I was born and bred in Sydney. And all my life I have been proud of that fact.

But recently, I have been noticing a pattern. I don't know where it is coming from, but maybe its been 10 years of Sydney arrogance, and thinking we are a great city to live in.

Traffic has become horrendous, and the roads are degrading. There is no housing, and when you do find something, it is prohibitively expensive; to buy a shack. The city has become inaccessible, parking cannot be found, and when you do find it, you can be guaranteed to be booked! And in general, the city feels rundown. Apart from a couple of majort motorways, in the last 10 years, I don't know of any major infrastructure project to get me excited.

Sydney rested on its laurels after the 2000 Olympic Games, but its time to snap out of that. This city needs to start working on itself again!

PS: This week, Sydney was voted least desirable city to live in in Australia

I have always loved the HDR photos that seem  to be getting more and more popular, and have always wanted to have a go at it. So after a few false starts, and a new lens for my Canon 7D, here are a couple of attempts of HDR images from Wentworth Falls in Australia's Blue Mountains.

And of the waterfalls themselves

A few months back, I travelled to Thailand for business. And I think like most people, I normally don't pay too much attention to the conversion rates when exchanging money, other than it feels like I am being taken to the cleaners. But this instance was interesting, as it was a fully paid trip, I did convert soe currency just in case, but ended up converting it all back when I got home, so I had the paperwork to trace back this insanity!

Firstly, the market rate at that time was approximately 30 Baht = AUD$1. Travelex sold me the currency at 24.5930 baht to AUD$1. Which is 18% less than the market rate. They bought it back at the market rate because I bought the insurance on it which was 30 Baht.

Additionally there was an $8.87 commission for every exchange I did.

When I left Australia, I converted AUD$600 which bought me 14,550 Baht (including the commission). Even with the insurance, when I come back with 14,550 Baht, that would have given me $485!!! So they made $115 on that transaction. Insane!

If I didn't take the insurance, then I would have to had bought back Australian Dollars at about 35 Baht (their rate), or in other words, for my 14,550 Baht, that would have given me $415 plus another $9 commission. So from my original $600, would have diluted to $406 just for converting it back and forth. Or to put it simply; I would have lost $194 or a full 1/3 of my money just to convert from AUD to TBT and back to AUD.

There has to be a better way!!!

I took the Toxic Lux Pipes to get them Ceramic Coated (which helps keep the pipes cooler) and I needed to re-wrap them with Heat Wrap. In a previous post I talked about the cracked pipe, probably from the heat wrap, but that was fixed. Basically the pipe had to be re-welded, then coated in Black Ceramic, and I then picked them up and re-wrapped with new fibreglass Heat Wrap (which I am still itching from today).

Since today was going to be a glorious day of weather, I took the time last night to get everything done with the pipes and re-mounted. Here are some shots I took this morning before riding to work.

Finished pipes before mounting onto the bike.

The finished product before riding this morning

Close up of the outlets, they'll never be this clean again

Another close up.

When coming into Port Augusta on the Black Dog Ride, I noticed that my bike was sounding a little strange. Before leaving for the ride, I realised that 2,500kms with loud pipes might be something I may not appreciate let alone my fellow riders. So I put baffles into the pipes of the V-Jet.

The sound I was hearing out of Port Augusta didn't sound like I was without baffles, but it didn't sound like I was with baffles either. When getting to our meeting point, I decided to have a quick look and quickly realised that I had blown one of the baffles out of the top (shorter) pipe!!! The other issue I had was that the heat wrap had ripped and un-wrapped itself. So now back in Sydney, it was time to do some repair work!

I decided that I was going to get the pipes ceramic coated which will help with the heat as well as the life of the pipes, so I progressed to remove them. In doing so, I noticed that the bottom pipe was cracked at the bracket mounting point. Damn!!!

So now the task ahead of me was to get the crack welded, pipes ceramic coated, then I need to re-wrap them and finally re-mount them back on the bike – which is quite a challenge unto itself.

I hope to get them back later this week ready for a weekend sunny ride!!!

It's been a week since I got back from my Harley ride from the Aussie outback on Steve Andrew's Black Dog Ride as part of the Riding4aCause team, and I can only describe it as being surreal. Today I read about my fellow riders getting back to Sydney. The 2,200kms seem insignificant to the over 6,500kms that they covered on their ride!

There are a few things in your life that have a profound effect on your life, and many times, it's only on reflection that you realize it. This ride was one such event. I met some truly amazing people. Individuals that were driven by this ride as it was an important journey for them. Some suffer from the debilitating "black dog" disease personally, whilst others were strongly attached to someone close to them that does. Regardless of your personal reason for being there, it felt important to participate.

And now that I have been back for a week, I am looking back at the photos and the people I met and realised what a truly special experience it was. After a few days on the ride, I found myself asking each of the riders "So what brought you on this trip?" and the responses always left a mark with me.

I would hear tragic stories of men losing their sons to suicide, wives taking their own lives, young men talking about the "Black Dog" that hounds them and the medication they must take, and the old men that talk about living it with all their life. I am not a sufferer of depression, but have been surrounded by sufferers in the past, but nothing prepared me for the horrific stories I was hearing. Unlike other tragedies such as death from illness or car accident, death from depression is quite usually avoidable simply by talking. I couldn't believe that it was that simple, in fact R U OK Day is exactly about that. Reaching out to someone you are worried about and simply asking them "Are You OK?".

As I was leaving Glenn Helen Resort on the last day (slightly hung over I might add), I looked back at the marvel that Glenn Helen Ridge is and appreciate some of the amazing country that I saw. My own country, Australia is a stunning, untouched and absolutely breathless place. Whilst on this trip, I realised that I had seen more of the USA and Europe than I have of my back yard. The contrast that 2,200kms provides, went from wheat and canola fields, to vineyards, to bush, to arid desert and finally to Alice Springs and its surrounding regions which is pretty much a Postcard for what the Australian Outback is.

The people were something else that amazed me. I would meet someone, and within 5 minutes I would know about them, why they exist and what life means to them. For no other reason that in out the outback, you realise that its the simple things that please these people. They are pure in what they want from life. And that is something that is commendable. I think us "city folk" get too caught up in the trappings in what we 'think' is important, and totally neglect the 'real' important stuff.

Finally, prior to the ride, I took for-granted how serious our friends in the outback take the issue of depression. Many of them have recently been effected by drought and when the drought breaks, they get floods, and when the floods finally recede, a locust plague. These are resilient humans, but they are still human, and humans are vulnerable.

I think this post wouldn't be complete without thanking the people that made it happen. My fellow riders, Raz and Andrew that worked hard in getting the Sydney leg together, and especially Steve Andrews that made this great ride happen and lets us Riding4aCause guys tag along. This ride was our test bed to do a USA trip, and that is what I am sincerely looking forward too in 2011!!!

What a fantastic trip! I am so proud of my efforts!

3,300kms later, and I made it to Glen Helen Resort, 136kms west of Alice Springs. With sore everything, I felt it was a marvellous achievement, and all for a great cause. I will have a follow up post shortly about my wrap up, but in the meantime, here are some photos.

What a Journey!

689kms from Coober Pedy to Alice Springs. We left at the crack of dawn and it was cold riding!!! 165kms to our first fuel stop, and that was hard work. After which we had great riding all the way through o Alice Springs.

The scenery was amazing! We started in what was arid desert with very little life to be seen, and ended in rolling green hills as we came into Alice Springs!