doubleoh2

i love riding to work because the journey is always such an adventure. like, if u catch the train then it's like, 'ho hum, here I am, on the train, going to work', and if, on the rare occasion, a fellow commuter catches your eye it's like, 'ho-hum, so you're here too, catching the train to work'.

If you're riding, on the other hand, the day just starts opening up to you. Even if you ride the same route every day for a year, you start the day with, 'hmm, looks like it's going to be a great day today, let's see if I can make it to Surry without stopping for a red light and I'll do it if I can get up on the pedals around Erskineville into Wilson without changing down a gear' and if you pass another cyclist it's like, 'hey, how's it going, nice bike, looks like it's going to be a great day today hey, you're on this adventure too, huh?'

Riding home tonight I dropped into House of Fetish and bought my good mate Sasha a birthday present, a pair of tartan bondage shorts with buckles and zips and pockets every where. The sales chick was gorgeous, rings and checkerboard undercut, little white schoolshirt and a little red tie with pink laces in it, like a shoe. She wrapped them beautifully.

Rode up Crown Street past BlankSpace gallery and there was an opening, old skool courier there, George from Avant who rode a mad fixie road bike. So I chucked a u-ey and pulled up and lo and behold there was Scotty from Mail Call, who used to ride a fat aluminium roadie with a sticker on the downtube that read 'Israel is the Fourth Reich' (I never understood the significance...I'm not that politically inclined), Dion from Snap, Pommie Mick and Jason from Mail Call. The exhibition was a couple of girls- Jane and Bee. Jane's a phographer, massive prints of gravel...great textures...and Bee is a painter who did nice ambient narrow works of pastels and light switches and bulbs. Got some snaps myself (see below), had a beer and caught up on the goss from the boyz.

Then an old mate Joe turned up as I was leaving, a big ol' lion-like man who is an electonic artist. He was a big influence on me when I was a younger Surry snapper. He's just opened an exhibition space in Slurry on top of an old warehouse and we got some sushi and beer and went back there. So we discussed what is goin' down and this and that and he played me some beats he was working on and the show he has on there is amazing, evil and holy works on paper of Balinese Mexican Tahitian demons and angels and glyphs and sigils...quite mandalic and eye-opening...

Then I got back on the treadley and headed Newtown to clear, great cruise down King Street, surfing traffic, in tha zone, stopped off at the Union for a longie and headed home.

Said gday to my flatmate who has sunk so far into the couch that only the neck of his beer was sticking out and now I've retreated to the inner sanctum to revel in a great day because that's what happens if you ride to work.