timtufuga's Journal in February 2007
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The aftermath of the Gold Coast Triathlon 2007. I had a very bad Gold Coast Triathlon preparation the day before the event. I had checked into my Motel, The Sundale Motel on Queen Street, Southport, Gold Coast at around 10 am on Saturday, 2007. It seemed alright except that my room was just adequate but I doubt whether it was worth the cost for one night's accomodation. I was within proximity to the Triathlon venue which was worth the cost of the room. It was yet another bad night's sleep when the blokes from the room second from my room decided to have a binge session and loudly decided to have a loud verbal argument keeping me awake in the wee small hours of the morning. Once again I did not sleep the day before the event. I could hear the traffic on the Marine Parade which was so annoying. The pedestrian beeper at the lights kept awake as well. I had a triathlon the next day and I had to contend with sleep deprivation the night before the event. I was so angry with my final day's prep that I knew that this would have an adverse effect on my performance. True to my dire prediction. As I had lined up to hear the hooter for the start I was somewhat nonchalant when I had made my first few strokes of my freestyle leg of my triathlon event. It seemed surreal as if I were just going through the motions in my head. I was tired even before the start of the triahlon. Near the first bouy marker, fifty metres, due south, I was still trying to get out of first gear and I was unable to engage power drive on my swimleg. I saw people swim around me this time, not over me, I was tired and I was unable to feel the water at all, only after the five hundred metres and just over halfway through the swimleg when I had finally grabbed the water and felt it drive behind me, by this stage most of the lead swimmers in my group were about twenty to thirty metres ahead of me, there were some behind me but I hadn't noticed their presence though, except for the leading swimmers, or the younger blokes from the other category, coming over and easily passing me and heading to the exit sign on the beach. The transition one was smooth and surprisingly less hazzardly as I had thought, due to the rain the night before, the overpass bridge was wet and slippery underfoot. No tumbles this time. I was feeling comfortable and still strangely drained but not exhausted. My swimleg was not fast but it was not hard for me. If I was less tired from blood donation, half a litre of blood to the Red Cross on Tuesday, and a sleepless night in my Motel, I would have swam a whole lot faster. In fact, I would have performed a whole lot better if I was less charitable with my blood donation. T1 was clumsily slow when I was trying to slip into my shoes but had to stop my bike just so I could place my feet firmly onto the pedals. The bikeleg felt strangely arduous and I forgot to downgear to my low gears before mounting my bike. I can't think of everything damn it. Faster transition for the well attuned cyclists zipped past me and easily and smoothly rode over me. I was very slow to get into riding mode. I had been overwhelmed by the under thirties category riders. Once again, I would attribute my lack of energy to my sleep deprivation and blood donation. It was two laps and still I was just engaging first and second gear in my body's power engine. I never went higher than second gear throughout the entire triathlon. It was labourously slow even on my bikeleg which was meant to be my strongest leg. Mind you, when I was about to engage my faster and smoother riding mode the bikeleg was over. Transition two was smooth. My runleg, like my bikeleg, was very ordinary. I was just going through the motions and I was certain that I was not going to shatter any PB at all. I was overtaken during the run by many people even the not so lean triathletes seemed to pass me effortlessly. The reason is obvious by now. Even then my run was labourously slow. I felt the same way when I had first heard the starter's hooter all the way through the runleg and finally awoke when I was fifty metres out from the finishline. I have been used to Ironman triathlons training and I had found this had given me the energy to continue the motions of completing the runleg and even kicking in the last fifty metres of the 5km run. As the only triathlete from Crestmead I had found the local community to be very unsupportive. I had no vehicle and had to pay my way through to the Gold Coast. When I had finished the triathlon I had checked out of my Motel and caught a taxi to the Helensvale Train station and arrived at Loganlea only to find the Taxis unavailable with no phones operational. I had walked four kilometres carrying my backpack and pushing my bike from Loganlea Train station to the Marsden Shops taxi rank. A cab finally arrived and loaded my gears onto the cab for my journey back home. No one knows me in my local community, even though I am the only triathlete here. It does not matter, I will be focusing on the Mooloolaba Triathlon now. The results have been posted on http://www.usmevents.com.au
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Caveat over Ebay purchases. What a sucker I was to purchase clothing over Ebay. I had received my Specialized Cycling Shorts that was advertised as a large sized cycling shorts. It was measured in centimetres instead of inches which was amazing for something that was advertsied as a large sized pair of shorts, when the item in question arrived in the mail, it was only measured unstretched as 23cm, not 23 inches, it was, in fact, 23 cm, or 7 inches, around the waistline. When I had tried to contact the seller to request an exchange for the item the person disappeared and was unreachable. I had complained to Ebay and it is almost impossible to be recompensated for being deceived by a prankster. I could not believe that I was being duped by a prankster. The seller of the item de-registered as soon as he/she had received my paypal payment over the internet and according to the very letter of the advertised item I received a 23cm 'large'sized? pair of cycling shorts. Not even a child could fit into these shorts. When stretched the item would extend to 43cm or 17inches. That is a size of a very slim child. The item was advertised as a large pair of cycling shorts, as it turned out, it was a "large sized" pair of shorts for a midget, or a young child. It is highly unlikely that a child would be able to cycle on a Specialized roadcycling bike which can do speeds in excess of 45kph. I have never seen a woman with a 15inch waistline either. I have lost out in $37 Australian dollars in a prank at my expense. The caveat has been noted. |
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C-17 Globemaster, and the Joint Strike Fighter F35 Right!!!!!
So, I stand corrected about the C-17, Globemaster, and the Joint Strike Fighter F35, but, did I neglect to mention the new US Base being constructed in Geraldton, in Western Australia. Plus, the already in operation squadrons of Tiger II, attack helicopters, that have been commissioned within the Australian Air Force, in 2006? It is much of a muchness when we consider what the correct latest number/titles for the latest thingamagigs within the Australian armed forces. But, the Elint Capabilities, in Australia, via Pine Gap, etc, makes Australia merely an American Satelite State. Big deal!!!! Now for closer to home conflicts. The Samoans, as American proxies, in Australia are acquired targets by many ethnic groups within Australia. More particularly is the tension with the Asianisation problem within the South Pacific spilling over in Australia. Samoa (as proxy Americans) have a problem with Chinatown, including fighting in streetbrawls, in Sydney, eg, the Pritchard stabbing brawl, in Sydney, NSW, which is not new, this is bigger than you would think. This tension seems to seems to rear its bellicose head now and again. What can be considered as something insignificantly small might infact escalate to something very significant. Rompa Stompa meets Samoans from the South Pacific Forum member nations considering the Chinese in the Pacific problem, ie, Honiara, Solomon Islands, and Nukualofa, Tonga. The Samoans, as Americans, in proxy, in Sydney, and elsewhere are acquired targets for other ethnic groups, such as Muslim Arabs; or, the Western Oriental Gentlemen, along the Greek/Italian/Balkan cultural groups; Afro-Americans, and, most notably, yesterday, from the Eastern Orientals, such as the recent racist contacts, in Sydney, NSW, with the Asians versus Samoans. The Samoans, generally speaking, have always relied upon their bigger brothers in America when they are in trouble with race/cultural. geo-political and economic conflicts. The quid pro quo for the Samoans, serve within the US armed forces, within the CIA, as commissioned West Point officers, who have reassured some Samoans of being victimised many international elemeents who consider the Samoan a minor pest in ethnic conflict in a pluralist society such as Australia. Recently, the ethnic conflict have reached the street levels with knife welding Asians, White Skinheads, Black Power Aborigines/Torress Strait Islanders, and Eastern Europeans, chiming in with mainstream white Anglo-Celtic xenophoic Australians. Just to get even the Samoans like to face off on the football field, or in the boxing ring. If not then there are plenty of them in the US armed forces, NZ armed forces, and, even some are in the Australian Armed forces. So Australia is not unlike New Zealand and USA when it comes to ethnic conflicts and it is a timeless and universal phenomena of cultural pride, and to stand your ground in Aussie streets by various competing ethnic groups trying to have share of the power resources in their community. Meanwhile, back to the bigger picture, Sino-American conflicts, in Cold War contacts is continuous. The recollection of the Chinese Embassy accidental bombings, in the former Yugoslavia, after a reprimand from the Chinese led Security Council, for unilateral US actions in Kosovar etc, has been met with this response by US fighter bombers during the late 1990s, the Chinese have never forgotten this 'friendly fire'. The real sleeping Bear is China, of course, and North Korea, is merely the Korean War part two. Perestroika has already infitrated China, the Olympics 2008, is going to insert more glasnost agents, along the Gorbachev mould. The Falung Gong movement will do for now. As for the plight of the very small Samoan whose global population is not even half a million, most of them play netball, rugby union, or rugby league, they can throw a punch in a brawl or in a ring. They are anything as violent as other races, and cultures, I could think of. In a Chinese-Samoan conflict, even in Samoa, Samoans are likened to a pimple in a Chinaman's buttocks.
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bitchy |
What is with all the faux pas hooplah regarding the Hawkish defence of American deployment of troops in Iraq by Australia's Prime Minister John Howard what has this to do with the Obama's election campaign for 'bringing home the troops' slogan? What made, and why has, the Australian Prime Minister decided to declare himself as an anti-Obama right from the outset simply because of his hinting at a 'dove' resolution for the Iraq crises and emulating the Vietnam war era. Perhaps this may have something to do with Australia's carrot-on-a-stick goodies from the present incumbent Republican incumbency which has promised and has delivered to Australia various intel-sharing upgrades, including techno-military hardwhere, weaponry as well as software upgrades, as part of America's most favoured status category for unfettered Australian loyalty to the neo-con's stubborn foreign policy stead, motivated undoubtedly by post Vietnam era Wonks, and military econometrics etc throwbacks, primarily from the Neo-Cons 'Hawks' school of thought. Amongst Australia's little pressies from Big Brother was the largest transport aircraft on the planet, the Galaxy C117, now operational in 2007. But, perhaps the most alluring of mates rates pressies are the 2012 consignment of a couple of squadrons of Strikefighters F22 which are expected to replace the F111 Aardvarks from Amberley, Queensland, and elsewhere, in Australia, Therefore, making Australia's RAAF as one of the most formidable Airforces on the planet and easily elevating Australia to Superpower status in the region. A number of Unmanned drones have also been included in Australia's latest American acquisitions in 2006-7. So watchout Democrats the Neocons have got the Aussies pissing in their pockets for election 2008. Obama is simply the first acquired target by the Neo-Cons puppet from Down Under...Its all the way with GWB... Obama can be certain that Australia will not support his campaign. Except the minorities and anti-Americans from this side of the planet will be kept silent except for blogger such as I no doubt.
Tim Tufuga 12th Feb, 07. |