During the first few months of the year I'd been thinking about what new stuff I could do to challenge myself. While challenge can be a bit frightening sometimes I believe it's important for fulfillment in life. Sometimes you have to make a real effort to challenge yourself and other times it just comes to you naturally. The natural stuff is easy because often you have no choice, but to make a conscious decision to do something outside your usual comfort zone is much much different in my opinion.
I've felt particularly challenged in life during the last 10 years from both work and play. In that time I've gone from confused "traveller" to golf course greenskeeper, computer programmer to product manager at Yahoo! and felt challenged almost every day. Outside of work touch rugby has played a huge part in my life during that time and despite trying to play down making it to international level of course it was a highlight (even if it was only for England!). Playing touch rugby is no longer something I feel particularly passionate about and reffing the game instead has somewhat fulfilled that void; perhaps its an age thing.
Just recently my work has presented a new challenge, pleasingly both professionally and recreationally. I've taken a secondment at Yahoo!7 from my usual role to manage the build of a new site that's sport related. The role requires both skills I have and others I don't yet. It's no coincidence it's also presented an opportunity to get involved in sports I've dabbled in before but not focused on so much - more on that later!
Of course having children is probably the biggest challenge in life but they bring you so much joy it feels like a different kind of challenge to me.
Interested to hear what others think about challenge in life?
Cheers
Tim
Friday, 7 May 2010
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Cycling in Sydney
I used to cycle to and from work once or twice a week when living in Balmain, mainly because I had things to do when I finished and no car at the time so it was convenient. Having now moved house, had a baby and bought a car all since my last blog post things have changed just a bit... I now cycle to and from work 4 or sometimes 5 times a week mainly because it's the quickest way to get from Clovelly to Walsh Bay and back each day. It means I can leave work around 5pm (I know, but I have a baby to bath now) and be home in 30-40 mins depending on what gets in my way. If I'm lucky and ride fast I even get time for a dip in the ocean to cool off as well!
Anyway enough about me. Cycling in Sydney is not half as bad as everyone told me it would be and as I had expected. I find vehicles (especially buses) taking a wider birth from cyclists that they ever do when I'm driving by (my new) car. Let's face it, Sydney drivers are some of the worst in the world (from my experience travelling - which includes Buenos Aires, Argentina!!) for lack of patience and road-rage. Only once since starting to cycle approx 80-100km a week have I had a motorist deliberately cut me up - I get cut up just about every time I get in the car! The funny thing is, the prat in the Suzuki was just annoyed I was catching him up at every set of lights and getting in front of him again so proved the point he was (marginally) faster in his over sized motorcycle with 4 wheels by trying to knock me off - I'm deliberately careful to keep a good distance from cars as much as possible so it' wasn't as close as he would have liked I'd say!
So why are Sydney (and maybe it's Australia wide) drivers so aggressive toward other vehicles? You could hardly say it's the busiest city in the world for traffic, it just seems everyone is in such a hurry they lose all disregard for other drivers - I feel safest on a cycle or in a bus for sure.
One other debate between cyclists seem to be whether listening to music whilst cycling is acceptable? I personally do listen to my ipod everyday and would go insane without it but I have taken on-board friends comments and only listen through one ear now - leaving the other ear to listen out for trouble behind me. I'm pretty good at knowing what's going on all around when I'm cycling and keep a good eye left and right and behind regularly as well - but I guess a tooting motorist about to hit me could be a welcome warning some day!
Happy cycling to those who are brave enough to try, I can recommend it in Sydney but keep your wits about you, be careful and take it easy. To those who drive around Sydney on a daily basis - you have my pity but don't be a plonker, slow down, chill out and don't take it personally if I wizz by on my bicycle!
Cheers
Tim
Anyway enough about me. Cycling in Sydney is not half as bad as everyone told me it would be and as I had expected. I find vehicles (especially buses) taking a wider birth from cyclists that they ever do when I'm driving by (my new) car. Let's face it, Sydney drivers are some of the worst in the world (from my experience travelling - which includes Buenos Aires, Argentina!!) for lack of patience and road-rage. Only once since starting to cycle approx 80-100km a week have I had a motorist deliberately cut me up - I get cut up just about every time I get in the car! The funny thing is, the prat in the Suzuki was just annoyed I was catching him up at every set of lights and getting in front of him again so proved the point he was (marginally) faster in his over sized motorcycle with 4 wheels by trying to knock me off - I'm deliberately careful to keep a good distance from cars as much as possible so it' wasn't as close as he would have liked I'd say!
So why are Sydney (and maybe it's Australia wide) drivers so aggressive toward other vehicles? You could hardly say it's the busiest city in the world for traffic, it just seems everyone is in such a hurry they lose all disregard for other drivers - I feel safest on a cycle or in a bus for sure.
One other debate between cyclists seem to be whether listening to music whilst cycling is acceptable? I personally do listen to my ipod everyday and would go insane without it but I have taken on-board friends comments and only listen through one ear now - leaving the other ear to listen out for trouble behind me. I'm pretty good at knowing what's going on all around when I'm cycling and keep a good eye left and right and behind regularly as well - but I guess a tooting motorist about to hit me could be a welcome warning some day!
Happy cycling to those who are brave enough to try, I can recommend it in Sydney but keep your wits about you, be careful and take it easy. To those who drive around Sydney on a daily basis - you have my pity but don't be a plonker, slow down, chill out and don't take it personally if I wizz by on my bicycle!
Cheers
Tim
Monday, 6 July 2009
Bring back traditional Fish & Chip wrapping in Australia
Twice now I've had fish & chips in Sydney from what I'd regard as traditional fish & chip shops (not restaurants selling takeaways as well) and they've been served in a ridiculous box with more cardboard than food. Aside from the extra cost this must bring, its environmentally insane and to top it off the fish & chips go cold before you get out the shop door.
I asked the guy in the shop I went to most recently what the story is, he told me they would prefer to use good old fashioned paper but health and safety don't allow it - WTF is going on here! He also mentioned it costs them (and therefore us) a lot more to package in boxes, will someone give me a good reason why paper is less hygienic than cardboard, unlikely because THERE ISN'T ONE!!
I don't want to blame individual shops as it seems they may not have a choice but, I'd like to list my experiences of cardboard craziness here and have others add theirs as well, please help me stop this charade and use this blog post to start a petition to "Bring back traditional paper wrapped fish & chips".
My two offenders so far are:
Dockside Seafood - 4/314-322 Darling St, Balmain, NSW, 2041
Bay Seafood - 485a Darling St, Balmain, NSW, 2041
Add a comment with your experience and where it occurred.
Cheers
Tim
I asked the guy in the shop I went to most recently what the story is, he told me they would prefer to use good old fashioned paper but health and safety don't allow it - WTF is going on here! He also mentioned it costs them (and therefore us) a lot more to package in boxes, will someone give me a good reason why paper is less hygienic than cardboard, unlikely because THERE ISN'T ONE!!
I don't want to blame individual shops as it seems they may not have a choice but, I'd like to list my experiences of cardboard craziness here and have others add theirs as well, please help me stop this charade and use this blog post to start a petition to "Bring back traditional paper wrapped fish & chips".
My two offenders so far are:
Dockside Seafood - 4/314-322 Darling St, Balmain, NSW, 2041
Bay Seafood - 485a Darling St, Balmain, NSW, 2041
Add a comment with your experience and where it occurred.
Cheers
Tim
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Jägermeister & the Jägerbomb
How can a drink so nasty taste so good!
Take a shot of whisky or tequila - you practically have to close your eyes and groan just to remotely enjoy the event. Now take a Jägermeister, it's a completely different story for me. This is the first shot since the ole days of that very drinkable peppermint liqueur called Clarise or something (I can't remember how to spell it properly but it was good) or the more recently popular Goldschlager that I've come across something so smooth. It doesn't seem to hurt a bit!
I had the pleasure of enjoying a couple of Jägermeister (one of which turned into a Jägerbomb after some arm-twisting) at a work colleague Krysten's (aka America) 25th birthday party up at the Glenmore pub in The Rocks Sydney. They certainly set us up for a fun night of good old fashion 'talking crap', priceless!
The worrying thing for me is, the past few times I've had Jägermeister I've absolutely looooved it. The longer I can keep a bottle of that stuff out of the house the better I think - anyone going through duty free Sydney soon?!
Salud!
Tim
Take a shot of whisky or tequila - you practically have to close your eyes and groan just to remotely enjoy the event. Now take a Jägermeister, it's a completely different story for me. This is the first shot since the ole days of that very drinkable peppermint liqueur called Clarise or something (I can't remember how to spell it properly but it was good) or the more recently popular Goldschlager that I've come across something so smooth. It doesn't seem to hurt a bit!
I had the pleasure of enjoying a couple of Jägermeister (one of which turned into a Jägerbomb after some arm-twisting) at a work colleague Krysten's (aka America) 25th birthday party up at the Glenmore pub in The Rocks Sydney. They certainly set us up for a fun night of good old fashion 'talking crap', priceless!
The worrying thing for me is, the past few times I've had Jägermeister I've absolutely looooved it. The longer I can keep a bottle of that stuff out of the house the better I think - anyone going through duty free Sydney soon?!
Salud!
Tim
Friday, 19 June 2009
Diving at Shelly Beach near Manly in Sydney
It'd been over 5 months since my last dive so was great to get underwater again and take a look around at the Shelly Beach area, about 30 mins North East of Sydney.
I was diving with a mate Paul and through the guys at Pro Dive Manly. The team at Pro Dive are cool guys with a lot of experience and a good set-up, our Divemaster Rob was open to ideas of what we wanted out of the dives and as we only had a small group of four we didn't have to wait around for too long.
Given Shelly Beach is a marine reserve (no fishing allowed) the sealife seemed larger and more mature than usual. On dive one we saw a massive Cuttlefish that took a liking to my mask (the Divemaster seemed to think they like bright colours and mines purple and orange) and swam slowly toward me like playing chicken getting very close before I moved to avoid a collision - it's eyes we're amazing, we definitely had a moment! Apparently they have a strong jaw and can grab onto things quite quickly and aggressively, I was right to move away I guess.
On dive two we saw a massive Flathead, I didn't know they got that big, this one was about a metre long and would've tasted brilliant I'm sure.
The visibility was generally good and the bottom temperature a mild 18 degrees considering it's winter in Australia now. It did get cold about 15 mins into the second 45 min dive when we all wished we had dry suits on!
I'll definitely dive with Pro Dive again, hopefully Long Reef and soon!
Cheers
Tim
I was diving with a mate Paul and through the guys at Pro Dive Manly. The team at Pro Dive are cool guys with a lot of experience and a good set-up, our Divemaster Rob was open to ideas of what we wanted out of the dives and as we only had a small group of four we didn't have to wait around for too long.
Given Shelly Beach is a marine reserve (no fishing allowed) the sealife seemed larger and more mature than usual. On dive one we saw a massive Cuttlefish that took a liking to my mask (the Divemaster seemed to think they like bright colours and mines purple and orange) and swam slowly toward me like playing chicken getting very close before I moved to avoid a collision - it's eyes we're amazing, we definitely had a moment! Apparently they have a strong jaw and can grab onto things quite quickly and aggressively, I was right to move away I guess.
On dive two we saw a massive Flathead, I didn't know they got that big, this one was about a metre long and would've tasted brilliant I'm sure.
The visibility was generally good and the bottom temperature a mild 18 degrees considering it's winter in Australia now. It did get cold about 15 mins into the second 45 min dive when we all wished we had dry suits on!
I'll definitely dive with Pro Dive again, hopefully Long Reef and soon!
Cheers
Tim
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
My Worthy Watch blog
Over the past few months I've been watching a lot of DVD's at home. I've always enjoyed films but more recently have almost become addicted. We have a local DVD rental store just a few minutes walk from home, who know us well enough now not to have to ask for a card or name - they don't even expect us to pay at the time and generally say 'just bring the money next time if you don't have it on you'!
Also, given Mel (my wife) is heavily pregnant we don't spend as much time socialising or 'going out' as we used to which is all part of the nesting process of having a child (so I'm told).
Anyway, I've started a new blog to document the films I'm watching and will give my own unprofessional and potentially useless view on them. I've added a ratings module (which kind of works) so anyone can rate the film if they've seen it too and a comments module to write personal comments on the film or my blog post.
http://worthywatch.blogspot.com/
Cheers
Tim
Also, given Mel (my wife) is heavily pregnant we don't spend as much time socialising or 'going out' as we used to which is all part of the nesting process of having a child (so I'm told).
Anyway, I've started a new blog to document the films I'm watching and will give my own unprofessional and potentially useless view on them. I've added a ratings module (which kind of works) so anyone can rate the film if they've seen it too and a comments module to write personal comments on the film or my blog post.
http://worthywatch.blogspot.com/
Cheers
Tim
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