I went on a very hot day to the Leichhardt Park Aquatic Centre to meet up with the Leichhardt BUG and do a ride of Callum Park. It was one of the hottest days I have had here in Sydney, over 40 Deg And a high humidity. I rode along a route that for the most part I had not ridden before, up through Petersham, Lewisham and then in Leichhardt. This included my first ride over one of the foot overpasses for Parramatta Road. It has way too many U turns and the GT3’s turning circle makes all of them three point turns.
On arriving I stopped at the Valet Parking in the Aquatic Centre. This was run by the Leichhardt BUG. Yogi from the BFF Valet Parking were there and joked, that really I was a homeless person who went to where there was free Bicycle Parking. I also met David Halloran from work, who is a member of the Leichhardt Bug, but on account of the heat did not ride that day.
The Leichhardt Park Aquatic Centre was having a free day to celebrate the opening of their new Gym and Indoor Pool. They had free food as well. So I wandered around and took some pictures. After the official speeches, I went into the Gym, hopped on one of the training bikes and tried it out. After I increased the hardness a few levels I was able to output 150 watts without really trying. I should have kept on increasing the hardness, but the call of free food overrode this and I headed out.
We then got ready for the ride. For the first part we had a police escort, though I am not sure why. There was some call over the radio, someone had broken into something and later we saw many cop cars. The police on bikes disappeared. I wonder if they caught whoever they were after.
We rode into Callum Park. Until a few years ago this had been a hospital. Now the hospital is closed and there is a fight over the proper development of the grounds and buildings. Due to the heat, we did a shortened ride.
On returning I joined the very long queue for the free food. There was an obnoxious Australian man next to me, probably in his 50’s or older. He told the African boy behind us that in his day, children with frizzy hair like he had would have been beaten up by the other kids at school. When we reached the top of the line a boy pushed into the queue behind us. But the women manning the stall were onto their game and refused to serve them. It seemed that they had been more than a few times to get sausages. I had my lunch and headed home.
