Bicycle Dreams

I guess now that I have committed to riding a bike through Cambodia, I really should actually start riding a bike. I have a long history of pining for a bike, but have actually only ever had one until now. 

I still remember my first bike with all the clarity and joy of an episode of the Wonder Years. 

It was the night before Christmas and I was a giddy braided-hair four year old, heady with the smell of tinsel and plastic decorations begging my father for a bike.

“Please, please, please daddy can I have a bike?”

“I don't know, I think you are too short. You can't have a bike until you are at least up to my belly button.”

Mustering the tallest thoughts I could, and straining my feet without obviously standing on tip toe, I lined my self up to be measured. Joy of joys belly button reached!!

Christmas morning itself is a blur of shredded wrapping paper and shapeless gifts bar one. A 1970’s yellow glitter banana seated pushy with ribbons on the handle bars an a white basket adorned with plastic daisies on the front. Oh the elation, the pride, the joy.

My brother and I rode that bike for years until the poor thing finally rusted away in a heap in some back ally under a fence covered in blackberries. 

And that was that. I never owned another bike, although I secretly dreamed of one for years.

We recently got bikes for our two boys, and on the days when we are all organized on time, they ride them to school. I have found myself wistfully staring after them, caught up in childhood memories of biking adventures. Dreaming of the crisp morning breeze through my hair and the sense of freedom pulling me forward.

Then one day in a semi casual, offhanded kind of a way, I was having a conversation with my dear friend Kerry, when a dream was born to ride a bikes through Cambodia to raise awareness on human trafficking. What a great idea we both thought, our only stumbling block – neither of us actually had a bike. Never ones to let a small technicality stop a us we put out the word we were looking for bikes to train on, and low and behold we both now have bike. Both are reclaimed from the local tip, scrubbed up, being fine tuned as we speak and awaiting a paint job and the next chapter in my bicycle dream; the adventure of a life time.

Ahem, excuse me while I get my "proverbial" social media together

So the idea of returning to my blog has been pestering me for months now. Gnawing away behind my eyes every time I sit down to write. The irony here is that I am currently writing professionally & anonymously for several other blogs, but my own has been sorely ignored.
I read this article today over coffee and was encouraged. I was about to go hard core abstinence on social media, but was inspired to "redeem unstructured time". So I finally relented, joined twitter and revisited my blog.
As if I didn't need more things to distract me every time I sit at the computer. Thing is, writing for my self ticks the box of things I love to do, so once again I begin, again.
I have some projects on the boil that I will be sharing about here.
The first one is my health journey from flabby, stressed & sick to rediscovering the woman I was born to be. So expect recipes, my crazy forays into fitness and some keys that have helped me stick on this journey.
The second is my passion to raise awareness on Human Trafficking and the plight of the communities and lives it affects. To that end, go and check out my Facebook page for our "In Her Shoes Art Exhibition & Cycle4Cambodia Tour".
Last but not least, I will be sharing my faith journey, an imperfect one, but one that I was born to share.

Talk soon.
A x

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

I am not sure if those words are true, but they quite possibly may be...
It's now November 2011, and I find myself at the point of do it now or forever hold my tongue.
Stay tuned...

Finally properly published

Well I did it. I got published. It's not National Geographic or Frankie or one of the other many favourite magazines of mine, but a little magazine based on the Mid North Coast of NSW called Focus
It's an interview I recently did with a midwife from one of the local Aboriginal Health Clinics in Taree. It's a start, and a good one.
My words of wisdom today come from a little blue fish in some movie by a small little known animation company that in my dreams I work for..."just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming swimming...."

Here I go again....

Well, I'm back.
Returning to blogging has been churning away in the back of my mind for some time now, so I finally put out into the deep water & signed back in.
Where this journey will take me...I'm not sure.
But here I am.
Just a thought.