Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, not that Australia is real big on Halloween. Pumpkins and apples are out of season, the nights are warm, daylight savings are in effect so most kids are trick or treating in daylight hours. There's no bonfires as it's not cold or dark and this year it's so dry that bonfires would be a massive risk of causing a bushfire so the fire brigade would come and put them out almost straight away.
I always make sure I have something to give kids if they do knock on my door but the last few years there hasn't been anyone knocking so I end up eating the treats myself!
I think it's funny that Halloween's origins are back in Europe yet North America now celebrates it more than any other country. All those Irish and Scots who migrated to North America took the tradition with them and now most people would say that celebrating Halloween is more of an American tradition than a European one.
I don't really like the Americanisation of Australia, we have different cultures and we don't need all the American Life Imitating Art Imitating Life crap that seems to go on over there. In my opinion, they have been too Hollywooded if there is such a word. 
Once thing that has started in the last couple of years is that we've started having Black Friday sales in Australia. People in Australia don't even understand what that is, or even why it's called Black Friday. Black Friday was when a lot of retailers finally got back in the black. You know, the black pen that used to be used in old school accounting ledgers, they used red pen for when they were in debt and black for when they were in profit, that's why it was called Black Friday, a lot of stores finally got back in the black on the after Thanks-Giving as people took the day off and went shopping with their families. WE DON'T HAVE THANKS-GIVING IN AUSTRALIA! but hey let's have Black Friday sale on the same day that America does.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping) 

Bomber
/rant

Not Motocamping

I still haven't gone motocamping and it's going to be a few more weeks before I can head out unfortunately. I go back on call on Wednesday for another two weeks, well it starts at midnight on Thursday morning and goes to midnight on Wednesday night, so it essential ties up three out of four of every Wednesday. This means the next chance I get will be Wednesday 21 November unless I take a Friday which at the earliest will be 16 November. 
I'm going to make the effort to go motocamping and filming after this lot of being on call and before the next one starts. I still need to sort out my microphone and the iso settings for the camera for night time photography but I have plenty of time to do that between now and then.
This whole motocamping business is turning out to be a lot harder than I first thought it would be. I knew it was going to take a bit of effort but I didn't know that I was going to lose all my momentum so quickly after going camping the last time. I can see why so many channels struggle to keep up with putting out good content on a regular basis.

Bomber
it will happen eventually

A bad start and a new goal

On the weekend I didn't do any real exercise and I feel a little guilty about that. I should have gone for a walk on Saturday afternoon but I didn't, I spent it on the computer writing on this blog a little and watching YouTube. We didn't go to my Dad's for lunch as he was feeling a little sick with a cold and didn't want to pass it on to us. Instead we went out to the shops and bought a ceiling fan and some other bits for around the house. On the way home we got KFC for lunch and I ate more than I should of and had a can of Pepsi to wash it down with, so not my finest moment.
On Sunday I took the kids to the park with the intention of doing a few laps of it whilst the kids rode their bikes around. I'd decided that morning to take the training wheels off my daughters bike, she was wanting it done but when we got to the park she found it too hard and refused to even try. So in the end I ended up spending most of the time sitting on a bench trying to calm her down and trying to get on the bike to at least try. My fitbit was at home on charge like it is on most Sundays so what few steps I did get in won't have registered.
After leaving the park we still had about 20 minutes before we had to pick my wife up as she was at work so I took the kids through the Macca's drive-through and we each had a McFlurry icecream with mini M&Ms. It tasted so sweet, especially the M&Ms so I'm going to have to work extra hard this week to burn off all the extra calories that I put in to myself over the weekend. I didn't have any beer on Saturday or Sunday so at least that's something.
My fitbit calculates how many calories I burn and I was thinking that it may be a better way of making sure that I continue to lose weight. I did a little reading online and as a guide, to lose 1kg you need to have a calorie deficit of around 7,700 calories. Now I don't count my calories but if I use that as I guide and see how many calories I burned during a week that lost 1kg of weight, it should be a fairly good idea of how many calories I need to burn in an average week to lose weight.
If I go back to August when I lost the most weight, coincidently (or not) that month is the one that I burnt the most calories in. If I look at September, it is only just more than what an average month was before I started trying to lose weight and this month is looking to be about the same. I guessing that might be because it was harder for me to go walking and my fitness wasn't as good so it took less to get my heart beating faster. I'm going to set a new goal for myself today and that goal is to burn an average of 4,600 calories each day.
Last week, I did the most steps I'd done in a long time and three of those days were well over 4.6K in calories burnt however the other days weren't. By setting this goal, I won't be increasing the number of steps I want to make each week over 70,000. Hopefully as my fitness increases it will become easy to maintain over 70,000 steps each week and then it should be easier to start doing additional exercise to get my heart rate up and the calories burnt.

Bomber
not going to the gym, not buying gym equipment

Eating Disorders

I'm not going to try and make light of this subject or claim that I know the answers or anything like that. I'm not an expert, nor have I done any research at all into this area. So please, understand that this is just my thoughts, my perspective, my little bubble of existence, nothing more. I'm certainly not judging anyone. If you have any sort of issues, do not look to me for advice.
I don't even know where to start, but this week I had some strange thoughts. I've been finding it difficult to avoid junk food. Yesterday I had a choc-chip cookie for afternoon tea and handful of party lollies/jellies after dinner. This morning I had another choc-chip cookie and was about to have another when I decided I should fill my water bottle up and have that instead. I then sat down to write this post.
I've never previously understood how or why someone would get something like bulimia, not that it is contagious, but why would someone think it was a good idea to stick their fingers down their throat and puke up what they just ate. Surely no one would think that was normal or something that they should even think about doing. Let alone do it on a regular basis so that it becomes normal for them.
I'm a middle aged overweight man, the only person who has ever said that I should lose any weight is my doctor and that's purely for health reasons, not because they thought I looked fat or unattractive. When the doctor said I should lose weight and they wanted to do more regular check-ups I said to myself, yeah, whatever, I'm only here to get my toe looked at. Once my toe is sorted it's not like I'm coming back so you can weigh me again and tell me to lose more weight. As it turned out, I had gout in my big toe which was probably related to my diet and being overweight. Anyway I tried to drink more water from that point on and decided not have BBQ asparagus with my steak and I haven't had gout since.
When I decided to lose weight it was the result of a few different things. I was feeling uncomfortable in my own body. Putting on shoes, bending over, sitting down, lying in bed, basically all the time I was starting to feel uncomfortable in my tummy and I didn't like it. I didn't like the way my belly was growing and starting to hang over my belt. I saw other more heavily overweight people and how they struggled to walk up the stairs or ran out of breath and I didn't want end up like that. 
The only pressure on me to lose weight is from myself. I have no peer pressure, I'm not lonely, my wife isn't pressuring me or loving me any less because I'm overweight (at least as far as I know). My friends haven't said anything although they would have seen me growing slowly over the last two decades. Lots of Aussie blokes have beer bellies, it's almost part of our culture. I want to lose weight so I feel better, to know that I am healthier and that I will hopefully live a longer life. I want to exercise as an example to my children to show them that exercise is a normal part of life and we should all be doing it.
So why then, last week when I ate two doughnuts after dinner, was I feeling so guilty and ashamed of myself, that just for a fleeting moment I thought about going to puke them up? As soon as I thought it I dismissed it but it scared me. I mean WTF, where do thoughts like that come from? As far as I was concerned I was trying pretty hard to avoid junk and a moment of temptation got the better of me. I wished that it hadn't happened and the only way I could think of to make it right again was to puke? Why didn't I think that I should just go and do some sit ups or something to burn off the doughnuts. Why does the exercise solution only present itself to me now as I'm writing this. My head is obviously in the wrong space, I'm more focussed on losing weight than improving my health. Losing weight should be a side effect from improving my health and not the other way around.
I didn't go and puke up the doughnuts in case you were wondering, but now I think I can understand a little why someone would. I'm not condoning it, it's a terrible idea. I can't imagine the pressure some people must feel they are under when they resort to putting their fingers down their throats. It's not living, it's not healthy and it genuinely makes me scared for my kids. I never really had any pressure from my friends or peer group growing up. I was bullied a little in high school but no where near as much as others and as much as it saddens me to think about it today, I did bully others at times.
I think I need to concentrate more on eating healthy and having healthy snacks if snacks are needed. Concentrate more on exercising better and not worrying about the weight loss component as much. The weight loss will take care of itself as long as I am taking care of myself.

Bomber
seriously, if you need help, get it, there is plenty of free help available. No one needs to suffer in silence with an eating disorder.
http://bfy.tw/KZtk

Weighing In

106.5kg

FitBit Aria 2 WiFi Smart Scale

I can't believe that it was so easy to lose the first 6kg, they just melted off me. I really made an effort to get my steps in and I think I have my biggest week to date with over 86K steps taken. That has resulted in me having some blisters on my feet which isn't the best fun.
I don't know if I'm really 106.5kg or 107kg as my scales are really pretty rubbish and just moving your feet slightly can alter the reading by a significant amount. I'm going to say 106.5 because I really don't want to join a gym and it was a shorter week as it was from Sunday to Saturday as I forgot to weigh myself last Saturday. I'm thinking that I may have to buy myself some better scales. I don't know if I want to go as full on as a FitBit Aria 2 scale but I can see the advantage of having it automatically update my weight on my Fitbit app and I could then also weigh myself daily to try and get a better picture of what was going on. At least there will be no argument as it will just give me a number. Plus they can measure your BMI and other things as well as show you a graph on the scale itself.

Saturday
Breakfast - nothing
Morning tea - large coffee, two shortbread biscuits and two marshmallow and chocolate snow drops
Lunch - 3 slices of left over Perri perri chicken pizza and two slices of garlic bread
Dinner - 2 chicken burgers, with cheese, lettuce and mayo
Beers - 2
Steps - 4,159

Sunday
Breakfast - 4 crumpets with butter and a large coffee
Lunch - 1 chicken burger with cheese, lettuce and mayo
Afternoon Tea -3 Kingston biscuits
Dinner - BBQ salmon with corn, mash and a butter sauce
Beers - 3
Steps - 8,537

Monday
Breakfast - 3 weetbix and milk
Lunch - meatballs and fettuccine
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner - Beef stroganoff with rice
Desert - 2 crumpets with butter
Beers - 0
Steps - 11,328

Tuesday
Breakfast - 3 weetbix and milk
Morning Tea - medium coffee
Lunch - Lamb curry
Dinner - beef spaghetti
Beers - 0
Steps - 15,692

Wednesday
Breakfast - 3 weetbix and milk
Lunch - Wrap with chicken, mayo and salad with a 600ml chocolate milk
Dinner - Chicken Kiev and potato wedges
Beers - 0
Steps - 15,463

Thursday
Breakfast - 3 weetbix and milk
Morning Tea - medium coffee
Lunch -footlong steak, cheese and salad sub
Dinner - Meat pie and peanut butter sandwich
Desert - 2 donuts (I mean WTF was I thinking)
Beers - 0
Steps - 12,820

Friday
Breakfast - 3 weetbix and milk
Morning Tea -large coffee
Lunch - 2 sausage rolls and an apple juice
Dinner - chops and risoles with corn and potatoes
Beers - 5
Steps - 18,398

Total steps this week: 86,397 (hell yeah!)

Bomber
now with blisters!

Should I get a Drone

Cheap Drone

I've been thinking about getting a drone to take some footage of my motocamping adventures. Something like a DJI Spark would be awesome but it wouldn't take 360° footage so I couldn't use it for both the videos that I plan to make of each trip. 
I then started thinking that really any cheap drone that can carry my Insta360 One camera underneath would probably do the job. The gyroscopic stabilisation of the Insta360 One is pretty awesome so should be able to handle almost any drone. Understandably the battery life of the drone would probably be reduced by carrying the camera but it is pretty light and I'd only really need it to work for a few minutes at a time.
I've found a couple of cheap drones that might be worth looking into, hopefully I can find some reviews on YouTube to help me make a decision but at the end of the day I wouldn't be expecting too much from them, I'd just need to find a way to mount a 1/4 inch thread bolt on the under side of the drone that I could screw the camera into. Also the drone would need to be pretty small so I could easily carry it on the bike with the rest of my kit.
Here's a video of someone putting an Insta360 One on a DJI Mavic Air so at least I know it is possible to do and the footage looks ok even with the drone being visible above it at times. But that's an expensive drone and there is no chance I'd be able to get that just now.

 

Bomber
am I getting ahead of myself?

Exercising

I've been making an extra effort this week to get out and walk after work. I've been trying to get out for an hour if possible. I've also been making sure that I'm not spending too long at my desk whilst at work, it helps that I've been a little busier this week too. My lunches haven't really improved as you'll see on the weekend but I'm still feeling better and I'm not drinking as much coffee.
I'm hoping that I'm doing enough to lose 1kg this week as I don't really want to join a gym, but the more exercise I do the more I'm wanting to do. I took the wife and kids out with me for a walk and I ended up dawdling, I barely worked up a sweat. My wife on the other hand had worked up quite a sweat. It just goes to show how far I've actually come as it wouldn't have been that long ago that I would have been panting and sweating too even if I did dawdle.
One thing that I've started doing is taking my son with my for a walk along the river. He takes his bike and really enjoys the ride whilst I walk. It means that I can walk faster and I get to still spend time with him as I have to push the bike up some of the steep hills for him.
I want to get myself I new bike so I can ride with him. I used to love riding around the lake in Canberra and my son is looking forward to riding with me. My daughter should be able to get off her training wheels in the next few months so she'll be able to come along too. A few years ago I bought my wife a new bike as she really wanted to give riding a go, the biggest issue she had was she kept getting punctures. Everytime we went for a ride she'd puncture at least one of her tyres. Once I even had to leave her at her Dad's place and ride home to get the car as both her tyres had multiple holes in them. 
 

Bomber
getting back in the swing

Positive Attitude

I went for a walk along the river on the weekend, the weather was awesome, I was feeling motivated to keep on exercising and try to lose at least 1kg this week. Whilst I was walking along I saw three large fish shadows in the water and tried to take a picture of them but I was too slow. Maybe 20 meters further down the river I came across the quintessential Aussie bloke. He was standing on the banks of the river with a fishing rod in his hand and an esky next to him. He was wearing stubbies, had no top on and had a beer belly. If I'd thought to look I probably would have found that he was wearing thongs. 
I called out to him and accidentally scared him. He said something like "ya scared the shit outta me". I had a quick chat with him about fishing and that I'd just seen three large fish not far from where he was. He hadn't had any luck as yet but had also seen several fish in the area
That encounter got me thinking, you know life isn't really that bad, living where I live is actually pretty good. There aren't too many places in any city where there is a river within a few minutes walk, where you'd feel comfortable fishing in stubbies with no top on. There aren't too many cities where you'd be happy strike up a conversation with a complete stranger and for them to actually engage with you. I was feeling good, I was feeling healthy. I was enjoying the little things in life. It's kind of funny though as recently some of the YouTube channels that I watch have had similar messages of being happy with what you've got and just having a go.
For the whole walk I had some headphones on and was listening to music. I was concentrating on where I was going but I couldn't really hear anything around me. Then for some reason I turned around and there was a guy on a mountain bike approaching me at speed, I don't know what made me turn around as I couldn't hear anything, but if I hadn't turned around at that moment then he probably would have scared the pants off me as he came flying past. As far as I could remember I hadn't looked behind once during the walk so far, so why did I turn around then? Those kind of things really make me think that there is more going on in our heads than we really understand.

Bomber
I see dead people mountain bikes

Not Motocamping

Well, tonight was the night that I'd said that I should get out motocamping and filming. It didn't happen. 

• The weather is great. 
• I have enough leave to be able to do it
• I'm not on call
• My wife most likely would have said yes if I'd asked
• I haven't tested the microphone in the helmet
• I haven't played with the camera settings

This is what happens when I don't plan properly. I've got no one to blame but myself. I'm going to try and play with the camera one night this week as there is still a chance that I could head out motocamping next Tuesday night if I manage to test everything out prior and the weather holds.
The weather is so good it really feels like a missed opportunity but as I've said before I don't want to rush into it unprepared. If I had headed off after work, I'd have no idea if the microphone will work or if it will work only up to certain speeds before the wind noise becomes too much. I really want to do some of the narrative whilst I'm riding so you can hear the bike in the background and get more of a feeling that you are really riding with me.
I was watching some of the videos that my 1st (and only) subscriber posts on their own YouTube channel. They have some great footage, but nearly all of it is to music and it just feels like it is missing something, well at least to me it does, I'm sure it appeals to some people.
I have a specific way that I want to record and produce my videos, I don't want to compromise just because it would be easier or because I didn't plan things properly.

Bomber
needs to plan better

Growing from Seed

I think I mentioned previously that I had planted some seeds in the backyard and was hoping to grow some lettuce, basil, chilli and rocket. More then anything it was just to see if I could. 
Well some of the seeds have sprouted and pretty soon they'll be too big for what they are in so I'll have to move them to some other sort of garden bed. I don't want anything too huge and I'd like it to be

raised and maybe portable so I can put it away when not in use. Hopefully something like this will do the job and at least it doesn't cost too much if things don't work out. 
If it turns out that I can keep plants alive and I'm enjoying it, I may get another couple of them and try some different vegetables or herbs.
There are a couple of things that I'd like to try and grow at home, potatoes would be awesome, we eat a lot of them so it could save us money, not that potatoes are expensive. Another thing is garlic. Apparently you can just put garlic that you bought at the shop in the ground and it will grow, well as long as it is Australian garlic and not imported, as the spray the imported stuff with something that will prevent it from growing.
Growing up, my parents used to grow cherry tomatoes, beans, silverbeet and a few other things. We ate what they grew and I never really appreciated it, but now I can see why you would get a sense of satisfaction if you grew something from seed and then fed it to your family.

Bomber
hopefully getting green thumbs

Take Two

I weighed myself this morning and I weigh 107.5kg. So, I'm obviously not trying hard enough. As my food diary shows, I've been having chips again at lunch and in general my lunches haven't really been healthy enough. As I've said before, I'm not going to change what I eat for dinner and breakfast is already about as good as it's going to get. If you'd seen just how much chocolate and lollies I was eating prior to starting this journey you would be astounded. I might start taking a piece of fruit to work and have that instead of a morning coffee.
My water consumption has dropped off too but I don't think you can lose weight just by drinking water, maybe I've been having more salt so I'm carrying more water, but I really don't know. 
The weather has been really good most of the time so I've got no excuses, I just need to get out and give it a go. If the walking doesn't seem to do the trick any longer then I think I have no choice but to starting trying something different. I don't know that going to the gym will be a real option during the week as I couldn't take gym gear on the bike with me and I don't really want to come home and get changed and head out again, that's a sure fire way to make sure that I don't end up at the gym as often as I should.
Actually, stuff that, I could make the effort to take the gym gear to work. I have a tail bag I can put on the bike and I could always throw some clothes in that and just get changed at the gym.
This week I'm going to set myself a mini-goal of losing 1kg. I'm calling it a mini goal as I'm not going to put it up on the official goal list. If I don't lose 1kg this week then I'm going to join a gym. That's my motivation too, I don't really want to spend the money on a gym membership and I don't like the thought of going to the gym, so hopefully that will make me want to get out and walk even when I don't feel like it.

Bomber
it not really a wall, more of a speed bump

Weighing In

Can you believe it, I forgot to weigh myself this morning, I'll have to do it tomorrow morning. Hopefully the extra day will mean an extra chance of having lost weight.
I noticed earlier in the week that my resting heart rate had dropped. I stopped monitoring it a couple of months ago as I didn't see it changing but when my friend showed me his stats for the week I saw his resting heart rate was 69 BPM, I checked mine out of curiosity and it is currently around 66 BPM, that is down from where I started at the start of the year.

• Jan 73 BPM
• Feb 71 BPM
• Mar 70 BPM
• Apr 72 BPM
• May 71 BPM
• June 70 BPM
• July 69 BPM
• Aug 68 BPM
• Sept 72 BPM
• Oct 66 BPM

I find that interesting as the change in diet and the little bit of exercise is obviously helping in that area of my health too. Fitbit claim that my cardio score is between 36 and 40 which is between average and good for men my age. To try and put it in perspective, scores less than 30 are poor and greater than 50 are excellent. Elite athletes are up in the high 70s and low 80s. I'm going to keep an eye on my resting heart rate and my cardio score and see if they do improve further as I do more exercise and lose more weight.


Weekly Food Diary

Saturday
Breakfast - 4 slices of toast with peanut butter
Morning tea - large coffee
Lunch - Pizza at Dad's
Dinner -2 hot dogs
Desert - bowl of ice cream
Beers - 0
Steps - 2,703

Sunday
Breakfast - 2 slices of toast with peanut butter and a large coffee
Morning Tea - large coffee
Lunch - two chicken cheese and mayo sandwiches
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner - 3 BBQ Beef Burgers
Beers - 0
Steps - 1,763 (I put the fitbit on charge on Sundays).

Monday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Morning Tea - medium coffee
Lunch - foot-long toasted lamb and salad sub
Afternoon Tea -small piece of chocolate and a large coffee
Dinner - two BBQ chicken, cheese and mayo rolls
Beers - 0
Steps - 10,106

Tuesday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Morning Tea - medium coffee
Lunch - foot-long toasted steak, cheese and salad sub
Dinner -3 chicken tacos with sour cream and lettuce
Beers - 0
Steps - 9,998 (really!)

Wednesday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Lunch - falafel wrap and a cup of chips
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner - beef stir fry
Beers - 0
Steps - 8,723

Thursday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Morning Tea -large coffee
Lunch - Steak Sandwich and chips with a glass of coke.
Dinner - BBQ Lamb chops with mash potato and corn kernals
Beers - 3
Steps - 11,223

Friday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Morning Tea -large coffee
Lunch -Beef and pepper pie and a bottle of orange juice

Dinner - 5 slices of Perri perri chicken pizza and two slices of garlic bread
Beers - 4
Steps - 13,406

Total steps this week: 57,992

Bomber

Three Months

Three whole months and as far as I can tell, not one day missed. Sure I've written some posts in advance and scheduled them to be released on a certain day but, three months, that's a lot. I don't plan on stopping the daily posting just yet. I still have no followers and Portugal is still my biggest country for visitors outside of Australia, quite often there are more visitors from Portugal than there is from Australia.
Today I update the annual post of all the things I've been thinking in the last month and how I've been feeling. I don't know if there will be any extra insights but it will definitely be a but of a TL;DR for someone who may find my blog in the future and want to know a bit about where it all began.
I was struggling for ideas to post about the other day and did a bit of a google trying to find ideas. One thing I did find was some sort of 30 day challenge, where people challenge themselves to post every day for 30 days. I had to laugh at that, 30 days was easy for me, it's only been in the last couple of weeks that I've found it a little hard to come up with enough content each day. It's funny though, as I start to get the juices flowing a little and write about one topic I often get more ideas and all of a sudden I can have a weeks worth of ideas when just a few minutes prior I was completely stumped.
I've kind of set myself the goal of each post being at least the length of my screen, hopefully a little longer but not too long. No one likes posts that just go on and on.
I guess I can relate to writers block a little. I would be so hard to be an author and have a deadline with a publisher and then not be able to finish the book as your storyline has dried up or you're just not happy with what you've written or just plain out of ideas.

Bomber
daily mind dumps

Thirsty Thursday

Woot! I'm no longer on call. I got home from work and went for a long walk by myself and then drank a bottle of water. Cooked a dinner of chops and rissoles on the BBQ and had a beer whilst doing it. OMG it is like a weight has lifted. I'm not sure why it feels that way as I wasn't even called in once, but I'm glad I'm not on call and that the weather is nice and that I went for a walk and got over 10K steps for the day and that tomorrow is Friday. I'm even looking forward to weighing in. I don't have great hopes as my diet hasn't been the best this week as I had some largish lunches but I haven't had any snacks since the weekend and I'm already feeling healthier again. Hopefully I've lost at least .5 of a KG as that will let me know that I'm back on track.
Maybe I just had a bug or something that was bringing me down or it could have been that I was drinking more coffee and then when I stopped drinking as much I started to feel flat. I don't know why, but I do know that I'm glad that my attitude is improving and my motivation is coming back. 
Hopefully my desire to go motocamping comes back soon too. I guess it must be there somewhere as I still want to do the whole YouTube business but I kind of wish that I was already started and that the hard part was already done. There is now rain predicted for the weekend so I may not be able to test the microphone and I have to do that prior to going filming next. The rain is predicted to continue into next week so it probably isn't a good week for motocamping anyway but I need to test the microphone ASAP. Maybe I knock off work early tomorrow and go for a ride as the forecast is really good for tomorrow, so good that I'm thinking that I'll have to take the winter liner out of my motorcycle jacket and switch back to my summer riding gloves.

Bomber
getting my mojo back

Finally Off Duty

Tonight, at midnight, I finally stop being on call and my boss starts being on call. It's been just over two weeks and I've not had one beer in all that time. That might not sound like much, but I've had a few days where I really would have enjoyed a beer. I plan to have a couple on Friday or Saturday night depending on the weather and I think that I'll light a fire too. Being on call does kind of put a dampener on everything as I have to think about what I would do in each situation if I did get called in. As we only have one car and the wife takes that to work, if she was working and I was home looking after the kids, I'd have to dump the kids at the neighbours and jump on my bike, or, if they weren't able to look after the kids I'd have to walk the kids down into town and pick the car up. It kind of plays on your mind a little so I'm glad that I was getting paid for it and also that I've got a week or two before I'm back on call.
Last weekend I didn't end up testing the microphone, I think it was all part of the lack of motivation that I was feeling, I just couldn't be bothered even getting the kit out and trying. The weather wasn't the nicest for testing out the camera for night shots and I was glad as I then didn't feel like as much of a slacker for not giving it a go.
Hopefully this weekend I'll feel more motivated and be able to head out on the bike at some stage, most likely Sunday afternoon, so fingers crossed that the weather is ok.
I think that getting out walking is starting to make me feel a little more motivated and as long as I can keep myself going I should be right. A week today is when I thought that I might be able to have the day off to head out motocamping and I just don't feel ready for that just yet. I still may give it a go if the weather looks nice but I don't want to rush in and do it if my heart isn't in it.

Bomber
looking forwards, not backwards

Walking Again

Yesterday I went for a walk after work, it was a bit longer than usual and I took my daughter with me. She started complaining after a while and we were walking a bit slower than I would have liked, but I walked all the same and that's what's important. 
Today I went for another walk after work, so hopefully I'm going to start getting back in the swing of things. Unfortunately there is rain predicted for the next couple of days so I'll have to come up with some other way to exercise. I feel really self conscience doing sit ups or anything like that at home where my wife and kids might see me doing it. I don't know why that is but it is what it is.
I hope I can keep with it and that I lose some weight this week. It'll be pretty hard if I don't lose anything even with the extra walking getting done. I guess that's when I'll have to look at going to the gym a couple of times a week or something buying an exercise machine for home.
I've looked at getting a cheap eliptical trainer before as it would be cheaper than a gym membership. The biggest drama is that it would have to go in the garage and there isn't a lot of room in there as it is. Also it would be really hot in summer and freezing in winter.
One of my friends showed me their fitbit tracking for the week today and it blew me away. Over 105K steps for the week with an average of over 15K per day. Their best day was over 22K steps. I don't think that it is a normal week for them but it is a massive effort and something to strive for.

Bomber
one step at a time

Insta360 One X

The new Insta360 One X camera is out and it looks like it's a really nice camera. I've watched a few reviews and they've all said the same thing, it's an improvement over the original Insta360 One, but that's not really a big surprise is it. I really like the look of the new camera, it is slimmer and has an LCD screen on it and has a replaceable battery. Having a battery that you can replace easily is an awesome improvement as you could take along several batteries with you and never need to worry about charging the camera if you are heading out for a couple of days of filming.
The other nice thing is that the 1/4 inch tripod mount in the bottom of the camera is now made out of metal and not plastic so it should last longer.
The price is still pretty high (AUD$629), but it is still cheaper than Go Pro Fusion (AUD$899) and I think that it may actually be much more similar in terms of image quality. The original Insta360 One doesn't have as good as image quality as the Fusion but the price was the main factor.
I find it crazy how much tech they can cram into these little cameras. I remember my first digital camera, my wife bought it for me back when we were dating, it had something like a 2 mega pixel image and everyone thought that was awesome. The new Insta360 One X takes photos at 18 mega pixels and can shoot video in 5.7K. That's just awesome, I hope that I get out and start shooting some videos so I can firstly justify the expense of my first camera and then maybe be able to buy a better one in the future.

Bomber
has camera envy

Trying to find the Motivation

With the lack of exercise looking like it is the cause of the lack of weight loss, it's time to try and motivate myself. I did a little bit of googling to see what tips and tricks were out there. Some of the them just aren't going to work for me. Sure I could try and ride my push-bike to work sometimes, but first I'd have to fix it and see if I could actually make the distance without killing myself. Sure I could sign up to a gym but they are pretty expensive and I think I would just end up wasting money. I don't have any special work out clothes to leave out to remind me and my wife would probably just put them away for me anyway.
One idea was to reward myself, this is something that I could probably do. I'm not sure what the reward should be and how or when the reward should be given. Is it every 1kg I lose, or if I don't lose 1kg in a week. My goal of being 90kg by Christmas is basically gone, I don't think that there is anyway I could possibly achieve that goal now, I think it may have been a little ambitious in the first place but it seemed so easy losing weight at the start.
I'm not sure what else I can do to motivate myself, it was easier when I was walking everyday to keep on walking each day. Maybe I shouldn't have the weekends as rest. Maybe I need to be pushing myself each day and not being lazy. Maybe it doesn't have to be walking each day, maybe I can fix my bike and take the kids for a ride around the lake or something, especially now that the weather is warmer. I don't want it to be the middle of summer and then I'm making excuses that it is too hot to be outside.
I just have to start doing these things if I want them to happen, it's like waiting to win the lottery and blaming the lack of funds in the bank on not winning the lottery yet. It's like complaining that I'm overweight but not doing anything about it and just wanting the weight to go away all by itself. I need to fire up, but I don't think I have the energy to fire up, I just need to start, I need to start trying harder. I need to make the changes needed to improve my health and stop making excuses. I don't have to walk if it is raining, I can always do star jumps and sit ups at home. I need to find the switch in my head and flick it to get myself going like I've never gone before.

Bomber
should I blame myself?

Weighing In

107.5kg
Well I guess that answers that question. Can I do no extra exercise and just lose weight by not having any beer, no, no I can't.
This week I started off really wanted to try and get 10K steps each day, but as I said on Tuesday, things weren't really going to plan. I was on call so there were no beers drunk over the weekend, or at any time and I'm still on call until my boss gets back from holidays on Monday morning. Then we can talk about how this is going to work going forward.
I think that after a few more weeks I might start to try and graph my weight loss with my steps, just to see if it obvious that the weeks that I do more steps, I lose more weight. I know that they claim 80% of losing weight is diet but I can't really change mine too much more unless I want to have different things for dinner than the rest of the family. Sure my lunches haven't been great this week but I think it just goes to show that I really need to be making an effort to get more exercise in.
I've been trying to be good and not eat anything like chocolate and jelly snakes, but temptation got the better of me a few times this week. It is still no where near where it was prior to starting this blog, I'd have lollies of some kind every night after dinner and not just one or two. I'd also have a beer or two every night during the week and more on the weekend if I had any left.

Weekly Food Diary

Saturday
Breakfast -Two english muffins and a large coffee
Morning tea - large coffee
Lunch - one salad wrap and one 6 inch subway pizza sub, one choc-chip cookie
Dinner - tuna bake
Desert - small handful of asian cracker mix
Beers - 0
Steps - 3,235

Sunday
Breakfast - 4 crumpets with margarine
Morning Tea - large coffee
Lunch - two toasted ham and cheese sandwiches
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner - Beef lasagne with grated carrots in the meat
Desert - small piece of chocolate
Beers - 0
Steps -3,065

Monday
Breakfast - 2 crumpets with margarine and 2 slices of toast with peanut butter
Morning Tea -large coffee
Lunch - left over lasagne
Afternoon Tea -small piece of chocolate and a large coffee
Dinner - Butter chicken on rice
Desert -1 slice of mud cake
Beers - 0
Steps -2,860

Tuesday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Morning Tea - medium coffee
Lunch - Beef Burger and chips from a cafe with a can of Solo
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner -3 beef tacos with sour cream, lettuce and corn
Beers - 0
Steps - 5,608

Wednesday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Morning Tea - large coffee
Lunch - multigrain ham and salad sandwich
Afternoon Tea -large coffee
Dinner - corned beef with carrot and mash
Beers - 0
Steps - 6,765

Thursday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Morning Tea - large coffee
Lunch -beef burger and chips with a glass of coke
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner - two Chicco roles cooked in the air fryer
Desert - peice of chocolate
Beers - 0
Steps - 8,811

Friday
Breakfast - three weetbix with light milk
Morning Tea - large coffee
Lunch - hotdog and apple juice
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner -Chicken kebabs with carrots and home made fries
Desert - bowl of ice cream
Beers - 0
Steps -12,951

Bomber
not going to say it

The end is near

I miss beer and I miss my fire pit. Only a few more days and then I'll no longer be on call. Next weekend I'm going to have a few beers and a fire just because I can. It may actually be too warm to need a fire so it may just be beers. I am wondering if the lack of beer will have made a difference to my weight loss considering I didn't really get as much walking in as I should have. Maybe that's why I've been doubting myself and lacking motivation, maybe that was a side effect of not drinking enough beer.... I wish. At this rate I should have participated in OctSober and got some sponsors or something so I could have raised some money. I am looking forward to seeing my pay slip and finding out just how much extra I actually made by being on call.
Next week I should find out how this on call business is going to work and once I work out what weeks I'll be on call between now and Christmas then I'll know when I should be able to plan to head off motocamping and start filming.
This weekend I'm going to try and head out for a ride and try the microphone in my helmet, I still haven't managed to do that I want to make sure that I have a working solution before I head off motocamping. I should also get out the 360° camera and try and take some photos. I think I've mentioned it before, but I want to try and change some of the settings so see if I can get better photos in low light and see if I can change the exposure settings. Hopefully on Sunday or Monday I'll be able to show you some of the fruits of my labour.

Bomber
two weeks isn't really that long

Doubting Myself

I'm really starting to doubt myself and wonder if I really want to give this motocamp360 business a proper go. It is something that I really wanted to do not that long ago, so, I'm wondering if it is just cold feet now that the weather is warming up and the days are getting longer. I set myself the goals and wrote here for the world to see that I was going to do these things and now I feel like I want to take the easy way out and pull the plug before I've even begun. I put a fair amount of effort into getting things set up and spent a bit of money getting the camera and stuff and now I don't know what to do. 
I think I just have to go through with it. I have to make myself try and do it properly and maybe that is what is scaring me. I think I've realised that it won't be so easy. Even just getting away on Tuesday evening to go camping could prove quite difficult in the short term. I need to do it just to show that I can do what I put my mind to. I need to do it properly to see if it is something that I can continue doing and if other people are interested in seeing what I'm up to. I do have two new subscribers to the channel making it a grand total of 4, but that's two people who have subscribed without me even posting more than an intro video or doing any actual promotion of the channel.
My bluetooth controller arrived on Monday so I managed to watch a National Geographic 360° video using my headset. I didn't like that particular video as they were using the full 360° but didn't give a good indication on what I was meant to be looking at. I was sitting down and it was hard to look all the way around to see what was going on behind me. At one stage I didn't know that I should be looking down to see what was going on. I also watch another video, this one about a game, but again, I didn't know where I was meant to be looking, there were rockets flying around and  smashing into things but I didn't know where to look to see the next thing. Getting the viewer to focus on the right part of the footing it probably going to be the hardest. As I'm typing this I think I just came up with a way to make sure my viewers will know where the front is, in case they get lost. It's a little hard to explain so I'll have to try it on a video and then show you.
Here's the Nat Geo video I watched, in case you are interested.

 Bomber
just gotta do it

Should I be a Vegan

Being a vegan, I like the idea of it more and more these days but I just don't think I could do it. I like meat too much. Maybe it's from watching too much River Cottage Australia but I don't know if I could raise a cow or a sheep and then kill it to eat it. 
So it makes me think, should I really be eating meat that I wouldn't be willing to kill myself? I guess if I was hungry enough then maybe I might. If I'd grown up on a farm then maybe I'd have a different view.
Growing up we had pet ducks and pet chickens and I don't think I'd have an issue raising chickens and killing them for food. I understand the issues around commercial egg and chicken meat production and don't like how most of the chickens are treated but I just don't see a way around it. Eggs are a bit like onions, they are used in so many different things and they add to food in so many ways that trying to remove all eggs and chicken based produce from your diet would be really hard. I don't have an issue that chickens have been bred to lay more eggs than they used to, as long as the chickens have a good life and are treated well, then having chickens yourself for their eggs and occasionally on the table is fine by me.
I guess this all goes back to the idea of having some land of my own and being as self sufficient as possible. I'd have chickens for eggs and meat. I'd have a large vege garden and all sorts of fruit and nut trees; All to give me as much food as possible. Processing chickens would be simple enough, even hunting rabbits for food would be fine by me. I'm happy to catch and kill fish to eat and some for other sea and fresh water creatures.
I just always get stuck at cows. I'd become too attached, I guess if they were mean cows, then maybe?

Bomber
can cows be mean?

Motivation is Lacking

I'm struggling to get myself walking. I set myself the goal of getting at least 10,000 steps each day and I'm just not doing it. I get home from work and I'm tired and just can't be bothered heading out for walk. I'm back to thinking about exercise at night instead of actually doing anything about it. 
I don't know if my belt has stretched or something but my pants don't stay up as well as they were in the extra hole I put in my belt so I'm not down to the last hole. I don't feel any slimmer and I don't look any slimmer.
I don't think that the ongoing dizziness is helping, but I don't really want to use it an excuse. It's not too bad during the day and it often seems to go away completely, but at night when I lie down it's there and then again in the morning when I get up. It seems to take a few hours to settle down. I don't know if it is related to being tired or not, or if it is just because of the start of daylight savings and getting out of bed essentially an hour earlier than I was for the last six months. I'm hoping I can get back in the swing of things but my head just doesn't seem to be in the right space to make me get out and walk. 
I've been craving something sweet in the evenings and a couple of times I've given in to temptation. It's not looking good for the weigh in this week.

Thirsty not Hungry

Early on I mentioned that I'd read somewhere that we often mistake thirst for hunger, so we often have a snack when all we really needed was some water. I now also believe that eating something with lots of sugar in it makes you want to eat more sugar. Until you cut down on sugar and start drinking more water it seems hard to believe, but I'm now a firm believer that that is true. 
Most evenings, if I wasn't having a beer, I'd be snacking on some form of junk food. Usually chocolates or party mix lollies, sometimes cookies, just stuff that I didn't really need but now if I start to feel like I need something after dinner, I am more likely to start to feel thirsty than I am to feel hungry. Still, when I go and get my drink bottle out of the fridge I see things and think, yum that'd be nice, but I know that I don't really need it and if I drink some water the hunger part will go away and usually I'll just start to feel more thirsty.
The same goes for sugar. If you stop having it, you stop getting cravings for sweet things and when you eventually have something sweet, it can taste almost too sweet. Did you know that if you really deprive yourself of added sugar and sweet snacks for a week or two that light milk starts to taste sweet, I swear it does. It almost tasted like some sort of flavoured milkshake the other day when I just had a small glass of milk by itself.

Bomber
feeling thirsty again

Daylight Savings is Here

Last night the clocks went forward an hour, so we're now in daylight savings and all my excuses for not getting out motocamping are evaporating.
I need to work out with my boss when he expects me to be on call as it is a new thing for us and we don't know how long one of us will need to be on call. It's a rare thing to be called in but I still need to make sure that they can actually call me and I can actually go in to work if required. The good thing about being on call is that I get some extra money in my pay just for making sure that I'm available and if they do call me in then I get even more money. The bad part is that they may call me at any time of the day or night when I'm not at work so I can't have anything to drink and I need to make sure that I can get to work in a reasonable amount of time even if it means taking the kids with me. I guess what I'm getting at is that if I'm on call, then I can't go motocamping.
Being on call is probably a good thing for weight loss though as I won't be having any beers at all, even on the weekend. It will be interesting to see how much of a difference that makes and I'm going to try extra hard to get walking after work this week to really try and get back on track.
I have tomorrow off so I can look after the kids as it's the only day of the school holidays that we haven't been able to find someone to help us out with. I don't like shipping the kids off to other people during the holidays but we don't have much of a choice at the moment. They've just come back from a week down the coast with their Nan and Pop so they are probably looking forward to spending some time at home.

Bomber
the days are longer already

Weighing In

107.5kg
The start of this week was a long weekend and I decided that weekends and public holidays are for relaxing and doing some yard work. I worked on this blog a bit on Monday as I need to think of decent topics and have some time to actually think and write uninterrupted and the weekends give me the best chance of doing that. I also don't want to be worrying about steps or exercise on the weekends. I'll still watch what I'm eating and try to drink more water but it is what it is and if that affects my weight by Christmas then so be it. As long as I'm losing weight each week I'm happy.
This week wasn't the best for getting stepping, I managed to get out for a walk on Tuesday but it was raining on Wednesday and Thursday I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Friday I got over 10K steps just after getting home from work so I was happy enough with that. I walked to lunch at the shops, like I do most Fridays, which is about 15 minutes each way so I'm calling that exercise for the day!
When you look at how I started the week diet wise, I'm surprised I lost anything at all. Alibaba with hot chips for lunch, schnitzel burger and chips, Pizza for dinner and again for lunch. I even had some chocolate this week and more beers than usual and that was on Sunday night when I don't usually have any beers.
I'm hoping that next week will be better.



Weekly Food Diary

Saturday
Breakfast - two pieces of toast with peanut butter
Morning Tea - medium coffee with full cream milk and one sugar. Large blueberry muffin and a jam roll (we had morning tea with my Dad again as my wife was working).
Lunch - Ali Baba beef kebab with lettuce and onion, small chips and 300ml coke.
Afternoon Tea - Large coffee with lite milk and one sugar
Dinner - Roast chicken and vegetables
Desert - Cadbury fury friends chocolate bar.
Beers - 2
Steps - 4,634

Sunday
Breakfast - Two english muffins with margarine
MorningTea - large coffee and two chocolate cookies
Lunch - Chicken schnitzel burger with chips from a local cafe
Dinner - two lamb wraps with lettuce and onion
Beers - 5
Steps - 1,064 - I did most of my walking around Ikea after lunch and my fitbit was at home on charge so the figure is not that accurate and if you've ever been to Ikea, you'll know how much walking can be involved.

Monday
Breakfast - Two english muffins with margarine and a large coffee
Morning Tea - medium coffee
Lunch - two left over lamb wraps with lettuce and onion
Dinner - 6 slices of Crust pepperoni pizza
Steps -2,910

Tuesday
Breakfast - Three Weetbix with light UHT milk
Morning Tea - Coffee bag sweet and condensed milk
Lunch - left over pizza
Dinner - two left over lamb wraps with lettuce and onion
Steps - 8,360

Wednesday
Breakfast - Three Weetbix with light UHT milk
Morning Tea - large coffee
Lunch -Roast beef and salad wrap
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner -BBQ steak with mash and asparagus
Steps -5,813

Thursday
Breakfast - Three Weetbix with light UHT milk
Morning Tea - medium coffee
Lunch - Satay chicking noodle box from slow noodle fast
Dinner -Latina fresh spinach and ricotta agnolotti with carbonara sauce
Steps - 4,977

Friday
Breakfast - Three Weetbix with light UHT milk
Morning Tea - Large Coffee
Lunch - meat pie and apple juice
Afternoon Tea - large coffee
Dinner -Chicken Stir Fry and a small block of chocolate
Steps - 10,232

Bomber
seriously, play time is over now

360 Videos

I've being to-ing and fro-ing about the whole Patreon idea and making the 360° videos, or just making the standard 16:9 videos on YouTube. I'm a little concerned that making good 360° videos that flow well could be really hard. 
I also realised that although I have the intro video for the YouTube 16:9 videos, I don't have a 360° video intro. I did the "welcome" videos for both Patreon and YouTube but not the intro Titles, the short little video that actually says Motocamp360 on it that will play at the start of every video.
For consistency I thought should use the same music and a similar style clip but I need to be focused on the one 360° angle properly, so if people are watching using a VR headset that they don't miss anything of what I'm trying to show and that the logo shows up correctly and not all stretched out of shape.
Making the 360° intro was quite hard and that's what got me thinking about if the Patreon idea really is a good idea or not. 
I realised that because it will be hard to make and do correctly, that's the reason why I should be making the 360° videos and making sure that they are done right, with 360° titles and content that is appropriate for viewing with a VR headset. Content that wouldn't look the same if shot in standard 16:9. Content that people would be happy to pay a couple of dollars for.
My idea of making the 360° video and then making a 16:9 version of it may still work but I really need to concentrate on making the 360° video great for viewing with a VR headset and if that means that it's not so great for 16:9 and I have to remake the video then that's what I'll have to do.
I need to get my head around watching videos and working in 360° if I'm to succeed at this business, it's no good just making 360° videos if I haven't done any research into what successful 360° content creators are currently doing. I already have a cheap VR headset that uses my phone and I've ordered a bluetooth remote for controlling and clicking within VR. Now I've just got to see if I can find some decent content creators to get an idea of what is out there and what you can do in 360° that you can't do in normal video.

Here's what I've come up with for the 360° Intro but I'm not 100% on it, I may need to re-do it.

 

Bomber
strapping on the headset

Firming up the Dates

Wednesday 24 October, Wednesday 14 November and Wednesday 12 December are the three dates that I'm still thinking are the best option for heading out motocamping. I need to work out with my boss which weeks I'll be on call as the whole "on call" business kind of jumped out of nowhere and surprised us. I won't be able to head out if I'm on call but it does mean that I should have a better chance of heading off when not on call and I'll be earning more money from being on call.
I'm still very keen on Honeysuckle camp ground for my first trip. I know I can easily try Tallaganda State Forest as there are two things I'd like to do in the area. The third location has to have two things to do there, I know I mentioned doing damper or something in a fire but it has been so dry that before long we'll be in total fire ban season and it could last for most of Summer if we don't start getting some serious rain soon.
I think that third location will have to be near the coast or a decent river so I can do some fishing and have a swim too.  Deua River Camp-ground could be the way to go. I'm still hoping that by going mid-week that I'll have a lot of these locations to myself and won't have to worry about other people being around whilst I try and talk to the camera.

Bomber
wanting more free time

Microphone on the Bike and Stealing Ideas

I realised the other day that I still haven't tested out the new microphone in the helmet. I don't know what speeds I can ride before the wind noise gets too much or if it will work at all. I need to get that sorted out before I head out again too. I don't want to be trying new things out when I'm meant to be concentrating on getting all the right footage and audio to make the videos work. I need to be confident in my own ability to do these things otherwise the videos will be no good.
I've been watching a lot of one particular show on TV at the moment, River Cottage Australia, I like the way it's been filmed and there is quite a bit of commentary that is obviously done in post production. If the audio whilst riding doesn't work out then I guess I'll be doing a lot of the audio in post too. I like the format that River Cottage Australia is presented in, in terms of what they show and when. They usually start each episode with some drone footage and music of River Cottage and then do a "in this episode..." montage. After that is the intro video which is short and the same thing in each episode. They then go on to the new episode and basically have a set format of some time in the yard, some time in the kitchen, catching up with a friend or fellow farmer and some more time in the yard. They end each episode with with a "in the next episode..." montage. What I've noticed is that the "in the next episode.." and the "in this episode..." are the same montage, the end of last week goes on the start of this week, if that makes sense. I'm thinking that I can steal that idea and do the same if possible. 
One of my favourite YouTubers has also started motocamping again and he is hoping to get out and do more of it in the coming weeks. Hopefully he can give me enough motivation to get out there myself and really have a crack at this motocamping video thing that I've been harping on about for the few months.

Bomber
wondering if the time is coming

New Cameras on the Market

There is a new Insta360 coming out in a few days. They are hyping up the stabilisation and it looks like it can be thrown, or at least they are throwing it in the promo video, but it looks like they are catching it in an umbrella or something. Regardless the video looks pretty cool and the stabilisation looks amazing, even better than the new GoPro Hero 7. They have shown a comparison of the new Insta360 vs Hero 7 vs Sony's action cam and yeah, for stability it wins hands down. The comparison does show that the GoPro Hero 7 probably has better image quality but the price tag will be there to match that.
I think I still made the right decision going with the Insta360 One even though I haven't been playing with it since my trip down the coast. I do want to test a few things out before I go my next trip to see if I can improve the night time/low light image quality and how I can take longer exposure photos at night to capture the scene a little better and maybe even get the stars to "streak" in the sky. I'm guessing that I'll need a really dark environment with no moon to get the best chance of seeing the stars moving but it could be fun to try it out.
I'm yet to get another battery pack so I can recharge the camera on my trips away. I'm concerned that with the time-lapse videos that I want as well as the longer exposure photos that I'll chew through the battery fairly quickly so that's another reason to test these things out prior to the next trip.

Here's the video showing them throwing the new camera around.

 

Bomber
not throwing his camera just yet

Motorcycle Training

In NSW, to get your motorcycle licence you first have to attend a course that consists of two half days. They provide everything you need on the day; Gloves, helmets and motorbikes. You must do this course and then pass a written test before they will give you a learners licence. 
The course itself is reasonably easy if you have a little understanding of how to ride a push bike. It would probably be a little more difficult if you'd never driven a manual car so didn't have an understanding of how a clutch worked. They do go through all of that and I think on the day that I did the course everyone had some understanding on how to drive and we were all just learning about how to do it on a motorbike.
Once you have passed the course and passed the written test you're given a learners licence. In NSW this means that you can ride up 90km/h and you can ride by yourself. In QLD you are meant to ride with an experienced rider following behind you. Your learners licence is valid for 12 months, you can renew it by doing the course and written test again but if you're going to be paying for all of that again you may as well try and move on to the next level if you can.
You must hold your learners licence for at least three months before you can attempt to pass the test to get a provisional licence. To get a provisional licence you have to attend another course, this one is a full day course with a riding test at the end. If you pass the riding test then you can get your provisional licence (P1). You progress from a P1 to a P2 after 12 months but there is no more tests or training required.
Since I got my P1 licence a few years ago and have never done any more training I was thinking that it could be a good idea to try and get some more advanced training. There are a range of courses available for road riding, adventure riding and off road riding. I think that getting some more experience in adventure riding would be beneficial to me as the Learner and Provisional courses only focus on road skills and even then they are really just to get you riding. As I want to head out to more adventurous areas motocamping having a bit more knowledge could be really handy. The only thing that I'm not so sure on is my current tyres. My rear tyre in particular is only really suited to on road riding and little bit of well maintained dirt road.
I'm going to set that as another goal for me to achieve in the next 12 months. Attend some form of adventure motorcycle training.

Bomber
still setting goals