Well hello, it's been quite a while hasn't it. I'm sorry to say that not much has changed at really. I've given up on the whole Motocamp360 YouTube channel idea, but I still want to lose some weight but I'm not beating myself up over it.
Recently I've been getting quite frustrated with work so I've decided that I want to try and do something about that. I have roughly 18 months until I'm eligible for long service leave and I hope to take a month or two off shortly after reaching that milestone. Once I've had that break I think I want to see if I can change direction in my career. I've been thinking about how I'm going to do that and what direction I should take. Currently I'm thinking that I'd like to give programming a go. I think I'm going to try and learn a programming language and see where that takes me.
I've always had an interest in programming and seeing that I make the time to play games on the computer, or watch YouTube most nights, I think that I can find some time to try and learn a new skill.
Looking at what's out there and doing a little research, I think learning Python could be the way to go. There is almost too much information out there so I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.
Anyway, thinking about learning a new skill got me thinking about this blog and that I haven't written anything in ages. Maybe I'll give some regular updates on how I go with learning Python or maybe I won't, I don't really know. I don't want to commit to writing everyday like I tried previously but I think writing regularly did help motivate me even if I never really did achieve any of my goals.
Bomber.
maybe I'll see you around.
Tuesday, 17 December 2019
Tuesday, 30 July 2019
Ups and Downs
Back in April I mentioned that they were looking at doing some internal promotions at work and that I was going to apply for one if I could. Well I did and this week I found out that I wasn't successful. I was and still am pretty disappointed that nothing came of it and the worst part is that from what I can gather, the position that I've been acting in for the last three years will remain vacant. So although I didn't get the job I wanted, no one else seems to have got it either, which means that I'll probably have to keep doing the work. I'm going to chat to my boss about it some more as if they don't want to be pay me to do the job and officially recognise me in that position, then they can give the responsibilities to someone else. I really don't think that there is any more that I could do in my current role to prove that I can do the job so if they aren't going to give it to me, I'm not going to beg and I'll probably start looking around and seeing what else is out there that I'd be interested in.
If I do end up stepping back from the current role then I'll have more time to spend on working on the YouTube endeavour as it will be easier to knock off early or do some four day weeks so I can get out camping more often.
Speaking of taking it easy, my wife finally agreed to go on another cruise. I started mentioning it a few weeks back and it obviously got her thinking about it. Today we actually made a booking and paid a deposit, we're going to cruise the South Pacific late next year. Yes it's a long time away but it will give us something to look forward to and allow us to save up and pay the cruise off over the next 12 months. I'm already feeling better about not getting the promotion at work just thinking about spending a week and a half on a boat with nothing to worry about except putting on sunscreen and which pool to relax in next.
Bomber
I'd better slim down before I fatten myself up again.
If I do end up stepping back from the current role then I'll have more time to spend on working on the YouTube endeavour as it will be easier to knock off early or do some four day weeks so I can get out camping more often.
Speaking of taking it easy, my wife finally agreed to go on another cruise. I started mentioning it a few weeks back and it obviously got her thinking about it. Today we actually made a booking and paid a deposit, we're going to cruise the South Pacific late next year. Yes it's a long time away but it will give us something to look forward to and allow us to save up and pay the cruise off over the next 12 months. I'm already feeling better about not getting the promotion at work just thinking about spending a week and a half on a boat with nothing to worry about except putting on sunscreen and which pool to relax in next.
Bomber
I'd better slim down before I fatten myself up again.
Friday, 26 July 2019
Happy Friday!
I've had a busy week and it has gone quickly. There has been a lot to do at work and I'm finding things that other people said that they'd done, not done at all or done really poorly. It's getting quite frustrating but I've been making to tidy things up and I've been trying to put processes in place that will make my life easier going forward for those too lazy to do the job properly. Anyway that's enough about work, I wasn't born to pay bills and die.
I've been chatting with a couple of mates and we're trying to organise a camping trip out to a nearby state forest. We can camp for free in any state forest but only a few of them have dedicated camp grounds. The others you kind of have to find a spot that works in amongst the trees, quite often they are large pine plantations so there aren't many good places but we're still going to give it a go and try and find an out of the way spot and have a primitive camp. I won't be filming any of it for YouTube but I may take some photos for Instagram. I might also take out my wife's camera which is pretty good and try and take some photos of the sky at night as we should be a long way from any light polution.
Speaking of Instagram, I need to take some more photos for that but I'm hoping to head out over the weekend and take some if the weather is nice. I've currently got 88 followers and I hope to keep slowly growing the following. I'm enjoying posting to Instagram, the audience is completely strangers who have found my posts as I still haven't promoted any of the social media accounts that I have. I like that it is organic, it will probably take longer to get a large following, but at least I know it will be from people who chose to follow because they liked what they saw.
I haven't been exercising and my diet hasn't changed, but to be honest I've been happier not really worrying about any of that. I feel more relaxed about this blog since I stopped writing everyday, it was becoming a chore and that was never meant to be the case.
Bomber
Bring on the weekend.
I've been chatting with a couple of mates and we're trying to organise a camping trip out to a nearby state forest. We can camp for free in any state forest but only a few of them have dedicated camp grounds. The others you kind of have to find a spot that works in amongst the trees, quite often they are large pine plantations so there aren't many good places but we're still going to give it a go and try and find an out of the way spot and have a primitive camp. I won't be filming any of it for YouTube but I may take some photos for Instagram. I might also take out my wife's camera which is pretty good and try and take some photos of the sky at night as we should be a long way from any light polution.
Speaking of Instagram, I need to take some more photos for that but I'm hoping to head out over the weekend and take some if the weather is nice. I've currently got 88 followers and I hope to keep slowly growing the following. I'm enjoying posting to Instagram, the audience is completely strangers who have found my posts as I still haven't promoted any of the social media accounts that I have. I like that it is organic, it will probably take longer to get a large following, but at least I know it will be from people who chose to follow because they liked what they saw.
I haven't been exercising and my diet hasn't changed, but to be honest I've been happier not really worrying about any of that. I feel more relaxed about this blog since I stopped writing everyday, it was becoming a chore and that was never meant to be the case.
Bomber
Bring on the weekend.
Monday, 22 July 2019
Solar Power
Last week my solar panels were installed. I ended up getting 5.27kW of panels paired to a 4kW inverter. Where I live I can only export a maximum of 5kW to the grid and as the kids are at school and my wife and I are at work most days, we don't have a huge amount of power usage during the day. I would end up making more power then I could export so the return on the investment would be there to have a larger system with a larger inverter, the next size up was 8kW.
I'm glad that I went the way I did, using tilt stands instead of just lying the panels flat on the roof. I'm already maxing out the inverter for an hour or so in the middle of each day where if the panels were flat, I wouldn't be generating as much power. Yes the tilt frames cost more, but I think it will be worth it in the long run and either way, what's done is done so there is no point worrying about it any longer.
On Tuesday I dropped my wife at work and then took the kids to the dentist, you can see in the graph when I came home and we turned the heater back on. This was the day before the solar system got installed.
Our electricity provider had already configured us in advance so we were up and running the day the solar system was installed.
On Thursday I was home with the kids all day and you can see where the solar system started producing power and we weren't using any from the grid. I'm pretty impressed the the electricity provider has all this information available on their website. It takes a couple of days for it to be available but to be able to see an hour by hour break down of your consumption and your generation is pretty cool. The graphs are showing the cost, so the export to the grid looks small as they don't pay very much. I managed to get up to 3kWh export for a bit on Thursday so the system works and I'm very happy with the results.
I'm looking forward to seeing the difference between summer and winter, I'm not sure if I'll get into credit with such a low feed in tariff but I'm hoping to at least be almost neutral for summer.
Bomber
One thing ticked off the unofficial list at last.
I'm glad that I went the way I did, using tilt stands instead of just lying the panels flat on the roof. I'm already maxing out the inverter for an hour or so in the middle of each day where if the panels were flat, I wouldn't be generating as much power. Yes the tilt frames cost more, but I think it will be worth it in the long run and either way, what's done is done so there is no point worrying about it any longer.
Our electricity provider had already configured us in advance so we were up and running the day the solar system was installed.
I'm looking forward to seeing the difference between summer and winter, I'm not sure if I'll get into credit with such a low feed in tariff but I'm hoping to at least be almost neutral for summer.
Bomber
One thing ticked off the unofficial list at last.
Friday, 19 July 2019
One Year Later
This could be a rather long post as it is made up of entries from the last 12 months of blogging. It's kind of a mini blog in itself or a TL;DR for the past year (although it is pretty long). At the end of each month's entry is a list of all the goals that I've set and my progress against each of them.Reading through each months entry myself makes me remember things that I'd forgotten had happened. Life certainly moves very fast at times.
26 August 2018
Back on the 26th of August 2018, I came up with the idea for this post. I actually started writing this post on that day. I didn't publish the post with this idea in it until the 28th of August because that's just how I roll. At this time (August 2018) I often write three or four posts over the weekend and schedule them to be published so that there is one post at 19:30 each day. I do go back and check them prior to being published and I sometimes change the order of the posts as I come up with new ideas or something might happen on a particular day and it makes more sense to publish that then what I had already scheduled for the day.
I've been a little bit in the wars this month. I busted my knee somehow, the doctor never gave me a firm diagnoses but I had an ultrasound and they couldn't find anything so it was likely just some tendinitis. I also started feeling really dizzy, so I was back at the doctors and they did a round of blood tests. I'm currently waiting for the results of them but it is most likely due to me losing weight and not eating as much crap. That has caused my blood pressure to drop.
I'm doubting that I'll be able to get even 20 videos out in a year as it seems quite daunting but I'm still keen to give it a go. I've spoken to my wife about heading out camping mid-week and she seems ok with it at this stage. I've also spoken with my boss at work and he's ok with me taking time out every few weeks too.
There has been a number of goals set this month as it is the first month of the blog
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 70,000 steps each week - currently at about 65,000 steps on average.
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 0 subscribers
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 108.5kg
- Shoot intro videos by end of August - Not looking so good
- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
19 September 2018Dizziness, a cold and weight gained, that's how to summarise the last month. The blood tests didn't shed any light as to what may be wrong, I've still got a few more days of tablets left and if I'm still dizzy after I finish all the tablets then I have to go back to the doctors.
This month I went camping solo for the first time. I also shot the introduction videos for YouTube and Patreon. I came up with some t-shirt designs.
I've managed to cross off one goal this month. I'm guessing that crossing them off will become harder and harder as time goes on.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 70,000 steps each week - currently just under 65,000 steps on average, so down from last month (no surprises there)
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife) but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 108kg that's only 0.5kg from this time last month as I put on 1kg last week.
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned yet.
Still got some dizziness, it started off not so bad but sometimes it gets pretty bad. I'm thinking that I may have to go back to the doctor. This month I went and visited my Sister as she was graduating from University with a bachelor of medicine. I didn't really do that well with my diet or exercise in the last month, hopefully I'm getting back on the right track now. I didn't achieve any goals in the last month but I did set one new goal.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 70,000 steps each week - roughly 60,500
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 3 subscribers but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 107.5kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
19 November 2018
This month I started off by setting myself a mini goal of having to lose 1kg a week or I'd have to join a gym. I'm not adding that to the list of goals as it ties in with the general goal of losing weight. 1kg a week isn't enough to hit my goal of 90kg by Christmas but I think there is no way I could reach that goal now. I still want to get down to 90kg though. What I did add was a goal of burning on average 4.6K calories each day. That can be achieved by walking or other forms of exercise... then the vertigo returned with a vengeance and I ended up giving myself a week off from everything. I also discovered that maybe my metabolism had changed and that was why I'd stopped losing weight.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 70,000 steps each week - this month I averaged just over 61,000 steps
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 4 subscribers and I still haven't launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently xxxkg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 4,004
19 December 2018
This month I purchased some dumbbells to use in the garage. I also had a couple of slack weeks and stopped writing the food diary as it wasn't helping and was just taking up too much time to actually do properly. I didn't complete any goals this month and it's safe to say that I'll fail the 90kg by Christmas goal. Knowing what I do now, I think that the goal was probably unachievable just by doing what I had planned to do which was to exercise a little more and reduce the amount of junk I eat. I think that if I wanted to lose that much weight I'd have to make major changes to all meals and maybe even go on a shake diet. This month I also missed my first daily blog. I thought that I had one scheduled and ready to go but for some reason I hadn't done that so I just completely missed a day. Towards the end of the month I also gave up on walking and using weights. Work was just getting to me too much and I just wanted to put my feet up when I got home.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 70,000 steps each week - just less than 50,000 on average
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 4 subscribers and I still haven't launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 108kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 3,744
I needed a break. This month I was really feeling ready for a break and even when I got one, it didn't seem long enough. I didn't achieve anywhere near as many goals as I'd set for myself for the year and I had no real plans to actually meet any of them in the near future. My wife and I also started talking about possibly extending the house or maybe moving to somewhere a little bigger.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 70,000 steps each week is now 10,000 steps daily average - 5,168
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife) but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 111kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 3,267
What a month this has been. Nothing to do with motocamping or losing weight, in fact I put on weight and only went camping in the car with the kids during school holidays. What has happened this month is that we decided that we would like to sell our house and upsize to a new one out at Googong. Little did I know that it would all happen in just a couple of weeks and we are now just waiting for settlement to occur around mid March. In fact the next monthly update should be the day before settlement. This blog was always meant to be about me being better and I'm not sure if moving house really counts but I guess that getting a nicer house and having a better standard of living is good all round.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 10,000 steps daily average -7,947
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife) but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently110kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 3,780
Today we moved into our new house. That wasn't even on the horizon when I started this blog. If you had told me when I started writing this blog that we'd have purchased a brand new, never lived in house by today, I would have laughed and said that it wasn't even possible. In this last month we took the family to the Gold Coast for a holiday in a luxury house right on one of the canals. Today also marks when I have given myself to, to get my exercise routine back in order. Next month will hopefully show the fruits of my labour. I also added a new goal this month and that was to post a new Instagram post every week.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 10,000 steps daily average - 8,860 this month
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife) but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 112kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September 2018- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 3,901 this month
- Post a new Instagram photo each week - starting this month
It's still been a bit of a blur but things seem to be getting back on track. The weather is cooling down and daylight savings has ended but I'm exercising and losing a little weight again. Things are settling down at home so my weekends will become a little more available to motorcycling pursuits. I just need to take advantage of nice weather whenever I can. This month is the first time I've averaged over 10,000 steps each day and averaged over 4.6K calories each day.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 10,000 steps daily average - 11,572 this month
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife) but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 109kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September 2018- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 4.63K this month
- Post a new Instagram photo each week - I posted once in the last month and that was last weekend.
I haven't changed my step goal yet but it is probably getting close to the time where I should increase it. This month I didn't quite meet my targets which somewhat surprises me as I did last month and I feel that this month I've tried harder.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet
- 10,000 steps daily average - 9,500 this month
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife) but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 110kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September 2018- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 4.04K this month
- Post a new Instagram photo each week - I haven't posted at all in the last month, bad Bomber.
19 June 2019A mixed bag this month. The colder weather and some trips away with work have impacted my step targets but I'm persisting and the weight is very very slowly coming back down.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - Took some footage this month but no motocamping trips
- 10,000 steps daily average - 9,255 this month
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife) but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 109kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September 2018- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - I'm starting to really feel like I'm becoming a better Dad, I just need to work harder on being a better Husband.
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned but I need to get onto this, I think I've found the right course.
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 4.1K this month
- Post a new Instagram photo each week - I took a bunch of photos this month and will release a new photo each week until I run out, hopefully I'll take some more before that happens.
19 July 2019
Well it's been one year since I started this blog. I blogged nearly every day up until the last couple of weeks. All up I've published 344 posts in 365 days, that's a pretty fair effort. I just seemed to run out of things to write about which was part of why I stopped writing every day and life had settled down for me. I've been really busy at work and I've been happy watching TV with my wife instead of spending time on the computer.
Start Blog- Completed 19 July 2018- Start YouTube Channel - This never really happened
- 10,000 steps daily average - 8,286 average this month
- 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife)
- Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
- Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
- Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
- Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently 109kg
Shoot intro videos by end of August- Completed 14 September 2018- Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
- Be a better Husband and Dad - I think I've become a better Dad
- Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
- Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
- Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - 3.2K this month
- Post a new Instagram photo each week - I haven't taken any more photos from what I had previously.
Bomber
I'll still be writing regularly, just not daily unless there is a lot happening; And thank-you for reading all the way to the end of this post :)
Sunday, 7 July 2019
Weighing In
I'm still here, I just haven't really had anything much to say recently. I guess it's what's called writers block or something like that. To be honest, it's kind of been nice not worrying about if I have something to post or not. I have been a little tired and I was a little sick during the week but I think things have just been very much the same for the last week or so I didn't see the point in trying to invent something to write about.
Diet hasn't changed, I haven't really tried that hard. I don't think I got out for one walk this week, we had people coming around to give quotes on doing up the study a couple of afternoons and it was raining another afternoon. I guess I just wanted to take a break from it all.
I've gained a couple of new Instagram followers but still haven't taken any new photos. I probably had time this weekend but I spent it on the couch instead.
Weight: 108.8kg
Steps for the week: 51,034
Average daily calorie burn: 3,607
Bomber
Time to start again.
Diet hasn't changed, I haven't really tried that hard. I don't think I got out for one walk this week, we had people coming around to give quotes on doing up the study a couple of afternoons and it was raining another afternoon. I guess I just wanted to take a break from it all.
I've gained a couple of new Instagram followers but still haven't taken any new photos. I probably had time this weekend but I spent it on the couch instead.
Weight: 108.8kg
Steps for the week: 51,034
Average daily calorie burn: 3,607
Time to start again.
Monday, 1 July 2019
Struggling
I'm really struggling for content at the moment. Nothing is really happening at the moment besides waking up, going to work, coming home, going for a walk, having dinner and then going to bed. There hasn't been any real news or anything that I've done or thought about or goals that I've set myself. I don't want to just write meaningless posts just for the sake or writing something.
I guess one thing that has happened that I was expecting was that once I started posting to Instagram regularly was that I may pick up more followers. Since I posted only a couple of times and seem to attract new follows every week or so, I imagined that I would get more followers pretty easily. I was actually talking to my wife about it and saying how I had 75 followers, then next time I checked I had 74. I don't think that I've actually got any new followers at all since I posted each Monday for the last four weeks. I've had quite a few likes on my posts, not all of them from followers so I guess I'm getting out there a little. I'm going to persist with it for as long as I can, who knows, maybe I can get a following or maybe people just won't be interested in what I'm doing.
Bomber
Sometimes I have verbal diarrhoea, other times not so much.
I guess one thing that has happened that I was expecting was that once I started posting to Instagram regularly was that I may pick up more followers. Since I posted only a couple of times and seem to attract new follows every week or so, I imagined that I would get more followers pretty easily. I was actually talking to my wife about it and saying how I had 75 followers, then next time I checked I had 74. I don't think that I've actually got any new followers at all since I posted each Monday for the last four weeks. I've had quite a few likes on my posts, not all of them from followers so I guess I'm getting out there a little. I'm going to persist with it for as long as I can, who knows, maybe I can get a following or maybe people just won't be interested in what I'm doing.
Bomber
Sometimes I have verbal diarrhoea, other times not so much.
Sunday, 30 June 2019
Weighing In
I didn't end up heading out for a ride today, it was pretty cold and very windy, that doesn't make for a good time on a motorcycle. I basically spent the day at home doing nothing much, just relaxing and watching the rest of Chernobyl. I checked to see how many more photos I have that I an upload to Instagram and I have two if not three that I'm happy with so I have a little more time to get some more photos taken.
I still haven't got my diet under control so I'll try and start again tomorrow. Last night I didn't have any beers but I had about half a block of chocolate, I can't control the cravings yet, I need to remember to drink water when I'm craving as that's what I did previously and it seemed to work. Early in the week I started feeling like I didn't care if I lost weight or not, I enjoy eating food and drinking beer, why can't I just be happy and not worry about my weight. Then yesterday I realised that if I lost weight I would probably be happier and live a longer life and not be at greater risk of disease or other health issues. If I can lose the weight, I should be able to keep it off, I've bene pretty successful at maintaining my weight at the moment, so sure if I lost weight I'd be able to maintain that too? Maybe it's not that easy but if I don't ever lose the weight in the first place I'll never know.
I almost made it to 70K steps this week, if I hadn't spend the Tuesday at home with my daughter I would have done it for use. I'm not upset that I didn't make it, I'm actually pretty happy that I got close to it after taking it easy on Sunday and then again on Tuesday.
Weight: 108.3kg
Steps for the week: 65,588
Average daily calorie burn: 3,881
Bomber
Food need to be my focus
I still haven't got my diet under control so I'll try and start again tomorrow. Last night I didn't have any beers but I had about half a block of chocolate, I can't control the cravings yet, I need to remember to drink water when I'm craving as that's what I did previously and it seemed to work. Early in the week I started feeling like I didn't care if I lost weight or not, I enjoy eating food and drinking beer, why can't I just be happy and not worry about my weight. Then yesterday I realised that if I lost weight I would probably be happier and live a longer life and not be at greater risk of disease or other health issues. If I can lose the weight, I should be able to keep it off, I've bene pretty successful at maintaining my weight at the moment, so sure if I lost weight I'd be able to maintain that too? Maybe it's not that easy but if I don't ever lose the weight in the first place I'll never know.
I almost made it to 70K steps this week, if I hadn't spend the Tuesday at home with my daughter I would have done it for use. I'm not upset that I didn't make it, I'm actually pretty happy that I got close to it after taking it easy on Sunday and then again on Tuesday.
Weight: 108.3kg
Steps for the week: 65,588
Average daily calorie burn: 3,881
Bomber
Food need to be my focus
Saturday, 29 June 2019
What are Weekends for?
Last night when I was in bed I realised that I hadn't put the 360 Camera on charge and then this morning I completely forgot about it until I had already left and was on the way to work. The weather on the way home was clear and sunny so I could have taken some great shots so it really was a missed a opportunity.
It didn't start raining until this evening but it was quite cloudy from around 2pm onwards and my wife had take my daughter to a birthday party so I was at home with my son. I ended up watching a three episodes of Chernobyl. I knew a little about the disaster already and a few years back I had actually researched it a little out of curiosity, the mini series is really good and I've enjoyed the first three episodes a lot.
Tomorrow I'm not sure what I'm doing, the weather bureau think that the afternoon is going to be mostly sunny so I might try and remember to head out for a ride to take some photos. I still have two or three photos left to post to Instagram from my last trip with the camera but it will be good to keep having some ready instead of feeling like I have to rush around and take them so I can keep posting new ones each week. Since it was raining I can't get too adventurous as my rear tyre won't have enough grip on any wet dirt, but I'm sure I can find some places to go that are interesting enough.
I filled up with fuel and checked my tyre pressures on Friday afternoon so I'll be able to head out without too much drama. Now that I think about it, I may just head out towards the mountains on the paved roads and see what I can see. There may have been some snow falling at the higher altitudes on the mountains around Canberra.
Bomber
Budding Instagrammer
It didn't start raining until this evening but it was quite cloudy from around 2pm onwards and my wife had take my daughter to a birthday party so I was at home with my son. I ended up watching a three episodes of Chernobyl. I knew a little about the disaster already and a few years back I had actually researched it a little out of curiosity, the mini series is really good and I've enjoyed the first three episodes a lot.
Tomorrow I'm not sure what I'm doing, the weather bureau think that the afternoon is going to be mostly sunny so I might try and remember to head out for a ride to take some photos. I still have two or three photos left to post to Instagram from my last trip with the camera but it will be good to keep having some ready instead of feeling like I have to rush around and take them so I can keep posting new ones each week. Since it was raining I can't get too adventurous as my rear tyre won't have enough grip on any wet dirt, but I'm sure I can find some places to go that are interesting enough.
I filled up with fuel and checked my tyre pressures on Friday afternoon so I'll be able to head out without too much drama. Now that I think about it, I may just head out towards the mountains on the paved roads and see what I can see. There may have been some snow falling at the higher altitudes on the mountains around Canberra.
Bomber
Budding Instagrammer
Thursday, 27 June 2019
An Update
It's been a while since I last posted about doing things around the house so I thought I'd give a quick update.
Solar Power - Everything is currently booked in and it will be about another three weeks until the system gets installed. I then have to wait for an inspector to come and look at the installation and also get my electricity supplier to get everything set up at their end so I can start exporting my excess power to the grid and get paid for it. Winter is really seeing our electricity usage go up, my wife was looking at our usage the other day and the weekends were costing us close to $20 a day in electricity. We cook with gas and also our hot water is gas so the $20 is for lighting (which are all LED), TVs, gaming consoles, computers and the biggest expense will be heating. The heating and cooling costs are what I want to offset the most by getting solar.
Recycling - I've been putting all the bottles and cans that have 10c refund on them into containers and every couple of weeks. The first time I went we gave the vouchers away to a homeless man. The next time I used the app and got the refund transferred to my PayPal account. The third time I forgot to take my phone so I just got vouchers when I then used to buy some lunch stuff with at the supermarket. The last time I went I used the app and got the money transferred to PayPal. I then used the money in my PayPal account to buy a new gasket for my motorcycle (which is still leaking oil by the way). The app keeps track of how many items I've recycled and how much money it's refunded to me. So far I have recycle 116 containers and earned $11.60. It hardly seems worth it from the money point of view but it is good to be returning the items which I know will actually get recycled. In Australia at the moment, we're having trouble recycling a lot of our recyclables and plenty of it is just ending up in landfill. I know that by putting the cans and bottles through the reverse vending machines that they are getting sorted properly and have a greater chance of actually being recycled.
Renovations - I never thought I'd be saying that word just yet, but we're looking at getting some work done in the fourth bedroom/study. We would really love to have a wall bed and a built in desk with some more storage so we can make the most of the room. Currently the room has the desk that I built myself at the last house which was great for there, but we don't need hidden away at the new house. We're looking at getting some quotes in the next couple of weeks to see what we're in for.
Fire Pit - I haven't done anything further about making a more permanent fire pit in the back yard. I still want to do this and I may set up some pavers in the next few weeks so I can have another fire. Where I did the last fire I put some pavers down about half way through the night and there is a dead patch of grass in the lawn which I'm not too impressed about.
Moving House, Healthy Living and Habits - these all tie into what I was saying the other day about going for walks and it becoming second nature. I got home from work and my daughter is sitting on her bike out the front of the house waiting for me to come home so she can go for a ride when I go for my walk. I think we did make the right decision moving out to Googong, I'm enjoying living here and I feel like we have a better quality of life then we did before. I'm looking forward to Googong growing and more parks and playgrounds being built for us to explore and enjoy.
Bomber
Enjoying life.
Solar Power - Everything is currently booked in and it will be about another three weeks until the system gets installed. I then have to wait for an inspector to come and look at the installation and also get my electricity supplier to get everything set up at their end so I can start exporting my excess power to the grid and get paid for it. Winter is really seeing our electricity usage go up, my wife was looking at our usage the other day and the weekends were costing us close to $20 a day in electricity. We cook with gas and also our hot water is gas so the $20 is for lighting (which are all LED), TVs, gaming consoles, computers and the biggest expense will be heating. The heating and cooling costs are what I want to offset the most by getting solar.
Recycling - I've been putting all the bottles and cans that have 10c refund on them into containers and every couple of weeks. The first time I went we gave the vouchers away to a homeless man. The next time I used the app and got the refund transferred to my PayPal account. The third time I forgot to take my phone so I just got vouchers when I then used to buy some lunch stuff with at the supermarket. The last time I went I used the app and got the money transferred to PayPal. I then used the money in my PayPal account to buy a new gasket for my motorcycle (which is still leaking oil by the way). The app keeps track of how many items I've recycled and how much money it's refunded to me. So far I have recycle 116 containers and earned $11.60. It hardly seems worth it from the money point of view but it is good to be returning the items which I know will actually get recycled. In Australia at the moment, we're having trouble recycling a lot of our recyclables and plenty of it is just ending up in landfill. I know that by putting the cans and bottles through the reverse vending machines that they are getting sorted properly and have a greater chance of actually being recycled.
Renovations - I never thought I'd be saying that word just yet, but we're looking at getting some work done in the fourth bedroom/study. We would really love to have a wall bed and a built in desk with some more storage so we can make the most of the room. Currently the room has the desk that I built myself at the last house which was great for there, but we don't need hidden away at the new house. We're looking at getting some quotes in the next couple of weeks to see what we're in for.
Fire Pit - I haven't done anything further about making a more permanent fire pit in the back yard. I still want to do this and I may set up some pavers in the next few weeks so I can have another fire. Where I did the last fire I put some pavers down about half way through the night and there is a dead patch of grass in the lawn which I'm not too impressed about.
Moving House, Healthy Living and Habits - these all tie into what I was saying the other day about going for walks and it becoming second nature. I got home from work and my daughter is sitting on her bike out the front of the house waiting for me to come home so she can go for a ride when I go for my walk. I think we did make the right decision moving out to Googong, I'm enjoying living here and I feel like we have a better quality of life then we did before. I'm looking forward to Googong growing and more parks and playgrounds being built for us to explore and enjoy.
Bomber
Enjoying life.
Wednesday, 26 June 2019
Kind of, not really.
I wanted to try and watch my diet this week more than usual and I'm sorry to say that I'm failing. I'd managed to keep away from junk on Sunday and was drinking plenty of water but I was craving for something sweet. When my wife offered me some ice cream, I should have said no, but I didn't.
On Monday my wife's brother came to visit so I had a beer with him, only one, but still I wasn't going to drink beer this week. I spent most of Monday at my desk but I at least managed to get out for a walk when I got home and got over 9K steps for the day.
Tuesday my daughter was sick so I spent the day at home with her. I have bacon and cheese rolls for lunch as well as two slices of caramel slice for morning tea. I didn't have any beer and I don't think I had any other sweets but we did have pizza and garlic bread for dinner. My steps were way down for the day.
Today I was busy at work, but couldn't help myself at lunch, I got two potato scallops, a chicken snitzel burger and a bottle of coke. When I came home I'd already clicked over 10K steps and I was thirsty for a beer. I surprised myself when I reached for my sneakers and felt like going for a walk when I got home, so I did. I then had two beers and left over pizza for dinner.
Needless to say, I don't think that I'm going to lose any weight this week but I am feeling healthy and I seem to have more energy than usual so I'm going to try and keep moving and I'm going to keep working on cutting down on the junk food.
It's only Wednesday so I'll try harder over the next few days before my next weigh in, but the damage is probably already done and I'm not really that upset by it.
Bomber
Maybe I'll be overweight forever.
On Monday my wife's brother came to visit so I had a beer with him, only one, but still I wasn't going to drink beer this week. I spent most of Monday at my desk but I at least managed to get out for a walk when I got home and got over 9K steps for the day.
Tuesday my daughter was sick so I spent the day at home with her. I have bacon and cheese rolls for lunch as well as two slices of caramel slice for morning tea. I didn't have any beer and I don't think I had any other sweets but we did have pizza and garlic bread for dinner. My steps were way down for the day.
Today I was busy at work, but couldn't help myself at lunch, I got two potato scallops, a chicken snitzel burger and a bottle of coke. When I came home I'd already clicked over 10K steps and I was thirsty for a beer. I surprised myself when I reached for my sneakers and felt like going for a walk when I got home, so I did. I then had two beers and left over pizza for dinner.
Needless to say, I don't think that I'm going to lose any weight this week but I am feeling healthy and I seem to have more energy than usual so I'm going to try and keep moving and I'm going to keep working on cutting down on the junk food.
It's only Wednesday so I'll try harder over the next few days before my next weigh in, but the damage is probably already done and I'm not really that upset by it.
Bomber
Maybe I'll be overweight forever.
Tuesday, 25 June 2019
How Much is Enough
First off, I swear when I write a post on my phone it looks so much longer than it does when I look at it on the screen. Maybe it's just that it is so much harder to write on the phone or just the size of the screen tricks me into thinking that I've written more than I have. Anyway...
This week I'll get the biggest pay that I've ever got in my life. I am pretty happy with how much will go into the bank this week, not so happy about the amount of tax coming out of it but I guess that's what happens unfortunately.
This evening I was playing a silly game on the computer where you have to do this repetitive task to earn money. To unlock the next level you have to spend the money that you've earned. Each level costs more than the previous to unlock however you can earn more money per task at the higher levels although I don't think that it is proportionate, meaning that you have to do a lot more tasks at higher levels to earn enough money to unlock the next level.
As I was playing this game and seeing my savings go up and up so I could get to the next level, I started wondering just what my true earning potential was in real life. Just how much money could I make each week and would I ever reach a point where I'd think that I was earning enough and that I didn't really need to earn any more.
I was thinking a similar thought earlier in the day too as there is an $80,000,000 lotto jackpot that could be won tonight. I have a couple of tickets in it but that also got me thinking, just how much is enough to retire on.
If I don't really see the point in retiring whilst the kids are still in school and if we need to support them going through University, then we probably need to still be working until they have finished their education and are living out of home self sufficiently.
That makes me think that I have at least another fifteen years of work ahead of me.
I'd love to travel with my wife at some stage, but again it is really expensive to travel with the kids when we have to pay for everything for them. I think that we'll probably do at least one big family holiday overseas where we take the kids with us, that will probably be in a few years time so we have the chance to save up for it and the kids will be old enough to remember it for the rest of their lives. Other than that I'd like to think that my wife and I will travel a little in our retirement, that's the other reason for wanting to retire as early as possible. I don't want to be too old to enjoy travelling, too old to spend an entire day walking around seeing the sights. Somewhere around 55 to 60 is when I think I want to retire but if I can earn enough to retire earlier then I will certainly consider it. The unfortunate thing is that I really don't think that we'll be in a financial position to retire until closer to 70. That means that we will be getting too old to spend an entire day on our feet.
This all ties back in to what I think my earning potential is. I am quite well paid for what I do currently, a few years ago I wouldn't have said that but I've worked hard and earned a few pay rises along the way to the point that I now think that I am getting paid what I'm worth for the job I do. Could I earn more? Possibly, it would take another few years to get to the next level and then I'd actually be in more of a managerial role and not as hands on as I currently am so although I would be earning more, I don't think that I'd have much job satisfaction. I could possibly get paid a little more for a similar role at another company, but the conditions I have at the moment are pretty good and I don't think I'd find another company that would allow me to have the flexibility that I currently enjoy.
This all comes back to earning more money from a second job, or a hobby. This is what I forget sometimes, I need to look at the bigger picture. Sure I'm happy with what I'm earning and yeah, I've got a good job. We have a nice house, I have a great wife and a couple of awesome kids; But if I want to retire in my 50's I need to earn more money. I think that I can build a YouTube channel that attracts an audience, I believe that I can do that and from what I know about myself, if I believe I can do something then most likely I can and I can probably do it quite well.
It's been almost a year since I started this blog and it has changed focus a couple of time but now I'm going to start to focus it back on YouTube and focus myself on getting on with it. I have a few ideas on where to start and a few things that I want to change about my initial plan but I'm going to do it and I'm going to do it well.
I don't expect to earn enough money to be able to rely on it as my sole source of income, but I believe that I can earn enough money to allow me to retire in my 50's and most likely continue making videos to supplement my retirement and fund greater adventures.
Bomber
I must suffer from cabin fever in the Winter.
This week I'll get the biggest pay that I've ever got in my life. I am pretty happy with how much will go into the bank this week, not so happy about the amount of tax coming out of it but I guess that's what happens unfortunately.
This evening I was playing a silly game on the computer where you have to do this repetitive task to earn money. To unlock the next level you have to spend the money that you've earned. Each level costs more than the previous to unlock however you can earn more money per task at the higher levels although I don't think that it is proportionate, meaning that you have to do a lot more tasks at higher levels to earn enough money to unlock the next level.
As I was playing this game and seeing my savings go up and up so I could get to the next level, I started wondering just what my true earning potential was in real life. Just how much money could I make each week and would I ever reach a point where I'd think that I was earning enough and that I didn't really need to earn any more.
I was thinking a similar thought earlier in the day too as there is an $80,000,000 lotto jackpot that could be won tonight. I have a couple of tickets in it but that also got me thinking, just how much is enough to retire on.
If I don't really see the point in retiring whilst the kids are still in school and if we need to support them going through University, then we probably need to still be working until they have finished their education and are living out of home self sufficiently.
That makes me think that I have at least another fifteen years of work ahead of me.
I'd love to travel with my wife at some stage, but again it is really expensive to travel with the kids when we have to pay for everything for them. I think that we'll probably do at least one big family holiday overseas where we take the kids with us, that will probably be in a few years time so we have the chance to save up for it and the kids will be old enough to remember it for the rest of their lives. Other than that I'd like to think that my wife and I will travel a little in our retirement, that's the other reason for wanting to retire as early as possible. I don't want to be too old to enjoy travelling, too old to spend an entire day walking around seeing the sights. Somewhere around 55 to 60 is when I think I want to retire but if I can earn enough to retire earlier then I will certainly consider it. The unfortunate thing is that I really don't think that we'll be in a financial position to retire until closer to 70. That means that we will be getting too old to spend an entire day on our feet.
This all ties back in to what I think my earning potential is. I am quite well paid for what I do currently, a few years ago I wouldn't have said that but I've worked hard and earned a few pay rises along the way to the point that I now think that I am getting paid what I'm worth for the job I do. Could I earn more? Possibly, it would take another few years to get to the next level and then I'd actually be in more of a managerial role and not as hands on as I currently am so although I would be earning more, I don't think that I'd have much job satisfaction. I could possibly get paid a little more for a similar role at another company, but the conditions I have at the moment are pretty good and I don't think I'd find another company that would allow me to have the flexibility that I currently enjoy.
This all comes back to earning more money from a second job, or a hobby. This is what I forget sometimes, I need to look at the bigger picture. Sure I'm happy with what I'm earning and yeah, I've got a good job. We have a nice house, I have a great wife and a couple of awesome kids; But if I want to retire in my 50's I need to earn more money. I think that I can build a YouTube channel that attracts an audience, I believe that I can do that and from what I know about myself, if I believe I can do something then most likely I can and I can probably do it quite well.
It's been almost a year since I started this blog and it has changed focus a couple of time but now I'm going to start to focus it back on YouTube and focus myself on getting on with it. I have a few ideas on where to start and a few things that I want to change about my initial plan but I'm going to do it and I'm going to do it well.
I don't expect to earn enough money to be able to rely on it as my sole source of income, but I believe that I can earn enough money to allow me to retire in my 50's and most likely continue making videos to supplement my retirement and fund greater adventures.
Bomber
I must suffer from cabin fever in the Winter.
Monday, 24 June 2019
Growing an Audience
This afternoon I posted another pic on Instagram and within the first hour I had already received 10 likes and a new follower. I've now got 75 followers and I imagine that number will grow over the next week. Most of the likes weren't even from my existing followers which is really promising.
I'm hoping that by growing my Instagram following, when I do eventually launch my YouTube channel that I'll be able to convert some of my Instagram followers into subscribers.
I didn't manage to get out on the weekend for a ride, hopefully I'll get a chance this weekend. I have go work on Saturday morning and I'm thinking that I can take the camera with me and get some photos on the way home. Hopefully the weather will be good and I can catch the photo I've been planning in my mind for a while now. If I can get it right it should look awesome.
I'm hoping that by growing my Instagram following, when I do eventually launch my YouTube channel that I'll be able to convert some of my Instagram followers into subscribers.
I didn't manage to get out on the weekend for a ride, hopefully I'll get a chance this weekend. I have go work on Saturday morning and I'm thinking that I can take the camera with me and get some photos on the way home. Hopefully the weather will be good and I can catch the photo I've been planning in my mind for a while now. If I can get it right it should look awesome.
Bomber
On my phone again.
On my phone again.
Sunday, 23 June 2019
Weighing In
I weighed myself every day for the last two weeks and put together a couple of different graphs to try and map the results out in different ways. The new scales I have somehow measure my BMI, percent of body fat, percent of muscle and hydration level. I don't know how accurate it is but it is something and can't just be a made up figure. As there isn't much change day to day, the graph looks a little pointless at first but then I noticed that although I didn't lose any weight weight this week, I decreased my percentage of body fat and increased my percentage of muscle, so that's not really a bad thing if it is true.
Next week, well actually starting today, I'm going to try and concentrate on not eating junk for lunch and not snaking on sweet things after dinner. I'm also not going to have coffee or beer for the week. I still want to achieve >70K steps for the week but I'm not going to push myself to get above 10K today as I feel like my legs need a rest. I managed to get above 10K steps yesterday too, so I beat my previous record of only have 6 days in a week >10K steps
Weight: 109.1kg
Steps for the week: 79,997
Average daily calorie burn: 4,398
Bomber
The weekly graph is looking better.
Weight: 109.1kg
Steps for the week: 79,997
Average daily calorie burn: 4,398
The weekly graph is looking better.
Saturday, 22 June 2019
I'm so close
So now that I've tidied up Thursday's and Friday's posts, here is today's.
I knew that today was going to be a big ask to get to 10K steps and I'm not quite there. There are still a few hours until bed so I'm going to try and get the extra steps in. It's really cold outside but I may have to go for a short walk after dinner just to make it there. I'm not going to try and make myself get 10K steps tomorrow, I think I need the rest. My hips are feeling a little over worked at the moment and so are my knees. I'm still going to try for over 70K steps next week, but if I don't get to 10K tomorrow, I'm not going to be upset.
I'm not sure if I'll get to go for a ride tomorrow or not, well at least I don't think I'll be able to go for a long ride. We have some running around to do and have to set up the study as a guest room as my brother-law is coming to stay for a night or two.
This morning we took the kids to a place called Inflatable World, which is basically an old indoor soccer place that had maybe 10 different inflatable jumping castles set up and the kids just ran themselves ragged for a couple of hours.
This afternoon we all went down to the park to kick my son's football around for an hour or so. I was so sure that I could get to 10K steps and then have the evening at home with my feet up. No matter what, we had a good day and got out of the house more than we would have if I hadn't set myself the goal of getting 10K steps each and every day this week.
I think it goes to show just how busy I am at work when most days I can easily get close to 10K steps or even exceed it just by doing my job. I think it just reinforces the need to improve my diet if I really want to lose weight. I'm moving lots and I definitely have more stamina now than I've had in a number of years, I really need to just be stong willed and stop eating junk all the time.
Bomber
just keep moving ?10K today
I knew that today was going to be a big ask to get to 10K steps and I'm not quite there. There are still a few hours until bed so I'm going to try and get the extra steps in. It's really cold outside but I may have to go for a short walk after dinner just to make it there. I'm not going to try and make myself get 10K steps tomorrow, I think I need the rest. My hips are feeling a little over worked at the moment and so are my knees. I'm still going to try for over 70K steps next week, but if I don't get to 10K tomorrow, I'm not going to be upset.
I'm not sure if I'll get to go for a ride tomorrow or not, well at least I don't think I'll be able to go for a long ride. We have some running around to do and have to set up the study as a guest room as my brother-law is coming to stay for a night or two.
This morning we took the kids to a place called Inflatable World, which is basically an old indoor soccer place that had maybe 10 different inflatable jumping castles set up and the kids just ran themselves ragged for a couple of hours.
This afternoon we all went down to the park to kick my son's football around for an hour or so. I was so sure that I could get to 10K steps and then have the evening at home with my feet up. No matter what, we had a good day and got out of the house more than we would have if I hadn't set myself the goal of getting 10K steps each and every day this week.
I think it goes to show just how busy I am at work when most days I can easily get close to 10K steps or even exceed it just by doing my job. I think it just reinforces the need to improve my diet if I really want to lose weight. I'm moving lots and I definitely have more stamina now than I've had in a number of years, I really need to just be stong willed and stop eating junk all the time.
Bomber
just keep moving ?10K today
TGIF
Here's Friday's post:
I made it.
This week seemed a lot longer than others that I've had recently and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Winter is well and truly here, this week we had -4°C on Thursday morning and it would have still be been around -1°C or -2°C when I was riding to work. Nice and chilly. I'm still just wearing my normal motorcycle jeans but I've been using my heated grips and my helmet is fogging up a little even though I have an anti-fog insert that is meant to prevent that. It's not so bad that I can't see, but I need to open the visor when I stop at the lights to try and clear it up and I don't close it until it's clear again, which doesn't take long.
I've managed to get over 10K steps each day so far so as long as I manage to do it tomorrow too, then that will be a record for me.
I've been weighing myself each morning for the last two weeks and will put all the figures together on Sunday, it's not that exciting and more than anything it just shows that diet is a large part of losing weight, exercise is great, but if you really want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories. There's plenty of studies to back this up so I don't know why I thought I could do it just by increasing the amount of exercise I do. I think that I may have figured this out already, but then I kind of lost momentum and am starting it all again. I'm not back at the weight I was when I started at least, but I'm still heavier than I was when I was really trying.
Bomber
>10K today
I made it.
This week seemed a lot longer than others that I've had recently and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Winter is well and truly here, this week we had -4°C on Thursday morning and it would have still be been around -1°C or -2°C when I was riding to work. Nice and chilly. I'm still just wearing my normal motorcycle jeans but I've been using my heated grips and my helmet is fogging up a little even though I have an anti-fog insert that is meant to prevent that. It's not so bad that I can't see, but I need to open the visor when I stop at the lights to try and clear it up and I don't close it until it's clear again, which doesn't take long.
I've managed to get over 10K steps each day so far so as long as I manage to do it tomorrow too, then that will be a record for me.
I've been weighing myself each morning for the last two weeks and will put all the figures together on Sunday, it's not that exciting and more than anything it just shows that diet is a large part of losing weight, exercise is great, but if you really want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories. There's plenty of studies to back this up so I don't know why I thought I could do it just by increasing the amount of exercise I do. I think that I may have figured this out already, but then I kind of lost momentum and am starting it all again. I'm not back at the weight I was when I started at least, but I'm still heavier than I was when I was really trying.
Bomber
>10K today
A Longer Ride
I sat down to write tonight's post (Saturday) and discovered that both Thursday's and Friday's post didn't get published for some reason, so here is Thursday's post.
This weekend is meant to be cold but mostly sunny, so it could be another opportunity to head out on the bike with the 360° camera. I might do similar to what I've done once previously and take along some cooking equipment so I can boil some water and make a coffee whilst I'm out and about. It'll have to be on Sunday as we already have plans for Saturday.
I mentioned earlier in the week that I wasn't sure if the Insta360 One shot photos in time lapse mode or used the video settings, from what I can tell, it uses the video settings in time lapse, but you can set it to take photos in sequence too. I think that I might try and do that this time to see if I get better quality images or not.
I may go for a bit of a longer ride if my wife will let me get away with it. There is a loop that will take roughly 3 hours to complete. Up into some of the mountains south of Googong, I've checked it out on Google maps and the route looks awesome, I don't know how rough it will be but I want to give it a go all the same. Taking some food and water with me will probably be a good idea all the same, more so I have to stop for a break than anything else, but also to keep my energy levels up. 3 hours is a long time for me on the bike. I usually only ride the 30 minutes to and from work so that's what I've become conditioned to. I want to start doing longer rides so that they become easier and so my backside doesn't get as sore as easily.
Bomber
>10k today
I mentioned earlier in the week that I wasn't sure if the Insta360 One shot photos in time lapse mode or used the video settings, from what I can tell, it uses the video settings in time lapse, but you can set it to take photos in sequence too. I think that I might try and do that this time to see if I get better quality images or not.
I may go for a bit of a longer ride if my wife will let me get away with it. There is a loop that will take roughly 3 hours to complete. Up into some of the mountains south of Googong, I've checked it out on Google maps and the route looks awesome, I don't know how rough it will be but I want to give it a go all the same. Taking some food and water with me will probably be a good idea all the same, more so I have to stop for a break than anything else, but also to keep my energy levels up. 3 hours is a long time for me on the bike. I usually only ride the 30 minutes to and from work so that's what I've become conditioned to. I want to start doing longer rides so that they become easier and so my backside doesn't get as sore as easily.
Bomber
>10k today
Wednesday, 19 June 2019
So my diet isn't the best.
Whilst my exercise seems to be back on track this week, I still haven't got my lunches back under control. Dinner has also not been the healthiest options for the last week, but I've always said that I wasn't going to do anything about dinner.
I'm still having my three weetbix and light milk for breakfast, more often than not I get a coffee with one sugar in the morning. For lunch I've been having a variety of things, sometimes Subway, which is probably fairly healthy except I've been getting them toasted with cheese and having them in a meal with two cookies and a bottle of coke. But today I had fried chicken and chips, which is ok sometimes and wasn't too oily or greasy, but when I had KFC for dinner last night and the night before that we had takeaway chinese that we still have leftovers of and is what I'll probably be having for dinner tonight, it's not looking good. Add that to the fish and chips we had for dinner on Friday and the home made pizzas we had on Sunday night, I think I'm eating far too much bad food. I'm going to have to really try and have better lunches and not let my wife or kids persuade me into thinking that takeaway is a good idea too often. The drama I have is that I really really like food and bad food in particular.
I still need to be drinking more water during the day and I'm going to start making more of an effort to avoid the bottles of coke and the cookies and the bits and pieces of chocolate and lollies that I've been eating in the evening and cut down on my beer drinking and really really really try to eat better when I can.
Bomber
>10K today
I'm still having my three weetbix and light milk for breakfast, more often than not I get a coffee with one sugar in the morning. For lunch I've been having a variety of things, sometimes Subway, which is probably fairly healthy except I've been getting them toasted with cheese and having them in a meal with two cookies and a bottle of coke. But today I had fried chicken and chips, which is ok sometimes and wasn't too oily or greasy, but when I had KFC for dinner last night and the night before that we had takeaway chinese that we still have leftovers of and is what I'll probably be having for dinner tonight, it's not looking good. Add that to the fish and chips we had for dinner on Friday and the home made pizzas we had on Sunday night, I think I'm eating far too much bad food. I'm going to have to really try and have better lunches and not let my wife or kids persuade me into thinking that takeaway is a good idea too often. The drama I have is that I really really like food and bad food in particular.
I still need to be drinking more water during the day and I'm going to start making more of an effort to avoid the bottles of coke and the cookies and the bits and pieces of chocolate and lollies that I've been eating in the evening and cut down on my beer drinking and really really really try to eat better when I can.
Bomber
>10K today
Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Bettering
Being a better Dad and Husband has been one of my goals for some time now. This is the kind of target that can never truly be ticked off as completed as it's not like that I'll be a better Dad and Husband for a week and then it's ok to say "well, that's ticked off the list, don't need to worry about that anymore".
I have been spending more time with my kids recently and taking them with me when I go for walk. Yesterday afternoon as soon as I got home my daughter wanted to go for a ride to the park and my son wanted to walk with me so he could bring his football along to kick around the oval with me.
These kind of things I never did with my own Dad. I honestly can't remember going outside to play with him very often as a child. When we were on holidays we'd play french cricket at the beach as a family or tennis, but I don't recall a lot of one on one time with him. I used to play games with tennis balls with my brother, so maybe that was the difference, having an older brother to play with so I didn't need my Dad to play games with me.
I enjoy playing outside with my kids. I've never really kicked a football much myself and I've been enjoying kicking the ball around the park with my son and daughter. I really enjoy just spending time with them even if it is just sitting on the couch watching a movie together.
I've been trying to have more patience with the kids too and I think they've been trying to be a little better behaved around me too, this has all been helping us have less arguments.
I have also been trying to be more considerate of my wife and help out more around the house. She does a lot for me and I don't do as much for her so I'd like to try and balance that a little more. I'll have to start making more of an effort with house work at the very least and not leaving the vast majority of it to my wife.
Bomber
My wife is probably rolling her eyes and saying "yeah right".
>10K today
I have been spending more time with my kids recently and taking them with me when I go for walk. Yesterday afternoon as soon as I got home my daughter wanted to go for a ride to the park and my son wanted to walk with me so he could bring his football along to kick around the oval with me.
These kind of things I never did with my own Dad. I honestly can't remember going outside to play with him very often as a child. When we were on holidays we'd play french cricket at the beach as a family or tennis, but I don't recall a lot of one on one time with him. I used to play games with tennis balls with my brother, so maybe that was the difference, having an older brother to play with so I didn't need my Dad to play games with me.
I enjoy playing outside with my kids. I've never really kicked a football much myself and I've been enjoying kicking the ball around the park with my son and daughter. I really enjoy just spending time with them even if it is just sitting on the couch watching a movie together.
I've been trying to have more patience with the kids too and I think they've been trying to be a little better behaved around me too, this has all been helping us have less arguments.
I have also been trying to be more considerate of my wife and help out more around the house. She does a lot for me and I don't do as much for her so I'd like to try and balance that a little more. I'll have to start making more of an effort with house work at the very least and not leaving the vast majority of it to my wife.
Bomber
My wife is probably rolling her eyes and saying "yeah right".
>10K today
Monday, 17 June 2019
Starting to get Social
I didn't get out on the bike on the weekend just gone but as long as the days are sunny, I should be able to get out for an hour of so the next few weekends and try and take some more video that I'll be able to convert to photos.
It would be better if I actually took photos instead of video as they would be better quality, but I don't think that I can set it up to take photos automatically and I don't want to have to try and use my phone whilst I'm riding, not only is it illegal, it would be heaps dangerous. I may be able to use the time-lapse feature, I'll have to play with it next time I head out. I'm not sure if that is based off of the video settings or the photo settings.
I do try and touch the photos up and apply some effects or filters to them if I feel that they need it, I don't have a problem with that and I quite enjoy playing around with each image to see what I can make of it.
Using Instagram to engage with Social Media isn't really a way to make an additional income, I'm sure that there are others out there that do make money by selling photos or, through sponsorships and promoting products, but most people just do it to engage with their audience in another matter and maybe more often than they do through other platforms like YouTube.
Bomber
>10K today
Sunday, 16 June 2019
Weighing In
I managed to weigh myself every morning after my shower this week, there were only a few grams in fluctuation so that could just be how I stood on the scale and at the end of the week there was no real change. I will keep going for another week, so next week I'll put all the figures together.
Last Monday being a public holiday meant that I had a quiet day at home and I also had the fitbit on charge for most of the day so it didn't record any activity. Yesterday was another quiet day at home as I was recovering a little from the big day that I'd had on Friday at work. I did a fair bit of heavy lifting at work and had something like 14,000 steps but the time I got home. I then decided to push myself and took the kids for a walk before heading out to have dinner at Dad's. That's why I ran out of time to actually post anything on Friday. I did sit down for about five to ten minutes to write something but I was lacking inspiration so I didn't end up writing anything at all.
Sometimes I wonder if I will keep on going with posting on the blog and other times, like now, I find myself really quite enjoying writing down my thoughts and ideas or even just rambling on a bit like I am now.
Anyway, the week wasn't a great week targets wise, but I did try and eat healthier when I could and I didn't drink as much beer as I was on call. I'm still on call for most of next week and I'm going to try and get 10,000 steps in each and every day. I went back through the fitbit app and noticed that I think that although I've had many weeks with over 70,000 steps, I don't seem to have even one week where I've got over 10,000 steps on each and every day.
Weight: 108.8kg
Steps for the week: 60,663
Average daily calorie burn: 3,721
Bomber
>10K today.
Last Monday being a public holiday meant that I had a quiet day at home and I also had the fitbit on charge for most of the day so it didn't record any activity. Yesterday was another quiet day at home as I was recovering a little from the big day that I'd had on Friday at work. I did a fair bit of heavy lifting at work and had something like 14,000 steps but the time I got home. I then decided to push myself and took the kids for a walk before heading out to have dinner at Dad's. That's why I ran out of time to actually post anything on Friday. I did sit down for about five to ten minutes to write something but I was lacking inspiration so I didn't end up writing anything at all.
Sometimes I wonder if I will keep on going with posting on the blog and other times, like now, I find myself really quite enjoying writing down my thoughts and ideas or even just rambling on a bit like I am now.
Anyway, the week wasn't a great week targets wise, but I did try and eat healthier when I could and I didn't drink as much beer as I was on call. I'm still on call for most of next week and I'm going to try and get 10,000 steps in each and every day. I went back through the fitbit app and noticed that I think that although I've had many weeks with over 70,000 steps, I don't seem to have even one week where I've got over 10,000 steps on each and every day.
Weight: 108.8kg
Steps for the week: 60,663
Average daily calorie burn: 3,721
Bomber
>10K today.
Saturday, 15 June 2019
Escaping Winter
Last night we went around to my Dad's to have fish and chips for dinner instead of seeing him for lunch today as this morning he headed off on holidays. My Dad is off to Ireland for two weeks, one week in Northern Ireland and then a week in Ireland before heading over to London for a couple of days. He was lucky enough to win in the ballot to be able to purchase tickets to Wimbledon.
I knew that the tickets were done by some sort of ballot or raffle but I've never understood how it actually worked or how you could get in the ballot. My Dad entered the ballot through his local tennis club somehow and was lucky enough to secure two tickets to Centre Court to see some of the round two matches. The tickets were just for Wimbledon, he still had to pay for his own travel and accommodation so he is taking advantage of flying half way around the globe and having a greater adventure. My Auntie (Dad's sister) is going with him for the whole trip and I think that they are going to have a great time. I'm a little jealous as going to Ireland and also going to see Wimbledon are both on my bucket list, well I don't really have a bucket list but I do like my lists so I really should write one down somewhere.
My Dad has always been mad for tennis and my Mum enjoyed playing and watching it too. Dad still plays tennis at least once a week with some of his old cronies and he watches all the tennis that the TV has on free to air as well as any of the pay TV channels too.
When I was a teenager, twice Dad took the whole family to Melbourne to see the Australian Open. Both times Dad purchased three tickets to the first ten days of the tournament and between the five of us we took it in turn going and spending the day at the tennis, except for Dad, I'm pretty sure he went every day.
A few years ago I took my wife to the Australian Open for one day, we flew down the day before and flew back the day after. Unfortunately my wife had sprained her ankle the week prior to going so she was hobbling around the place so probably didn't enjoy it as much as she should have. I think we'd both like to go again some time but I would love to go to the Men's Final or at least one or two of the night matches as I've spent many days sitting in the sun at the tennis but not once gone to a night match.
I don't enjoy watching the tennis on the TV as much as my wife does and neither of us are as fanatical about it as my Dad, but there is something about seeing it in person that really makes a difference.
Bomber
Sorry about yesterday, I was pressed for time.
I knew that the tickets were done by some sort of ballot or raffle but I've never understood how it actually worked or how you could get in the ballot. My Dad entered the ballot through his local tennis club somehow and was lucky enough to secure two tickets to Centre Court to see some of the round two matches. The tickets were just for Wimbledon, he still had to pay for his own travel and accommodation so he is taking advantage of flying half way around the globe and having a greater adventure. My Auntie (Dad's sister) is going with him for the whole trip and I think that they are going to have a great time. I'm a little jealous as going to Ireland and also going to see Wimbledon are both on my bucket list, well I don't really have a bucket list but I do like my lists so I really should write one down somewhere.
My Dad has always been mad for tennis and my Mum enjoyed playing and watching it too. Dad still plays tennis at least once a week with some of his old cronies and he watches all the tennis that the TV has on free to air as well as any of the pay TV channels too.
When I was a teenager, twice Dad took the whole family to Melbourne to see the Australian Open. Both times Dad purchased three tickets to the first ten days of the tournament and between the five of us we took it in turn going and spending the day at the tennis, except for Dad, I'm pretty sure he went every day.
A few years ago I took my wife to the Australian Open for one day, we flew down the day before and flew back the day after. Unfortunately my wife had sprained her ankle the week prior to going so she was hobbling around the place so probably didn't enjoy it as much as she should have. I think we'd both like to go again some time but I would love to go to the Men's Final or at least one or two of the night matches as I've spent many days sitting in the sun at the tennis but not once gone to a night match.
I don't enjoy watching the tennis on the TV as much as my wife does and neither of us are as fanatical about it as my Dad, but there is something about seeing it in person that really makes a difference.
Bomber
Sorry about yesterday, I was pressed for time.
Thursday, 13 June 2019
Trying again
Last night I spent a fair amount of time re rendering the video from the weekend and using the flowstate stabilisation feature. The videos aren't identical but they are pretty close and if you watch them side by side, I think the new version looks a lot better. It's definitely a lot more stable and is easier to watch. The clarity of the image is still not as nice as I would like but I'm not sure how much more I can do about that with the camera I have.
I'd love to know just how much of a difference the new Insta360 One X would have over the Insta360 One, I've looked at a number of videos and it does seem better but I'm not sure if it is really that much better that it is worth spending money on it. One of the YouTubers that I follow thinks that there may be a new camera on the way from Insta360 as they seem to follow a six monthly release cycle, this means that the new camera may be out in time for Christmas so I think I'll wait and see what happens. Fingers crossed that by then I'll have more experience with using the camera and that I'll actually have more of an idea on whether it's worth continuing to persist with the YouTube channel idea or not.
Bomber
Glad to be back to writing about what this blog was originally intended to be about.
I'd love to know just how much of a difference the new Insta360 One X would have over the Insta360 One, I've looked at a number of videos and it does seem better but I'm not sure if it is really that much better that it is worth spending money on it. One of the YouTubers that I follow thinks that there may be a new camera on the way from Insta360 as they seem to follow a six monthly release cycle, this means that the new camera may be out in time for Christmas so I think I'll wait and see what happens. Fingers crossed that by then I'll have more experience with using the camera and that I'll actually have more of an idea on whether it's worth continuing to persist with the YouTube channel idea or not.
Bomber
Glad to be back to writing about what this blog was originally intended to be about.
Wednesday, 12 June 2019
Video Quality
Looking back over the footage from the weekend I'm not really happy with the quality of the video. There is no way that I'd pay to watch the 360° footage on Patreon if it looked that bad. I think that I'm going to have to try and find a better way of editing the footage or possibly purchase a better camera. It's kind of a bummer that I purchased the camera when I did as the new improved version of the Insta360 One came out not that long after. I think that to get really good footage I have no option but to spend some money. I won't be doing that for a while as we have some big expenses coming up, with the solar system and my daughter needs some orthodontics, they will be taking a chunk of our savings. I'm going to have to do some overtime at work to try and build our savings back up and to also be in a position to ask my wife if I can spend some more, I'm not looking forward to that discussion. There is no way that I can spend thousands on a camera, the new Insta360 One X is currently around $800.00 which is still a lot more than I'd like to spend, but it is the best camera for under $1,000 and has lots of rave reviews. To go to the next level I would be looking at several thousand dollars and I don't know if I'd want to be strapping that kind of camera to my motorcycle anyway.
I think that I may have missed a step in making the video the other day too, I don't think I put the stabilisation on correctly in post production. I might try and make it again later this week or on the weekend to see if I can make the footage more stable and maybe a little clearer.
Bomber
To make a better case for a new camera, I should start using what I have.
I think that I may have missed a step in making the video the other day too, I don't think I put the stabilisation on correctly in post production. I might try and make it again later this week or on the weekend to see if I can make the footage more stable and maybe a little clearer.
Bomber
To make a better case for a new camera, I should start using what I have.
Tuesday, 11 June 2019
Motorcycle Training
I was updating the monthly update post that will come out to mark 12 months of blogging and I realised that the goal to get some adventure motorcycle training was coming up fast and that I needed to start to organise something if I wanted to achieve that goal.
I found a couple of courses that are running in spring so I will do a little more investigating and then hopefully book something in the next week or two.
Going for a ride on the weekend really made me think that I should do some more training and also made me glad that I purchased an adventure motorcycle instead of something else. I originally thought that I wanted a cruiser of some sort but I didn't want to get a Harley. The main reason for not wanting a Harley was that they can be pretty unreliable and they are too noisy. If I could have two bikes then I may consider a Harley as the second bike but I really enjoy hitting the dirt roads and going places that you couldn't on a big cruiser.
I'm not sure if I've told this story before or not, but when I was looking at upgrading from my learner bike, I was out riding in the country side and considering what type of bike I should get. I really liked the cruisers and they seemed so comfortable as they effortlessly rode along the country roads. The weather was perfect for riding that day and there were bikes everywhere. At one stage I took a turn that all the other bikes that day weren't taking for some reason and after a short while I found out why, the road turned to dirt. I stopped at the edge of the dirt and considered my options, I'd never ridden on dirt before but knew that basically any bike could ride on dirt if the rider was careful. I decided that it couldn't be that long of a dirt stretch and to give it a go. It was pretty unnerving for me as I'd never ridden on dirt before but that was all it took for me to decide that I wanted an adventure bike. I didn't want to be out riding somewhere and have to turn around because of a dirt road.
With the right tyres on my adventure bike I can go places that no cruiser could never go and even with road tyres on, I can go places that sports bike would dare to.
I'm very happen with my decision to buy an adventure bike and I think getting a 650cc instead of a 1000cc was also a very good decision. The 650cc has more than enough power for me and is a little lighter and more manageable off-road than a larger bike would be. If I was to replace my bike, I would replace it with another adventure bike. If I was to get a second bike, I'd possibly get another adventure bike too and have one set up for daily riding and the other set up for more adventurous off-road riding.
Bomber
N+1 is the number of bikes that every motorcyclist wants.
I found a couple of courses that are running in spring so I will do a little more investigating and then hopefully book something in the next week or two.
Going for a ride on the weekend really made me think that I should do some more training and also made me glad that I purchased an adventure motorcycle instead of something else. I originally thought that I wanted a cruiser of some sort but I didn't want to get a Harley. The main reason for not wanting a Harley was that they can be pretty unreliable and they are too noisy. If I could have two bikes then I may consider a Harley as the second bike but I really enjoy hitting the dirt roads and going places that you couldn't on a big cruiser.
I'm not sure if I've told this story before or not, but when I was looking at upgrading from my learner bike, I was out riding in the country side and considering what type of bike I should get. I really liked the cruisers and they seemed so comfortable as they effortlessly rode along the country roads. The weather was perfect for riding that day and there were bikes everywhere. At one stage I took a turn that all the other bikes that day weren't taking for some reason and after a short while I found out why, the road turned to dirt. I stopped at the edge of the dirt and considered my options, I'd never ridden on dirt before but knew that basically any bike could ride on dirt if the rider was careful. I decided that it couldn't be that long of a dirt stretch and to give it a go. It was pretty unnerving for me as I'd never ridden on dirt before but that was all it took for me to decide that I wanted an adventure bike. I didn't want to be out riding somewhere and have to turn around because of a dirt road.
With the right tyres on my adventure bike I can go places that no cruiser could never go and even with road tyres on, I can go places that sports bike would dare to.
I'm very happen with my decision to buy an adventure bike and I think getting a 650cc instead of a 1000cc was also a very good decision. The 650cc has more than enough power for me and is a little lighter and more manageable off-road than a larger bike would be. If I was to replace my bike, I would replace it with another adventure bike. If I was to get a second bike, I'd possibly get another adventure bike too and have one set up for daily riding and the other set up for more adventurous off-road riding.
Bomber
N+1 is the number of bikes that every motorcyclist wants.
Monday, 10 June 2019
Great Fun
I got out for a ride on Sunday morning, I took the 360° camera with me and shot about 40 minutes of the ride in one consecutive piece. I was having issues with the camera pole staying up but other than that it was good fun. I was originally going to go into Canberra and ride around the lake and over the bridges that go over Lake Burley Griffin, but at the last moment I decided to head out to the Captains Flat radar in Tallaganda State Forest. I thought that there may be a little bit of dirt just getting up to the radar but there was more than that. Thankfully most of the dirt roads were in fairly good condition and only a little damp from the dew over night. If it had rained in the last day or two it would have been probably impossible for me to make it with the tyres that I currently have on the bike.
The actual road up the radar was a fire trail that wasn't in very good condition and I really enjoyed challenging myself and getting out of my comfort zone riding up it. I'm sure a lot of other riders wouldn't consider it a hard ride but it was the roughest trail that I have been on so far and there were a couple of very large slippery puddles to ride through too. Once I got to the radar I stopped for maybe five minutes and put the 360° camera on it's pole on the back of the bike and rode home.
I had so much fun, riding back was easier than riding there as my confidence had increased and I also knew that I wasn't going to come around a corner and find a really slippery patch or a tree across the road. It was great just to be out in the sun riding the bike without a care in the world.
I spent Sunday evening looking through the footage and creating some still images for Instagram and I also played around with creating a short video of the ride just to see if I remembered all the tricks I learnt when I was playing around with video footage all those months ago
Bomber
Hopefully it won't be too long before I do this again
The actual road up the radar was a fire trail that wasn't in very good condition and I really enjoyed challenging myself and getting out of my comfort zone riding up it. I'm sure a lot of other riders wouldn't consider it a hard ride but it was the roughest trail that I have been on so far and there were a couple of very large slippery puddles to ride through too. Once I got to the radar I stopped for maybe five minutes and put the 360° camera on it's pole on the back of the bike and rode home.
I had so much fun, riding back was easier than riding there as my confidence had increased and I also knew that I wasn't going to come around a corner and find a really slippery patch or a tree across the road. It was great just to be out in the sun riding the bike without a care in the world.
I spent Sunday evening looking through the footage and creating some still images for Instagram and I also played around with creating a short video of the ride just to see if I remembered all the tricks I learnt when I was playing around with video footage all those months ago
Hopefully it won't be too long before I do this again
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)