Preparations; Update: GP, home

Well hello there, strangers. I hope we haven't grown too far apart in the millenia since we last met.

My apologies for abandoning the posts on wagering - upon receiving a little feedback I had to consider whether my audience actually had any interest in them... There is no use after all in regularly posting if the posts are regularly unread! So I concluded that frankly, there was little use keeping them up. If I was going to take blogging more seriously (as I have half-arsedly considered in the past), I will keep that idea as an option - an option to develop a niche audience, of course, not to alienate the friends I already have.

I will update briefly, though, while I am here. My return so far this year has exceeded expectations (and goals). Partly I am getting more used to it, but primarily I have revised my assessment of the risks of wagering. I realised that a significant risk at any given round is mitigated by the averaging of similar risks over a ten-eighteen round season - short term risk is distinct from long-term. Net average returns is a much more dominant variable - and so far that has proven the case.

I have also looked into alternative agents and have been informed that a few international transaction companies (e.g. Moneybookers and Neteller) provide means to fund overseas betting agents. I have opened a Neteller account though I am yet to use it.

In news closer to home, both the bikes have been painted. No photos of Jill yet (still haven't put her together), but of Jesus I've taken a few - tiny.cc/PhoJes . The experience was as laborious as expected, though considerably slower. The 'painting two is only a little more difficult than painting one' rationale completely ignored the glaring fact that sanding is the primary component of a paintjob. The result was largely better than expected, except that the last batch bubbled - I still don't know why. But I do know that there was no way at that stage that I was redoing any, so that was that. Sort of a shame, but still quite happy with the result. Not a perfectly smooth surface, but a good gloss and overall positive appearance - no excessive peel like the last job, and no strong demand for polishing.

So, with that done, the racebike is for sale. BUY IT! NOW! HURRY, SO I CAN LEAVE THIS TOWN FOR FINER LOCALES.

The plan is to have headed North within the week. By North I really do mean North - until the roads run out, and the dirt track which winds its way into the distance proves too much of a challenge for the SV and my nerves.

You know about my plans for the rest of the year, right? Good. And I'm glad to hear you're still jealous.


As a result, the diary will be changing back to its original self - the motodiary of an intrepid adventurer. It WILL BE AN ADVENTURE, and you will be able to read about it. No guarantee on regularity - but there are a range of options these days should that be a problem for you.

Until then.


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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com

Lucky Me!

I realised something out on the road today. I was thinking about how lucky I am to be able to ride the roads that I do. And I realised - I have been thinking this a lot lately! So often, I sit back, I look at the view - perhaps to recover in between focussing intently on the next bend - at the road ahead, the hills to either side, the eucalypts lining the road (I love eucalypts by the way!, in all their splenderous, disorganised variety, they make a lot of the atmosphere of many locations)... and am not just enchanted, but struck, amazed, at how wonderful it is to be able to do what I am doing. Really! It happens all the time. And it really is nice.

The realisation led to a thought, in its turn, about this blog. I know what I can write about! I can write about more than just what I do, what the roads are like, what the view was like... what I can write, is a blog which shares these experiences. A blog which attempts to explain why it is that I am so lucky, to express what it is about riding that is so... worth writing about.

So that is my angle. I certainly hope I make you jealous. : ) But if I inspire you to find - to make - for yourself the same opportunities that I have, then you can hardly complain. Or if I merely inspire you to feel something of what I feel then that will just the same, be a job well done.

At the end of the day, if I can understand how I could be so lucky, or if I can understand what it is that inspires me so, then, well then I'll be the better for it as well.

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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)