With the gelato and massive iced chocolate I think we might have completely exceeded our recommended sugar intake for the day. Which probably explains the jazz hands.

We did all try to fit into the one frame, but it turns out 30mm isn’t quite wide enough for three people gathered around a small table.

Thanks Laura for the iced chocolate! And talking! And reason for the strange looks from the staff! ;)

We also ran into a beautiful white kitty on the way home, after purchasing some celery for Train. We decided to test it on her first…

… and the kitty totally blissed out. So we excitedly went home to Train… who wasn’t actually interested in the green stuff that cost us $1.79 from the IGA. Sigh.

The long version includes some quickfire stats…

• In the first 70 days of this year, I’ve ridden half of what I did in 365 days last year. (1230kms for 70 days of this year, 2389kms for the whole of last year)
• Last year I did 101 rides in the 365 days of the year for an average of 23kms per ride. This year I’ve done 37 rides in the 70 days already gone for an average of 34kms per ride.
• If I continue at my current pace (which I won’t, winter for one will slow me down) I’ll be heading towards 6000kms for the year. Truth is that I’ll be cutting back in a big way after Dirtworks in May.
• The Salsa is still my favourite bike by far. More than 60% of my kilometres this year have been on it. Need to start to get on Greeny more.
• As the following graph shows, I’ve made a distinct effort to ride further in the one sitting than I did in 2009. In 2010, 40-50km rides are the order of the day, whereas 20-30km rides were more common in 2009.
  

I’m still going okay with that fine balance of not riding enough (and being horribly unfit) & riding too much (and over training). As Paul Petch says, training is the easy part, it’s forcing yourself to rest that’s difficult.

After watching the 17 minute long video below, I appreciate good dancing.

The Hurt Locker
Now I’ll be honest here… I really really don’t understand the hype. To me it’s just another Hollywood war movie glorifying war. Jarod’s rating? 2 inconceivable bomb defusings out of 5. I can’t embed the trailer, but if you’d like to waste your bandwidth, head here.

Men Who Stare At Goats
This is a very very strange movie. I saw this after watching the documentary of the same name a few days earlier and I’ve come to the conclusion that to see them the other way around would be disastrous. Always get to know the truth* behind a story before watching the Hollywood movie based on it.

It would be fair to say it’s a modern day, semi true HotShots. I give Men Who Stare At Goats 3 conspiracies out of 5 (if only for Ewan McGregor constantly talking about Jedi Warriors).

* I use the term truth loosely here. Cause lets face it, we’re talking military conspiracies here.

Tron Legacy
Not so much that I’ve watched it, but more so that I’m still eagerly awaiting it’s release later this year. Another official trailer got released yesterday…. so enjoy!

So, I called the department of immigration this morning and was told the following:
Regardless of what it says on Form 119, I would have gained Australian citizenship on my 10th birthday if I had been a resident up until that time. (Luckily, we moved to New Zealand just after my 10th birthday, so I satisfy that point).

I have been advised to ignore ‘Category 4′ on the above form (kids born after 20 August 1986 to NZ citizen parents) and apply for proof on the grounds of living here for my first 10 years (‘Category 3′). But, here’s the catch:

- I still need to prove my parent’s residency status at the time I was born (difficult to do as they do not have their passports from that time) AND
- I need to provide documentation for every year up until my 10th birthday to prove I was living here.

Both of which MUST be in some kind of governmental record somewhere, but I assume systems can’t talk to each other (or they want to make it difficult).

So, between the ages of 1 and 4, I’m not sure what I have to prove my existence in Australia. From 5 to 10 I may have school report cards. Except that because we moved so often I threw a whole bunch of them out as I didn’t see any reason to keep them. Well done me.

What I have done so far:
- Asked my parents to search for any documents that may have survived the time when I threw most of them out.

- Called one of my old primary schools (I think there are 3 different schools I attended before I was 10) and asked about records. Legally, schools are only required to keep the records for 7 years, and they had no idea how to help me.

- Called the Commonwealth Bank to see if they had a record of my school saver (dolomite?) account. Completely unexpectedly, they do. If I visit a branch they can give me the account number and the length of time it was held, but not much else. But, seeing as I had that account open for one whole year, that might count for one whole year’s worth of proof I lived in Australia.

A smart friend has suggested I try the Dept of Education to see if I can get any records from them, which I will do in the coming days.

Does anyone else have any smart ideas as to how I can prove that I lived in this country for the first 10 years of my life?

Part One

Tonight I attended the Patisse ‘Dinner Party Desserts’ cooking class. That thing I’m holding is a millefeuille of belgium chocolate mousse with (missing) white chocolate granita.

I also made a vanilla bean parfait with bubble sugar, hazelnut and chocolate pralines as well as orange diamond biscuits. The class was run by chef Vincent Gadan. It was good fun.

And that also means the last of my Christmas presents have now been redeemed. Hurrah!