickly we dropped into good old fashioned bush. It was pretty similar to the sort of places you might go walking for an afternoon in Australia, which surprised me – I hadn’t seen anything like this here before, even in my previous little escapades through the hills. But then, we did head out a fair bit farther than I’ve gone before. I’m hoping to muster up the will to ride out there again sometime, and do a bit of mountain biking along some of the trails – they criss-cross the hills all over the place, and some look like they’d be a bit of fun on a bike.
We didn’t get out there until 2pm or so, but then we didn’t really leave until 6:30 or somesuch, so, we were out for a while. We probably went about 10km, if that – not a particularly long or strenuous walk, although I was thankful for that as it’s been a while, and I’m no fitter than I’d sadly expected.
I took some photos, but the area wasn’t especially photogenic – which isn’t to say it wasn’t very nice, just not in that way – and was more about enjoying the walk than photography. You can view them here, for what they’re worth.
When we returned from that, I quickly rode home, got on the wire to Francisco about the movies – I’d mentioned previously to him that I’d be going to see ‘Next’, so he was in for that. Then I drove back to the new AMC on Wolfe, and met Francisco & Tom there at TGI Fridays. I know, not very original or fancy, but the one in Doncaster shopping centre was pretty reasonable the two times I’ve been there, so I figured it’d be a pretty safe bet.
And it was – the food was good, although we were all running so late – we didn’t start eating until 8:10pm, and the movie started at 8:30pm – so we didn’t have that much time to enjoy it.
As for the movie, Next, I liked it. It was a good mix of real action and light-hearted, over-the-top indulgence. The pseudo-twist at the end also caught me off guard, too, which is exceedingly rare these days, so I appreciated that. Tom was a big fan – he burst out laughing hysterically when Cage threw a nightstick at the dude – but Francisco wasn’t so enthralled. I’m happy to have seen it, though – it was a bit more comfortable for me than ‘300’, which I saw the night before.
