Goal 82 - something lost, hopefully forever!

Alot of the jobs I have had in the past, or businesses that I have run, have tended to keep me fit, healthy and slim.

After college I spent several years teaching outdoor activities, such as climbing, canoeing, caving, and mountaineering. Later I ran a jet ski business, which involved alot of time working hard on the beach.

When I moved to Australia, I worked for Jenny Jones Rugs, and for the first year or so there I did quite alot of manual work there, lifting and shifting rugs and furniture. But when I became duty manager there my role at work became much more sedentry.

Continuing to eat as I used to when I worked much more physically, coupled with moving into my forties, and an appreciation for beer, meant that slowly the weight started to increace. Not by much, but enough to be noticeable.

In my twenties, and well into my thirties, I always used to weigh around 11 stone (154lb or 70kg). But in my early forties, at the worst point I was around 12 and a half stones (175lb, or 80kg)!

After my separation I started to be much more active again, swimming and running on the beach each morning. When I moved to Kalgoorlie to become a mining dump truck driver, I made a conscious decision to join the social crowd that went to the gym or squash court more often than they went to the pub. And I soon got back to around 70 kilos.

Back in Perth after six months out in the desert, I worked up north in another mine, and kept fit by swimming alot and using the gym there, again avoiding the pub crowd to a large extent.

But it is easy to let the good habits slip, and after a year at the mine I resigned, went back to the rug shop briefly, and put my life up for sale on eBay. Alot of time in front of the computer, too many pizzas, and too much wine meant I got back up to around 75kg.

And so when I started my list of 100 goals, I set myself the target of getting back down to my ideal weight, and maintaining it - 70kg - which was my weight at the age of thirty. It hasn't been easy, as it can be tricky when travelling to eat healthily all the time. Fitting in enough excercise can be a challenge too.

But since August last year, and even before, when I began preparing for my "7 Peaks in 7 Days" Colorado-based mountaineering challenge, I have been doing pretty well. Since then I have been pretty active, and tried to be very conscious of what I eat.

When I weighed myself just before Christmas, I had just reached the 70kg mark, and decided that if I could maintain healthy habits for the next three months, and maintain my weight, I think I should be able to do so continuously.

Staying with Marty and Carol for a month hasn't made things any easier, as they are both great cooks, but I have done very well overall, and am still a healthy, trim, and fit 69kg.

Goal achieved! Unlike some goals that once done, I haven't really returned to at all (such as didgeridoo playing (until last week) or kitesurfing), I intend to keep on top of this one. In fact I need to, as still ahead is the challenge to develop some sort of six-pack stomach. This is going fairly well, but I still have that last bit of fat to lose, and a bit more muscle to build. But progress is certainly encouraging!

An impressive erection!

As you may, or may not know, the eBay ALife4Sale auction did not end as successfully as I had hoped it might, and eventually I had to sell the house via the more traditional route of listing it with a real estate agent. I also managed to sell my car before I set off on my 100 weeks goal-achieving journey, but everything else that I owned had to be stored somewhere. More details at the 12th July 2008 blog post here.

And my wonderful friend Mel came to the rescue, allowing me to use half of her garage to store the huge pile of stuff that I still had left. I have never really been quite sure what to do with all of this household bric-a-brac, and have taken a bit of an ostrich head-in-the-sand approach for over a year and a half now.

But Mel needs her garage space again, and my stuff has to find a new home! And therefore my return to Perth for this month has to a large degree been to sort out my left-over life that didn't sell. I think it would have been so much easier if someone had bought the whole life, and everything had gone at one time. But bit by bit, I look at the stuff I still have, and think, "That might be useful one day!"

I don't really know where I will end up after the 100weeks adventure comes to an end, but do have some plans which I hope will keep me in the States for a while - more details coming in a blog very soon! However, I do still love Australia, and maybe one day I will be back here to live. And all of this stuff would be handy to have then to set up a new home.

I have looked at a storage unit as an option, but they are pretty expensive. So I have eventually decided to trim down the belongings, get rid of all the big items, and store the remainder. Marty and Carol have a big garden, with loads of room at the back, and they very kindly suggested that I could erect a shed there and use it as a store room.

So on Sunday evening I went to local hardware store Bunnings, and bought a smallish shed, and yesterday got to work on assembling it. The initial estimate of a couple of hours proved to be wildly optimistic, and I just got it completed this morning, having only sliced fingers twice on the sharp metal edges. Good work!

I am very pleased with the results. Now all I have to do is get all my stuff from Mel's to here, sort it out, fit in what I am keeping, and get rid of the rest!

So Sunday morning will be a bit of a garage sale and giveaway. There is heaps of stuff, so if anyone in Perth wants a jet ski, rug and sofa, BBQ, coffee table, computer, kitchen chairs, fans, or smaller stuff like CDs, DVDs, kitchen stuff, etc. then contact me through the "Contact Me" page for the address, and come and see me on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. It all has to go!!

Night skydiving troubles.

On Friday morning, after Marty had gone to work, Carol asked if I wanted to come down to Bella's school for their assembly, as they were putting on an end-of-term show. I had seen Bella making her costume over the previous days, and thought it would be fun to go and watch.

Without kids of my own I don't get to see such events very often, and the enthusiasm of the kids certainly put a smile on my face.



On Saturday morning I headed out once again to Skydive Express at York, for the fourth weekend in a row, which is a bit of a personal record for me. I have done more jumps in the past four weekends than in the previous two years, I think!

With full moon being on the 30th March, Saturday night was going to be the best opportunity for night jumps. I have been building up to this weekend for the past month, getting in the necessary amount of jumps, and practicing my landing accuracy, as there is only a small lit area to land in at night.

The winds were fairly strong and steady all day, and it was a great day for jumping. The last jump of the day was a new one for me, as I managed to borrow a set of "camera wings" - a type of jacket that camera flyers use to be able to adjust their body position in order to capture better angles for videos.

The last load had been delayed, and as we reached 14,000 feet the sun was just setting, and the sky was lit a stunning orange. The view from height was awesome. By the time we jumped and eventually landed it was a half-night-jump already!

The winds dropped a little as darkness fell, but were in the wrong direction to be able to land in front of the main building, where the spot lights are set up. As the day's jumping came to an end, sixteen of us who had signed up for night jumps waited tensely for the Chief Instructor's decision.

Unfortunately, with some cloud cover, the direction of the winds on the ground, and the still strong upper winds, the CI eventually decided the conditions were a little too marginal, and informed us over the speaker system that night jumps were cancelled!

There was disappointment all round, followed by a headlong rush to the bar as an alternative evening's entertainment. Things got a little lively towards the end of the night, and the strip-foozball competition ended predictably!



I got a pretty late start for jumping on Sunday morning, nursing a bit of a hangover for the first part of the morning.

Once again, a great weekend of skydiving, although I am very disappointed not to have achieved the goal. It really is a pretty hard one to get done, as I have to be in the right place at the right time, when night jumps are being done, and need to have all my gear with me. I really don't know if I'll get another opportunity to try this one again before July 4th! Oh dear!

100 days to go!

Just over two years ago, on March 14th 2008, my ALife4Sale website went live on the internet, and the next day, an article appeared in my old UK home newspaper, The Northern Echo.

From then onwards, my life was turned upside down, and the next couple of weeks became a crazy whirl of TV interviews, radio and newspaper interviews, and phone calls from around the world. I even had several movie producers from Hollywood contact me to ask about the movie rights to the story.

I had picked the 22nd of June 2008 as the day the week-long auction would start on eBay, and then simply counted back 100 days from then, and picked the 14th March as the day to launch the website.

From that day on, I wrote a blog every day, as I counted down to the auction start. The blog is still available online here:
ALife4Sale Blog

At the time 100 days seemed like a long time, but the weeks just flew by. It was such fun being interviewed about what I was doing and why, and writing blogs about how crazy my life had become. For a while I had a TV documentary crew following me around too, which was a pretty unique experience.

And so just over a week ago, as March 14th went by again, I wondered when it would be 100 days until my 100 weeks comes to an end. And today, Friday 26th March 2010 is that day!

I can't believe it has now been two years since I started this whole crazy adventure. The time has gone so quickly, as I guess it always does when you fill your life with interesting and exciting activities. And I know that although 100 days still sounds like a long time, it will pass incredibly quickly, especially with some of the plans I am looking forward to completing in that time.

I am a little ambivalent now about the fast-approaching end of my journey. Money is getting a little tight, and I am looking forward to stopping the endless spending. I am also looking forward to actually settling in one place for a while, and simply taking a bit of a break.

My stop here in Australia for a month has been a lovely, but brief respite from the constant movement. However, I have still had to plan new travels, make new bookings, contact people and make arrangements, sort out accomodations, plan for tricky goals, and write about what I have been up to. But I am incredibly grateful to Marty and Carol for offering this small oasis of calm for these few weeks.

But the other side of the coin which I must consider as the last 100 days begin to disappear, is what the future may hold for me.

Where do I want to live? What do I want to do? How will I ever settle anywhere after two years of endless travel? What does life have in store for me next?

I was asked many times, in many interviews in the run-up to the ALife4Sale auction what I was going to do next. Initially I didn't really know, and it was only mid-way through the 100 days countdown that the idea of 100 goals in 100 weeks really crystallised.

I think this time, I am not quite as vague about what may come next, but after July 4th, life still offers something of a blank canvas, upon which I am now doodlng, playing with ideas and possibilities. I have some hopes, and potential plans, but can I manage to turn these ideas into reality?

I sincerely hope so! I have my work cut out, but if I can get everything to come together as I hope it might, I am very excited about where life might take me next.

I will be writing more over the coming days about what I hope to do next. That's if I can find the time, of course, somewhere between night skydiving, harmonica playing, excercising, trekking to Everest Base Camp, visiting the Taj Mahal, and much much more!

And another goal revisited.

Once again I have been surprised, and a little dismayed at how long it has been since I did anything with one of the goals I previously achieved.

My friend Bek runs Urban Indigenous Tours here in Perth, and she had a booking for Monday morning, so I opted to join her and her customer Ricard from Sweden, along with one of Bek's English tour guide friends, Kim.

We set off in the tour bus, complete with genuine kangaroo skins on each of the seats, and once we had collected Ricard, headed to the home of Sheila, a renowned aboriginal artist. Here we were given an introduction to the traditional symbols used in aboriginal art, and were set loose to create our own timeless masterpieces. Mine involved alot of travelling and crossing water!

Sheila was fascinating to chat to, and had some incredible stories. She was one of the "Stolen Generation", taken from her family at the age of eleven, and housed in horrendous conditions in a convent for the rest of her childhood. The "Stolen Generation" is one of the darker parts of recent Australian history, and is movingly portrayed in the film Rabbit Proof Fence.

Next stop was at a wonderful art gallery, where we tried many types of bush tucker, both traditional and contemporary foods made from plants, fruits and seeds found in the outback. My favourite was the delicious quandong jam.

Lunch was in an aboriginal cafe in Northbridge, in the oldest aboriginal-owned building in Australia. The hangaroo meatballs were fantastic, and after the heavy damper (bread), and a huge dessert, we were all stuffed.

The final stop on the tour was at Didgeridoo Breath in Fremantle. This is where I did my didg course about a year ago. And when I thought about it, I realised that since I left Australia last year in May, I haven't once played a didgeridoo.

I didn't get the chance to say that I had done a couple of lessons before, and we began our 45 minute lesson with our instructor, Sanshi. We all did pretty-wel, and at the end of the lesson Sanshi explained the principal of circular breathing. I had mastered it last time around, and was pleased to be able to still do it successfully. Sanshi was very impressed with his teaching abilities!!



The journey back to the city was pretty eventful too, as the predicted afternoon storm arrived, the first rain that many parts of Perth has seen for over 120 days! The downpour was torrential, and hailstones started hitting the van pretty hard.

Eventually Bek pulled up under a tree as many other drivers had done, afraid that the van was going to be damaged. I jumped out and grabbed a hailstone about half the size of a golf ball.

The flooding was incredible, and lightening caused much of the city's electic supply to fail. Traffic lights weren't working, roads were flooded, cars had broken down here and there, and the traffic was chaos. It took to hours to get into the city to drop Ricard off then get back to Bek's flat.

This morning, the storm was declared a natural disaster, the worst Perth has seen for fifty years, and estimates of damage done are up to around $100 million. One car sales yard had hundreds of vehicles damaged by tennis-ball-sized chunks of ice. Marty's car, parked outside at work now has loads of dents, and looks a bit like a golf ball.

Check out some of the amazing images here:
Facebook "I survived the Great Storm of Perth 22/03/2010" page
and my short video clip from the Urban Indigenous Tours van.

Revisiting a previously achieved goal.

I have recently ridden several times past one of the pubs where I used to play poker. In preparation for my goal to play in a big game in Las Vegas, I got in as much practice as I could while in Perth around the same time last year. It is hard to believe that a year has gone by so quickly.

And so I looked online to see where the local games are now played, and found a pub not too far away that has a game on a Thursday night. I rode up there, and entered the competition, and sat down at 7pm to play poker for the first time since my last game at the tables in The Wynn in Vegas. Again, it is hard to believe that so much time has passed since I played, but life has been so full with new experiences and challenges.

I took a while to get back into the game, and saw a few hands go by that I could have been involved in, or possibly have even won. However, I sat back and waited, and when the time came I bet well, and won some good hands, ending as chip-leader on our table for a while.

I did pretty well until the break, but a couple of tricky hands, and a marginal "all-in" call put me out of the game. I was pretty pleased however, to have made the top 16 on my first game for a long time.

On Friday I managed to catch up with some emails, but later in the day kept getting distracted by the ever-entertaining Maxine at my current "home" at Marty, Carol and Bella's house.

On Saturday morning I was booked in for an Introductory Blues Harmonica class, and learned alot in the four hour lesson from amazing harmonica player and teacher Brad Capper.



I was back onto the motorbike immediately afterwards for the one-and-a-half hour drive out to York, and by 3pm I was manifested for my first skydive of the day. I somehow managed to volunteer myself as a tandem "customer" for a potential instructor from the States, who was being assessed.

I was so much more nervous than when I jump myself, as all control is handed over to somebody else. It is like being the passenger on somebody elses motorbike - I really don't like it! But the jump was brilliant once we were out of the door. And without having to do any sort of planning for landing it was amazing how many other things you see that you don't usually notice as you descend under canopy.

I did another couple of jumps on Sunday, then headed "home" again. What a brilliant weekend once again!

... and a few minor setbacks too!

I have been spending a fair bit of time catching up with friends back here in Perth, sometimes to the detriment of the goals, but I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

On St. Patrick's Day I headed out early on the motorbike, and met an old friend Ed at the coffee shop in Leederville. I haven't seen Ed for about four years, and we caught up on each others news for two hours or so over a couple of coffees. It was going to be a big coffee day - ideally, it should really be Guinness, to celebrate the Irish National Day, but that wouldn't help with either the weight goal, or with riding the motorbike!

From there I rode out to the coast for lunch and more coffee at Scarborough, where my friend Bek now lives. Bek recently lived and worked in South America for a couple of years, and we had spent a bit of time in the same places, and have got plenty of notes to compare. Bek now owns and runs an indiginous tour company here in Perth, and I have booked in for her tour sometime next week - not sure of the day yet.

After lunch I rode up to Innaloo where I met Glennys for more coffee. I have only met Glennys once before, after she contacted me via the 100goals website, but we got on pretty-well, and found that we had alot in common. I had many questions for her about her self-published book, "50 Ways To Grieve Your Lover".

I hoped that I may have had a book deal signed, sealed and delivered by now, but as yet I am still hopefully waiting. Self-publishing is an alternative that I am considering is if nothing concrete presents itself in the next month or two.

I am really struggling with the goal to "see a baby being born". Obviously this is an intensely personal moment, and I have to find someone who is happy to have me there at such a private event. I have had a couple of offers during my travels, but actually being in the right place at the right time is proving to be somewhat tricky.

I am also having a few problems with some of the other, bigger goals too, and am waiting for further information before deciding how to try to make progress towards them. Finding a spot where I can drive a car into water off a jetty without getting into legal trouble is proving to be much harder than I thought. And the Russian plane which runs weightlessness flights has technical issues, and won't be flying until much later in the year, well after my 100 weeks period finishes!

Oh dear! Back to the drawing board again!!

Slow but steady progress with some of the final goals.

I have been back in Australia just over two weeks now, and I wonder how that time has gone so quickly. I am also slightly concerned that in that time I have only managed to tick off one more goal, the naked skydive.

However, I am making slow but steady progress with several other goals, and despite it now being week 85, and only 81 goals achieved, I am doing the groundwork for several other goals.

In skydiving terms, I have been jumping regularly, and feel I am as ready as I can be for my night jump on the 27th of this month, so long as the weather is suitable.

My goal of getting down to 70kg (154lb) and maintaining that weight is going well, and when I weighed myself this morning I was a slimline 68.4 kilos. This goal also goes hand-in-hand with my desire to develop a bit of a six-pack stomach. This too is showing small signs of promise, and exchanging a bit of fat for a bit more muscle should get me somewhere near my target.

The unicycle progress has been halted temporarily, however. I borrowed my friend Mel's unicycle, but the threads in the pedal cranks have stripped out, which means the pedals just slip out when any pressure is applied to them. I am now waiting for the cycle shop to locate some more cranks.

I have treated myself to a new harmonica. The one I was travelling with was a $10 cheapie, and the low and high notes didn't play too well, and it frustrated me to try to use it. So with a lesson coming up at the weekend I went out and bought a Hohner Blues Harp, which is really nice to play. I have also signed up for some online lessons here, and am really enjoying the progress I am now making. I try to practice a little bit each day.



I have also been making enquiries into some of the other, as yet unplanned goals, and have made some steps forward, so am hopeful for more progress towards some of them too in the near future.

Quad biking in the forest.

I haven't seen my friends Andy and Karen for over ten months now, since I was last in Perth. They live to the south of Perth in the countryside, and used to be fairly close to where my old house was. But from where I am currently staying, it's a fair hike to their place.

I packed my skydive stuff for the weekend, and on Thursday headed southwards. I called in first to see my former employers at Jenny Jones Rugs. Jenny was kind enough a couple of years ago to encourage me to include my job as one of the items on offer in my "ALife$Sale" auction.

It was good to catch up, and it was great to see Andy and Karen again, and their kids Layla and Louie too. They have both grown since I last saw them - the kids, that is!

It wasn't long before Andy proudly wheeled his new toy out of the shed, and we were soon thrashing it along the forest tracks! "Now that's exactly what the rangers don't want you doing!" said Andy as I slid the machine around in the dust when I got my hands on the controls!


The next day I hung out at their house, and in the evening we went to Rockingham for a swim at the beach, and fish and chips on the grass for dinner. It was really nice to just relax and have some fun at the beach again. I certainly miss the easy-going Perth lifestyle when I am away!

On Saturday morning I rode out to Skydive Express again. I am getting a bit hooked once again on jumping, and have found the new thrill of freefly. I am now able to freefall in a reasonably stable sitting position, which is so much faster than falling in a flat position, as there is the same weight, but alot less drag.

I managed to borrow a freefly suit off parachute packer Anna for the day, and made some great progress.

Sunday was also fun, when I chose to do a couple of 14,000 feet "hop-n-pops", when you jump out of the plane and deploy the parachute almost immediately. It is quite noticably colder when you are under canopy at 13,000 feet, but the view and the long flight down are absolutely awesome!



I'll be back jumping again next weekend, as I have to be in practice for the night jump, hopefully taking place the weekend after that!

Happy Birthday Martin!

I only have one sibling, my younger brother Martin, and today is his birthday.

Martin and I have always got on pretty well, but with me living in Australia, and him and Rachel in London, opportunity to hang out together over the past eight years or so has been somewhat limited.

However, Martin and Rachel are keen travellers to, and in the first five years that I lived down under, they came to visit four times! I also headed back to the UK a couple of times during those years too, so we saw each other about once a year.

But since I began my 100 weeks adventure, I have seen quite a bit more of my brother. Martin, and his girlfriend Rachel too, have been a big part of my 100goals journey.

He and Rachel live in Ealing, fairly close to Heathrow airport in West London. And so each time I pass through the UK I drop in there. It's only a short ride on the Underground from the airport to their house.

I also spent Christmas with them up at mum's house in Darlington just recently, and after New Year, once again met up with them both down in South Africa, where they joined in with a few of the goals scheduled for my time down there.

On the "Join In" page, I have started a "100goals Fantasy League Joining In" table, and have listed on it anyone who has joined me for two or more goals. It is down at the bottom of the page, below the long list of goals, detailing who has joined me on each one.

For a long time my friend Mel here in Perth was leading the field, having joined me on six goals, but Martin, who had joined in with three previous goals, added another three while in South Africa, bringing him level with Mel in first place.

My friend Val, who had joined me in two goals in Colorado, joined me for a few weeks in South America, and added four more goals to his total, putting him in first place too, alongside Mel and Martin.

Rachel is in fourth place, behind these three, as she didn't come along in London when Martin and I went to meet Richard Branson, and she also missed out on diving with the Great White Sharks in South Africa.

I only have 19 goals left to achieve now, so if anyone wants to beat the league table leaders, it's going to be pretty tough!!

Anyway, I just wanted to say a BIG happy birthday to my brother, and a BIG "thank you" too to both him and Rachel for their help and support through my adventures. Hope you both have a wonderful day.




Happy Birthday Martin!!!

The final countdown....

19 goals left, 17 weeks to go!!

When I was in Rio for Carnival, I had no further flights booked, and plans were somewhat vague as to where I would go next, and in what order I would try to tackle my remaining goals. So I spent a day or so doing some research, comparing flight costs and possibilities, contacting people, and trying to factor in the last 21 unachieved goals.

The first thing I wanted to do was return to South Africa, where there was the offer of some bargain flying lessons.

At some point I also needed to return through Perth in Australia to sort out some personal issues, including at least one long-overdue tax return!

So after quite a bit of thought, research and planning, I booked a flight from Rio to Port Elizabeth, and a further flight a week later from there to Perth. I did my flying lessons, and managed a solo flight in South Africa, and back in Perth, I have managed to achieve goal #81 - a nude skydive. And so now my final few months look something like this:-

I plan to stay in Perth for a while, perhaps until the end of the month, or into early April. The goals I hope to address here include a night skydive, again back at my old skydive club in York if I can get things organised - full moon is on 30th March, so Sat 27th is looking like the best option. I have also managed to borrow a unicycle from a friend, and am trying to avoid hurting myself too badly with that! Maybe there might be a chance to see a baby being born, and with some spare time on my hands, I hope to get back to working on my lucid dreaming. Also, at the end of March, if I can keep off the beer, wine and pizzas in Perth, I should be able to tick off my "maintain my weight at 70kg" goal.

At the end of March I plan to fly to India to see the Taj Mahal, seeing the only remaining "New 7 Wonder" that I haven't yet seen, and from there I will move on to Nepal to see Everest.

Russia is next on the list, where I hope to fly in a MIG fighter jet, and go on a weightlessness flight.

From there a last stopover in the UK will hopefully allow me to finally gather 5 Ian Ushers in one place, and perhaps drive a car off a jetty, and then it's over to the States again for the last month or two, where I plan to finish in style in New York on the 4th July.

Final goals still to be addressed before the end of the journey will be:-
Sign a book deal
Have a workplace romance
Learn the harmonica
Develop a 6-pack stomach
Dive to see the Titanic
Join the Mile High Club
Set up the Blindsided Network website
and
Complete my $50,000 fundraising goal

With most of these I have been making some progress, and if all goes well I can now see it being really possible to fulfill the whole list of 100 goals, which is quite incredible. Although quite a few things still have to work out just right for everything to fall into place.

For example, to have a workplace romance, I need to be working, and to do this I need to sign a book deal. If that happens, I can consider the remainder of my adventure to be work, and a workplace romance will become a real possibility - just need to find my romantic partner! A willing partner, plus opportunity is also required for my Mile High Club goal!!

Seeing the Titanic may also depend on the book deal, as it is outrageously expensive! Without either some sponsorship, or a fantastic offer from a publisher, this one is a big challenge! This is also the case to a lesser degree with the MIG flight and weightlessness flight too.

I am progressing slowly with harmonica and 6-pack, and hope I have enough time left to get there with both of these! The BlindsidedNetwork.com website shouldn't be too much trouble, I hope.

My biggest challenge will be to raise my $50,000 charity fundraising target, and I will have to put quite a bit of time and effort into this one. My full set of 50 photos from my travels will be complete by the end of week 90, and all will be printed and individually signed and numbered. If I can receive a $20 (Australian $) donation for each one I will reach my target. I do have a couple of ideas on how I might progress with this, but any ideas, suggestions, or publicity about what I am trying to do is much appreciated. For full details of my fundraising goal, or to support me by ordering a unique, signed, numbered photo from my adventures, see here:-
$50,000 Fundraising goal

As always, the offer to join in with any of the final goals is open to anyone who wishes to, see the "Join In" page. Similarly, if you can help out in any way there are further details at the "Help Out" page.

In either case, you can get in touch with me through the "Contact Me" page.

Finally, as mentioned before, there is an open invite to come and join me in New York on the 4th July to celebrate the end of my journey. Full details here:-
100goals New York 4th July 2010 Invite

Goal 81 - Dangling in the breeze!!

I have been skydiving on an irregular basis for over six years now, and have done around 140 jumps in total. I still get a big thrill from it, but do not tend to go regularly enough to progress too much in terms of skills.

At around 100 jumps many people try a nude skydive. I am not really sure why, other than the usual "because it's there" sort of reason. It is something that has been on a mental to-do list somewhere in the back of my mind, and somehow it got added to the list of 100 goals as it was first written out.

And so as I am back in Perth for a while, and my own skydive gear is here, I decided to make a concerted effort to get another goal ticked off. I rode the motorbike over to the dropzone at York yesterday evening, and over a few beers with a couple of the other early arrivals, tried to recruit a few others to my cause.

I put up an open invite on the cafe door, suggesting anytime mid to late-afternoon on Saturday might be the best time for the jump, hopefully the warmest part of the day.

I did a couple of refresher jumps in the morning and early afternoon, and late in the afternoon, as the last of the tandem skydive customers headed home, four of us gathered to plan our jump. Joining me would be Skydive Express staff members (no pun intended!) Split and Thommo, and parachute packer Crumb. As is often the case at skydive clubs, I have known a couple of these guys for several years, and have no idea what their real names are!

Our jump was going to be the last of the day, and I was extremely grateful to business owner and pilot John for flying the extra load.

We geared up, and to avoid any offense to any remaining customers and their families we wore shorts to get down to the plane. There were only the four of us aboard, and we quickly got to 14,000 feet, and when we got the orange light, and opened the door, it was pretty chilly.

We had all sorts of grand plans for our exit and jump routine, but with no jumpsuit, control in the air is very tricky, and we messed the exit up badly. When we all let go to try to sort it out the two bigger guys (and by that I mean body mass, nothing else!) fell away quickly, and the new slim, lightweight me could simply not catch up to them at all.

Eventually we all had to separate and open our 'chutes, and fly down to land. Beer was already waiting for us, from the carton I would be required to put on at the bar, as is customary for any new first skydive achievement or event.



Here's a video of the whole sordid, messy affair....


So thanks to the others who took part, Thommo, Split and Crumb, to Camilla on camera duty, and to Johno and the rest of the fantastic team at Skydive Express. Time to go and celebrate with a beer or two, as there is a carton of beer waiting on the bar. Cheers!!

Jetlag down under.

I landed in Perth on Sunday afternoon, and was met by Marty and daughter Maxine, which felt like coming full circle, as when I first departed from Perth back on Day One of my 100 goals adventure back in August 2008, it was Marty, Carol and Maxine who waved me off.

Perth is six hours ahead of South Africa, and I have been struggling a little with jetlag. I was wide awake most of the night on my first evening back here, and eventually fell asleep at around 5am, sleeping almost until midday. I am still up late each evening, but forced myself out of bed at 7am this morning in hopes of getting at last onto Perth time today. I have cycled and swum today, so hope I will be tired by a reasonable time, and get a good night's sleep.

I have had to cycle a bit over the last two days, as when I went to collect my motorbike, ten months standing has not done it much good, and I couldn't get it started. The battery went flat while cranking it over, and even trying to jump-start it with a car wouldn't pull the petrol through.

A fantastic Aussie product came to the rescue this morning. I knew it was somewhere in the garage among all my junk, but hadn't been able to find it until I had a big tidy-up this morning. A tin of "Start Ya Bastard" is a must in every garage toolbox!!



With the bike now running again I am much more mobile, and can get out and about to catch up with other friends, try to arrange some more goal stuff, and try to sort out my junk. I really wish it had all sold as part of ALife4Sale, and I wouldn't have to deal with it now.

I am going to try once again over the next couple of weeks to try to sell most of the remaining bulky items, and find somewhere to store the rest of the stuff I can't get rid of!