My first Blog post

Thank you for taking the time to find and read this first post. Over time I hope to catalogue my adventures and share my experiences as I begin this new adventure. I have lived a very full life I can assure you, and have a million stories to tell.

I am 63 years old, divorced and single. I live in a small apartment by myself in Elwood, Victoria. I work as an architectural draftsman for a metal fabrication company which I enjoy very much. I have drafting for over 35 years and lived in Thailand and Singapore for 21 years. In a previous life I was a cook in the Royal Australian Navy.

Five years ago I contracted oral cancer and had a huge operation from which I am fully recovered. Two years ago I had an aortic aneurysm which I was pretty lucky to survive (so I am told). One day you are cruising along, and from nowhere a life threatening issue presents. The old cliche "Life is short" comes to mind, but we shrug it off. That is until those pidgeons come home to roost for real. Anyway, I have always been of an optimistic mindset and it has generally held me in good stead. Apart from those two maladies, everything else is in pretty good knick.

Like Banjo Patterson's Mulga Bill, I have caught the cycling craze, though with a less catastrophic outcome I hope! 

As a kid, I would ride my trusty old steed from behind my dad's barber shop in McIntyre road, North Sunshine, down to the pier at Altona. A pretty good adventure for a 13 or 14 year old kid back in those days. The bike was of course a bomb, but it was good enough to sate my fledgling travel appetite. I had been weaned on Marlin Perkin's TV show Wild Kingdom, and piles of National Geographic magazines. I was very aware there was a whole world of adventure waiting for me out there.

Around this time, my father had an apprentice in his shop - Ross. As soon as he finished, he went off to join the Navy. A year or two later he came back to visit and he was riding a Honda 1000 Gold Wing (Lead Wing lol). This thing was huge and the cockpit was kitted out like a battle star from Star Wars. I was impressed. He regaled me with stories from the Navy, which now knowing better, were most probably bullshit. But hey! What did I know back then.

The defining moment for me was when my mother took me down to Princess Pier in Melbourne for a Navy open day. There sitting alongside was a River Class ship (HMAS Parramatta or Swan) in all its spleandour. The dibbys had done her proud.

- Sidebar: Dibby is Naval parlance for 'Dib Dab'. In peace time gunnery rates don't fire the ships guns unless on exercises, being naval or live firing. They resort to one of two activities being: all the upper deck evolutions when entering and leaving port, or ships maintenance. This involves a lot of polishing of brasswork, and painting the ship in shipside gray. So the Dib Dab reference is for their painting prowess, and more likely the painting technique employed.

So before me at Princess Pier was the most spectacular object I had ever seen. A fresh coat of shipside gray, not a speck of rust in sight. The brass polished to within an inch of it's like. The firemain pipes all painted in vivid red, and of course the sailors all decked out in dark blue parade dress. I couldn't sign on fast enough to see the world.

But I digress. I got the cycling bug not long after my cancer operation. There was a guy on YouTube who calls himself the Bicycle Touring Professional. He would engage in multi week voyages of exploration through Scandanavia, Europe, South America etc. Fun stuff. So I went a bought a Malvern Star Oppy SF2 bicycle from the tallest woman I had ever met. She was from Brazil.

The bike sat around a bit, and then Covid hit. That put the kybosh on everything. Eighteen months ago I picked up the bike and started riding it. From the first moment it did not feel good underneath me and I had no confidence in it. The frame was too big I think. I had trouble straddling it, and when I rode, my centre of gravity was too high. But the desire was strong, so last week I bought another bike. That is for another blog post I think.

So here I am, as keen as mustard, and looking to do a few adventures on my own on the bike. Again, fodder for another blog post.

Thanks for reading.