Welcome to Rob's World, the (cheesily titled) homepage of Robin Rainton.
It's hard to describe yourself in a line (go on then - you try it!) but if I had to: I work hard (some say too much) but can't complain as I have plenty of spare time for eating, drinking, sports and travel (some say too much - I often get told my whole life is a holiday!).
As things here don't get updated that much, check out the feeds below from my NoBMoB blog (MTB riding), Garmin Connect (GPS based exercise and other fun) and on the right there, shared items from Google Reader (items from around the web I thought were worth a look).
Being a Robin I'm now trying to Tweet a bit so have included them 
My Garmin Connect
- Ourimbah XC. Demtel x 2, Standard x 1
- Macquarie Park -> St Leonads via LCNP, Turramurra, St Ives (Chatswood stop)
- St Leonards -> Macquarie Park
- Macquarie Park -> St Leonads via LCNP, Turramurra, St Ives
- St Leonards -> Macquarie Park
- Macquarie Park -> St Leonads via LCNP, Turramurra, St Ives
- St Leonards -> Macquarie Park
My Tweets
- First fast-ish ride since ski trip: smash out a PB on my training route home. The result of high altitude training? Or just lots of rest? ;) — 5 days 5 hours ago
- Stats from recent ski Japan: 285km in 5 days beats last trip's 280km in 6 days. Little less overall vertical, but average and max. more :D — 1 week 1 day ago
- Back from Tokyo. Thoughts: Tsukiji is amazingly interesting - crazy place! Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara also fantastic. Yes - nerdy! ;) — 1 week 3 days ago
- One may be in the wrong lane to eat when no names or menus outside restaurants. Maybach parked here also a clue. New Torigin a lucky find :) — 2 weeks 1 day ago
- Goodbye Shiga Kogen. Until next time! 5 days of sunny skiing - Done. 285km & over 28,000m vertical - Done. Time to go play in Tokyo now :) — 2 weeks 1 day ago
- Getting quite warm here in Shiga Kogen, but still a great day on the slopes. 72km and almost 7000m vertical covered today :) — 2 weeks 3 days ago
- What a perfect day on the slopes of Shiga Kogen. 50km & 5,432m vertical will do for a start ;) This + buffet + Onsen + Shochu = Happy Rob :) — 2 weeks 6 days ago
- Arrive Ichinose. Lie in steaming Onsen facing slopes & watch last runs of the day. Fuel up on monster buffet. Tomorrow will be out there! :) — 3 weeks 3 hours ago
- Am about to get on overnight flight. It should be that the last few days lack of sleep make it easier to nap. Not optimistic though. — 3 weeks 2 days ago
- Someone has been quoted in the Manly Daily 3 times in the last couple weeks! ;) http://is.gd/8xsBl http://is.gd/8xsGo http://is.gd/8xsJC — 3 weeks 3 days ago
17 Jan 2010
Just posted some pictures from a very nice trip to New Zealand over the xmas break. This trip was absolutely amazing, mainly due to the seven days of bike riding in Rotorua (click for NoBMoB post) but almost as good was the relaxation that followed and trek across Tongariro Crossing. Ahhhh... 
14 Mar 2009
Better late than never, some pictures have appeared (OK - they've been there for a while) from our xmas/NY trip to Tassie.
Highlights have to be xmas day where we spent close to 8 hours walking up to the summit (almost - it was a bit scary up there for some people so didn't get right to the top 
) and back down, round Dove Lake. Hotel staff told us it's not unusual for guest to wait a whole week for a clear day to do this so we were really fortunate to get clear skies the whole day which really made it as the views were astounding.
25 Oct 2008
Call me the Grinch if you like, but this is ridiculous. I saw some trees and decorations on sale earlier this month. OK - so you have to plan ahead sometimes - this can maybe be overlooked.
But today Coles gave us a green & red bag with "Merry Christmas" written on the side. Erm... they know it's not for two months, right?
What with the economic tough times coming you can imagine how bad the season is going to be for retailers but please people - if you want this holiday to continue to mean something (if indeed, the whole meaning hasn't already been beaten out of it in previous years commercialisation) you really can't abuse it like this by bringing the dates further and further forward.
Humf!
30 Sep 2008
As I may have mentioned earlier, this site has been running on pretty much the same software (a home grown PHP templating system) for over 10 years now. Strange but true though - it might be time to move on, and as Drupal sites are kindof my thing (well sometimes) the front page and stories at least, are now driven by this CMS.
So does this mean we're about to revert to a more 'blog' like site? Not sure, because the rest of it (travels for example) is still running from the old code. Ah you see - the wonders a modern nerd can achieve... ten year old code and a shiny new CMS mixed in perfect harmony!
Anyhow - hope things might get updated a little more frequently now. Plus, there's that feeds pane up top now that might give you an idea of what I'm doing and interested in right now even if I can't be bothered to log in and write something once in a while.
17 Apr 2008
Hey, so guess what? I'm now a real Aussie. Well, half of one - I'm keeping the pommie passport too. Of course, who wouldn't? No pictures or anything (well, the ceremony was, afraid to say, not that riveting).
When thinking about what this actually means only two things spring to mind... I can now vote (which although is often a futile experience, at least gives one a minuscule hope of influencing what goes) and can come and go as I please.
It has crossed my mind to go back to Europe to work for another year or so, but just mulling that over conjures up thoughts of crowded commuter trains, the cold, filthy and dingy streets on dark mornings and the like. Hmmm... to visit a different country & culture on the weekend is fun, but is it worth the other associated pain? Sorry, but I'm really not convinced!
Plus - life is all good here, so why change?
Search rainton.com with Google. Only as of when it last crawled these pages, but hey, better than nothing!