My last ride in Sydney

On Friday I got up and rode to Office Works in Camperdown. It is easy to get to, all you have to do is go through Sydney University and then get to Ross Street. The Office Works shop is directly opposite the uni. I bought myself a Kodak camera to use the going away party.

I then rode to work and got myself ready for the party and the cleaning out of the locker. I got through the party alright, but found had a bit of difficulty taking all the remaining stuff from my locker. There was a bit of head scratching as I worked out how to put a coffee percolator and the other gear into the pannier and a day pack. I used the you beaut Aussie invention Occy Straps to secure some of the gear in a plastic box to the rear rack. I also had to hang a green bag with stuff in it and a pair of boots from the rack before heading off.

It kind of worked. Some stuff came off before I left and some of the razors, pens, and a shaving brush wound up under a bus. However when I repacked the goods again it all worked. I did get some interesting looks from police who were talking to people on South Street Tempe. I made sure I got home OK.

When I got back home I unpacked some of the gear from the bike into the car. I did another ride back to work to make sure that I had not left anything along the way. The police were still at South Street and I found nothing so I did reasonably well. I got myself home and moved the rest of my stuff into the car.

On Saturday I got up and 5.00am as I usually do on a Saturday for my ride. I had already got the bike and the riding gear ready the night before. I got myself fed and ready and rode out for Saturday Slowies. The day was shaping up to be a find spring day for Sydney.  I got to Mick Mazza’s before any one else had turned up.

I watched as one bunch of riders rode down Marrickville Road. After a while the riders began to turn up. Some of the riders knew that this was to be my last Saturday Slowies ride from a post I put on Sydney Cyclist. At one stage we had about fourteen riders at the start and we were to collect more as we went on.

We headed off and rode up Illawarra road toward town. We turned into Newington Street and had a dream ride up the hill to Enmore. We had a reasonable ride through Enmore and Newtown. We got to Redfern and we had the only fly in the ointment. An idiot in a Four Wheel Drive decided to rev his engine and then over take the bunch over double unbroken lines and then roared along only to be stopped two hundred meters along at the traffic lights.  His petrol and car maintenance not mine.

We rolled through Surrey Hills and into Moore Park. We then rode into Centennial Park where I had a good look around as I rode. I did one regular lap before I did the hills with a lap. I noticed the Triathletes having issues, one of their coaches was screaming at them because of a mistake. It was a good day to be out and about in Sydney. The sun was out, the sky was clear and the traffic was minimalist. 

On one of the hills I got talking to Lindsay as he was doing his preparation for the Mont. I would love to see how he does on the Mont and  I will definately make time to see how they go when the go for that ride in Canberra.

I returned to the group at the traditional time and we headed off back to Marrickville. We had a reasonably good ride back to Marrickville.  It was quite a good ride. I have done the Slowies ride for about 2 years and have found it to be a very good introduction to cycle training.

We got to the Marrickville Road Cafe, where we have coffee at the end of our rides. I got talking to people about their up coming rides. I was sitting near some new riders who asked me if I do the Sunday ride to Waterfall. I had to break it to them that I don’t and won’t be doing that ride.  I got talking to the other regular riders and got the photo taken under the 3 signs. On the forum on the Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club website the Marrickville road Cafe signs has become a celebrity landmark. I hope one day I will see it and the riders I have ridden with again.

It turns out that there will be another Fixie Century ride that will happen on the same day as the Gong Ride. Lindsay has planned that in fine detail. Suzy has been retrenched and is looking for work. I thought she was in a secure job in the HR department of Stockland. It turns out the jobs done by her and an offsider have been combined and offered as a senior managment job. She is now looking atgoing into the public sector.  She cited work – life balance. I promised Lindsay I would try to turn up and catch up with them at the Mont in Canberra.

After we all left for our individual activities, I went home and finished my packing. I took off and went to Deus Ex Machina to do some browsing. I went to Glebe and bought my Fathers day present. I decided to have my last meal in Sydney at a place I like – the Badde Manners Cafe on Glebe Point Road. My last meal in Sydney was a piece of Hungarian Cheese Cake and a skinny latte. I then went back to mum and dad’s place, where I got myself ready for the trip to Canberra.

How do you price your commute?

Budget bicycling gives a ride log which prices each ride at $6.00 the cost of a bus ticket in Canberra (I can’t remember if it is a return ticket). I have wanted to do something similar but the problem is I live close enough to work to make the $21.00 return ($1664.00 yearly) ticket to the International Airport railway station an outragous waste of money.

In previous years I would have been able to drive into the airport carpark and base it on a tank of fuel or something like that. The problem with this is fuel fluctuates and now there is a limit on the number of car places.  On thursday my conunderum was solved. Customs has now adopted a pay for parking policy which will set the price of car parking at Customs House Sydney International Airport.

Starting on the first of April (probably very fitting for anyone who wants to drive to work) parking will cost $4 a day. In October it will rise to $8 – which is the full cost. Some bright sparkes have done their sums and found that this will cost them something over $2000 at year.

This is the equivilant of a reasonably priced road bike and a crumpler messenger bag or a hybrid or  MTB with rack, panniers, lights, cycling gear (including a helmet) and Bicycle NSW membership. Being a doubter I feel that there is not going to be many people taking up cycling.

I gather the meetings where the policy was unveiled were quite Jerry Springer. The presenter from Canberra was not prepared and did not have any answers to questions, and to make things even more problematic the Regional Director said “I worked hard for my position, don’t question me” when asked about if he paid for parking his car in the garrage at Customs House. I related the story to my supervisor who said that the parking spot came with the car which is part of their salary package so if he had his wits about him he could have said yes. Instead from what I have been told the meeting became quite hostile after that. There were some who asked me “What are you going to do when you get artheritis or if you have an accident and cannot make it to the train station” (I felt like saying if that is the case I will be an old man and retired in relation to the artheritis and have enough sick leave owing to cover any accidents) when I mentioned bicycle parking is free

I have mixed feelings about the changes to the carparking arrangments. There are some people who live in the outer suburbs who have next to no public transport and who may be working difficult hours, shift workers for example who will need some form of car parking. On the other hand there are some people who will snub public transport, cycling and or walking because it just does not suit them. They will complain about the policy and there will be some interesting out comes.

I noticed some people looking at changing jobs. They claim that there are other government departments that are not forcing their staff to pay for parking. An example is the co-tennant of Customs House, the Australian Federal Police Protective Service. The AFPPS has said it won’t pass the parking on to it’s people. I doubt if they will continue to absorb the price of parking for too long though.

There are others who will be eying up the parking in the near by Tempe Reserve, this may become timed parking sometime in the near future but we will have to wait and see about that. There is likely to be some grumbling to the union. The CPSU rep told me we weren’t the worst affected, apparently our staff in Brisbane are moving to a building 2 kilometers from the nearest train station and are now copping quite a hammering. The policy is supposed to be a national policy but it is full of holes. For example staff at Customs House will pay for parking but staff working at the international airport proper will not. The staff at Sydney International Airport will continue to received Isolated Establishment Allowance etc which will make them well paid compaired to those at Customs House. However the union has some doubts about what legal standing any challenge to the carparking charges would have as Customs doesn’t have to provide free parking – it just has to provide parking.

The motorcyclists and motorscooter riders will probably continue to find new and interesting ways of getting in and out of the carpark without paying and will probably become a growth group as regards the commuters at Customs House.

I have done my best to promote cycling in the building. It may take off with a bit of luck. I have organised ride to work day and will wait and see how many people turn up to that. I am cautious about biting management for some money to put on a breakfast or get some freebies like water bottles to give away due to the strength of the hostility shown towards the plan but will probably ask management for something next year.

In the mean time I will try to get myself organised for a possible move to Port Botany (management apparently want to put more executive cars in the garrage and are eying up the parking spots occupied by work cars used by my section to do examinations at bonds etc. They are proposing to move us to the CEF this would make life commuting to the CEF difficult for me but you never know. I have heard from various sources that a commute could be possible. The thing is this again puts me in the position of not being able to price the commute accuratly. I am on the redeployment list so I may still find myself working at Customs House although I doubt it seriously.

Should it happen though I would score myself a new bike probably from cell and rig it for commuting/general touring and then start a log book for rides. I would go from the red to break even and then to profit relatively quickly. This will bring out the hard headed economic rationalist in just about everybody. However it will illustrate the value of cycling in an increasingly expensive city.