Lunch at Uncle Drew's

Milk crates for their original purpose

Have migrated outside to be used as stools.

Hard seat, big area, on bike and black timber topped stools. A bit of extra padding (artificial turf) on the green stools.

Milk crates as seats.

Crate without pad or timber, it just has a small area supporting the bottom.

Hi

Last Tuesday it was my wife Christine's birthday and we went out to a local caf, Uncle Drew's. We usually eat outside, and did this time as well. But quite a few other things had changed due to Covid 19 restrictions. All the dining is outside, and inside is a small grocery shop as well as the service counter. The menu is posted in the window, but is also accessible by phone scanning a square barcode thingy which is plastered on the table. Also accessible by barcode - thingy is the Covid 19 tracing register, where you should leave your name in case there is an outbreak in the area.  You also have to order inside which it took me a while to realise.

Anyway we had a nice bottle of wine from Mount Macleod in Gippsland with lunch which was good and we enjoyed the birthday lunch. I had a bit more of the wine later in the day and decided it was a good drop so went back on my bike a couple of days later to pick up some more and take a few photos.

They turned out to be all of milk crates, and I now realise there is another ap for my bike milk crate adapters, as milk-crate-chair toppers, and I'm using some of the design ideas from the crate stools in my current big project, a rewrite of my book.

Regards   Steve Nurse

Sub-Atomic Milk Crate

Hi

After my posting about collecting milk crates here and here, I was curious as to where the hard-rubbish collected milk crates (that I didn't take) ended up and my first guess was the Darebin Recycling Centre in Reservoir, and so thought a visit would be worth it. I had been there before and got crates, and there is other assorted cd's and books and - well junk - there for sale. But instead of the mountain of crates I had expected, there were only three or four. But I came across another surprise, a half-crate, or something that can be used as one. In fact it is a Series 300 Stormwater Pit Riser 84221 from Everhard Industries.

For a while I have been thinking of how to build a table from milk crates in the back yard and that seemed easy peasy, you can just make 4 columns of of milk crates and put or even secure a bit of plywood on top, and then the table is done. Unfortunately that wouldn't work in terms or the table height. as milk crates would make a table about 300, 600 or 900mm high. The table I am sitting at is 750 high, and I had thought of and actually mucked around with making a half-high crate spacer. So there is an accidental commercial solution to this problem, or at least one that comes pretty close.

I didn't buy the pit spacer which probably would have been $1.00 like the cd's and books I got there today. Probably have enough junk at home already.  And the whole bike trip went well, although it was one of the shortest coldest days of the year and it rained on me a bit. I was happy with the half-crate discovery and my purchases, visited Christine Durbridge on the way home and also managed to get my wife Christine a birthday present and her vege shopping.

Regards  Steve Nurse

Crate Cubing

Crate Collection in Northcote, as described here.

Crate Cube, 2 x 2 x 2?

No, a fake, only 7!

Crate Cube, 3 x 3  x 3?

No, a fake, only 19!

Hi

I am a long term blogger and follow a few other long term bloggers, Jun in Canada and Auntie Helen in Germany. Both occupy themselves with tilebagging, or using bike-mounted GPS to record arrival in particular square kilometres. Adjacent squares can be bagged to build up connected and filled in patterns of tiles, like large squares. Jun doesn't get too fussed about large squares but does ride to fill in empty squares and see extra sights.  However Auntie Helen goes out of her way, or motivates her riding by bagging large, completely filled in squares in Germany.

Tilebagging, Courtesy https://www.monaxle.com/2017/10/24/veloviewer-explorer-tile-bagging/

In this post, she gets tiles by visiting an airport during a quiet period of enforced covid 19 lockdown and also makes 2 attempts to bag a tile which is mostly covered by a military base.

So I am filled with curiosity and awe about tilebagging, but am never going to bother with the extra techno-burden of using a gps and actual tilebagging. But I have been collecting milk crates on bikes lately, and thought of an alternative I can do, "crate cubing".

This involves creating a cube of n x n x n milk crates (or anything), making an image of it, then showing the image and bragging about it on the internet. The bigger n is the better! The photos above show my efforts.

And, just because I can, and because it is relatively harmless, and because it is mathematically interesting, I have indulged in a bit of fake it till you make it. In this, I am not in the same league as John Friedrich or Belle Gibson , nor do I want to be!

This fakery involves making something that looks like a cube out of the crates, but it is just a shell, showing the minimum number of crates required to fool someone. Friedrich did a similar thing, "at times using as security empty crates that he persuaded bankers contained expensive equipment". But I don't think you are being a fraudster (or anyone would know or care) if you overstate your supply of milkcrates. But this might make a reasonable fun class exercise (maths without knowing you're doing it) Some calcs are shown below.

And just to be complete, this isn't the first time I've proposed a new quest. Here I talked about Wycheproofing, or climbing Victoria's smallest mountain as a contrast to Everesting, or climbing the height of the World's highest mountain by bike or running.

Best Wishes

Steve Nurse

60th Birthday

^

A family to be proud of.

I did a roast, others brought cake!

60 years on the planet and look what I've done, learned how to do crap edits in Microsoft photos.

60 years on the planet and look what I've done, learnt how to cut open an aluminium beer can with nail scissors.

Hi Last week it was my 60th birthday. We had a small fun party, at the time only 5 guests were allowed under covid restrictions and we stuck to that number with my wife Christine, Mum, Dad, my son Ewan, his wife Phoebe and her mum Helen. Anyway, here is the short accidental video.

https://youtu.be/CyzekCVz3vY 

And yes, the 2 bottom pics are self deprecating. I am very proud of my actual contributions to cycling, engineering, academia and of my family.

Best Wishes

Steve Nurse