November, 2004:

According to news reports, a bridge in Indonesia is at risk of collapsing because locals have been treating it as a toilet.

Public works officials have found that the Ampera Bridge, the landmark of Palembang City, the capital of South Sumatra province, has begun to lean on an angle and rocks slightly when traffic is heavy, the Jakarta Post said.



An official at the public works department in Palembang, Azmi Lakoni, was quoted as saying the bridge had deteriorated because people often took a leak on one of its piers, corroding the structure.

“We are concerned that one of its main support piers has been weakened by urine, as it is a popular spot for locals to relieve themselves,” Lakoni said.



There are so many lines you could come up with on this one but I thought I’d leave it alone. It’s amusing enough as it is.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

It’s the archenemy of the cyclist and it lays in wait by the side of the road. No it’s not man’s best friend, the humble pooch, or even the swooping magpie. It’s broken glass.

I don’t understand why people can’t seem to hold onto glass bottles. I don’t understand why they have to drop them on roads. I don’t understand why some people purposely break glass on roads.

Every time I head out on my bike I see more and more shards of glass waiting to gobble up my tyres.

I was out with a bunch of other riders this morning and we had to veer around broken glass so many times it was ridiculous. We arrived at the old Midland track for a bit of sprint training and gave it away as a bad joke after seeing how much glass had been shattered across the surface. We rode off and found somewhere else to train.

I wonder if manufacturers could start adding rubber to glass bottles to help them bounce rather than shatter on roads.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

I got dropped on Saturday.

I had a late night on Friday. I felt really tired when I got up on Saturday morning. I didn’t get a chance to eat anything before heading out on my Saturday ride.

All was going well until we joined the Barrack Street cyclists. Then the fatigue and lack of food kicked in.

I stayed in the bunch quite well until the pace lifted to up around 50 kph and I started to drop back a little. I joined the group again with some frantic pedalling. Then we went up a small rise and I slipped to the back of the group and kept going backwards. To be fair, I was still going around 30 kph uphill. It’s just that the bunch was going faster.

I lost touch with the bunch for a long stretch then caught them again just before reaching the city. Unfortunately the chasing had taken it’s toll and I slipped back again just in time to be caught by a red light.

I arrived at the coffee shop about 2 or 3 minutes after the others so it was no big problem.

So the plan now? An early night this Friday. A good breakfast on Saturday and a much better ride. I’m also hoping to get out for the 6:00am sprint ride tomorrow morning. (Which will mean I’ll be on the bike around 5:40am.)

Posted by Rodney Olsen

Yesterday was a special day in our household. I’ll tell you more about that later but let me say that because it was a special day we had a number of friends and family members joining us for a BBQ at the local recreation centre.

The kids were playing on some playground equipment nearby while were sat and chatted.

Pauline’s mum brought out some cakes that she had made. We were told that there was a surprise inside. We all bit into our cakes to discover small, tasty chocolate treats. But what exactly was the treat? We had a few guesses before we realised that they were small, chocolate covered, turkish delights. Yum.

A short time later, Emily wandered up and said, “I smell turkish delight. Who’s got turkish delight?”

So here we were, tasty the yummy treats and having to guess what we were tasting, while Emily wanders up after our cakes are eaten and smells the turkish delight right away.

Thankfully there was another container of the cakes yet to be opened so Emily got her own cake.

Posted by Rodney Olsen