Mon row in a 4

1 Brett

2 Doug

3 George

4 Frank

Not a bad row.  Took it carefully running blades on the water.   On the way home before the west end city cat terminal, we  got up to 20spm and pretty smooth. 

ERG#5 Mothers Day

#5 21:26. 10-May-2029 @centenary 102kg

#4. 20.57 6-May-2026 101.6kg

#3 21:17 26-APR-2026 @Centenary 101kg

#2 21:26. 22-Apr-2026 @home

#1 21:45 15-Apr-2026 @home

100.3kg

Mothers day

The day began with yet another 5k erg. Not feeling it so just hooked on but didn't break any records. 

21:26 being half a minute slower than Wednesday's 10:57

After that had the privilege of looking after a mothers day quad and a single. Being mothers day, the quad was populated with two BBC boys and their mums. It was a glorious day bobbing around on the river. Mags and a dad observing. I would like to note that these BBC boys are really fine young men. Focused, helpful, respectful and all the similar words to describe them. 

Then home for [mothers day] breakfast with Phoebe Antonieff Mitchell and one of her sons.

Other activities 

"Fixed" the kitchen tap.  Glued the screw in with locktite. 

Worked with Fletch to make a door to keep mags away from the cats food. 

Morthers day Dinner at Amy's - Clam chowder by Zac and Amy. My contribution was sticky date made with gluten free SR flour. 

Parkrun rocks Riverside

You know when you see the faces of silver medallists.   

Note one second slower than my previous PB at Rocks Riverside.

 Mind you I'm now confused about parkrun PBs. It appears a person gets separate PB's for each location rather than a global PB. I will have to see if I can work out my global PB as a target for going forward. 

Rocks Riverside parkrun results for event #618. Your time was 00:35:04.

Congratulations on completing your 73rd parkrun and your 53rd at Rocks Riverside parkrun today. You finished in 394th place out of a field of 559 parkrunners. You were the 236th male and came 17th in your age category VM60-64. Take a look at this week's full set of results on our website. Your PB at Rocks Riverside parkrun remains 00:35:03. Congratulations on your fastest time this year.

Sweet Caroline's mum and Phoebe crossing the finish line. 

Erg#4 & Row

Wednesday 6 May

AM ROWING 

PM ERG

ROWING

Had what turned out to be a really good row.  Sarah coxed and I was stroke. A few less experienced rowers in the boat so the potential was there for a frustrating unstable row but it turned out to be surprisingly good. 

Traditional warm up in 4's.

Strikes on coxes call finish then

Hands then

Bodies then 

Half slide. 

Two rate builds 10 stroke steps of 2 points each and topped out at 30.

Turned around near sommerville. 

10 and later 15 on 20 off with a couple of city cat stops. 

Slow rating 13 power strokes from GPS to BGS rounded out the day. That last fun exercise is a welcome change to get a tired person home. 

For me, one noticeable nice aspect was that in the 20 off's, the boat sat up. I've been in much better boats where the offs were all over the place. That showed to me that everyone was focused.

ERG#4

After work another 5k job.  This time selected the fixed 5k simply to provide a bit of a comparison yard stick and a finish point.  

Did a 1k warm up and then walked around for 5 minutes. 

Then started at 30 seconds on 30 off but quickly changed that to 20 seconds on and 40 seconds off. 

Once I hit the 2500m mark,  I needed a change of focus so went back to just knocking it out at a reasonably constant pace. 

Weight stuck at 101kg.

Potentially more cardio 

#4. 20.57 6-May-2026 101.6kg

#3 21:17 26-APR-2026 @Centenary 101kg

#2 21:26. 22-Apr-2026 @home

#1 21:45 15-Apr-2026 @home

100.3kg

Happy Birthday Amy

Phoebe's kids came for dinner. 

Amy said she'd like Fish Taco's.  

Jai brought his BBQ and they cooked corn on the cob in its greenery. Hot with butter was very tasty. 

BIG day Tuesday

4am took mags for a run. 

Shower

Empty and reload dishwasher. 

4:50 coffee into Phoebe. 

Dress

5:10 depart

5:30 weights.

6:20 Shower.

Coffee with Crafty.  Discussed billy karts, lawn mowing and his mini restoration project.

7:10 depart West end

TODAY

gluten free sticky date. Shop.

Veggies and dips for work. 

Check on Tim and Ro.

UPDATE 

In the end, Ro called that Tim had a fall.  I went over for support and Tim was taken off to hospital. 

No sticky date. 

Did do the veggies and dip at work.

Aunty Margs Phone

4 MAY 2026

PROBLEM 

Only does 3 rings. 

INVESTIGATION 

For telstra land line, 

*9945#

Sets it to 45 seconds before it diverts to message bank.

SOLUTION

*9945#

gave 12 rings. 

the Kings speech

Pondering King Charles's speech to the US congress.

Perhaps democracy needs a regulator a bit like the "free market" needs a regulator.  

Maybe the English crown acts as a sort of regulator to the commonwealth democracies.  It seems to me that American democracy is missing such a regulator and so Trump is able to move into the space and exert disproportionate individual power.

State Masters Rowing Championships

SATURDAY 2 MAY

Masters and Championships in name only. 

The term "Masters" seems to somehow be synonomous with age rather than mastery of the sport and when it comes to Champions, it's essentially a competition between those who have put their hands up.  

Phoebe found a friend - Beesties girlfriend Linda.  It was Phoebe's 3rd regatta and Linda's first introction to the Grammarians.  They are both very people persons and mixed in easily chatting to many people. 

Phoebe spoke with a BBC fellow (a plumber) who had shared a eight with me in it years ago at Coomera. I later caught up with him.

FIRST RACE
I was subbed into a Dragons Quad.  These guys were a gun crew.  I was honored and at the same time felt woefuly inadequate.  They are old and very very fit.  They tell me they rate 34-38 and skip the boat along.  I would love to train with them.  We ended up in 4th place.  I was in 2 seat.
On the way up we did a great warm up.  6 strokes, legs only from half slide.  Then 6 strokes legs only transitioning to legs and bodies.  Then 6 strokes starting half slide and building to dull slide then bringing backs and then arms.  All at full tilt.  I dont have the memory quite right but it was fast and got the leg muscles warmed up and firing. 

DRAGONS/BRISBANE GRAMMARIANS
[F]
Our time: 3:37.65     +11.20 behind the winners.
    M.Wilkinson [DRC], A.Rettie [DRC], F.Thomson [BGRC], P.Mulrooney [DRC]
Coach: K.Phillips 

 

SECOND RACE
BRISBANE GRAMMARIANS   E8
Our Time: 3:45.11     33.48    +38.45 seconds behind first place
R.von Hoyer-Davies, R.Pym, B.Cribb, N.Alcorn, M.Medaris, G.Miller, F.Thomson, P.Prenzler, Cox: S.Sedgwick

Bow six had just done a race with only me and prenz swapping in.  I had just come off race 1 and felt beautifully warmed up.

 

THIRD RACE
Was after lunch. 

 BRISBANE GRAMMARIANS  Coxless F 4
Our Time      4:10.13        +17.50 seconds from first
 F.Thomson, S.Austin, S.Cleasby, A.Thorpe

 This race epitomised the both my feelings of being manifestly under prepared and the grammarians lack of organisation.  In the [2week] lead up to the regatta, I never once sat in any of the boats that I raced in and never once did a race sim.  Hardly any high rating work.  Did a tiny bit on the Friday just before the regatta and a nice row in a 4 several weeks earlier but in general I went in very under prepared and once again feeling [quite negative] that other had had much more preparation.

 

SCHEDULE
We were given a very good run sheet advising:
FRI  
6am de rig and load boats onto the trailer.  This included two coxed fours borrowed from BGS.
SATURDAY
6am   Rowers arrive Wyaralong
6:00-6:30   Trailer arrives having left Brisbane 4:30am
4:00PM Depart Wyaralong
5:30PM Meet west end to unload, wash and re rig.

 

In the end, Phoebe and I left about half an hour late and arrived around 6:30.  We snuck out early and I dropped phoebe home and had an hours rest before heading in for an earlier call of 5pm for unloading. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen Tap

26-APR-2026

The kitchen tap has gotten loose.

Had a look underneath and there's a single nut on a bolt that pulls out down tight. 

Unbelievable good luck and I have a tube spanner of the right size. 

Sometime in the future I should do something to make it lock up. Options:

 Second lock nut

Glue / locktight 

Nylock nut. 

4-MAY-2026

The dam thing is loose again. 

Sunday morning Erg

Erg#3 of the 5k variety. 21:17

It seems creeping improvement over time. Mind you weight loss has gotten stuck at 101kg.  Felt weak esp the first half. 

Drag factor 115. 

@ Centenary 

22-Apr-2026 21:26 @home

2 weeks ago 21:45 @home

Mags continues to enjoy the salt.

ANZAC Dawn Service 2026

Phoebe and I were going to do the rowing service however that didn't come together so we dusted off plan B and attended the Dawn Serice in the city. 

3:00 rise and coffee

3:30 depart Fairfield 

3:50 park and walk

4:00 in ANZAC square

         Man welcomes us and dignitaries walk in. 

4:20 catapult party starts

5:13 finished.

5:20 we are walking up to look at the Shrine of rememberance

2:57am I'm in the kitchen making a pour over coffee. This is a Phoebe thing. I'd not heard of it before meeting her. Take it into her. There are those who need a coffee to get the body to come alive. 

It's raining. 

I think my only rain coat options are centenary coaches jacket and my ski jacket. Chose centenary. Kept liner.

Lots of st Peter's kids. One with a wreath.

No rain. Cool wind. 

A few drops. Zip up and pull hoodie on but not long after push the hoodie back. 

5:13 it's all over. 

Sun not risen. 

PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTION

Reflecting on the futility of war.  

It must have been absolute shyte to have been at Gallipoli. Cold mud and close to death. Thinking back to last year and actually being at Gallipoli and seeing the closeness of the trenches reinforces the futility.

Nothing changes. 

Turkey is still Turkey. 

Fast forward to the present- 

In 100 years,  Iran will still be Iran.

Israel will still be Israel. 

We speak of our freedom. 

I think the soldiers die to maintain the status quo.  

They should put the words at the top of the screen. 

Post Party Asian

We went to "Sangs East Asian Cuisine".

It hit the mark for me.  A big variety ordered. I cherry picked the beef and the sauce from The massaman curry.  It had chillie in it which combined with some veggies that also seemed to have chillie made for a nice tasty meal. 

No wine. Just water. Very refreshing. 

Afterwards next door to the gelate shop. In my opinion a bit sub par. Very sweet and not so smooth. Almost like the different I've creams had different colours but sweetness overwhelmed the flavour. Except this expression is contradicted by one of the flavours that Phoebe got that she tried to palm off to me and it was a very strong flavour that I didn't like and can't describe.  A bit like those yellow banana lollies.

Aunty Margaret 100 Birthday Party

Phoebe and Jemma and I stayed over night at Graham and Mels and then attended the Party. 

Good afternoon all and happy Birthday aunty marg. 

I understand it's customary to reach back and remember key moments in the intersection between my life and the Birthday girls life 

It's these stories that knit us together with a shared family history 

however my memory is crap and as you know Margaret's memory is the keeper of the family story so I should just defer to her.  

In the mean time I've referred to my brothers for memory assistance. 

Three memories. All of which highlight Margaret's wonderful hospitality. 

1 CANBERRA 

The first is from when I was very young. We spent a night or so in her house in Canberra. Following advice from Lewis it was apparently so Henry could be born. I recall aunty marg getting us turning boiled eggs over and with great hilarity claiming they were empty. 

2 DADS DEATH

The next is a thank you to her and uncle Eric for the huge support 50 years ago in 1976 after my dad died when we stayed in her families beds At her house. And I learned recently that Andrew stayed over night with Dads body. Shows that her spirit flowed to her children. 

3 NOW FISH CHIPS

The third item is much more recent where Phoebe Jemma, myself and my dog Magnus have visited and been hosted by aunty marg at Penny's Sea food where there's lots of hilarity and they would point out the special Margaret ramp for her wheelie walker.

PHOTOS

As you are surrounded by photos we are giving you a card featuring my brothers and I and their families.

And a present of a photo frame with mummy brothers and I.

SOCIAL SUPPORT PERSON

We had a great "speech" from a person who drives her around. 

She's got a great bond with her support workers.