Allan Bontjer blog

General Update.

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 22:56:00

Rachel and I took a trip up to the central coast a few weeks back. Now Rachel would like to buy a house on Dangar Island, just off Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury. The Island has a cute little ferry service and the main Northern Train line is right there. So it's living in Sydney without living in Sydney. Check out some more info on the island here. I've put some of the house photos on a photo website.

Dangar

Sep 6, 2006 - 25 Photos

Of course this means we have to get a mortgage, meaning I'm working again. This time with IDP Education here in Deakin. It's a short term contract and I have no real idea of where I will end up. I do hope to move back to Ausport, but all that is up to the selction process.

Updating from the Dapper Drake.

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:51:00

I've finally got around to updating my Blog. Been busy lately, changing jobs, something I'm regretting now even though I'm thoroughly enjoying the time off to absorb all the wonders of the Football World Cup. I also plan to do the same when the Tour comes up. More so because the Tour motivates me to ride more, so it will be really good to have the days off to ride in the sun (hopefully) Australia's win v Japan brought tears to my eyes. Mostly in memory of Johhny Warren. On the cycling front, well I've not been doing much, choosing to take it easy after a hectic end of season with the nationals and such hard races. But Neil, Tony and I made the trip to Wagga on the weekend to take part in the Wagga Motors Open 120km Handicap and Butch Menz Memorial 70km Handicap. Can't say it was a classic weekend. Tony and I punctured in the rain in the Saturday race and Neil suffered at the back of the block bunch. I rode back all wet and sorry and tried to convince the boys to head off home. My motive was of course the world cup, but It was pretty obvious it was either going to be wet or wild, windy and cold on Sunday. It was wild windy and cold. The good thing for me was that they gave me an easier handicap. I turned out to be one of the strongest in my bunch, quite handy when you're battling head and cross winds. But, the day was to end sadly. A guy crossed wheels in the wind, and fell, yep, right in front of me. I ended up going over the bars, forward rolling ending up in a sitting position with my bike a metre of tow behind. I got up expecting a heap of gravel rash, but all I have in a gash on my face. I reckon I'll end up with a nice sabre type scar. Monday was fantastic with the win in the football, while I've spent a few days with Ian Downing fixing my bike, re-aligning the frame was a nice cool steel frame thing to do.

I've amazed myself

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 16:19:00

by making these pages in the blog look like the google pages, ahh the wonders of cut and paste. Still I'm suprised it works. Chris reckons I may have a future as a programmer, somehow I doubt it. This update also serves as test to make sure I've not broken the whole thing!

Google Pages

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 11:41:00

I've just added to my usage of google, in additional to gmail and google groups and the google personalised hompage I have added googlepages.
Google pages is a free web hosting, no ads and 100 meg of space, more info and sign up here.
Here is my new hompage, I slapped it together in a few hours.

Comeback to Blog

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 16:11:00

I have not written in my Blog for a while, here is my comeback
Lately there has been a hell of a lot of cycle racing going on, of course I've been trying to do it all in the midst of my allergies. Quite difficult. It was this time last year when I feel to pieces during and after the Hartley Challenge. This year, well I've been lots more conservative, taking it quite easy. No Fitz's Epic, no Hartley, no long training rides into the mountain regions to the south of the ACT. Still, I've been quite fatigued and my skin is giving me the shits. But now things are on the up.
Last weekend Neil, Anthony and myself traveled to Wagga for the Tolland Club Criterium and Road race. I was graded in D grade and felt quite optimistic of a result. The course was fast and fun, three sweeping corners and one more technical corner with a wicked camber. The Criterium included a sprint series. My tactic was to lay back and be attentive when the sprinters went, trying to save all my energy for the final dash for the line. At the first sprint, when we were all gasping for air a guy (obviously mis-graded) just rode away from us. I figured if he can do it good luck to him. I tried to bridge the gap and so did a few others more ambitious riders to no avail, he was just too strong. I must admit there was no organised chase, but there never is when there is a bunch of people just sitting on. In the end I came 4th, 3rd in the sprint. I was no fast enough to prevail given there was a three man Wagga lead out.
Anthony rode superbly, getting away to a considerable lead during the race only to be dragged back close to the end. I was quite impressed to see him win the sprint, even though he did admit he got a dream run in second wheel from two corners to go. He was very happy with his sash, cash and bottle of win. Neil's story was a sad story, he brought the wrong shoes. Luckily he ended up borrowing my pedals and Tony's shoes. At least he got a very long race in A grade, but could not fight off the lead out train of a team from Bendigo that rides in races like the Bayside crits in Melbourne.
Saturday saw some more racing. Tony managed to find some old pedals in his boot, so Neil with off and running with borrowed shoes and pedals. The day was hot and dry, with heaps of flies as we started out near the airport. It promised to be flat, were near the airport right? Well, anyhow, 55km in the heat greeted the four grades. Because of greater numbers Neil was pushed from A to B. Tony stayed in C despite being concerned about a re-grading because of his win. I was optimistic about my grade, since I did pretty well in D grade the night before. Well, all I can say is that I dragged my arse over the hills and into the cross/side winds only to puncture after the turn when I thought I was in for a good chance of finishing at the pointy end. But alas, I chased alone, caught one group, but could not get to the next and was not near the leaders at the end.
On Sunday I teamed up with Lee for the annual attempt at the Fitz's. This year I was having a go at the traditional challenge, that is 158km which includes Fitz's but no the harder peaks of Honeysuckle and Corin. Lee has only been back on the bike in a semi-serious way for a few months. In fact he ha joined the ACT Vets Cycling club and has been racing away in g grade quite happily. I thought I would be stuffed from the racing, so a quiet ride and chat with Lee seemed like a good idea. Lee rode strongly from Tharwa to the turn-around a back; he even made it up Fitz's in one hit. I had not managed to do that when I attempted it up there a few weeks back. Lee go hold of a 39x27, but that was not enough. One of my best investments has been a triple on the KHS, 32x26 is small enough for everything apart from maybe Honeysuckle when you're riding like stone. Anyhow, Lee wanted to push on, she we headed off for Cotter and Uriarra. I did not like the amount of traffic on Paddy's River Road, and the flies were giving me the shits. We got the Cotter after a few rests then pushed onto Urirra crossing. I finally convinced Lee to pull the pin here, since it was quite a ride back to Tharwa, but back to Curtin was only an hour or so. Still and hard ride and we ended up with 135km on the computer.

Leaving the ANU

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 10:04:00

Many of you know that I've left the ANU. For the third time, this time after only 4 years. No major life changes this time, no trips to New York or England. I've ended up working for the Australian Sports Commission at the AIS. Still doing the same old stuff, IT, but with more emphasis on networking rather than pc's.
It's quite a good environment to work in, lots of bike riders and bikes in the office and of course athletes all around the place. I get access to the gym and the pool. I've started off with a light sort of weights workout. I keep on meeting people from my time in football around the place.
My ambition is to work part time, that has not come to fruition quite yet. New Contact Details: e-mail: allan.bontjer@gmail.com

Some good news from the ELECTRIC SHADOWS NEWSLETTER

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 15:55:00

From: Andrew Pike
Date: 15-Sep-2005 14:52
Subject: ELECTRIC SHADOWS NEWSLETTER 15/Sep/2005

Dear folks,

SOME VERY GOOD NEWS

Dear all,

Here is a press release we are sending out today. I hope you will be as excited about the news as we are!

---Press Release - For Immediate Circulation--

DENDY CINEMAS AND ELECTRIC SHADOWS CINEMA COMBINE TO CREATE A NEW CINEMA VENUE IN CANBERRA CITY.

Electric Shadows Cinema will be working with the independent cinema group, Dendy Cinemas, to establish a new multi-screen cinema complex in the Section 84 development, on Bunda Street, Canberra City. The cinema complex, expected to open late in 2006, will have 9 screens and will program a wide selection of "alternative" art-house films as well as the best of mainstream releases.Dendy Cinemas operates the prestigious Opera Quays complex and the Dendy Newtown in Sydney, plus cinemas in Brisbane, Byron Bay and central Melbourne. Canberra will be a significant addition to their group.Dendy also has a film distribution arm that has been responsible for many notable releases at Electric Shadows in recent years, including SUPER SIZE ME, THE WEEPING CAMEL, THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, and the French film, LOOK AT ME.Andrew Pike of Electric Shadows says "This is great news for film culture in Canberra. Electric Shadows has had a wonderful relationship with Canberra's audiences for more than 25 years. This new cinema complex will ensure that the city will have a world-class,high quality cinema to continue the tradition into the next generation."The new cinema will marry Dendy's national reach and resources, and their commitment to quality and diverse cinema, to Electric Shadows'rich local tradition. The physical attractions of the new venue will include comfortable seating, a licensed bar, appropriate disabled access, substantial adjacent parking and a sophisticated interior decor.In the meantime, Electric Shadows will continue as usual at its current venue.
---Thank you for your support over the years, and we look forward to providing you with the best of world cinema in the future.---
Andrew Pike
Ronin Films
P.O. Box 1005
Civic Square, A.C.T. 2608
phone 02 6248 0851
fax 02 6249 1640
http://www.electricshadows.com.au/

End of the rest period

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 10:10:00

I've just come off a restful couple of weeks. I even had a weekend when I did not race. I've also been very lucky to have my health hold up nicely, being careful not to go too far into the red in racing or training. I had the pleasure of being the race director for a race of 13 riders and 6 officials. Yep, it rained for the first time in a few months on Saturday.
Well, Rachel is off to a wedding in New York. She will be away for about a month. Her friend Lucia from school in White Plains is getting married to Jason. I'll have plenty of entertainment, with the Football Confederations Cup starting this week and the full and extensive coverage of the tour starting in July.
So now, the build-up towards the championships and the Coota Classic starts. While Rachel is away I plan to have some very big days on the bike, mostly on Sunday. The plan is to get ready for the NSW Masters Road Championships, to be held in Wagga. Terry was also thinking about coming out for some of these epics in his effort to prepare for the Mont 24 hour Race this year, to be held in October. Of course I�ll try to put together a bunch of riders to make these long hauls at least somewhat entertaining, maybe we could try the race pace ride with all the attacks between Breadalbane and Gunning again.

More Photos.

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 14:19:00

Mike Trying Hard during a Vets Race - It is almost impossible to even look like one it taking it easy here, most of the way up the third of the three sisters on the Uriarra Course

Allan trying hard, while trying to look like it's easy. It worked!

Links to Photos.

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 14:19:00

I met Neil and Kate at lunch today. Kate gave me the idea that some photos may be a good idea on the blog. So, I am just trying out some links.
These photos may be useful for people trying to sniff out some race tactics, to see if other people in your race are suffering, taking it easy or pretending to be suffering while soft pedalling.

Mike Carden Trying Hard

Allan and Pete Harding Trying Hard
I'll find some more photos of Mike pretending to suffer, while secretly taking it easy.

General Update.

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 15:05:00

Well, the Gunning Two Day has been and gone. I did OK in the end, not getting popped off the main peleton and sorto trying to get into a break. In the end it did not work, I just did not have the legs at the vital times. I've had a bit of a down period on the bike lately, not feeling so flash. Rachel and I went to the coast over the long weekend, I had a pretty shitty race at the Moruya criterium circuit, but it was good to get away. We had a nice walk around Broulee Island. Also, we stayed in a really nice (but pricey) B+B, the Post and Telegraph on Campbell St, Moruya.
The Anzac Day epic started slowly for me, I was feeling quite tired and lethargic, and my heart rate would not go up, consequently climbing those steep hills was problematic. In the end I was able to get up Mt. Clear at about the same rate as all the other riders.
I'm still working here at NCEPH, ANU. Still playing with Linux a bit, I tried out the new release, Kubuntu. I still have some work to, trying to work out exactly what I did with the su option and passwords.
Neil and I are going to race some of the bigger open races, starting with the Cootamundra Haycaters Classic in a few weeks. It also looks like Lee will be joining the ACT Vets, having a go at racing on his Moulton

I'm a geek now, officially. Maybe not a very bright one.

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 16:14:00

With the Help of Mike and Steve I've installed, and now using linux on my pc. Between them they decided that Ubuntu was a good distribution and it is. I managed to install it quite happiliy, except for the soundcard bit and I don't quite understand the file system and where I can find my two hdd and external usb drive. But other than those minor issues I'm most impressed. I even manged to install a ftp client which I've just used to bring this file to you all.

A little update a little late

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 14:36:00

I've been busy lately lots of travel, but the last couple of weekends we spent all our time in Canberra. Apart from the fact that Rachel organised us to be at 4 parties/bbq's over the weekend. The schedule was tight and Rachel did not make it home Saturday night. She decided to stay over at Kirsten's and I picked her up after my race to head to a wet BBQ at Meegan's house.
Anyhow, big news is that Neil and I are going to ride the Australian Masters Track Championships in late March and then a few days later we will ride the Criterium and Road Race in the Australian Masters Road Championships The consequence is, I have to get fit. We decided to give the NSW Track Championships a miss as Neil is going to a wedding. In any case I was thinking about how difficult speed preparation was going to be for the sprint, 200m TT, 500m TT, 3000m pursuit and 10km scratch race was going to be versus to the endurance aspect of a 50 minute Criterium and 90km road race only a week or so later. So, the problem has been solved by only doing the 10km on the track at Northcote, then heading to Lancefield for the crit and a 90km RR.
Rachel also got a new computer so she can do Indesign here and give a more template driven basis to her designers for Lipmag. I have inherited her old laptop, which used to be my old laptop. The tft display is busted, quite a hassle as I was busy building up her new desktop with my keyboard, mouse and monitor. Mikey is going to help me convert my crappy old desktop to a nice Linux pc shortly, I can't decide exactly what to use, but Mikey is recommending Mandrake 10.1 or Fedora Core or SuSe or Debian Sarge. We shall play with it over the weekend.
Other than that the Gunning Two Day tour is coming up and the hilly and demanding CCC Tour is on one week later. I'm a candidate for another job at the ANU in the digital preservation area, working on a project to do with a digital repository, if I am successful.

Weekend in Sydney

Tue, 18 Jan 2005 16:52:00

Rachel and I spent the weekend in Sydney. Friday night was a good start to the weekend, a pleasant dinner at Vania's new house in O'Connor. It was nice to catch up with Travis, Ben, Kirsten and of course Vania. Both Rachel and Travis still hold their strong and opposite views on most movies, they really need to start the new movie show.
An Saturday morning we left for Sydney. I had used Quickbebs.com to book a room. I choose Bankstown Sports Club as the price was good and they also run the Dunc Grey Velodrome. The Travelodge is in the club and it has free parking. The hotel is also a very short walk from Bankstown station, very handy for trains to the city or Newtown.
Anyhow, we arrived about 2pm only to discover that trains were not running, track work was on that weekend. Rachel was not keen to bus it to Newton so we walked around Bankstown. It's a curious mix or Vietnamese and Lebanese shops, culture and people. In the end we decided to have lunch, Vietnamese was on the menu, which we could not read. Luckily there was an English version once we sat down inside. Rachel did some shopping and I did a bit of walking around.
At 5pm or so we headed off to Dunc Gray Velodrome. I had put an entry in for the Southern Highlands Track Open which was sponsored by Phantom Cycles at Tahmoor
I hate to offend most bike riders by saying that riding a very good and very fast wooden velodrome is the most exciting thing I've done on a bike. I have ridden the boards before, but only stuffing around on a lent bike below the line on the apron in Lanceston. On Saturday I was a bit apprehensive at first, I would not leave the pole line. But as the warm up progressed and I joined a bunch I started going up the track as we passed slower riders and other bunches. One of the hardest things to do is to get out of the saddle up the banking to jump on the bends. I only manged that in the final race of the night. I was there for the experience, but my harsh handicap did not help. I was on 120 metres for the handicap and got c grade open and masters a grade. Sluggo, a local a grader got 140 metres and a d grade open ride. We both rode masters a grade. What can I say, the racing was crazily fast. I manged to hang on till the final lap when the pace went from furious to astronomical. I suspect the pace was in excess of 60kph as I was totally spinning out a gear of 50x14 (96 inches sorto like a 53x15) I did not have sore legs at the time and my lungs were OK at the time, I just could not spin any faster. Later that night when I was tyring to sleep my legs were aching quite a bit.
The next morning we woke to a muggy sort of day, the plan was to head off to Cogee to have a surf and swim. When we got there Rachel just had to have coffee (groan) I suppose that was not the major hassle, parking was. I had never driven there before, always choosing either to catch the bus or ride in. Anyway, we had a good time, the waves were quite big at first, so we retreated to the pools on the south side of the beach. Then we hit the waves again, avoiding all the seaweed. It was great fun. On the way home we stopped at Berrima for lunch and to stock up on some chutney. The drive was pretty boring and tedious, now I have to decide whether the fun of that track is worth the drive. This week we head off to Bright with Steve and an assortment of other people for the Audax Alpine Classic. Just one more aspect of the wonderful world of cycling. I can not wait for the descent down Mt. Buffalo.

Camping down the Coast (Part Two)

Fri, 14 Jan 2005 09:39:00

The highlight of the next day was seeing lots of dolphins playing and surfing the waves. Travis, Rachel, Leiliane and myself decided to take a walk through the quite pleasant National Park towards the surf beach and lagoon. When walking with Rachel I always try to create a loop, so we never have to walk on the same track home. So, we started walking along the beach, playing in the waves. It was quite an isolated beach with no surfers, no swimmers and quite rough sea, the waves were dumping in on a quite steep beach. Then we saw the dolphins, Leiliane was very excited and she ran and ran trying to keep up with their progress along the beach. We left the beach on went back onto the shores of Wallogoot lake, then back to our campground, Vania and Ben had came back from town and the decision was made to have lunch and then head off to the surf beach in Merimbula
The surf was fun, but cold. Rachel managed to get smashed by every wave. Travis was giving lessons and body boarding, he was quite good. It was later revealed that he has spent quite a bit of time at the beach is his home town of Adelaide. We left the beach in late afternoon and no coffee had been consumed all day, so we stopped at the pizza place in town and had a few cups.
The highlight of the night was a huge rainstorm, I feared the worst after that rain and hail on the way down. Rachel and I did get some minor waterworks in the tent, but nothing major.

Been Slack

Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:32:00

I've been a bit slack with the blog. My PC has started to make a horrible noise - the source is the fan. I was going to build a linux OS up on this box, but I can't decide now. Rachel is making noises about buying a new computer, she wants the whole Adobe Design stuff on her computer to make the Lig Magazine process lots easier. I'll probably get back my old laptop, even though the TFT does not work anymore. Better than all the noise coming out from under the desk right now.
In the meantime I've ridden the Goulburn Track Power and Rachel and I are off to Sydney on the weekend, I'm riding Dunc Gray Velodrome for the first time in the Southern Highlands Track Open.
We shall stay in Sydney for the extra day on Sunday. The Audax Alpine Classic is looming, I've not really got enough miles in my legs, but I don't seem to most years, except the year of the fires when it was called off anyhow.

Camping down the Coast (Part One)

Sat, 01 Jan 2005 10:49:00

Vania, Ben, Travis, Leiliane, Rachel and I camped down the coast over Christmas. We stayed at Hobart Beach on Wallagoot Lake in Bournda National Park. The park is sorta half way between Merimbula and Tathra on the Sapphire Coast. Quite a wonderful place.
For more info see NPSW Merimbula Office or call them on (02) 6495 5001
Rachel left with Travis, Ben and Vania on Wednesday. I had to work through till Friday lunchtime. I picked up Leiliane at noon on drove off towards Cooma. It was very sunny and bright as we arrived, then a huge thunderstorm came through as I munched my kebab. There was little to indicate a huge storm would hit us as we drove down towards Brown Mountain, first there was rain, then really heavy rain, lightning and thunder. Then the hail started, little stones. I decided to take refuge under some trees at a roadside rest area and as I was parking under a huge gum huge hailstones started to fall, some the size of baseballs. When the 10 or so minutes of hail had finished I had been joined by four-five other cars in the rest area. Most people were sensible enough to pull over, as visibility was virtually non-existent. When it was all done, the card was damaged, two circles on my windscreen where hail had hit and numerous other little dents on the roof. So, we dove on, taking it easy as the rain was still coming down very hard. A few more hailstones and another quick stop under some trees left us a bit behind schedule.
We got into Tathra about five, I rang Rachel on her mobile, no answer, I did not expect to get any coverage. So, we followed the directions set out for us, only to end up on the wrong side of the lake. But Leiliane go to see hundreds of roos, she was very excited. I was happy to see to occasional smaller wallaby. We got to the campsite a bit late; the campers had already set up the tents from the night before. The big debate was over the weather and if they should stay in or go out on the town to get Thai food. Travis insisted on having a shower before he went out, but by the time he got back food was already on the BBQ. In the end it did not rain that night.

I've been sick

Tue, 07 Dec 2004 22:09:00

Yep, I've been sick. Allergy season has hit back on my body, mostly my skin. I did not mange to get to the race on the weekend. I was late, raced behind crash in c grade. Crash was racing well. All the A and B grade guys said the race was really good, pity to miss it. My skin was crawling afterwards, sweat and sensitive skin to not go well together. I was itching like crazy at the caf� in Kingo. I�m vaguely back on my feet after a few days off work and a dose of "telfast". The anti-histamine is supposedly non-drowsy. Non drowsy, no way - I've been sleeping 12-14 hours at a time, then feeling like a nap half way through the arvo.

Invites to G-Mail

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 15:15:00

I still have 4 more invites to Google's G-Mail If you want a brand new e-mail account with 1000mb of storage send me an email at allan.bontjer@gmail.com

Crash Comments - Da Blog

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 15:10:00

Crash: Nice work on the blog. Not sure about the Hanley-esque colour scheme though.What's this about the All You Can Eat Vets licence? Pay for ten races and get the rest free?
Allan: I already had the blue on some of my other pages.
As for the Vets, yes excellent value especially if one factors in $20 for the Guning Two Day Tour. Print out the new membership form, it has all the details. I sent my 2005 membership in today.

It's all about the bike

Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:54:00

Well, today it is. This is my first entry, reflecting on the crit last night in Kingston. It was good to see Crash hold his own in a huge C grade bunch as one of my team mates Ricco came in second behind the steam train like Bill. Photos can be found on Nick Payne's site He also has a bunch of other photos of ACT Bike racing I had a nasty moment in the final turn of the final lap of my race. Clipped a pedal and did a shoulder to shoulder rub with John Thorn to stay upright. Lucky John did not panic or I could have been writing all this with less skin than yesterday. Many moments of forgetfulness on the fixed wheel this winter helped in regard to my pedal incident. Handling the bike was similar.Canberra Cycling Club results can be found here.
Much Thanks must go to Steve Hanley who set all this up for me on the domain svana.org

I'm getting into this blog thing

Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:18:00

Well, Steve got the calender working. He also gave me some hints and tips on the world of blogs. I'm also doing my html in a basic text editor rather than using nancy boy frontpage. Today I'm busy at work moving a bunch of servers around and then a divisional meeting in the arvo. Not too much time for blogging.