Weighing In

A great week to get things moving again in the right direction and following on from a massive week last week. Hopefully I can keep it up as the weather gets cooler.

During the week my wife asked me to fix her bike up as she is looking forward to getting out and riding again since the footpaths are so good around the town and also since there aren't any real big hills. I'll also need to fix my own bike up a little but if I can get the space sorted out in the garage I'll give all the bikes a good service and have them all cleaned up and back in operation.
I need to teach my daughter how to ride her bike without training wheels so we can all go riding together. I took her training wheels off a couple of months ago and she gave it a go for only a few minutes and then has refused to get back on her bike since. I haven't pushed her as we weren't going to the park lots and then there was the whole moving house thing. Now that things are back tom normal I plan to teach her to ride without the training wheels on the footpath out the front of our house. As we all get more proficient in riding we may head out a bit further as the Googong dam is not far away and it a great spot for fishing and there a walking trails and you can even sail on it if you want to. These are all things to look forward to in the future.

Weight:110kg
Steps for the week: 90,142
Average daily calorie burn: 4,683

The graph is really starting to show exactly what happens when I get out and move more and try to eat less junk.

Bomber
there will be no lycra

Winter is coming

I really shouldn't use that title, I've never watched an episode of Game of Thrones and I don't plan to any time soon. Last night it started raining pretty hard and today it has been pretty cold. From what seems like an endless summer it only got to around 16°C today and it was wet and windy. It definitely feels like winter is coming and it could be a cold one.
Googong is a little higher in elevation than Canberra and Queanbeyan so it will be a little colder and it is also a lot winder by all accounts. The wind may be blocked a little more as the trees grow and there is more development but it's been strong enough to blow over some of our larger pot plants and also the kids basketball hoop even with the base filled with rocks.
Because of the colder weather I haven't set the trampoline up yet but I plan to do that tomorrow. I've hung some pictures for my wife and we still have a couple of boxes left to unpack. On Tuesday an electrician is coming to install the power points we wanted so the dryer will move out of the garage and into the laundry, my wife also has someone coming to pickup the old washing machine tomorrow so we'll be getting a little more free space in the garage.

Just an idea, the yard isn't that big

One good thing about colder weather I'm looking forward to getting the fire-pit going again. I haven't really worked out where it's going to be set up in the backyard, I don't really want to put it on the grass so I may have to create a little area with some crazy pavers and maybe some logs to sit on or something.

Bomber
I'll be complaining it's too cold soon...

Solar Power

Over the weekend I hope to do some research into solar power installers and then next week start organising some people to come around and give quotes. The main reason for getting solar is not to save the planet, but to reduce our power bills. It's a shame that it is that way around but that's the truth. I never ended up putting solar on the last house as it I couldn't put as many panels as I wanted in a good north facing position. I didn't want to spend lots of money and not get a good return for it. At the new house, I should hopefully be able to put a decent number of panels on the roof and offset a lot of the summertime air-conditioning costs. Hopefully in winter the house is insulated enough that we don't need to use the heater as much as we did at the old house but at least during the daytime in summer it is usually pretty clear and sunny so I could possibly run the heater on low during the day relying on the solar power and keep the house warm for when we come home at night.
I'm expecting the costs to be somewhere around $5-6K for the solar set-up but it may cost more due to needing some brackets and stands to get the panels to their optimal angle. I'd like to get a 5kW system but price may mean that I only end up with a 3kW system. Either way it will reduce our power costs for during the day. In NSW we don't get a lot of money for feeding excess power back into the grid so it's not really worth generating more than you will use. If we didn't have kids and worked a little later, it may not be worthwhile putting on solar at all as most of our power consumption would be once the sun had set.

Bomber
It may be for the wrong reason, but it is still good for the environment.

Back on track.

This week is shaping up to be a good week as far as steps are concerned. I've managed to get over 10K steps each day so far apart from Monday where I got 9,917. Today I got over 10K steps just at work and then still went for a gentle stroll with the wife and kids when I got home from work. Not sure if it helped that the walk was to the shops to get a chocolate milk, but hey, it was fun and a nice treat for the kids. We've visited three different playgrounds this week so far, I'm not sure if there are many more within a short distance, I know that there are plenty more around but my daughter might start complaining about how far away they are.
I haven't done any weights yet as the garage is still full of everything that doesn't have a home just yet. The good news is that the garden shed has been shipped so it should be here either tomorrow or early next week. I've gone for a 2.8m x 2.8m garden shed so I should be able to clear most things out from the garage. Once the electrician has come and done his work (hopefully next week) I'll be able to move the dryer out of the garage and then we just need to get rid of the old washing machine and we'll have a nice clean and tidy garage where I can set the weights bench up and hopefully have some room to set up a fermenter for brewing my own beer. I think that the garage may get a little warm in summer so I may have to look at insulating the door to keep the temps down in summer and up in winter so it is better for brewing beer.
I've set up a container in the garage for the return and earn containers so on the weekend I'm going to take the kids down and try and return the containers and collect the 10c each. I plan to give the money to the kids if they come and help me. I hope it helps to develop a habit for them recycle as much as possible and so it becomes second nature for them to do so.

Bomber
I'm feeling happy and healthy, I like it.

Need to be better.

My best mate rang me last night and told me that he'd been going through a bit of a rough patch and that he was separating from his wife. It took me quite by surprise, they always seemed like a great couple. Together they have a son and his wife has a daughter from a previous relationship but he has always treated her like his own and I'm pretty sure she thinks of him as her dad.
They have been married for roughly a year longer than my wife and I and from the outside it appeared as though they had quite a good relationship. She was looking out for him and making sure that his friends knew that he was having a hard time when his mum was diagnosed with cancer recently. He was supportive of her and cared for her when she basically broke her back and had the long path to recovery. They always seemed like a happy couple. It turns out that they had been having issues for a while and had been trying to work through them without any success. From the sounds of it, it has been a mutual decision and they are trying to be amicable and courteous to each other as they work through this together.
It just goes to show that you never really know what's going on in someone else's life and what issues they may be dealing with at home. I feel like a bad friend for not knowing about any of this earlier but I don't know what I could have done to help.
I want to do everything I can to help my mate but I can't really think of anyway to do this except to let him know that I'm here for him if he needs me and to maybe stay in touch with him a bit more than usual. I don't want him to feel pressured by me or anything and I don't really believe that taking him out to a pub to have a few drinks will really help him that much. It may distract him for a while but it won't really change what he's going through and how tough it must be for him.
Part of my self improvement and bettering of me is obviously that I
need to be a better friend and try to stay in contact with my friends more than I currently do. 

Bomber
Bill and Ted were right, be excellent to each other.

Normalacy

My wife doesn't think that the new place feels like home yet, but I'm really quite enjoying it and have settled in well. The cat has even settled in well and seems her old self. She's a little flighty at times if there is a new noise but she's used to most things and has been quite happy sitting up on the couches with the kids or lying in the sun on the lounge room floor.
I did manage to get out for a quick walk last night and almost got to 10k steps for the day. Today when I got home from work the wife, kids and I went for a leisurely stroll to a nearby playground. during the stroll I clicked over the 10K mark so I'm pretty happy about that. I'm on call again, so off the beer for a couple of weeks and I think by the end of next weekend we'll be completely unpacked and the swings and trampoline will be set up. It should mean that I'll be able to put my feet up and relax over the next few weekends as I've decided not to worry further about the yard until the garden shed has arrived and I've put it up. This is because I'm not sure if I'll have room for a hedge along the whole back fence or just up to the shed. I may just plant a couple of trees and shrubs instead.
There is a community garden a short walk from home and it looks like there are some vacant lots, I may enquire and find out how much is costs and what's involved, I think my wife might be a little interested in it too.
I get a feeling that life in Googong is going to be really quite nice. It just goes to show that you don't really know unless you give it a go, if you recall, I was dead against moving out here at one stage.

Bomber
Life's pretty good right now.

Back to Work

Today was my first day back at work after two weeks off and my first time commuting from the new house. It was raining a little and blowing an absolute gale but otherwise it was fine. It took me almost exactly 10 minutes longer than previously which is basically what I was expecting. There are a couple of different ways to get to work that I want to try to see if one is quicker than the others but I'm pretty sure that I went the fastest way this morning. They are doing a large amount of road works at the moment that I can't avoid so once that's done it will be quicker and they are putting in a new road that may make it quicker to go that way once it's complete. I can't really complain when it only takes 35 minutes to get to my desk from my front door, that includes parking and walking from the bike parking. I'm sure that there are people who would love to have only a 35 minute commute.
I came home the same way and found it just as quick, if not slightly quicker as I think there was less traffic on the road. It was still windy but at least the rain had cleared up.
Work has been busy whilst I've been away and it looks like it is going to get busier still before it gets any quieter. It seems like everyone has suddenly decided that they need something done before the end of the financial year and they are just leaving it all until the last minute. It means that I'm probably going to be flat out until the end of June.
I haven't quite cracked 10,000 steps yet today so I'm hoping to head out for a walk maybe after the kids are in bed to really try and get there. Like I mentioned yesterday, I really want to keep the momentum going and make sure I get to at least 10,000 steps each day and also if I get there early in the day I may also do some weights. The weights bench is a little hard to get to right now as the garage is still a bit of a mess but I've ordered a decent sized garden shed which will hopefully give me the space to sort out the garage properly.

Bomber
At least I don't feel like I need a holiday just yet.

Weighing In

I've been looking forward to weighing myself and seeing the total number of steps and calories burnt this week but then I went ahead and forgot to weigh myself first thing this morning. I weighed myself in the late afternoon so the figure won't be quite right, but it is at least a guide to what's actually going on. I know that it has been quite a while since I've punished myself as hard as I have over the last week, my feet are still a little sore but at least my legs are feeling normal again.

Weight:111kg
Steps for the week: 101,793
Average daily calorie burn: 4,979

That is a massive week, clearly the biggest since I start this blog and I'm pretty sure it is the biggest since I got the fitbit a little over a year ago. The only day that I didn't get over 10,000 steps was last Sunday and for three of the seven days I got well over 4.6k cals burned, another day just over 4.6k cals and two more almost at 4.6k cals. Having the weight loss again reinforces the whole calories in vs calories burnt in my mind.
Today is the start of a new week and I have exceeded 10k steps but probably won't quite get there on cals burned. To have a productive Sunday is unusual for me but I hope that I can keep the momentum going and start exercising again. I took the kids down to the nearest park after lunch today and they have been riding their scooters out the front of the house most afternoons so they may be keen to go further abroad with me when I get home from work.

Bomber
I've still got boxes to unpack....

I can feel a list coming on

It's time to start looking at what needs doing in the garden, the sooner we start the better chance we have of things getting settled in before the cold weather comes around. The yard is currently a blank canvas and we have a number of pot plants that we need to figure out where they are going to go or if we are going to plant any of them in the ground. My wife really wants a Japanese Maple, so that will go in the front yard after I've planted the hedge to give it some protection. I think that I'll plant some photinia's for the hedge out the front and I want to do a hedge along the back fence too, for that I'll probably plant viburnum, we had them at the last house and really liked them.
For outside the dining room window I want to plant a Chinese Star Jasmine on some trellis or something, so we're not just looking at the colorbond fence. There isn't a lot of space and it won't get heaps of light. I was thinking that I may be able to put a small pond with a fountain in as well as that should create some interest and movement out the window.
For the rest of the back yard, I think that we'll leave it as grass for now until we see how things a going and whether or not we feel like we need some more privacy.
At the last house I put in a watering system with pop-up sprinklers for the grass and drippers for all the other plants. This new house has recycled water available for use on the yard and hopefully I can set up an automatic watering system to take care of things for me. I'd love to get a robotic lawn mower but they are just too expensive and I don't really have that much lawn.
One thing I do need is a garden shed to put the mower and all the other garden tools in, I'm going to order one online soon. I need to figure out if I'm going to pave an area to put the shed on or use some gravel or a mat of some kind. I paved under my last shed and I remember it was harder than I thought it was going to be, but I got a pretty good result in the end and I didn't have issues with water getting in so I may just have to do that again. There isn't room to get a concrete truck anywhere near it so I'm not going to try and pour slab or mix barrow after barrow of concrete myself.

Bomber
I'll write a list for this, I'm sure of it.

Almost there

Today was all about getting the new washing machine working, the children's TV,  Xbox and PC set up as well as unboxing as much as I could. We're still no where near where I'd hoped to be, I can't believe that we have so much stuff. It will be some time before I can set my PC up again as there is no way to connect it to the internet at the moment. I may head out on the weekend and buy a wireless card for it if I run out of other things to do. 
We had an electrician come around last night to give a quote on adding a few new outlets as well as putting in a data point for my PC but I'm not sure what his availability is like. This morning a tech came to install our pay TV and said that it was not going to be a standard installation and he wasn't really sure how he was going to do it. I ended up saying not to bother and that we'd cancel our subscription. I rang the provider and they couldn't really understand why they couldn't install it, they tried all sorts of things to try and get me to stay as a customer but unless we install it in the bedroom then there isn't really anywhere else. We don't want it in the bedroom, the whole point of moving to a larger place was to have more space, so to then put something like that in the bedroom would mean that we end up spending lots of time in there watching TV instead of in our nice new loungeroom.
We may end up subscribing to their streaming service to get all the shows we liked to watch on the pay TV. The main ones that we liked were Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. GoT is only on the one provider and I'm pretty sure that my wife is going to want to watch it as it comes out and not wait for the box set of DVDs. The Walking Dead we can get through another service but it will cost too much for just one show, it's something like $49 for the entire season and that's just a digital copy so if we change service then we lose it.
I think we can get both TVs set up with the streaming service for $104 per month which is about what we were paying to have the pay TV box in just one room so it may be worthwhile doing that. I need to do some more research to make sure I do the right thing and don't end up wasting money.

Bomber
I miss the Gold Coast, this has not been fun.

Never Again

Well, things did not go quite the way we planned over the last few days. I'm writing this post on my phone as I haven't set up my PC yet. The only thing that went better than expected in the last few days has been getting the internet working. Our ISP sent a text message at around 9am on moving day saying it was all set up and ready. At 10am they sent another message saying that they couldn't see our router but everything looked good at their end. At that time we were still waiting for the movers to show up.
Moving took a lot longer than we expected and we weren't as prepared as we thought we were. We expected it to take about an hour to load the truck then half an hour to drive to the new house and about half an hour to unload. The movers were late and then they took four hours to do everything. By the time they were finished it was time to pick the kids up from school so my wife went to do that and then went to the old house to grab the last few things and clean. I put the kids beds together and then unloaded the van and went back to the old house and did a further two more loads with the van. We got back to the new house around 7pm and we still weren't finished at the old house.
After dinner I went back to the old house and loaded the car up again and took the fishtank and the cat over to the new house around 9pm.
The following morning my wife dropped the kids at school and then went to the old house to clean, luckily she'd organised some help as she was there until lunch as it was. I was at the new house receiving deliveries and starting to unbox some of the kitchen essentials. When my wife arrived at the new home for lunch, I unloaded her car and then took it back to the old house to pick up the last load, I couldn't take the van as it was full of garbage that needed to go to the tip.
Yesterday afternoon and evening was spent putting together the new furniture and getting all the rubbish in the van.
This morning I went to the tip and then returned the van. My sister-in-law picked me up and dropped me home. I put the last stool together made a coffee and some lunch and put my feet up. I still need to hook the TV up in the loungeroom and set up the computers but once their done then it is just more unboxing.
Monday and Tuesday were both over 20,000 steps and yesterday was getting close to that too. I've sweated several litres of water out and skipped three or four meals purely by accident from being too busy. Hopefully I've worked off some of last week's gain.

Bomber
I'm completely shagged.

Being Prepared

Wow, as I'm writing this post I currently have over two weeks worth of daily posts completed and scheduled. For the last two weeks, most of what you have read was scheduled to be posted well in advance, that's not to say that I didn't check them regularly to tweak them a little or update things like my steps or weight. The reason for having so many posts scheduled well ahead of time was to make sure that I did actually post something each day. That is one of my goals but I don't think that it is even on the list that I have. It has also meant that it is one less thing to worry about during a pretty hectic time.
I'm impressed that I've found that much to write about in what is realistically just a few days for me. Of late I've been struggling to come up with ideas for posts and was starting to feel like I was repeating myself a lot.
Hopefully things should settle down now over the next couple of days. We have some furniture hopefully getting delivered and we have the pay TV company coming to install the new satellite dish on the roof. I'm hoping that it will be covered by the standard installation fee and not require anything too expensive.
The internet is meant to be connected and working either today or tomorrow so then I'll be able to set everything up again properly. The only downside is that my computer doesn't have a WiFi card and the room in which it is being set up in doesn't have an Ethernet port yet. It should be a fairly straight forward job to get an Ethernet port installed in the room where my computer is but I'm not sure when that will happen. If my posts start getting shorter than normal it will probably be because I'm having to do them on my phone or tablet and it's hard to judge the length of a post on them.
Hopefully this week I'll have an electrician and a plumber/gasfitter come and do some work as we need a couple of extra power points and I might get him to run the network cable for me too. I also need a gas connection on the back porch so I can connect my BBQ. Hopefully I can get these things organised this week so they don't end up on the list that I'll no doubt be writing on Friday.

Bomber
today is settlement day, regular posts should resume shortly

Moving Day

Today is moving day, it is also marks 8 months of near daily posts.
I wish I could tell you that moving day went off without a hitch and that we're all unpacked and peacefully getting ready for a quiet night in front of the tele. In reality we don't have the internet connected and this post was written before we even went on holidays to the Gold Coast, so I have no idea how moving day went or is still going (sorry about that).
Today is a good day to reflect on the last eight months, last week I went over some of the labels that I've used regularly on this blog so now I'll just talk about the future and what I want out of the rest of the year. The list below is all the goals that I've set myself and I have a post that is scheduled to be published on 19 July this year. Each month I update that post with a brief outline of what happened in that month. I include this list in each month.

1. Start Blog - 19 July 2018 
2. Start YouTube Channel - Built but no videos as yet 
3. 10,000 steps daily average -
4. 10,000 subscribers within the first year - 1 subscriber (my wife) but I haven't really launched the channel yet.
5. Earn $1000 in one month by second year - $0 biggest month
6. Earn $5000 per month by the fifth year - $0 avg per month
7. Meet YouTubers who have inspired me - 0 met
   
8. Weigh less than 90kg by Christmas - currently110kg
9. Shoot intro videos by end of August - 14 September 2018
10. Publish 20 videos in a year - 0 videos published
11. Be a better Husband and Dad - Not sure how to judge this?
12. Motocamp to Bourke - Nothing planned
13. Adventure Motorcycle Training by Oct 2019 - Nothing planned
14. Burn an average of 4.6K calories each day - x,xxx

 Today I want to add a new goal to the list and that is 

• Upload a new Instagram photo at least once a week related to motorbikes or motocamping. The photo should be taken with a 360° camera if possible.

I've had a quick look at how to schedule Instagram posts and it appears that Instagram itself doesn't allow you to schedule posts but there are other services out there that will do it for you. The plan is to head out every couple of weeks if possible and take a bunch of photos. I then go through the photos and get maybe 4 or 5 good photos that I schedule to post to Instagram one per week. The aim is to at least get some engagement with social media every week. The photos will most likely be cross posted to Facebook so I can start trying to build a following on that platform too. At a later date I'll start trying to do more with Facebook too, but as Instagram has kind of self started itself for me, then that's what I'm going to do first.

Bomber
What if I died between writing this and it being published, ooh that's spooky.

Just in Case

This post has been written well in advance just in case the internet is already disconnected or that I've felt the need to pack the computer away in preparation for the big move tomorrow.
Hopefully yesterdays post was about the great time we undoubtedly had on the Gold Coast and how rested and refreshed we're all feeling. If there was no post yesterday, then I must have packed the computer up before writing one.
Tomorrow the kids head off to school in the morning and the movers may already be here by then. By the time they finish school, we will hopefully be done and may just bring the kids back to the old place one last time so that they can see it empty and say their goodbyes.
It will be a little bit hard on the kids, as my wife will most likely get a little emotional and that may make the kids a little upset too. It will probably be good for them to see the house empty and that there is nothing really there to remind them of anything.
Growing up, we always lived in the same house, my Dad is still there. I guess that I haven't been as attached to the house as the rest of my family as I don't even really have a room to call my own at my Dad's house. When I was really little I was in one room, then I shared a room with my brother for a while. As I got older I was given what was our playroom as my own bedroom but it didn't have a door, it was just an open room at the end of the hallway. As I got older my parents turned the old playroom into a proper room and I then had my own door. I remember I thought it was cool to finally have my own room.
When I was a teenager, my parents decided that they wanted to build a second storey extension and guess where the stairs went, yup, in my bedroom. I spent what must have been several weeks sleeping on the floor of my Dad's study. Then my brother moved out to go to university so I moved into his room. I wasn't allowed to stay in that room as it was my brothers and when my parents moved upstairs I was moved into the old master bedroom. I guess that this was my reward for having being moved around so much as the room was huge and I really enjoyed staying in that room, up until my Mum wanted to turn it into the guest room. So, I was moved back to the room that I started out in, which was now called my sisters room as she'd moved overseas at the time. Even now, when I visit the house, there is still my brothers and sisters rooms and the guest room/ our parents old room, there is no room which is referred to as mine. Even though all up I probably spent just as much time in what is called my sisters room as she did. Both my brother and sister say that my room was where the stairs now are. It's probably why I'm not as attached to my Dad's house and why I'll actually be a little sad to move from our current house, as I can honestly say that the entire house feels like it is mine and I'm sure my wife feels the same way.

Weighing In

That was a great week away. We had a great time on the Gold Coast and the house was awesome. It was right on the canals and walking distance to the beach, not that we even went to the beach. The house was that good that we just stayed there most of the time and the kids spent a couple of hours each morning in the pool and then another couple of hours in the pool in the afternoon.
We went off to Movie World for most of Tuesday and the Scooby Doo ride was the pick of them for us, if we'd had more time we probably would have gone on it again. We didn't go on any of the more extreme rides as the kids wouldn't have been able to handle them and I'm not too sure if I would have either.
Wednesday night my brother came with his family for dinner and we had a great time catching up and drinking a few of his home brewed beer together. He's really making some nice beer now and he's doing it on the cheap.
Thursday night there was a thunder storm and my wife and I just sitting on the back porch enjoying the lightning. I got out the 360° camera and managed to take some photos and a bit of video too. If I got anything half decent I'll post one or two of them here.
I definitely feel like I put on weight this week and unfortunately it's more than I would have liked but I'm ready to get back to walking and doing some weights. One thing that we noticed from getting ready for the holiday is that we think our scales are way out. We tried to weigh the suitcases and what we got versus what the scales at the airport showed was heaps different. Once we've settled in I'll be buying a new set of scales. The Fitbit Aria 2 scales seem a little pricey, but they can also measure your BMI and update the Fitbit app automatically so I think they could be the way to go.

Last week
Weight: 110kg
Steps for the week: 65,980
Average daily calorie burn: 3,915

This week
Weight:112kg
Steps for the week: 48,144
Average daily calorie burn: 3,612

Tomorrow I pick the van up and start moving some of the things over to the new house. I'm looking forward to seeing what my results are like next week. I imagine that there will be a couple of days with lots of steps and extra calories burnt, maybe even with a little weight loss. I'm sure moving house will take it out of me somehow.

Bomber
Hopefully I don't break myself.

Self Improvement

Why do I want to make myself better, why do I want to self improve? Well I don't believe that anyone is perfect, I don't think that anyone could ever be perfect. There is always room for improvement, everyone can do more to be better in some way and by starting this blog and setting myself goals I was hoping to improve myself. This blog was to help motivate me into doing more and I think it has. Without recording my weight each week and the amount of exercise I was getting, I probably would have given up on it. Yeah, I know, it's not like I'm doing much at the moment, but setting goals and then achieving them is one of the ways I motivate myself.
This last weeks worth of posts is an example of how I've been improving. I've gotten better at managing my time leading up to moving house. Not only have I managed to help clean the house and pack its contents. I continued to post on this blog each night and in amongst all of that I managed to write extra posts to get me through the week that I have been away for.
I'm not looking forward to tomorrows post, well more precisely, when I weigh myself in the morning for tomorrows post, perhaps I've already packed the scales, who knows. Starting Wednesday, I'm back to walking in the afternoons as long as it's not raining. I'll also set up the weights bench somewhere in the new house or garage and try to use that at least twice a week on top of going for a walk. I can imagine that the next few weekends are going to be pretty busy getting settled into the new house and trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the backyard. Currently it is just a completely flat patch of grass. I think it is time I learned some more landscaping skills and put them to use.

Bomber
Jack of all trades

 

Being Lazy

I've always struggled with being a little lazy. When I was a kid my room was always a mess as I could never be bothered to tidy up after myself, I don't know if this is really a lazy trait or just that some people are messy and others aren't. I've always been a messy person in my own personal spaces, but any place that I've worked, I've always been quite tidy.
I do try and make sure I tidy up after myself at work as I can't stand it when someone else makes a mess and doesn't tidy up after themselves for some reason. I'm happy to leave mess on my desk at home, but I don't like it when my wife leaves a tea bag in the sink in the kitchen. I know she'll tidy it up after she's had her cuppa and that the stuff on my desk has been there for weeks but something about someone else leaving a mess annoys me. I think my wife is the same as she will happily leave something on the dresser for weeks but doesn't like it when I leave stuff on my desk, it's funny.
I don't always like to take the easy way and that may be part of my being lazy. If something needs doing, I usually want to do it properly and often that takes more time and can be harder which is why I put it off. Maybe it's not so much about being lazy, maybe I procrastinate too much and then it's too late in the day to get started so I give it a miss and say that I'll try again another day.
I do like to think about some things for a long time before I actually commit to doing them, it's almost like I have to be able to fully complete the task in my head without having to stop to work out what I have to do next before I can actually do the task. I guess I make lists in my head.
The other part of being lazy has always been towards exercise. I know I should do more but I never actually manage to do it, I either forget or decide that maybe tomorrow will be a better day.
I'm committed to going walking again once we've moved house. I'll miss walking along the river but I'm sure that I'll find some good footpaths around the new area. They are building some ponds and fountains that will be nice to see, even just going exploring through some of the new streets as they get built will be quite interesting.
Beating my laziness is something that I aim to do this year, I want to achieve more and do more with our weekends. I don't want any more excuses as to why I didn't get out and take photos or go motocamping or anything. I just have to push myself to do more, I'm sure I'll be happier if I do.

Bomber
Holidays are for relaxing, not being lazy, there is a difference.

Changing Jobs

I don't think that I will change jobs for a while yet. I keep thinking that maybe I should, that maybe I've spent too long doing the same thing in the same team with the same people. Then I have days where things aren't so bad, things are actually pretty good. Recently I've been thinking about the places I used to work and how much easier things would be for me if I went back to any of them now. Unfortunately, I don't think that I would be able to earn anywhere near as much money as I do now doing any of my previous jobs. 
The closest salary would be if I went back and worked for a retail company. When I worked there I was an assistant store manager and was trying to become a store manager. At the time, I was recently married and we didn't have any kids yet. I was given the opportunity to become the store manager at the shop in Orange, which is in country NSW. Orange is a great town and at the time I was spending one out of every three or four weeks in Orange, looking after the store. The company paid for me to take my wife to Orange for a night so she could see the town and see if she would be happy moving there. At the time, my wife thought it was too far away from her family and she wanted to be closer to them for when we had kids.
I think at the time they were offering to pay me something like $60,000 + car + bonuses, which would have ended up being somewhere around $80-$90K if the store did well. We would have been living in an area where the cost of living was pretty low, so we would have been fairly well off. If we had gone ahead with it then things would certainly be a lot different than they are today, not necessarily for the better, just different.
Staying where I am for the next two years and also lowering my care factor a little is what I need to do to make things better for me in the long run. As I've mentioned before, I have a large body of work that I've been working on for several years and I'm nearing the completion of it. Once that is done then I can probably sit back and take it easy for a while. There hopefully won't be too many more posts about changing jobs.

Bomber
you can't always get what you want

Making Money with Social Media

The reason why I want to make money from making videos for social media is that I see it as a challenge and really, who wouldn't want to make a living out of doing what they love. I don't think that I'd ever be able to earn enough to quite working my current job altogether, but if I could make enough to say do a three or four day week, freeing up a day to pursue the motocamp360 business, then why not.
I read about a teacher who I think was in the US who was encouraging his students and anyone else that would listen to just follow their dreams and be the best that they could possibly be. If you wanted to sit at home and play computer games all day, that's great, try to be the best computer game player in the world and you'll make more money than you could ever imagine. The same holds true for everything. Any hobby, trade, sport, or whatever, that you love can make you lots of money if you become one of the best in the world at it. Now I don't think that I'll ever become the best motovlogger with 360° camera in the world, but if I try really hard, you just never know.
One of the channels I've been following for a while "Joe Robinet" is about outdoor bush craft skills, I watch it for some of his bush craft and some just because he is outside camping in the wild and living life. He also earns enough money because he has a successful YouTube channel, to live and provide for his wife and family. He recently purchased a house in a more remote location so he can be closer to where he like to practice his bush craft so he can make even more videos. That is pretty cool in my books.
There are other social media identities that are making a decent living from just doing what they love, filming it and putting it up on YouTube.
I would love to be in the position where I was earning more money from just going motocamping. I love camping and I love riding my motorcycle, I also enjoy spending time on the computer playing with new software and being creative. If I did somehow earn enough that all I did was motocamp360, it would be amazing. I could go camping for a night or two each week and still be with my wife and kids each weekend. Heck I could probably do a week of camping and get a months worth of videos in that time, so have one week on the road and three weeks at home. Sure I'd have to be editing and keeping on top of the social media aspect, but the quality of life would be so much different.

Bomber
Dream big

Audio and Music

Audio and Music can make or break a video. There is nothing I dislike more about a motovlog or really any Youtube video than when you can see that they are trying to produce quality content but the audio is just terrible. It could be that they are too far from the mic, or there is a lot of background noise. For motovlogging it can often be wind noise, either the microphone is getting wind on it directly or it is picking up the wind noise of the helmet or something like that. After playing around with a cheap mic and also trying to use the bluetooth from my helmet I can see that getting good audio isn't easy, but if you want to make quality content then you have to do what you can. I can see that I'm probably going to have try a few more of the budget options out but I may end up having to get a decent audio recorder.
Music is very similar, having no music, bad music or highly repetitive music makes me turn off from watching videos that otherwise would have been acceptable. Music can engage with an audience and make the viewing experience more enjoyable, if a music track is good enough it can keep people watching a video that is otherwise of little interest.
I've been unable to find decent music for free and I've done a fair bit of searching. Occasionally I find a good track but after watching a few youtube videos you discover that a lot of other people have already found the same music. You soon lose interest in the music and it can even make you turn the video off if you've heard it too many times.
The good news is that I've found a subscription service that has really good music and when I finally get around to making videos I'll subscribe to them and have a lot of great music to choose from.

Bomber
sorry, no lift muzak here.

Motocamping

I think my desire to go motocamping came from watching a few people on youtube who have channels about motocamping and prepping and that sort of thing. I've always liked camping and tried to go several times a year with some mates. Then when I got the bike I didn't want to have to stop going camping, I kind of saw it as a challenge to down size all my camping kit and try to fit it all on the motorbike. That's when I started watching more motocamping videos on YouTube and came across one or two channels that make really good videos that I really enjoyed watching and looked forward to them releasing new content.
After my first time motocamping and downsized some of my kit some more and tried again. It's very relaxing and exciting at the same time, heading off on a motorbike with everything you need for the weekend. Riding a longer distance than just to and from work and actually having a proper destination in mind, somewhere where you've never been previously or at least a different way of getting there. Riding the bike you are more involved with the journey, the journey really becomes more of the adventure than it ever is in a car. It can almost be more about the journey than the destination. Camping with minimal kit and enjoying using new bits of kit, boiling water to make a coffee using a tiny burner and a butane can using water that you carried with you, it's all rewarding and again, the act of making it is sometimes more rewarding than the result itself.

Bomber
I need to go motocamping

Weighing In

Well I'm not actually weighing in today, I'm away on holidays. I wasn't going to post about the weighing in label but I decided to combine it with the exercise and healthy living labels as they all interrelate and have been a large part of the content on this blog. So why do I care about my weight? I care about my weight as I don't want to get type 2 diabetes, I don't want to die an early death and I want to feel healthier and not feel tired and lazy. I also don't like the way my tummy feels sometimes, it feels to big and bloated and can make me feel uncomfortable in my clothes. I also want to show my kids that I can lose weight and be a role model to them.
I've never really been one for exercise, as long as I can remember I was hopeless at running any distance at all. I did used to ride my push bike everywhere but although I'd like to think that I still could, I'm pretty sure that I'd struggle to ride any real distance. I've always wanted to do more exercise, I've just been too lazy to do it. Buying junk food is too easy, having a beer or two after work instead of going for a walk seems much more preferable to me. I know why I'm overweight and I know what I need to do to lose weight, I just struggle to do it.
Although I've lost my way a little recently, I am still lighter than I was when I started on this journey and I can see that the effort I was putting in was making a difference. It was when I started to cut too many corners that I got myself in trouble and started to put weight back on. It really is as simple as calories in vs calories burnt. Eat more than you can burn and you'll put on weight. Eat less than you burn and you'll lose weight. Where it gets tricky is when your body starts burning less in an effort to compensate for you losing weight, your body doesn't really want you to lose weight, it wants you to keep it to make sure you can survive through the next famine.
I do still intend to get down to 90kg, it just may take a little longer than I was hoping. At the end of the day, as long as I'm healthier and getting healthier each day, then I'm happy.

Bomber
I'm probably putting on weight as you read this...

360° Cameras

Why 360° Cameras? Well basically because they are something cool and the technology is now there that I can afford one at what most people would call the hobby level. The Insta360 One is the camera that I purchased after doing a fair bit of research. I was first intrigued by its price, it was significantly cheaper than previous 360° cameras and was getting pretty good reviews. When it came out there were several other comparable cameras but the Insta360 One was the best all round. The image quality on the Insta360 One is quite as good as I would like for the 360° videos that I want to produce but I think that it will have to do for now and if I really enjoy making the videos and if they start to attract a following on YouTube then I will look at upgrading to a newer and better camera, most likely the Insta360 One X.
But again, why 360°, why not use a normal GoPro for making videos, that's what everyone else does? Well becuase I wanted to do something a little different, I wanted to have an edge or angle that no one else has. Since I started talking about using a 360° camera I've seen a few other channels start using them. Most don't do the full 360° video, they just use it as a normal action cam where they change the view to make it look like someone was moving a camera. It's what they call freeflow or something like that, it's where you take 360° footage and then you can re-frame it in post production to make it look like normal 16:9 footage.
I think that if I don't start making videos soon, that when I do start making them I'll look a little like a copy cat, even though I've been talking about doing this for months on end now.
Anyway, that's why I'm interested in 360° cameras and why I want to make videos using one.

Bomber
we know I was first, who cares what they think.

List Day

Well this is it, tomorrow we head off for the Gold Coast and basically anything that hasn't been done is most likely not getting done or won't be done very well. When we get back from the Gold Coast we've got people coming to collect our old lounge and our old washing machine on the Sunday. On the Monday we get the keys to the new house and have rented a tall delivery van for a couple of days so that I can move the stuff that the movers won't take, things like the lawn mover and our potted plants. The movers may take the plants if there is room, but unless I drain the mower of all fluids, they won't take it. I also have the trampoline, basketball hoop and the swings in pieces that will fit nicely in the van but not so good in the moving truck. The kids bikes, my ladders and garden tools, shelving from the garage, that sort of thing is what the van is for, also if there is anything that we need to take to the tip. 
On the Tuesday the movers come and move everything to the new house for us and then we come back and finish cleaning the old house so it is ready for the new owners. At some stage I'm guessing that the new owners will want to come and do a final inspection before settlement occurs on the Wednesday. Settlement on our old and new house is meant to be simultaneous so from that point on we no longer own our old house and we officially own the new one. We are having to pay the builder of our new house rent for the two days that we need to move prior to settlement otherwise we'd have to rent it off the new owners or move everything into storage somewhere and spend a couple of nights with my Dad before moving everything out of storage.
It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride getting to this point and throwing in a trip to the Gold Coast in the middle of it has been an added challenge but we've made it and a new chapter in our lives is about to begin. I can see us being happy in the new house for many years and who knows, it may just be our forever home.

• Clean the laundry - we need to clean everything on moving day but I want to at least make a start on this before then if I can to make it easier on the day. We are selling the washing machine on the Sunday after we get back so I can start then.
• clean all the scuff marks off the walls and doors - apart from giving the bathroom a good clean, I want to do the sunroom walls with sugar soap, hopefully I'll get that done tonight. Everything else will just need a quick clean once we've got everything out.
• clean the blinds - I'll give them a quick vacuum if I get time
• clean all the aircon ducts - maybe if we have time
• clean the fly screens - I don't think this is going to happen
• clean the deck - still needs to be done, but again if I run out of time it may get missed.
• Sort out the garage - I've sorted out most of it and cleared out a fair bit. Pretty sure most of what's left is coming with me
• Fix the lounge room walls - done

Bomber
Good thing I have next week off to rest up.

Almost there

Tonight the last bit of packing will get done, well at least as much as we can do before we go on holidays. Tomorrow night is for packing suitcases to take on holidays with us and maybe sugar soaping the sunroom walls. I'm going to try and pack enough to get me through the holiday and a few extra days when we get home so I don't have to worry about anything. There should be a washing machine at the holiday house so we may end up doing a load of washing on Thursday or Friday just to make sure we have enough clean clothes to get us through. It will be harder for my wife and kids as they need clothes to wear to work and school before we move where I can just wear whatever until after we've moved.

We must have close to 40 boxes packed and ready for the movers and we'll only have a couple more than that when we're done. We've thrown out a fair bit of stuff that we didn't need any more and sold or given away other stuff that was still of use to someone else. Things like baby food bowls or kids dvds that our kids have grown out of.
I haven't been as productive at work as I would have like the last couple of weeks but I think that is to be expected when I'm doing so much at home and have a lot on my mind. That's not to say that I've been doing nothing, the tempo has dropped off a little at work which I think is more just the lull before the storm. I'm pretty sure that when I'm away things are going to pick up a little and then when I get back there will be a whole truck load of work for me to catch up on.
Tomorrow will probably be a short day if I can get away with it but I'll just have to wait and see how things pan out.

Bomber
I'm looking forward to relaxing in the pool.

Someone who gets it.

I had a bit of a rant the other night about how things should be easier in this day and age and that some companies are their own worst enemies. Well today I had a bit of a win with our new bank and if it stays this way I'll be a very happy customer.
As we're buying a new house we had to refinance so we could borrow a little more, there was no way on earth that I was going to use Lendi again, that was a mistake, so we used a bank recommended by our new broker.
Once all the docs had been signed and sent in a couple of days later they called me and went through everything with me and made sure I was happy. I was riding the motorcycle home from work at the time so I had them on bluetooth and they were very thorough in explaining things to me and making sure I knew exactly what was happening. I downloaded their app for my phone when I got home and set everything up as much as I could. 
Today our new cards showed up and I wanted to activate them and set up my PINs for them. The letter that came with the cards said that I could set my PIN online so I logged into the app using my fingerprint and found that they meant the actual website and not the app, not the end of the world, so I jumped in front of the computer. For the life of me I couldn't remember the password that I'd set up for logging in, after a few attempts I ended up calling their 24hr support line.
After a short hold I was actually speaking to a person with an Australian accent and they just confirmed a couple of things and then sent me a new password via SMS and BAM! I was able to log into online banking. I was then able to set new PINs for the new cards and they are all activated and ready to go.
The reason we left our first bank was due to customer service, the second one we left because of customer server and now we have a bank with a better interest rate,a better app, a better online banking site and what has been awesome customer service so far.
I then jumped on thier Facebook page to thank them for such great service so far and wow, there are tons of negative reviews for them. Heaps of people complaining about bad customer service, long hold times and people never calling them back. I did leave a positive review but I also let them know that I wasn't impressed with seeing all the negative reviews and encouraged them to be better.

Bomber
really and truly, never ever even think about using Lendi.

Beer!

If you hadn't guessed already I'm quite fond of beer. Several years  ago I got a home brew kit and started brewing my own beer. It was a way of saving money and it was a hobby that I quite enjoyed. I was thinking more about yesterday's post regarding global warming and recycling more at home and I thought that I really should get back into brewing my own beer again. Not only would it be saving some money, but it would also be reusing some of the beer bottles. I think reusing a bottle several time before sending it off for recycling is much better than just using it once.
Brewing beer at home can be quite a lot of fun as you can experiment with different flavours. When I brewed beer previously I had a couple of favourites. One was using the cheapest home brand basic draught beer wort, but instead of using normal sugar or speciality home brew sugar or dextrose, I'd use a kilo of honey instead. This really gave the beer a nice flavour. I also did a mexican cerveza following the instruction on the wort tin, but then I'd cut a fresh lemon in half and throw that in on top of the brew. It would taste just like Corona's with a slice of lemon but straight out of the bottle. Another favourite was doing a dark ale as per the recipe, but when priming the bottles, instead of using normal bottle priming sugar I'd use Chicco chocolate jelly babies. The end result was this delicious dark ale with a chocolate after taste. You just had to watch out for the Chicco at the end of the bottle as it kind of half disolves and tastes real bad if you accidentally drank it.

Bomber
I'm getting thirsty.

I'm not a Thermomaniac, I'm not a Denier either.

Well, it's official, last Summer was the hottest on record for Canberra. It beat the previous record which was only a couple of years ago. The region around Canberra was only really settled in the 1840's, Australia's official records for temperature only started 1910 however the oldest records that I can find for Canberra go back to 1895. Due to the methods, type and quality of instruments used, data from that far back can be a little unreliable but it does give an understanding of the weather patterns and the like.
So I think it would be safe to say that last summer was the hottest for at least the last 100 years. It may well be the hottest ever, but that may also be far from the truth. 
There is so much information out there about climate change that it is obvious that we are having an effect on the planet, but what can we realistically do about it? China and India are massive polluters and Australia is selling them vast amounts of coal. If Australia cut off it's coal supplies, the nation would probably go broke and China and India would just get their coal from somewhere else. I fear that there isn't much we can actually do about the situation and it is just something that we're going to have to live with.
That's not to say that we should do nothing, we should all be doing as much as we can to help. I feel a little hypocritical considering that we've thrown out three trash paks full of mixed waste that will no doubt be going straight to landfill. Some of it could have been reused or recycled but we were just in a bit of a rush and it was way too easy to just throw stuff out.
Going forward, I'm going to make an extra effort to recycle as much as I can and also return any bottles or cans that have a 10c deposit. There is a place in town where you can return your bottles and cans and get cash back. It has been a little too successful in getting people to recycle items as now we have several groups of people that roam the neighbourhood at night checking everyone's recycle bins on bin night. They rummage through it all looking for things that they can take down town and exchange for money.

Bomber
Thinking global, acting local.

Weighing In

From all the lifting and shift of boxes this week I would have thought that I would have lost a little weight, oh well. Next week we'll be away so I may weigh myself on Friday or Saturday morning so I can see just how much weight I put on whilst we are away.
I didn't have the fitbit on for most of yesterday as I took it off in the morning when I started working around the house as I didn't want to get paint on it. I probably did a fair few steps as I needed to go out and get some more packing boxes and drop some old clothes off to one of the charity stores. I also managed to finish patching and painting the lounge room walls and pack quite a few boxes which is good, we're definitely on track to finish without too much of a last minute rush. I'm not looking forward to getting the last of the stuff out of the garage but it all seems do-able.
We sold our dining table yesterday so we're eating on the deck or in the lounge chairs for the rest of the week and our new furniture should be delivered around the 20th of March to the new house so fingers crossed that all goes to plan and we don't end up eating off the floor for too long as we won't even have any lounges until they get delivered too.
We're still looking at getting more furniture as the kids will need somewhere to put their books and stuff. They both could do with some proper bedside tables as they've beaten up what they currently have and there are no draws in them. I think we may just wait until we've unpacked a little in the new house so we can see just how much space we have and how much more is needed.

Weight:110kg
Steps for the week: 65,853
Average daily calorie burn: 3,902

Bomber
I need to do something about those weight, step and calorie goals.

This time next week.

This time next Saturday I'll be sipping cocktails poolside at our holiday house. I've was hoping to find a slurpee machine or something similar so we could have pina coladas on tap for a while. I couldn't find any cheap slurpee machines and even the rental ones cost a fair bit if you want them for a couple of days. We've smashed our credit card pretty hard this month and I can't imagine that it's going to be small next month either so I'll have to give the frozen cocktail machines a miss. Maybe another holiday or for our house warming party or something like that.
I'll have to purchase some pre-made cocktail mix or settle for Jack and Cola cans.
The idea of going up to the Gold Coast in early Autumn was to avoid the peak holiday season but also so the weather would be warm enough to still enjoy using the pool and going to the beach. This last week has continued to be pretty hot with some of the days still getting above 30°C. It's certainly been a long hot summer, by for one of the longest and hottest that I can remember. We've had hotter days, but I don't think we've had such sustained heat. It does make you wonder what the future holds.
I think by this time next week I'll be ready to put my feet up for a few days and just take it easy. It will be my kids first time flying so I'm sure they will be all kinds of nervous and excited about getting on a plane. I'm hoping that they don't freak out too much and just enjoy the experience. One of the kids will be with my wife and I and the other with their Nanny and Poppy on the plane which is a bit of a bugger as I'd really like to see both of them at the same time, hopefully we'll all be seated near each other.

Bomber
if you like pina coladas....

List day

Friday, list-day, doesn't quite have the right ring to it but I figured that I'll go over the list on Fridays as it will give me a good idea of what needs doing. I should have some time over the weekend to get most things done as we've cancelled our standing lunch date with my Dad so we could try and finish off most of the packing and the other chores around the house. Basically what I don't get done by next Friday most likely wont be getting done before moving day.

• Clean the laundry - we need to clean everything on moving day but I want to at least make a start on this before then. I will make it easier on moving day.
• clean all the scuff marks off the walls and doors - apart from giving the bathroom a good clean, I want to do the sunroom walls with sugar soap, everything else will just need a quick clean once we've got everything out.
• clean the blinds - I'll give them a quick vacuum if I get time
• clean all the aircon ducts - maybe
• clean the fly screens - I'll give the worst ones a go
• clean the deck - still needs to be done, but again if I run out of time it may get missed.
• sort out the garage - I can give the cars a clean and check over the motorbike before packing what I can and organising the rest so it is ready to move.
• Fix the lounge room walls - I forgot this task off the list originally. I need to remove all the home theater cables and speaker mounts and then paint the walls in the lounge room.

The weeks are still flying by but the end of this chapter is in sight and I'm looking forward to writing about something else for a while. There will probably be a lot of posts about gardening and more lists of things to do at the new place. Perhaps Friday will be known as List Day for a while so I can keep track of what needs doing and what I've done.

Bomber
I'll have a list for everything if I'm not careful.