jayneandmarty.com

My old friend Saul is cycling the Tour de France route for the next few months and he’s keeping a journal of his adventure. Follow his trip at http://saulfollett.wordpress.com/.

Just back from a weekend in Melbourne celebrating the wedding of our friends Jeremy and Gita. On Saturday we enjoyed the lovely simple ceremony and low-key party with around 50 guests at The Commune in East Melbourne, today we had morning coffee with John, Bec and baby Isaac, and then drove to Ikea in Richmond for the afternoon. (And it really was for the entire afternoon. But it was OK. We bought some stuff.)

Jed and Gita have been engaged for around three years, so there were plenty of jokes in the speeches around it being about time they finally tied the knot. Sadly it was also a farewell party - they’re off to Indonesia next week to live there for a couple of years. We’ll miss them, but we hope to get over there for a visit sometime next year.

Our friends James and Lou bring their puppy Ellie down to the beach most weekends and she has learnt to enjoy the water, but she’s never actually swum - it’s risky letting her get out of her depth in the surf.

So this morning we walked all the way up to the Barwon Heads bridge so that she could swim in one of the small channels in the river. James picked her up, walked out to the middle of the channel where it was thigh deep, and dropped her in. Naturally she swam to the side like she’d been doing it all her life. I guess it’s hard-wired into a dog’s brain - particularly a Golden Retriever’s.

Swimming like a champion

Happy to have reached the water’s edge

Max showing her how it’s done

The channel at Barwon Heads - perfect for a dog’s first swim

Headed out for a quick wake session on the bay this morning with Iao and Jed. I was a bit tentative - it was my first time back on the board since I tore my ab muscles - but Iao and Jed were sliding around enjoying themselves. Jayne never goes in the bay (sharks, jellyfish, seaweed, plankton) but was content to drive me when I was riding and then lap up the sun for the rest of the time.

We had a minor incident with the boat (which we still haven’t named properly - Tasty / Muchacha / Tight Squeeze / Povvo Pack). After we’d finished riding we decided to zoom out towards Clifton Springs to see if the water was flatter over there, so I opened up the throttle and we whizzed along flat out at around 5,000rpm (55km/h) for 10 minutes or so. Then, for no apparent reason, the revs suddenly dropped, the motor cut out and I couldn’t start it again. Wouldn’t turn over. Apart from the obvious disappointment that the motor was buggered I was slightly gutted that we’d have to row the thing back to the boat ramp, given that we’d travelled roughly 5km.

Then a couple of minutes later she started, so I carefully stuck it in forward and crept along at 1,000rpm for 30 seconds … no problem … then tried it a bit quicker … no problem … then up to 3,000rpm … no problem … back to idle … no problem … back to 3,000rpm … no problem. She was as smooth as silk again.

No idea what happened, but my guess is that the old Chrysler got a bit hot and said “I’ve had enough of this”. It’s 30 years old, after all.

Anyway, doesn’t seem to be any harm done. She started fine when I flushed it out when we got home. Any ideas Matt?

Our friends John and Bec had their baby on Monday morning. Isaac John was born 8lb 3oz and healthy. We went to see them at the hospital for a few hours on Wednesday evening. Here are a couple of photos…..

He’s a cute little thing, isn’t he!