While I was preparing to leave England, two years and eight months ago, an energetic pair of filmmakers called Ben and James were expending rather a lot of cash and effort on shooting, editing and promoting the beginnings of a video podcast series. The idea was simple – publish short and snappy video episodes of our round-the-world bike trip, with production costs paid for by per-episode sponsors.
It sounded like a worthwhile project, a good learning experience, and a lot of fun. Lo and behold, after a couple of weeks’ riding we were chortling uncontrollably at our on-camera antics as they were published to the world. That was fun! Read More »
My life is boring. My daily routine consists of getting up an hour before sunrise, going for a run, jumping into (and rapidly out of) a cold shower, having breakfast and then sitting down for an 8-to-12-hour stint in front of my computer screen. I am making websites for a living these days. It puts money in the bank for travelling, the prospect of which is starting to inch within visible range. But it bores me to tears.
It could be worse. Much worse. There’s a big, empty park on a hilltop 15 minutes walk away, which I share in the mornings with a small crew of old men who patrol the big wide promenades at night, so I’m lucky for that. I live in a country which might not exactly fit the definition of utopia, but I have all of life’s essentials, and nobody’s starving, so I’m lucky for that. I have a skill – that I can use anywhere on the planet with an internet connection – to earn a half-decent Western wage, so on a global scale I’m exceptionally lucky for that. But most of the time, I’m bored out of my mind. Read More »
For this, the first in an occasional series of guest blogs (they’re all the rage these days), I’d like to re-introduce an old friend, a man with whom I braved the horrors of Western and Central Europe for 10 weeks of this bicycle journey… ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Mark Maultby! Take it away…
Hello there. This isn’t Tom writing. What?! Sorry, but I’m hi-jacking this space for my own agenda. Actually, ‘hi-jacking’ is too fierce a word; how about ‘trampling-on’? Read More »
I think New Year’s Resolutions are a really crap way to make positive changes to the way you live.
Why? Well, I reckon it’s much more effective to start doingsomething than to stop doing something.
Most New Year’s Resolutions seem to revolve around giving something up. So, on the first of January this year, I’d like to propose something a little different. Let’s say you want to lose weight and get fit. A big cliché, but definitely a common desire!
If that’s you, don’t bother promising to eat less chocolate and start running every morning. Instead, set yourself a big, tangible target for way off in the future. Look right now for an event near you in the following summer or autumn – charity fun-run, duathlon, triathlon or Ironman. Aim high, put the date in your calendar, and start training. Once the event comes around, if you’ve committed yourself, you’ll have achieved that weight loss and fitness as a by-product.
Having something on which to focus is something I’ve found to be really important if you want to achieve something bigger, even if you have to mentally ‘invent’ that point of focus. When I had tough days on the bike, I used to visualise my girlfriend (now wife!) standing on the horizon with a big smile on her face. I know that’s vomit-inducingly corny, but it got me across the Sahara!
I think you can apply this change of perspective to almost anything. Set yourself a target for the end of 2010 while you’re seeing in the New Year.
It’s December and the mercury is dropping fast. This week I experienced my first morning run in the falling snow, crunching quietly in the pre-dawn blue around the faded grandeur of Victory Park and its empty dilapidated walkways, crumbling statues and rusty fairground rides.
The onset of winter took me back a couple of years to when I first arrived in the Caucasus. I remember vividly crossing from Turkey into Georgia on Christmas Eve 2007, dearly hoping to escape the freezing coastal rain for which the Black Sea is well known. The journey has generated such a wealth of crystal-clear memories. If my brain has cleared things out to make room for them without telling me, I really don’t mind.
(I wasn’t disappointed by the much colder and drier Georgian weather, but I did discover something of my worldly ignorance – the Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on the 6th of January.) Read More »
This is the moment at which we turn and face ourselves. Here, in the plastic corridors and crowded stalls, among impenetrable texts and withering procedures, humankind decides what it is and what it will become. It chooses whether to continue living as it has done, until it must make a wasteland of its home, or to stop and redefine itself.
I’ve been slaving over a hot laptop for the last three nights, but now I think it’s ready for public consumption. Please take 10 minutes to watch the clip below. I hope you enjoy it, and that it gives you a glimpse into my currently-static life here in Armenia and the importance of what’s happening in Denmark this week and next.
This Sunday I’ll be dashing around the streets of Yerevan on my bike, furiously trying to film a bicycle demonstration that I’ve been organising for the last few weeks, together with a group of local cyclists, as part of the Ride Planet Earth project.
Kim Ngyuen’s been cycling from Australia and is poised to arrive in Copenhagen for a couple of weeks of demonstrations during the COP15 UN climate summit, during which he’s planning to air footage from rides in cities all over the world.
Copenhagen looks set to be packed out with pressure groups and activists from all over the world. A reminder of the priorities of the world’s citizens could go a long way here.
In the unlikely event that you find yourself in Yerevan this weekend, you’re invited to join me and the rest of Yerevan’s cycling community (small, but growing!). If you don’t have a bike, we have procured a number which can be borrowed on a first-come, first-served basis. View a Google Map of the proposed route.Read More »
Hello dear readers. I’m in a particularly frustrated mood this evening. I’ve had a great day climbing one of Yerevan’s nearby mountains, trudging through snow all day and having a lovely picnic on the summit. When I returned home, I read a particularly aggravating email, and so I wanted to share the situation with you, for little reason other than to get it off my chest and to give you an idea of what I get up to while I’m hanging around in Armenia for the winter. Read More »
It’s that time again – another ‘how-to’ sharing the essential tools of the adventure cycle-touring trade. This time I’m going to deal with what is often a stressful thought for every rider:
Great day yesterday climbing Teghenis & skiing down - today happily knackered. Thought it would be my calves hurting, but(t) it's my glutes!about 1 day agofrom web
