Best Thanksgiving... EVER!

G'day y'all, I know Thanksgiving has been and gone, but for those of us here down under, we are still buzzing from the excitement of the "best Thanksgiving ever" (I must say that has nothing to do with the fact i have never known when Thanksgiving actually was)! We had a great barbeque during the day, and had a feast including hamburgers, salad, beer, PUMPKIN PIE, and pavlova!

I had never seen Pumpkin Pie before, not even a picture, so i got the recipe off the internet, and got all the ingredients, and made the mixture up. Luckily, we had an American with us, who knew nothing about cooking, so we just followed the directions and hoped for the best. After 40 minutes in the oven, we were still unsure, but after taking it out and letting it cool a bit, we were treated to one of the best desserts i think i have eaten! Ours didn't quite look like the one above, as we used all the whipped cream on the pavlova, but it tasted brilliant! It looked great too!
We decided to give a bit of an Aussie feel to the day, hence the barbeque instead of the turkey with stuffing, and opted for the pavlova as well. It is basically a huge merangue (did i spell that right?), filled with whipped cream, then topped with fruit, although we used chocolate one side, and kiwi fruit the other - to accommodate both types of taste buds.
We had a ripper of a day, and everyone had a great time. We are thinking of making it a weekly tradition, or maybe i just mentioned that on Thursday for fun. Our golf was going to be a weekly tradition too, but we haven't played since our first game!
At the end of the night i dressed up as a cowboy for a minute or two. I had the dry-aza-bone, hat, spurs, and all, but i still didn't look as good as Jim Craig, the Man From Snowy River!

I raced on the weekend down at Glenvale, and feel alright, but i am saving it for the National Criterium Championship this coming weekend in Brisbane. I must add that i outsprinted "the Bus" for my first time ever on Sunday, so i feel fast! I am sure he wasn't trying though!

I was looking at my team mate for next year, Austin King's website, and found this cool link in the comments section, check it out: http://www.glumbert.com/media/carshoot WICKED! We need to do this to all the cars who harrass us while out training!

I am planning on doing an entry about the famous (or some would say infamous) Hell Ride in a few weeks, when i have nothing exciting to write about, and need inspiring. I will try and get a few photos one time while i am doing it, and then it will make the post look cooler. Next week's entry will most likely be about the National Championship crit, where i hopefully win the jersey!

Anyway dudes, stay cool, and i hope y'all enjoyed the Thanksgiving weekend break.

Laters...

Track...

G'day y'all!

The first race we did was a scratch race, and i won - wicked! I think it was my first win since February, of any description (aside from my qualifying heat of the Athens Computrainer actually)! Next up was the keirin (motor paced lead out sprint race), where i made the final.

There are some great people involved who do a great job, I used to love track, and you can see me in the pictures above and below in the yellow helmet and red bike, racing on Melbourne's Vodafone Arena.

So what i had planned for this update was a few photos from the training roads of amazing Melbourne. Pretty much everyone in the cycling world of Melbourne knows the roads from Melbourne to Mordialloc and back, and i think i know every pothole, but one thing i haven't really ever stopped to appreciate is the great views along the way. Before, all you would have read was how great our training location is, and how lucky we are here. Below is the river in Mordialloc (Mordy), full of boats, and i am on a rock groyne with a jetty out the end of it. It has that nice quaint feeling about it, particularly by the river here, and there is a really nice restaurant on the water too, just upstream there!

Looking the other way out to the water you can see the nice long jetty, which is usually full of fishermen. You may be able to see a bit of land off to the left, across the water there? That is Arthur's Seat, which has great views, and a nice 4km climb, with ten switchbacks on it - makes for great training, but i will be avoiding it for a few weeks at least!

Below you can see a jetty off Black Rock (left), the next landmark on the way back from Mordy. Black Rock has a bg round-a-bout with a clock tower, and is the start and finish of the famed Hell Ride (more about that in a later blog). To the right of this picture you can see a ship that has been sunk, deliberately, to help save the Black Rock beach from eroding away with the current of the water. Pretty impressive, and it has become a bit of a landmark and sight seeing attraction - i can explain the reasoning behind the sinking of the ship better, but i wont go into it on the blog!

This next shot is taken from the very expensive suburb of Brighton, looking up toward downtown Melbourne, with the beach boxes of Brighton beach to the right.

Here is a close up of the beach boxes (you may need to enlarge the photo). They are owned by rich people, and are a place where they can keep their beach-going essentials like sunscreen and hats, towels, chairs, sand castle making stuff like shovels and buckets, and some of the fancy ones have barbeques too.

Here is a close up of Melbourne, including the new Eureka Tower in the middle, which has some significance, being the tallest something or other of its type of something. Could be tallest residential building maybe? I must apologise for the smog, but if there was something i could do, i would try and get rid of it!
Tuesday was a proper winter's day, complete with snow on the nearby hills, and hail in our backyard, as well as probably our neighbour's too. It was weird to have one of the coldest November days on record last Tuesday, with a few days of rain, then this week (Tuesday), have the hottest November day since 1916. I can't keep up!
Here's the newly engaged Todd (The Bus) and Nicola, cutting their engagement cake up in Horsham last weekend. Congratulations again guys, and i hope you like getting a mention here! I should also tell you Todd is in the second picture of the update, in the white helmet...

To lighten up the mood, i thought i should spice up the training ride with the boys by rocking up with streamers going on the Ridley! Talk about a trendsetter! How cool are the other things around the stem and top tube - what a princess!

I also need to send out a big birthday wish to the old boy Billy, whose birthday was on Sunday - Happy Birthday!

There is also a great deal of excitement building up in anticipation for Thanksgiving on Thursday! I am so excited! I don't even know what i am getting excited about, but we are going to have a big barbeque, and celebrate anyway. Keally has told me its the best holiday (vacation) of the year, so i hope its all she's cranked it up to be - i just hope that the vibe is going to be here like the Americans get!

Well dudes, i am looking forward to reporting on Thanksgiving in my next update, and i hope y'all are doing well.

Laters dudes...

I Wish I Could Come Up With A Witty Title...

G'day everyone, hope all is well. Firstly i think i need to swallow my own words, because in the last post, i was trying to make everyone in the States jealous of the great weather they were missing out on here in Australia, then the very next day, we had three times as much rain as the entire month of October! I took a few photos around our house, but none of them really show how wet it was. I guess the Melbourne Water people can thank me though, because without me saying we had great weather it may not have rained! Now we are in the middle of winter again, and it has rained for the last three or four days!A new pasttime we have been enjoying is golf. Here, Matty is re-enacting the 30-footer he just sank on the eighth! We had a great day, and hopefully the tradition, which is one game old, will continue, and we can start to get good at it. The Melbourne Cup (Australia's horse race which has a public holiday) was run last Tuesday, and the whole nation gets right into it. We do what is called a "cup sweep" where horses are picked out of a hat for each person, and then the winners get the prizes. There is no skill in it, so i find i have just as much chance of winning in the sweep, as i do if i were to study the horses and choose a winner! My horse (Pop Rock) came second, so i was pretty happy about that! You can see the kids hanging about waiting for Sean (my little bro) to draw out the next horse. Delta Blues edged out Pop Rock for the 2006 Emirates Melbourne Cup, and i think pocketed a cool $2.5-3million in the process - why am i racing bicycles?! I actually had my money on Delta Blues for the big race - everyone in the country pretty much makes a bet of some description on Cup day, so i needed to put some dollars somewhere, which i see as my donation toward the gambling industry for the year. I was on the phone to my mate James, a horse betting expert, and Keally at the same time (very talented!), and asked him who to bet on. He said to bet on the number horse of the day Keally and i met, but there was no horse of that number, so the next option was to ask what Keally's favourite number was - her quick reply was "2", so i put $5 each way on it ($5 for the win, $5 for the place), and whadyaknow, it won! It was very close, but all the same, a win is a win, and it payed me $120 so i was wrapped! Wicked! Thanks Keally!

The races are also known to get people to dress up nice, and for those of you who didn't think i ever looked good, well, i scrub up alright! We went to Oaks Day on Thursday, and it was time to bust out the suit! I pulled out the brown pin-stripes, and apparently won "fashions on the field" for the day! Cookie had everyone convinced i had won a trip to Queensland, and a big blue and gold sash! I reckon everyone we went with won actually, jeez we looked the goods! We even wore the same gear out on the town that night, we just felt so good in it!

Lisa is now eighteen, and can go out to pubs and clubs, and get drunk legally! I was forced to accompany her to her first night out after finishing her exams, so because it was such a big occasion, we grabbed a photo before leaving. Sean wasn't allowed out this time, but it wont be too long before he is out too - about five years! Check out the Spartans hat Bob - Sean is convinced it stands for "Sexy Sean!"The Nankervis kids in a typical family photo, below. Katie (Michael's girl) on the left, Lisa (red hair), Michael (front), Sean (hang loose hand gesture), myself, and Kevin (Michael's mate).
We even had a couple of midgets come around to see us off for the night out!

One thing i missed while in the States was "Bill's Burgers". They are HUGE! This photo does not do it justice, as it had fallen over about three times in the process of organising the photo, so each time it got shorter! It doesn't look all that attractive either, but it does have the lot inside it! I'm talking hamburger, lettuce, cheese, carrot, tomato, beetroot, pineapple, bacon, egg, sauce (ketchup), and on a barbeque toasted bun! It isn't really possible to fit it in the gob, so it ends up being a big salad on the plate, and is so filling i don't really get to finish it. If anyone ever wants to come over for Bill's Burgers, just call or email me, and you are more than welcome anytime - Tuesdays are usually our burger night.

I haven't really given too much details as to what i have been up to, but the good old photos usually tell a better story than i can write, so i hope it achieves what i am aiming for (even though i don't know what that is)!

As for training, its all happening again, and i feel strong, even if every ride is done in the gale force winds! We actually have snow on the nearby hills here in Melbourne, which doesn't happen too often, even in winter! I am going to kit up and head out there and see how good it looks - even if it is cold and wet!

Other good news is i went up to the country town of Horsham (quite possibly Aboriginal meaning for: absolutely middle of nowhere!), to help my good mate Todd, celebrate his engagement to Nicola. It was a good night, and they make a great couple - i will try and get a photo or two to put on my next post of the two of them. Congratulations mate!

If anyone has anything exciting they want me to report on, then just let me know, i am more than keen to write about anything, so just let me know!

Also, the Steelers have finally got a win on the board, getting over the Saints on Sunday. They were not looking good, with 2 wins and 5 losses, but 3 - 5 is almost respectable! (Its funny how i almost sound like i know what is going on!) I have been a Steelers fan since staying with Scott in Altoona, and he kindly got me two Terrible Towels (picture next update), and a T-shirt, so i look the part, and Keally also told me i have to support them. Fair enough, seeing as every American i know is a supporter of the mighty Melbourne Demons!

We are also thinking of celebrating Thanksgiving next Thursday here at my place, in honour of my American friends. We are going to get a ripper turkey going, as well as all the other stuff that goes with it, so if anyone has any nice recipes for us, please email them to me.

Hope all is well, and look out for a new post over the weekend, or by early next week... at least it is my intention!

Laters y'all!

Back into it!

G'day y'all,

I have been enjoying a nice bit of time off the bike these last few weeks, while also enjoying some much needed partying. Most of the time has been spent catching up with friends and family, and the bike has been avoided at all costs!

It has been great doing the things i haven't really been able to do while i have been racing all year, so i just stay up late watching the tele, then sleep in late, and have a lazy day, maybe go for a walk, do some stuff around the house, call the States, maybe do some gardening, or kick the footy, or play golf, maybe drive somewhere, and catch up with some mates. As you can probably tell, things have been pretty much on the boring side, so i had to come up with a few new hobbies...


This is my newest friend, my bonzai tree... Its a Juniper tree, and gives me a good hobby to fill my time. These things actually take a bit of work, hence the mention of gardening helping to fill my day!

I also got a model jet and built it up too. This thing has something like 200 parts to it, so it took ages, and was very tedious! It was actually more like 80 parts, but still, it took some time to do!


My youngest brother Sean has really tidied up his lego since i have been away. Before i left there would be lego (always cowboys and indians) scattered all over our back room, now though, it is confined to a small space near the TV, so it is easier for us to walk in the back room now!


My time off the bike all ended on Tuesday, and while out riding i thought i should take advantage of my newly bought camera and show everyone the great Melbourne Summer that is on the way! We are very lucky here in Melbourne to have such a great location, and while i have never thought to take photos of the scenery before, having this blog, and the opportunity to show everyone back in the States what they are missing out on, was just too good an opportunity to pass up! This is the Kerferd Road pier, in South Melbourne on Port Phillip Bay.


From the same spot but looking North you can see the Spirit of Tasmania, the cruise ship that takes people between Tassie and the mainland (Australia, as we mainlanders refer to it as). The palm trees you can see run for a stretch of about five or six K's along here, so it is really nice.


Some rowers on Albert Park Lake, with the Melbourne skyline as a back drop. Pity about the muggy sky, or polution or whatever - if only i had the camera the day before, it was crystal clear... serioulsy!


Pit Straight of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix. It looks a bit different without the cars and grand stands here, but all the same, somewhat of a Melbourne tourist attraction...


We had a party for a mate on the weekend, and were treated with a surprise visit by The Flash! What an honour it was to see him in real life! Appologies for a generic photo, but showing the real thing would potentially unveil his true identity!


Here is another thing i haven't really thought about or put to much use yet, but all the same, nice to have to be able to fall back on! I got this ages ago, and the oldies were nice enough to have it framed while i was away.

So thats what's been happening in the life of Tommy these last couple of weeks, and now that i am back in training i should have some more good stories and happenings to report on regularly!

I hope everyone is well, and that that those of you back in the States are enjoying the approaching Winter! Just remember there is an open invitation to anyone who wants to come out and stay for a bit, and there are some people who i would really like to come out and stay... you know who you are!

Wicked! Laters y'all!