The day before the day before..

Peoplessssss

At Singapore aeroporto. 

Get to Siem Reap mid to late arvo. Fordys birthday today so it would be foolish to completely write off the possibility of a mid strength frothy tonite.

Not sure who is and isn't there yet but will soon find out. Just Whatapped Jonesy who's unofficially the people's champion. Haven't seen him since a lunch in Subi over a year ago but I'm anticipating he's unlikely to have changed all that much.

It's hot as f here in Sing but in the a/c now so I'm having a coffee as likely won't feel like one for a week or more.

Turning our attention to the riding...

Ok - time to head to the gate and intro myself to the pilot

Stay well and talk soon 

We interrupt our normal transmission..

In a massive quinncidence big Kevvy Nugent of Sneans and chocolate flavoured protein powder notoriety has popped up again on fb today in headlines sure to send a ripple through the Perth fashion set. All that less than 24 hours after getting a mention in one of the top 500 blogs about cycling in Cambodia in September.!

That's the K dog third from the left just daring any casual passer by to try and hold eye contact ..

Ride starts in less than a fortnight..

Less than a fortnight and we'll be well underway, exciting...

Just got back from Melbourne a couple of hours ago ( when I first started drafting this post) Harry's got 71 Pokemon (including some recently sourced Victorian Pokemons.)

 Joey (briefly) snared a rare Pokemon for him during the week (clandestine currying favour , favourite parent type activity ) but it escaped..they've just gone out hunting now..in our house it's been quite a good thing as he's not super big on sport so it gets him out and about under the sky which I'm all for..

Generally speaking I don't drink a lot of pop these days but we stayed with a couple of our closest friends over the weekend in Melbourne and in all the excitement we managed to wrestle a couple down. Whilst we're on the subject of frothies ...

Which leads me rather neatly to some world class lyrics..

All lies and jest

Still a man hears what he wants to hear

And disregards the rest

The Boxer , Simon and Garfunkel

Lie la lie

This exchange rate is killing our donation total - it gets expressed in US dollars which heavily reduces it from the Aussie total - still all dollars are great dollars.

Ok, lots still to do gotta go,  keep it real 

Speaking of keeping it real a mate of mine Kev who some of you will remember got absolutely shredded hoovering down that 40 kilo drum of chocolate protein powder a year or two back put me on to the Sneans site on Facebook. Sneakers and jeans combo - some of the funniest stuff I've read in a long time. 

Now I really do have to go..

< 6 weeks to go til start of Cambodia 2016 - v5

I jumped on to Strava yesterday and saw quite a number of regular early morning riders waited until Sunday afternoon to get out for a ride ( myself included), largely no doubt because it was 4 degrees Sunday morning with the "feels like" comparator quoting 2 degrees. 

Ideal preparation for the 40 degrees odd that'll greet us in five weeks or so.

Big Iain Clarke - my brother in law based in Singapore - gets here on Thursday night. He's gone from 98 kegs or so when he started riding to 84.6. Not dissimilar to the tiny baby bird Brendy story of a few years back. Fordys dropped 10 kegs or so as well. Everybody's shedding weight like its a biggest loser show except old unlucky boy Quinny - I was talking to a couple of ladies at KFC I know very well about it and they reckon it's most likely an underactive thyroid...

Right, I've fact checked a couple of things since my last post. The ride actually started in 2012 not 2011 as I blatantly misled you all about in my previous post and it starts on Monday 5th September not the 4th.

More importantly we've raised over A$500,000 across the four (4) rides so far and the Hospital will be operational very late this year.!!

People can donate at;

http://ridefornokortep.com/donation-page.html

Please enter John Quinn as there's 25 riders and we need to get the allocations reconcilable.

You can also follow us on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/RideForNokorTep

Back shortly.

Officially entered for 2016

It's been a long time since I rock and rolled,

It's been a long time, been a long time ..

Led Zeppelin

Right then , where were we?

Registered today and the ride starts around the 4th September 2016. 

Just spoke to Sammy Gobram who's driving the admin this year and he tells me I'm the 18th confirmed rider - but with several more to put pen to paper. 

This ride started in 2011 with three (3) riders. Fordy, Jonesy and Matty T. 

I inserted myself like a tick in a buffalo the following year and all four of us are back again this year as well which is pretty cool.

Speaking of which the Fordy boy was here in WA yesterday and we managed to get to Halo for a couple of cups. He's dropped a few kegs and moving pretty freely it has to be said. 

For long term followers of this blog ( and I acknowledge that's not many of you) Fordy and I are very close to putting the whole Jenny thing behind us. 

After leaving Fordy  I went for my first hills ride in months ( with Ells)  - wow .. and not wow in a good way. 

The blog door is officially now reopened for 2016. 

Anyone still accessing this manually you can just enter your email address under the title at the top of the page and hit submit and you'll get future posts without lifting another finger

A bit more about the ride itself in the next post 

Back in a bit..

Post NZ wrap up

'Sup

Back in Perth - safe and sound.

NZ was fabulous, gorgeous countryside surrounding Napier and we got to know the towns within a 50k or 60k radius pretty well.

As was to be expected we had a fair few hot weak flat whites to accompany our sossy rolls in some great cafes. 

My sister and I shot around the corner to a cafe near my house earlier this morning. Below is a tat a girl in there had - which she kindly gave me permission to reprint here...

" Death before decaf", 

- that's a barista who takes her job reasonably seriously ...

Back to the ride - we collectively raised US $110k. A fantastic effort by all concerned.

 Fordy  raised almost half of that himself which warrants a special mention. He and Subhash did a 214k day on the Thursday which was also pretty large! 

Massive congrats and well done to our fellow guys and girls who did the ride in Cambodia - quite a few of whom for the first time - a real achievement. 

Fordy is going to send me a few thoughts about the Cambodian experience which I'm going to cut and paste. Obviously I'll sabotage it a little if it reads too well coz he doesn't need to over perform here as well surely.

I've previously mentioned the most creative relationship in the history of music - namely Michael Stipe from REM and Natalie Merchant from 10,000 Maniacs - then an incomparable solo career.  I haven't ruled out Whatsapping her for a catch up. 

Every whisper

Of every waking hour

I'm choosing my confessions

Trying to keep an eye on you

Losing my Religion

REM

Back shortly

Day 5 Cambodia in NZ 120k

Last day. First 40k straight into a fierce head wind. Hard work.

My di2 ran out of charge just before we got to our first hill only 11 or 12k in to our ride leaving me in my big chain ring for the remaining 110k or so - but ride virtually flat so all worked out ok.

Iain navigated our routes and did a magnificent job.

Stopped in at the Cllifton cafe again for a brew

Whilst Bully and I were out riding Grizzy went out on a date with Joey. They at least had the decency to take Harry with them. After a few wineries ,cafe's and general romantic scenic spots they pointed the hire car for home but not before coincidentally spying ( and photographing) two weary travellers en route

Riding quite big k's  for five days with my brother in law in NZ wasn't where either of us thought we'd be this week. As a family we were just rapt Iain was here with us. It was also great to continue with our Cambodian cause and adventure albeit in a place 30 degrees cooler. 

Looking fwd to hearing in more detail how the Cambodia ride (the one actually in Cambodia ) went from the guys themselves.

The Clarkes have just headed back to Singapore. Grizzy has just headed back to Perth. Big love to him for making the trek over, a truer and more generous friend you couldn't find to me , Mike and our whole family.

Everyone regrouping then hot pools this arvo

There will be a wrap up blog by close of business Tuesday

😄😄