Public Service Announcement

On behalf of my fellow Aussie LotR fans and myself, can I just remind everyone that we don't get Return of the King until Dec 26? And whilst I understand the almost overwhelming urge to squeal at a pitch and volume that will disrupt the radar of both bats and dolphins, can I ask that such squealings be LJ cut? Especially if they go into details?

Not that I'm worried about spoilers, having read the book every year for the twenty years, but you really don't want to hear about the court clerk driven to declaring herself the Dark Lord of Melbourne and shaking down short people demanding the return of her Ring, dammit.

The Way of The Bicycle

I've decided that being a cyclist is like being in a religion.

No, seriously, go with me here. There's rituals: the symbolic Cleaning of the Gunk Out Of The Chain (which invariably produces rain the next time you take the bike out); the Patting of the Seat And Telling Your Bike To Stay When You Park It (works, every time *grins*); The Gesturing At The Moronic Driver.

There's funny outfits, and your level of devotion to your religion is indicated by how much of the silly clothing you wear: those who are merely dabblers wear street clothes, and at the other end of the scale is the full-on Lycra-clad priests and priestesses (the easy way to tell if someone's just a wanna-be? See if they're wearing sneakers with a Le Tour jersey - cycling shoes should always come before the $180 cycling shirt, since they actually help your performance and the jersey won't).

There's the persecution associated with pretty much every religion: we are mocked and people try to run us over in their cars. And you get people trying to convert you back to car use.

There's the liturgies in an incomprehensible language, the invoking of cogs and clusters and derailleurs and jockey wheels and seat posts and goose necks.

There's even the splintering into various sects - road racing vs mountain biking vs touring vs triathlon (the heretics). Those who compete and those who commute and those who drag their bikes out of rusty neglect whenever there's more than three days in a row about 25 degrees Celsius. And there's always a new variation - look at mountain biking, where you have downhill, cross country and urban-type MTB-ing.

And yes, we do evangelise. I've successfully converted various friends and work colleagues, [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] being the most recent initiate. And worship is easy - you get on the bike and you ride.

So yeah, next time there's a cencus, I'm putting "Cyclist" in the religion category. :) Hmm, you know, if I get bored enough today, I'm going to be writing a whole "Ten Commandments" type list for this idea...

Note: Why, yes, I have been having some really wonderful cycle trips lately - what makes you ask?

Dilemma!

Man, does life like to confuse the hell out of me sometimes.

I put in an application for the one bedroom place I saw on the weekend, not really expecting to get it, basically covering myself after the mega-long effort it took last time to find a place. [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] is still looking for a job, and in fact we have another application for a two bedroom place to put in today.

They just bloody called and offered me the one bedroom place.

Now I don't know what to do. They weren't supposed to offer me the place, I was fully expecting a "sorry, but it's gone to someone else", like I got last year about ten times.

Hmm, I'm going to have to talk to Bounce about this over lunch. :P

Any suggestions on what I should do? I'm not 100% happy about this place, but it's in a wonderful location and it's nice and secure and has a heater and a garden outside my lounge window. I wont' be able to have a washing machine, but there's a laundromat rather close by, and whilst it had an electric stove (yuck!) it does have gas hot water. And I have to admit, having a decision made and not having to worry about where I'm going to be after I get back from Canada would be an enormous relief.

*wibbles*

Help?