Those two walked up to my house today and spent some 10 minutes checking out my back yard. Wookiepedia tells me they're Pacific Black Ducks. They weren't shy at all, checked me out at a distance of about one meter and then mostly disregarded me as I didn't offer them anything snack-like.

Apropos black, here's a fashion statement - az style:

comfy, good grip, perfectly adequate and cheap: pick all four. (Oh, and 'comes in black': pick all five!) Dunlop Volleys cost $22, Converse about $70. I like both.

Not a fashion statement at all:

That's me walking home from work, a few months ago. Since then I've been cycling quite a bit and today I'm finally back at my preferred weight (84kg): it works like this.

My fat burner:

In April I bought this slightly older bike, which the previous owner had upgraded to a fairly decent standard. Me being me (remember: perfectionist), all the rattly imperfect bits have been fixed up by now: clipless pedals, a better front derailer, a new chain with a reusable/easy-open link, better brakepads, better tyres, red led flasher and assorted strips of retro-reflective tape all over the place.

I'm very pleased with how it rides now, especially after today's chain and derailer replacement: the old derailer was badly bent and sloppy in the joints, and adjusting it for zero noise across all the gear range was close to impossible. So I bought a new-old-stock Deore XT derailer for very little money. When unmounting the the old one I couldn't drill out the rivet that holds the cage together (which wraps around the chain), so I had to go to the cycle shop for a chain breaker tool - and decided to replace the very ordinary dirty old chain, too.

The Miami/Burleigh store of Goldcross Cycles is just across the park, and I'm happy to recommend them: pricing is quite ok in general, and while they didn't have in stock the cheaper chain I was originally after, they took $13 off the price of the stocked better model. That brought the price pretty much down to what the other chain would have cost, and that's without me even say a word...

Downside of the bike being very quiet, whirring along the paths: I scare more pedestrians when passing and need to use the bell more.