Filling in the final 60 minutes aka watch out Sicily here I come!

I'm glad I'm travelling from winter to summer, I mean how else could I justify fronting up at the luggage weighing/ticket person's desk wearing 5 layers if I was travelling in February?  At least travelling in May I can have a hope of justifying waddling up to the counter sweating profusely from wearing far too many clothes?  We all know why I'm doing it, but at least its not 40 degrees C outside.   I'm exaggerating a bit, but I'm never one to let the truth get in the way of a good story/visual image.

FYI  my bike box weighs in at just over 15kg, my checked in baggage is just under 6kg, carry on backpack 7kg exactly, I also have musette with a "reasonable amount of reading matter" and lap top, and finally a bum bag stuffed with precious goodies..garmin, phones, money, passport, ticket.  I don't expect to have to pay for the 1kg over on the long haul but might get stung from Rome to Palermo.

So here's the itinerary for the more sedate first few days of my holiday..

May 8th fly to Palermo via Singapore and Rome

May 9th meet up with my sister, she's coming from London.  Stay at Cinisi near the airport,

May 10th hire car drive post haste to Nicolosi stay  that night and the 11th ( visit Mount Etna and Taormina), 

May 12th drive to Siracusa 

May 13th drive to Agrigento via Ragusa

May 14th drive to Palermo via Trapani (farewell sister..she flies home to UK from Trapani), return the car and meet up with cycling group.
May 15th let the sufferfest begin.

Packing....an info page for travelling cyclists

After trialling a couple of options, the Qantas box got the nod and since it's far too big, I chopped it to a size that was better for my bike. The original dimensions were 1400 x800 x300; now its 1400 x 800 x 255.  I chopped it into 2 pieces by cutting down diagonally opposite corners..actually one corner was a "peel" as there was an overlap ( I kept the overlap intact and any damage  was to the short end which would be cut off anyway)

the other cut was just a slice down at the corner. Then I cut  450mm off each short side and  taped it up again using cloth tape.  With the new dimensions, my bike fits in just like a glove in total there are ~9 points of contact to stabilise the bike in the box although this may work against me if anything bangs down hard where  the bars  are.

• The front wheel comes off and a spacer placed in the forks to stop them being bounced and to prevent damage to the box..  
• The head stem loosened, bars repositioned to fit snugly and fixed in place. 
• The pedals are off and the cranks positioned and tied in place.
• The chain is on big  ring and zip tied into place complete with foam under it to spread the pressure on the cardboard. 
• The wheel is covered with something to protect it (I used a bubble wrap bag ) and a stopper is put into each skewer hole. In the end I put the wheel on the non drive side not as in the pix.  And I had the chain mid way on the cogs at the back.  Actually I really wanted it on the biggest cog, but with it also on the 53 chain ring....nah! too long a time for big and big chain stretch.
• The saddle is dropped to be just touching the lid when its closed.  

                                                       
Generally speaking I'm into overkill and tend to pad the bike out rather more than is necessary but  have never had any damage to any of my bikes on the many trips I've had over the years.The white tubes from a bike shop are lighter than  pipe lagging.  The camelback is to prevent spot pressure at the front, the crank is pointing forward to allow as much room as possible for the wheel.

I was happy that it was secure. The gaps on top were filled with bubble wrap

I have a major issue with regard to moving it around.  The hand holds are ok if you're 2 metres tall with an appropriately wide arm span and have no other luggage  but at 162cm (well ok 160cm) I haven't a hope. I change planes at Rome, having to  retrieve my luggage and book it onto the flight to Palermo and who knows whether there'll be trolleys at either of those airports..I've been caught that way before (Moscow airport springs to mind, no trolleys staff with a "you want a what....? attitude). Off to my  local  Pack and Send  I went where Herb put on some  polypropylene straps so at least I'll have something to grab onto ($20) and weighed it for me...15kg. 

It's now in my car and will stay there til I go to the airport...and yes that is sunshine!

The cats know something is up and are following me around generally getting in the way...

 Pippi  guarding my carry on luggage.

  Flea  giving my bag the evil eye

Checkout this cool website

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
- Leonardo da Vinci

I'm fairly certain Leonardo never experienced cattle class(!) but....... 

The link on the title is a groovy website but uses up rather a lot of bandwidth..my poor computer nearly blew a gasket.  However, in these rather uncertain ash cloud affected days it shows whether or not airspace is open and the answer is currently "yes"!

Ash prediction for May 5th

these are the predictions for 5th May at midnight GMT/UCT  (also known as z or Zulu time) and every 6 hours thereafter.  It looks like I might be able to  breathe easy but my sister who lives in London and  who's joining me for a 4 day jaunt around Sicily before the cycle tour starts may be holding her breath.  Airspace in the far north of Scotland is once again closed.

The entire situation has a certain ironic ring to it, since  one of the things I've been looking forward to seeing in Sicily is Etna and then  a few days later  Pompeii with its history of being wiped out by Vesuvius

Oh no! not again....

Apparently Irish airspace is ash contaminated again....aaaargh.....

So what I'm asking for during the next 3 days  is a concerted effort of expiration  northwards please to blow the ash right back to Iceland

after me now......
turn south, breathe in 
turn to face north, breathe out very hard
and again and again and again...etc etc


Thank you!

Falls prevention and pets

I might be on "pre-disengagement" leave (see side bar) but I'm still a Physio and still engaged with aged care concepts as they apply to my previous patients and also (perhaps) increasingly to myself .  So I was interested , as the slave of 2 cats  to read an article on the Perils of Pet Ownership in the Age today.

My two owners are Flea... please note a) the WTF look and  b) the cushion, an Xmas present to me but  immediately commandeered by him

and Pippi

The on line version of the article omits the bit I wanted to refer to so I sourced it here  and the case I especially relate to in view of my many, many rat stories is the poor woman  who ended up with a fractured pelvis running (and falling) out the front door as her cat brought a live snake in through the side door.  Below is what the two cats would like to bring in through our side door, only I've now got into the habit of locking the cat door overnight.

Pippi's offering.. she's been carting Ernie around for a couple of years now

and Flea's....yeetch

...I cleaned the  back doorstep after taking the pix(!)..could have photo-shopped the dirt away..but hey!

GPS learning curve

this was the plan as seen on Garmin’s Base Map program, usable off line, which I uploaded to my Edge 705 where I have a more detailed map on a micro chip thing.  

Unlike previous test rides, when I sprayed the ride copiously with mega amounts of “waypoints”…the blue flags, this time I tried bare bones.   Why? ‘cos every time you get close to where a flag is, the thing bips and an instruction comes up on the screen = distracting and irritating especially when the instruction is go straight on.

BUT..I stuffed it twice..once by not putting a waypoint at the southernmost end of Springvale Road and so got mega beeps from Centre Road on trying to get me to turn right and then by not realising I’d tracked myself along the Nepean Hwy from Mordy  and so was urged to “Do a U turn when possible!” almost all the way to Black Rock. 

I reckon its tiny brain was fried by the time I stopped, which was in the city…a head wind from Mordy to Docklands = forget the planned Donna Buang ride…one struggle fest a weekend is plenty. 

I’ve ditched the top tube panniers ...drove me nuts every time I stood up getting in the way of my knees.