Brisbane...

Yeah, so it's been a while since I posted. It's been an interesting time...

As you all no doubt know we made the move to Brisbane in mid-November. I took some time off knowing I would start my new career on Jan 14, getting out on the bike and doing some gym work. I've attended a CR drinks here, caught up with CR Tuttle (congrat on the marathon PB, champ), Tesso, Clairie and others, got to know a bit about the town and settled in.

I like it here. Brisbane has a good, relaxed friendly vibe about it, something Sydney always seemed to lack. It's more of a Melbourne feel for mine. We're gradually finding the good eating areas - the Emporium complex up the east end of the Valley, and the various spots around West End and Rosalie count as highlights.

Traffic is fine here, if you're avoiding Coronation Drive, the Inner City Bypass (which normally works very well) and Kingsford Smith Drive - the city's big issue is this whole link, it just completely shuts down at the height of the peak. I can't for the life of me work out why you need to drive into town from Coronation Drive to get on to the Riverside Expressway, and cop two sets of lights - surely you should be able to drive straight through once you're past Hale Street. As for Kingsford Smith Drive - numerous traffic lights + high volumes of large trucks = bumper to bumper crawling.

Red light running is a bit of a past-time here, particularly amongst the 4WD set. Trucks are out of control here, it amazes me there aren't more accidents around the suburbs involving trucks - there are plenty on the highways and freeways. People actually behave themselves in the rain here, too, slowing a little and leaving appropriate room, unlike Sydney's descent into Death Race 2000 the moment roads look wet.

We're sniffing around a few areas for a house at the moment, but there isn't much stock around so it's just a matter of being patient. The recent rate rises seem to have taken some of the frenzy out of the market, fortunately.

EliseS continues to commute to Sydney for work but things are looking a bit more hopeful on that front.

The career change has been very interesting. I had four weeks at my employer's training facility in the southern suburbs, which included some classroom based stuff and some practical stuff, including climbing poles, descending into a confined space on the end of a rope and so on. I'm at TAFE at the moment, which is proving....interesting. Let's just say I never thought my home study would seem organised...

On the physical activity front, I've been out on the bike a bit (and managed to join a cycling group within a week of arriving here!), but the big news is I've made a very tentative 'return' to running. The hip has been alternating between okay and a bit ordinary, but had been borderline good last week. I got home from TAFE on Tuesday and for some reason was busting to get out for a jog, and with the hip thing feeling pretty good got out for just under 6k. Managed to back that up with around 8 or so on Thursday, and then just under 12 on Sunday, all along the Coronation Drive bikepath, for a stunning 26km for the week. The 12 seems to be about as far as I can go for the moment, it started to get a bit grindy over the last few km and it was a relief to get it done. No idea of the pace, guessing around 5 min per km. My 205 appears to have died, and frankly at this point it's just nice to be out, so who gives a rat's about the pace?

I'm trying to work in some sessions alternating between running and the bike. We'll see how it goes - I got out for an hour or so on the bike this morning and got drenched for my trouble - getting mighty sick of riding in the rain...