2015, The road ahead.

Last year I made a list of a few things I wanted to have a crack at during the year and I found it to be a good form of motivation. Even with everything else that was going on last year I still managed to do some of them. Though I'm still struggling to get a recipe up on this blog! So this year I thought I'd put together a similar list and share with you. There are even a couple of ideas that other people may want to join in with!

Actually, this year I have so many ideas for what I'd like to do that I've had to split them up into categories! I may not get all of them done, but it's good to put them out there to provide me with inspiration on days when I just want to lie in bed!

Let's Get Physical!

The road less traveled

With a lot of this blog revolving around cycling, it can come as no surprise that some of things I want to do this year involve bikes! But just for balance I have added a couple that don't necessarily involve bikes.

Run in the rain on an off road trail

So maybe I'm a little kooky, but the idea of running through scrub in a gentle misting rain really appeals to me. With Cobblers not that far away, I'm looking forward to Autumn, running through the trees at twilight with a gentle misting rain. Definitely no lightning allowed!

Go somewhere new

It's easy to slip into routine, doing the same thing, going to the same places, even for holidays. This year I want to go somewhere I've never been before. And take my bike!

Ride the north eastern end of the valley loop at Cobblers - the one with all the switch backs

Skills to be learnt

Cobbler Creek is becoming one of my favourite places, but I get frustrated by my inability to ride switchbacks on anything that cuts across a slope. I have visions of sliding down the hill, dirt, bike and prickles going everywhere. I probably just need to fall off a few times then I'll be fine, but I just need to stop chickening out first!

Rocking a Crit! 
(photo c/ Carl Purczel)

Ride another criterium

One of my goals last year was to ride a criterium. I had a crack at this in a women's only event hosted by the Skinny Latte Cycling Club and really enjoyed myself. I ended up surprising people and jumping off the front about half a lap to go. I got caught, but it was awesome fun! Now I want to mix it up with more people!

Happy times!

Go bike touring

2013 was an awesome year for bike touring, and the reason this blog was actually started. Events in 2014 meant that no bike touring happened, much to my dismay. I think out of all the bike related activities I have done, I've enjoyed touring the most. Eventually I'd like to do it self supported, but for now I'm going to have to settle for being absolutely spoilt by Bike SA on the Outback Odyssey! Yes, that's right, I've talked Mr Carl into going back to where it all started, mountain bikes and dirt! I can't wait!

Food, Glorious Food!

On many levels, food is one of my passions. Creating with it, sharing with friends and eating make me happy. One of the things I noticed during the stressful times last year was that I lost interest in cooking, it started becoming a chore. Something you love should never be a chore, it can be hard work, but never a chore. To re-inspire my love of cooking (and maybe a few other peoples as well) I've decided on a cooking challenge for 2015.


Getting my Mojo back - The Great Cooking Challenge of 2015

Inspired by Chocolate . . .
(photo c/ Carl Purczel)

It's simple - one new dish per month. It doesn't have to be fancy, just something I haven't tried before. I've got stacks of cookbooks, the whole interwebs thing and loads of excellent cooks as mates! Should be easy! I'm even going to try and post pictures and a summary of the dishes up on the blog, so you can share in my triumphs and failures (I'll try not to set the kitchen on fire again, Mr Carl). I'm also opening it up to anyone who wants to join me. If you do want to try a new dish, feel free to send me a photo and a blurb and I'll add it to the blog (hopefully). With any luck we can all inspire each other!

. . . more chocolate . . .
(photo c/ Carl Purczel)

Some of the other food related things I'm thinking about are trying to make things I've never made successfully. This includes:

• Sour dough
• Pavlova
• Sponge
• Meringues

I'll settle for any improvement really, especially with the sour dough. Something that doesn't resemble dwarf bread would be good!

If, after all that I'm not in a delirious food coma, then I might try and continue with some chacutarie experiments. The swausages were pretty successful last year!

. . .and more Chocolate 
(photo c/ Carl Purczel)

I'm not going to commit to putting recipes on the blog for now. One thing I discovered about myself every time that I attempted to do this last year was that I am not meticulous enough for recipes. All you're ever likely to get from me is an ingredient list and a vague description of how they go together. Cooking isn't meant to be hard work!

The Art of Zen

Last year I discovered that sometimes, something a little unexpected turns out to be exactly what is needed. Whether is was the unexpected emails from the Alice in Wonderland Kickstarter campaign, being thoroughly entertained by the likes of Dennis Loccraine, or spellbound by Nigel Westlake and Lior, they all brought a smile to my face when I most needed it. I'd like to continue that in 2015, so here are some ideas:

The Basil Experiment

• Go to a roller derby event 

• Be a patron (again)

• Go to an unknown/new event

There are also other, non bike or food related skills I'd like to develop further, particularly writing, gardening and photography. Gardening is less skill development, more just getting out there and doing it. Possibly I can combine it with photography and writing and write a blog post about my garden experiments!

Zen Gardening

I'm definitely planning on continuing the blog, and I'm hoping to do a particular post I've been planning for the last two years! A new acquisition should be all the motivation I need to get that done, though it may distract me for a while. But I'd also like to get back to writing stories. I'm not sure how to go about getting them out there, but I've got a few sci-fi tales sitting in my head that I'd like to share.

Photography - The Great Photography Challenge of 2015 

So, photography is the last thing on the list, and just to see how busy I can keep myself, I'm going to propose another challenge. I'd definitely like all my photographer friends to join me in this one, assuming you'd be happy to share your photos on this blog, otherwise it might get really boring with just my happy snaps. The challenge is as follows, once a month I pick a theme and we all try and take photos to do with that theme. You (and me) select the ones you like best and I put them up on the blog. You can provide commentary or I can, but you might want to consider my sense of humour before allowing me to comment on your photos.

I will be taking suggestions for themes, but to start things off, lets have a theme that is fitting for this blog. The theme for January 2015 is:

"Wheels in motion"

Please don't send me hate mail!

You looking at me?

So 2015 promises to be a busy and interesting year. Hopefully I will be able to share some of the stories from it here. Hopefully you will enjoy the tales!

2014 - The times, they are a changing!

I must admit to breathing a big sigh of relief now that 2014 is over. It felt like I was living in "interesting times". If you've been wondering why the blog's been a little quite of late, I've recently changed jobs and landed myself a promotion in the process, so I've been a little short of time.

I'm not the best person at dealing with change, I like stability and continuity, but circumstances during 2014 meant that I had to adapt to a constantly changing employment environment. When the man who hired me almost seven years ago walked away from the company he had been part of starting, I knew that I didn't want to be there any more. But it's one thing to know this, quite another to know what to do about it. The resulting stress meant that for most of 2014 I felt like I was running on empty.

It's not all that helpful to focus on the negative, but it is hard to let go of something that has been a big part of your life for so long. During the year I found myself coping in different ways, and I wanted to focus on the positive things that came out of this journey.

Strength, Stability and Courage

Stone Hurt Road

One of the the places I found solace when stressed was, unsurprisingly, on the bike. In particular I found myself riding on dirt a lot more. The intense focus required to stay upright (when mountain biking) as well as getting out in nature never failed to put a smile on my face. That isn't to say there wasn't a few tantrums when the trail became tough!

Dirt = Happy!

Actually, one of the other places I found myself developing skills to deal with these challenging situations (both on and off bike) was the gym. This year I completed a strength class and learnt how to weight lift properly. The people that I met through the class then encouraged (nagged, pushed, probably depends on your perspective) me into joining the crossfit classes.

Super Fit Guy ;)

I had often watched the super fit guys and gals swinging themselves around on bars and do all sorts of crazy things in the crossfit class and I was fairly reluctant to have a go. Both due to my (perceived) lack of fitness and worries about my back falling apart. But, with the proviso to go easy on my back, I got talked into it. And in all honesty, I loved it.

More Dirt!

I found myself doing things I no longer thought I could do. Handstands were easy as a kid, but now? Turns out I can do them no worries (as long as there is a wall there). I've done things I thought I had no hope of doing, simply because I gave it a go a few times. Sure, I've hit my head a few times (literally, I'm fairly clumsy), but I slowly learnt that most of what was holding me back was in my head. In addition, the strength and stability work built into these classes improved my back and my bike handling!

The Art of Patronage
Physical activity alone was not enough to keep an even keel. Distractions abounded throughout the year, including:

• Lior and Nigel Westlake with the ASO performing Compassion
• Rocky Horror Picture Show
• WOMAD
• Dennis Loccraine (Dr Hook)
• The Last Confession

But there were two outstanding highlights and they were outstanding because I was no longer a passive person being entertained (though if you had seen me singing at Dr Hook, you would not have believed it to be passive), but a patron engaging in the arts.

Warm! 
(photo c/ Jill Gillmore)

I always thought patrons had to be super rich with sparkly gowns, but apparently they don't. All you need to do is support the arts, and when you have such talented friends, this is an easy thing to do. A friend of mine put on two exhibitions this year, "I Felt I should Duck, Weave and Spin" as part of the Fringe and "Air, Earth, Water, Fire" supported by SALA. I was lucky enough to attend both and both times she made time to sit, chat and explain her work. Both times I ended up with a piece of her artwork, a cute felted wombat the first time and a luxurious and indulgent, hand spun and hand woven scarf the second. Not only was I now a patron, I had awesome, wearable art (and I will be warm all winter)!




The second highlight did not strike me as an act of patronage at first, simply there was an awesome Alice in Wonderland book project on kickstarter that I wanted to be part of. It was, to quote the site:
 
"A deluxe limited edition volume richly illustrated with paintings and drawings by artist David Delamare."

Personally I would have summed it up as amazing, but that doesn't really describe it all that well!

Image c/ David Delamare

As with a lot of kickstarter projects, this one ran over schedule, in fact I still don't have my book! But in some ways I'll be sad when I do (as well as deliriously happy) as it will mark an end of a journey I have taken with a bunch of strangers to create something beautiful and unique. What made this so special for me is the way the artist and his partner brought us all into the project and into their lives.





They updated us with information not only as to how the project is going, but why they started it, what they hoped to achieve and how things changed over time. The community formed around the book and the artist was offered help from people who had skills they could use. 

Image c/ David Delamare

 

In many ways the project became bigger than the artist, and I was proud to play a small part in this community. The updates also had a habit of reaching me when I was having particularly bad days, and it always made me smile to know that I was able to help someone else create something with such integrity.




   

With Friends Like These . . .

High Five! 
(photo c/ Evermore Photographics)

When all else failed, I could always count on my friends to cheer me up. Or at least listen to me grizzle! But seriously, my friends provided many highlights this year, chief among them the marriage of two wonderful people, Brett and Karen. I was truly honoured to be part of this event and enjoyed it thoroughly!

Captain Bob 
(photo c/ Carl Purczel)

My friends were also willing to participate in almost every mad scheme I could come up with. Captain Bob pushed himself to the limit in Roller Frenzy with me. Brett took on the swausage making challenge. Kara rode up Stone Hut Road with me. We celebrated Chinese New Year, Tour de France, Mexican Christmas, New Years and many other events in between. Truly, I am lucky to have such crazy, fun friends.

Swausages!

 


So as I look back on the year, I realise it wasn't as bad as I thought, stressful yes, but not bad. It had it's challenges, but it also had some amazing adventures and experiences. Hopefully 2015 will be a bit less stressful, but I'm sure it will be amazing with all the awesome people in my life!


For anyone interested in learning more about the artist behind the Alice in Wonderland book project, the website is here: http://www.daviddelamare.com/