Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Those were my thoughts too. My biggest issue with Canberra though is that it is so far from the sea. Though as a kid I remember a building there which I absolutely adored. This one:
http://www.twentieth.org.au/canberra_shine_dome.html
Remember it was the late 60s and the age of the Apollo programme and the Jetsons. That building fitted right in.

Regarding the tree Gen, could it be Catalpa?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalpa
Or possibly the Black Bean Tree:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/perfectoarts/3056772103/ (I think the beans are a bit thicker on this one and although native, not as described)

Could well be a Catalpa. There's a storm outside so I can't be sure without getting wet/struck by lightning (delete according to personal levels of preferred melodrama).

chewmylegoff

Generali wrote: »

Hello Nice Peeps. An occasional visit.

Did the garden today. I don't know how big gladioli grow in the UK but I just chopped down some 8-10ft ones!!! Also squashed about 20 spiders (mostly poisonous) and cleared out 2 funnel web webs.

It also turns out that we have a lime tree in the back garden that is well in fruit and that we have quite a lot of stick insects including one that looked suspiciously like a preying mantis (don't know if we get them over here).

We also have a very strange tree. It looks like a string bean tree only string beans don't grow on trees: anyone got any ideas?

Looks odds on that we'll be moving to Canberra next year.

I've seen a mantis in queensland, so expect they are found all over Australia.

I don't know anything about trees, but does it look like this?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4XPiIDZ1k0g/SJ7stshMkpI/AAAAAAAAAb4/gxheQFrqsy4/s400/cbgCatalpa.jpg

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

That's good. How about a little trip to A&E now that last night's crowds have cleared?

Easter Sunday .... full of hundreds of holidaymakers' kids that've done something immeasurably stupid.

lostinrates

I love indian bean trees.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

I love indian bean trees.

I get mine from Asda... tinned beans ftw.

Generali

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I've seen a mantis in queensland, so expect they are found all over Australia.

I don't know anything about trees, but does it look like this?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4XPiIDZ1k0g/SJ7stshMkpI/AAAAAAAAAb4/gxheQFrqsy4/s400/cbgCatalpa.jpg

I know there are loads of stick insects in Sydney. To a Pom it's something amazing as clearly you can't have a stick insect in your own garden; such a thing would be miraculous. A bit like being able to grow water melons in your yard or something.

That is exactly what the tree is. Can I eat the beans without something terrible happening to me?

vivatifosi

Gen, have you been following the track cycling world champs from Melbourne? Anna Meares has been absolutely peerless and will surely come away from the Olympics with a bucket-full of medals. How does anyone set a world record in something they haven't participated in for a couple of years? I was curious to know how big she is in Aus.

chewmylegoff

I wouldn't exactly describe Mears as peerless when she only got bronze in her main event.

vivatifosi

chewmylegoff wrote: »

I wouldn't exactly describe Mears as peerless when she only got bronze in her main event.

She just broke the world record in the 500m. She took gold in the Keirin. In terms of the bronze in the sprint, I thought she was unlucky and Pendleton has also said as much, did you watch it, what did you think?

Her main competitor is Pendleton and unfortunately for us Meares looks waaaaay stronger at the moment. Plus Pendleton has all but announced her retirement.

However the new news is Chris Hoy in the Keirin. Wow, wow, wow!!!! It's such a shame that in the Olympics you can only have one racer per country, per event.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Gen, have you been following the track cycling world champs from Melbourne? Anna Meares has been absolutely peerless and will surely come away from the Olympics with a bucket-full of medals. How does anyone set a world record in something they haven't participated in for a couple of years? I was curious to know how big she is in Aus.

I have although my favourite race of the year is on today so I've been a bit distracted on the sports front:

http://www.letour.fr/indexPRX_us.html

As a female athlete who doesn't swim or run she doesn't get massive coverage TBH. If she was a man she'd get a bit more coverage but in general track riding doesn't get shown much in Aus.

I'm not a track rider so I don't know so much about it first hand. As a spectator I would guess that many of the disciplines have skills and strengths that are interchangeable: the biggest difficulty will be learning the different strategies involved.

TBH, there isn't even that much strategy involved in track cycling as you don't have the negotiation that goes on in road racing: generally you either ride alone or with your team so the tactics are sorted out in advance.

A strong rider will tend to be good at whichever discipline they ride. Chris Boardman is a good example: an excellent track rider who turned that into great time trialling and holding onto time in the flat stages. He couldn't cut it in the mountains but you can't excel at everything!