I bought the motorbike when I got out of the Army. Thought it was time to get a life and roam the roads on the weekends! It is a Yamaha 650 Dragstar. Had a look at some Harley's but the price and reliability was a concern so went for proven Japanese technology. Fairly standard but I did put aftermarket mufflers on the bike when I bought it. This made a huge difference in power and is also a lot louder which a bike like this should be!
My wife also rides the bike now (after about a year of saying that's it was easier to ride than her old farm bike, I finally convinced her). As the cruisers have a low centre of gravity, they are very easy to ride.The bottom image on this page where the swag is on the back is a photo about 3km's south of Pimba in South Australia. I was just returning home to Roxby Downs after a long weekend in the Flinders Ranges.
Living in Roxby Downs also gave me the opportunity to go for some great outback travels also. Just riding out to Andamooka for lunch at the pub or down to Woomera for the day were all great rides. Joined the local motorcycle club in Roxby called the Country Upper Northern TourerS so I have done a few rides around the state with them also.I can honestly say (and also said in cruising magazines), that the roads in the Adelaide Hills are probably the best in Australia for bike riding. We have the Chain of Ponds Road, the Gorge Road and all the inconnecting roads also. Not to mention the back roads to get the Victor Harbour and the Murray Regions.
As part of our honeymoon we did the Great Ocean Road and came back through the Grampians. Also went to Brampton Island before this. The weather wasn't as great as what we had hoped for but still had a great ride. I do envy the Victorians that the Great Ocean Road is close for a big 1 day ride or a good distance to spend a weekend along the coast. We didn't get a lot of rain on the trip, but the temperatures were a bit cool on most days.
Our home was completed by Homestead in November 04. It was completed about 3 months over time and heaps over budget. We had many hassles with Homestead but I guess the biggest concern for us was the lack of information they passed onto us. As you can see we have large retaining down the side and also on the back wall. Retaining is not cheap (as we found out the hard way!). This was one of the biggest complaints we had with Homestead as they didn't explain the cut and the size of it to us.
To cut a long story short, we decided to do things right the first time and put in engineered designed retaining. Though this cost a lot of money we can feel safe that it will never fall down and will help with resale value. Many homes in our street have not done this and it doesn't look as nice and I could never sleep soundly at night during winter! I guess it's a small price to pay for a view over a creek so close to work and the city.
What you see above the ground is the same depth below and also comes out about that distance also. With all the cemete and mesh in place there is no way it will ever move.It is a 4 bedroom open plan house. The original design was a two storey display home. We manipulated this plan and turned it into a one story home. We don't have much yard but this was part of our "master plan". We wanted a low maintainance garden so we can do other things (4wd'ing, bike riding and kayaking to name a few). The entertaining area out the back is a good size though which is what we wanted.
We have a dedicated home theatre which was supposed to be setup as soon as we moved in with a projector, 80 inch large screen and speakers etc. Due to the extra costs of the house, this plan has been put on the back burner for a while. Hopefully by Bathurst this year it will be up and going!Tiled floor almost through out the house should make cleaning easy considering that I want a dog (Kelpie) and the "boss" wants a cat. Not much of a cat person myself but I guess I have to compromise if I want my dog!
