After spending a lovely week in Melbourne, catching up with friends, doing a little work, hanging around, it was time for me to head home. Not directly, of course, but another 3-day adventure ride! Read on “Beating fear”

The plan for this weekend’s ride was to ride some easy roads through the Victorian high country, this time on my small adventure bike (my WR250R). I was going to ride down by myself, then we’d ride together for a day, then I’d spend a week in Melbourne doing some work and seeing some friends. Read on “First (3-day) adventure ride on my WR250R”

After re-discovering how much I like adventure riding, the next step was to get my bike and gear set up much better.

R and I had talked about how I could improve my skills and confidence. The initial plan was to put knobby tyres on the BMW and lighten my load. But then he made a very obvious suggestion – instead of setting up my big, heavy bike, I should start riding my small, light bike. After all, I do own a Yamaha WR250R, and I did buy it to improve my off-road skills. It’s a great bike – it’s Read on “Preparing for the next trip: Bike & gear”

The back story

There’s a bit of a back story to this ride, and it’s kind of important as context.

Last year I fell off my motorbike – I was riding fire trails with friends, went over an erosion mound, landed front tyre first in a puddle, lost the front end and went for a slide. I didn’t break anything, but because I landed heavily on my shoulder, stretched a bunch of stuff out, and couldn’t move my arm easily for a while. Worse than the damage to my arm was the damage to my confidence – I had been Read on “Victoria high country adventure ride”

The back story

I was attending a conference in New Orleans and had booked flights that would give me 3 days free after the conference.

I knew my friend Joe would be there as well, and at some point one of us must have said “let’s go for a ride”.

So we did. Read on “Riding Louisiana & Mississippi”

I just spent most of the last 5 days on my butt, riding my motorbike, along some of south-east Australia’s very best riding roads.

It started with a friend saying ‘I’m riding to Tassie – anyone welcome’. I locked it away in my calendar, and am very glad I did, as I know that otherwise I would have just continued to work.

I had no plan except to follow him to Melbourne, visit my dad in Seymour, and come home over 2-3 days. Somehow.

I wasn’t sure where I’d stay, so I thought it would be handy to take the Read on “Two Snowies ride”

Today’s plan was to head home!

Last December I drove from Canberra to Kandos via Taralga and Oberon. I remembered the road between Taralga and Oberon was particularly nice, and the motorcycle atlas supported my memory. I’ve been wanting to ride this road ever since I bought a bike. Read on “My random country NSW ride: Day 3”

Day 2!!!!

Over a number of beers last night I decided to head towards Bathurst then home on Thursday. Initially I was going to go mostly up the Olympic highway but then read my motorcycle atlas which told me that there was a better piece of road via Boorowa and Wyangala Dam. Ahah! A plan. Read on “My random country NSW ride: Day 2”

I have all of this week off, so thought I’d go for a ride. Head-cold meant I couldn’t leave yesterday and change of plans by the kiddo I have to be back Thursday, but that still leaves me 3 full days to ride.

I had no plans except to go somewhere that I felt comfortable riding to. Given I’ve only been riding 4 months and have only had my BMW 3 weeks, I decided I’m probably not ready for the coast roads. I initially thought Jindabyne but friends reminded me that it’s probably still icy and full of skiers…

So Read on “My random country NSW ride: Day 1”

I was eating dinner tonight and again reading ‘Personal development for smart people’ and thought…maybe I should see if I can have a healthy conference week (this week is IA Summit, which for me is usually a not particularly healthy week – late nights, alcohol, not mindful food, a bit of gossiping etc etc).

Then I thought…no way am I going to make a public commitment to doing that. I might change my mind, or I might fail.

But what’s the point of trying to be a fantastic person if I shy away from making a commitment just because I Read on “Can I manage a physically and mentally healthy conference week?”

I had an idea I would post weekly about the new things I’d done that week. Well that only worked for 2 weeks then I forgot to do it, then I felt slightly bad for missing doing it, then I thought I’d put it off until the end of the next week.

Then I remembered that weeks are just a social construct and I can post any time I bloody well like 🙂

But I also thought it interesting to observe what I’ve learned, as that is as important as observing the new things.

So, in no particular order, here Read on “Recent firsts and things I’ve learned”

I’m continuing my attempt to do something new every day. Some days I make it, some I don’t. Sometimes they’re meaningful, sometimes not. Sometimes they may not be actually be new, but meaningful to me.

This week I:

• Tuesday: went to speed dating (it was huge fun)
• Wednesday: floated up into bakasana without any effort or stress (this has always been my most challenging yoga pose. I usually hear the name and my eyes tense and my brain starts screaming ‘OMG. You can’t do that. Crap.’ So this was significant.)
• Wednesday: Listened to Röyksopp (new music for me – and

I liked this 🙂 I wish I could find the source…

“Girls are like apples…the best ones are at the top of the trees. The boys don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground that aren’t as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think there is something wrong with them, when, in reality, they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who’s brave enough to climb all

This week my workload is a bit lower than usual – I have plenty to keep me busy, but a lot of it is background work, not urgent work.

It’s the type of week that is usually hard for motivation and where I am usually fairly unfocused and end up at the end of the week feeling like I could have done better.

So I thought it would be a good opportunity to get into some new work habits – while I have time to focus on some ways of working without the work getting in the way.

So here’s Read on “New work habits”

I’m trying to do something new-to-me every day. Sometimes they are big, sometimes small. But they challenge me, help me grow and keep life interesting. Some days I don’t, and that’s OK too.

This week…

Monday

Practiced treating everyone as if they were already my friend.

Tuesday

Had the mad idea to set up this blog. Of course, I’ve had mad ideas before, I’ve set up blogs before, and I’ve written personal stuff before, but I think it was a pretty big step to put those three things together.

Wednesday

Cycled all the way up Northborne Ave to Barton. Read on “This week’s firsts”

I finished this working week at 5ish today (which is late for a Friday) with an insanely high level of energy. Like, so high that sitting still is a bit of a challenge.

Of course, feeling this amazing made me wonder why – what was it that made me get to the end of the week feeling so amazing.

I think it was 2 things.

The first is, as it always is, people. I had a couple of days client work with lovely clients. Then on the days I was working at home I caught up with friends – breakfast Read on “On energy levels”

I grabbed a copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance today – a book I haven’t read for maybe 20 years, and that I was too young and inexperienced to understand the first time around.

I’m a page in, and it completely nails what I love about being on the back of a bike (and maybe one day on the front):

You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car you’re always in a compartment, and because you’re used to it you don’t realize that through that

Yesterday I spent the day practicing something suggested in Personal development for smart people.

I’m paraphrasing without looking at the source, which I don’t necessarily like doing as he spent a long time explaining this idea, and I’m going to short cut the whole thing.

Anyway, the idea is to treat everyone as if you’ve already known them for a long time and already have a relationship with them – as if they are already someone you care about and are connected to.

Yesterday I was doing client meetings and travelling, so came in contact with lots of new Read on “When everyone is already your friend”

I’m currently reading Personal development for smart people.

I don’t usually have a lot of time for personal development books (which is sort of funny given that I just started a blog about it) – a lot feel like new-age waffle. But I really like this book as it is sensible and practical.

The writing is easy to read without being simplified. He doesn’t pretend that it is easy to be a better person or that there are any quick answers. But he explains clearly and gives loads of practical activities. It’s approachable and sensible.

So for a little Read on “Personal development for smart people”

[originally posted to facebook on new years eve]

I’m writing my ‘new year resolution’ post a day early as tomorrow I’m off to an ashram for a week, with no tech, no phone, no internet (no booze, meat, chocolate, caffeine too – and believe it or not, I’m OK with that).

I also don’t usually worry about new year’s resolutions. I usually think it’s a meaningless date and I adjust my life as I go through the year.

But this year is different. I’ve had the most up and down year I can remember, and it feels meaningful to stop Read on “In 2011 I resolve to try less hard”