Tree Change: Moving to the country

In recent months, those of you that know me, would be well aware of the massive amount of activity Katie & I have undertaken in re-arranging our lives and moving up to the Macedon Ranges. In high level terms:

• Renovated House – Bang! Really upped the tempo in our activities – new kitchen, new wardrobes, painted inside & outside, terraced the backyard, spent a small fortune on the gardens. This off the back of new bathroom, re-modelling the layout of the house and turning the ugly duckling into a desirable home.
• Put House on Market – Used the most expensive agent in the area and got a spectacular result. A first hand experience of “you get what you pay for”
• I changed Job
• Sold House – at auction, just before the downturn in the market. Yay!
• House Cooling - Had a succession of events at our sparkling house, which involved LOTS of dinner parties, weekend gatherings, children running around everywhere, excellent company, great food & wine.
• Started looking for a Rental – summarised by: hovels or in the middle of no-where (as in 10km from the station in the hills)
  
• Started Packing – gave away to friends and charity probably 30% of our material possessions.
• Rental – still looking.
  
• Revved up Luci & Noah (well mostly Noah) – the next big adventure for a 3 year old – new playgrounds! new kids!
• Kept looking for a Rental – getting desperate now – prepared to pay 4 months in advance…..
• Found the Perfect Rental, 2 streets from our block!
• Moved – 1 Rental Truck, 3 trips and 5 Station Wagons of belongings later.
• Started our new life – angels singing with 4 part choral harmony materialises in the air

Katie wrote a really nice piece on her blog describing the move for herself in the post: Breaking Free.

Reading it, I realised the reasons that I wanted to move to the country were slightly different, because in all seriousness, I get my dose of urban hipsterism, sipping lattes and window shopping (my retail background you know!) each day I head into work. Katie’s view on her lifestyle is driven around the fact she is originally from Daylesford, indeed her parents are still up there and she would be “stuck at home” with Noah & Luci, sans all the creature comforts she had gotten used too – neighbours, cafes, shopping, skipping out for an evening with friends. In this regard, I admire her all the more highly, because I believe she has the tougher journey in the initial phase of our re-existence.

With that, it could be surmised that I have a tough journey as well in front of me, with a cloudier view of what is possible and accessible for myself. As one of my friends noted, moving to the Macedon Ranges requires a very precisely calibrated sense of timing, organisation and scheduling. Miss a train and you’re cooling your heels for an hour on a cold (okay: VERY COLD) platform. Scheduling around work comes to the fore – I’ve found that it has forced me to become even more efficient and zealous with my time and capacity to organise. I’ve had to be somewhat up front with my work colleagues to bring them to my scheduling.  I like to think and have been told, that I’m super organised. Moving to the country has definitely made me more so – I’m finding I’m processing things more quickly and comprehensively and I’m generally getting more work done.

Why? Time to introspect for one. A good friend of mine and I have been pondering the importance of “me time” for the past few months. He asked me a simple question: “Do I get time to do my own thing, on my own terms?” I responded that yes, I did and I did so, because I made the time. I would get up half an hour earlier and read my book for that extra 20 minutes. I would walk 20% slower from the station to home making the 12 minute walk, 15 minutes, admire the gardens, take a few extra deep breathes of fresh air or pause and marvel at the progress of a house being built. They are tiny, tiny things I’m doing, but I’m choosing to do them on my own terms. That’s very healing. That’s me time.

To paint the picture, he’s one of these guys I consider in that realm of “insanely bright”, as in so absurdly, brilliantly, intelligent our only problem in life is we run out of time to discuss the ideas we concoct in our heads when we are away from each other. He is in a similar position in life, with two children of similar ages to myself & Katie. As part of his “insanely bright” persona and intellect, he has chosen a life partner who works as a senior manager for the “elite of the elite” in management consultancies. And she’s a qualified doctor (GP). And she’s raising two wonderfully smart, caring and inquisitive children.

So, back to my reasons to move to the country. It’s a super complex question, with an equally super complex and convoluted set of answers and responses.

However, distilled simplistically: To slow down and smell the roses.

I’ve spent much of my life in fast forward. I love pace. I love change. I love learning. I love the sense of achievement when you learn something and can than apply it for an outcome you plan for. Translating this type of outlook has been realised most poignantly in having children and learning to share their time learning about the world and mixing it up with other children of our friends, who are similarly minded. That old adage “seeing the world, through my eyes” doesn’t ring more true than when you are tasked with the responsibility of raising your very own human being, or in our case two of them, to be morally upstanding, caring and humble individuals who believe in themselves and their value to the world.

Now we have made the move, I’m wondering, in my late 30′s why I didn’t do this earlier. I certainly haven’t set a precedent – two of my closest  friends, one the best man at our wedding, the other a dear friend who I’ve known since I was 15, both did a tree change in their early thirties – one moved to Far North Queensland, just outside of Port Douglas and the other moved to the Gippsland high country (yes, there is a high area). Both have made a tremendous impact on their lives and their lifestyles and they are both all the more fulfilled for having taken this adventure upon themselves.

Katie & I are focused on 3 things at the moment – our new home we are building, the future of our children and finally, ensuring that we have enough time for each other. These 3 modest goals, I can say we are meeting in such a way that I envisage, I will be blogging about more often in the future. I can say that having been a country mouse making the commute into town each day for the past 3 months, each night I journey home on the V/Line, I feel like I’m going on holiday. I love sitting on the train and reading a book. Or catching up on the continuous deluge of emails in an uninterrupted environment. Or reading, researching and finding out what is happening out in the digital world.

The intangible, personal things I’ve gained?

• Politeness - a sense of belonging to people and within the community. Katie & I have this metric which we laugh about, in judging the quality of a suburb. If you are driving and you have to give way to a car oncoming in a narrow street, if the suburb is decent, you give each other a “thankyou” wave. Suburbs like Camberwell, Alphington, Ivanhoe are the sort that reflect a more “polite” way of  existence. Where we have moved too, we not only get a wave, the car oncoming pulls up, lowers their window and asks how your days been so far. You end up chatting for 10 minutes.
• Community – last week it was particularly windy. Some bins got knocked over in front of us as a group of us departed our train at the station, sprawling the contents on the road with the wind doing its best to send paper, rubbish and debris to the four points of the compass. As one, 5 of us quickly started picking up rubbish and straightening up the 2 bins that got knocked over. Within 20 to 25 seconds another 8 people were helping pick up the rubbish and tidy up the street. 45 seconds later, we all bade farewell to each other, by way of nods and “thanks – see you soon” and went on our way.
  
• Nature – Fresh air. Beautiful parks and untouched forests. Clear sky’s at night where you look up into the sky and feel sucked up into the vastness of the stars above, and feel like you are 5 years old again. Having a 3.5 year old sitting on your lap and looking into the sky each night is surreal.
• Fresh food – We have within 5 kilometers of us, some of the states best fruit, vegetables and livestock available to us on our doorstep. The cafes go to the trouble of learning your name. And remembering you. And engaging you.
• Neighbours – uniformly neighbours at our rental and adjoining our block of land we are building on are terrific. It’s amazing to meet so many people of similar outlook, mindset and values. You want to have them over to dinner to get to know them better. You feel privileged that you drew the lucky hand and will have these people around contributing and influencing your own children’s lives in the future.

A tree change: It’s fantastic.

Bike Helmet: the case for wearing one

My wife noted this morning that it was 3 years ago today that I came off my bike and knocked my head.

That’s really downplaying the seriousness of the accident – I’m lucky I wasn’t killed or turned into a paraplegic/quadriplegic.

To paint the picture – I have decent bike equipment. I really like mountain bike riding and I was on a not 6 month old Specialized Stumpjumper FSR dual suspension bike, wearing full riding gear and with about 10 other, experienced riders. We were riding at the You Yangs mountain bike park doing the single track near the summit, which really isn’t as technical a course as some of the other sections. This is probably what undid me, the lack of “concentration” as I went over a (what turns out to be) smallish jump and totally screwed up the timing of the landing and turn in to the following corner. What resulted was a flip and slide down the hill with my bike coming down on top of me.

The guys say I was still cleated in, but had chain marks on my cheek. Go figure. I was knocked out for about 3 to 4 minutes, suffered severe lacerations to my shoulder and almost tore my ear off. All at around 15 km/hr. Not real fast. I was wearing a helmet.

I ended up in hospital for 2 days, having plastic surgery and being put on some pretty heavy duty antibiotics and pain killers. I looked like Mr Bump for a few weeks afterwards, with people giving me sideways glances when we were out, because I looked like I had been beaten up.

The effect psychologically is still with me. I was retelling this to a work colleague this morning and marveling at how it was “3 years”. It seems like yesterday to me. The fact I had a 5 month old son at the time impacted me even further about the folly of being selfish in my pursuits.

So – I was wearing a Specialized Decibel helmet, about 12 months old. It was a good helmet. It saved my life.

I wrote to Specialized in California to thank them for their technological research and endeavour – they wrote back asking if they could have the helmet to X-ray and examine. They wanted to learn the outcome of the helmets damage by the speed, impact and type of injuries I sustained. I happily sent it to them and when I tried on the Specialized 2D, the replacement, I mentioned to the shop that it didn’t have the same “fit” as the previous Decibel had. Specialized, by way of thanks actually organised for a partial credit towards my new helmet, which I put towards a Bell Sweep R.

I highly recommend Specialized helmets. I also recommend Bell helmets, which is what I have now. I recommend any helmet that has come from a manufacturer who has spent REAL money on research, real world testing and properly designing these brain buckets for their intended use. Limar, Met, Giro all fall into this category. Spend the money. Don’t skimp. Get a helmet that “fits” your head properly. Get it fitted if you don’t know how to wear it.

Also a note: if you have had a stack on your helmet and I mean one where your head was ringing and you thought “cripes, that was lucky”, even if the helmet doesn’t look like its damaged – destroy it and throw it out. Snip the head straps and split the helmet, so that it can’t be used. Invisible splits and fractures in the foam may be present compromising the quality and shell integrity. Helmets are designed to deform, absorbing impact. I’ve seen enough crashes and wrecks from my days at Subaru to understand the importance of crumple zones. Helmets work the same way.

Absolutely, unequivocally, no doubt about it: A proper helmet saved my life.

BMW 1M – TVC’s Part 1 & 2

BMW Canada released this TVC a few months back. I actually saw the original Part 1 when it was released, but re-watching it now tied to Part 2 has prompted this post.

Hail to skillful driving (caveat: racetrack, safety gear and all the rest for you nay sayers.

Part 2 is a bit silly and has a different point to make – I mean, what feasible chance does one have of plonking a car on a helipad high up on a building and doing some doughnuts? Not as fun as the track. I personally think the “making of” film would be better to watch.

History on a website, for your business

Maybe it’s because I have a products & procurement background, but I always look for a companies history, irrespective of context, as part of my assessment criteria when selecting a new service, partner, supplier or pitch target.

A products business means that you are focused around reliability, minimising warranty claims and delivering value for money – fit for purpose – for what the consumer gets in hand, after shelling out their hard earnt cash. If the consumer can make the logical argument with themselves about the validity of spending X on Y, than you have done your job in creating a logical product, without the black art of marketing, the support of your inbound support enquiries environment or the depths of your R&D group adding value and insight to the suite.

Selection of Professional Services is a little different – you are making subjective calls based on other peoples assessment criteria to validate your own selection process. Part of this is talking to other business/people who have engaged said company in services and getting an understanding of the minutiae with which they focused their attention on. You than make a judgement call on the value of what they have experienced based upon your own ideal scenario. If you are smart you also project your worst case scenario and assess whether the same supplier can meet these requirements. Professional services is predicated by the notions of Intellectual Property designation, ownership and use, Regulatory Compliance (if in a regulated industry such as finance or construction) and Corporate Governance obligations.

So, considering the above points, it can be agreed that they are all complicated little scenarios to play out and explore. There’s a lot of hard work that demands care and attention alongside the intense concentration that needs to be devoted to fulfilling these activities succesfully.

With this in mind, you as a business, whether products or professional services based – why are you making it more difficult for your prospective customer by not including a historical narrative of your business successes, key moments and market leading thinking?

I’m a firm advocate of long established business creating a historical section on their website celebrating these highlights and adding a dimension of additional credibility for the business which different people resonate with.

If you are a new business, history is even more important in my estimation. The excitement and agility in your new venture being created out of the ether in itself is a story to tell. New business should have a dialogue focused around the people and WHY they got together to start the venture, a commentary on the gaps they identified in the market which coerced them to “take the plunge” and start up. Each person will have their own unique story to portray centered around their experience, their expertise and their points of difference.

The benefits are enormous:

• Removing a barrier to engagement when comparing against competitors – there is a good chance they won’t have a history on their site.
• Future staff. Prospective staff are assessing different things about your business when they visit your website. If they believe in the product or service  you offer, then you have half won them. If you can make them believe in the company, by way of illustrating your cultural traits of difference, than you have won them over and they’ll be fighting to get in. Better to fend them off than have to find them.
• If your competitors do offer a history, benchmark it and create yours as contrasting and either create your own niche against them or prove your value over them by noting more significant achievements
• It allows a company controlled distillation of your brand persona to be referenced and factually represented in the marketplace.
• It displays a substantive underpinning and psychological cornerstone to investors wishing to see the depth of your organisation.
• For products based business, having a historical archive of your products, specification sheets, PDF’s of your manuals, point of sale material for suppliers, is an invaluable resource for people looking to buy your products for the FIRST time, as they get the comfort that you support your consumers for the long term.

This week 2011: Father’s Day & 9/11 10th Anniversary Commemoration

Being the father of 2 small children, a son 3+ and daughter 18 months and both full of character, I was reminded in an intellectual context my obligations as a parent – from the local day care they are in each week.

With Father’s Day on the weekend, the kids came home with the little trinkets they labour over intensively with crayons, pencils and texta’s – in my children’s case, all three.

My daughter Luci had “drawn” on a piece of paper with the following poem on it.

Daddy’s Footsteps

~Author Unknown~

“Walk a little slower, Daddy”,
Said a little child so small.
“I’m following in your footsteps,
And I don’t want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they’re hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me.

Someday when I’m all grown up,
You’re what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child
Who’ll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy,
For I must follow you.”

Made me smile.

A quick search of Father’s Day poem’s found the following sites.

http://www.theulloms.com/fathersday/poems.htm
http://www.love-quotes-and-quotations.com/parent-poem.html

In this week of commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in the United States I’ve always found particularly poignant, “My Daddy Couldn’t be here”, which is widely attributed to being in reference to a bereaved 9/11  daughter.

Snopes www.snopes.com has shown the “My Daddy Couldn’t be here” Poem was actually authored before this historical event and has been slightly altered to gain the notoriety it enjoys today. Read here the history of “My Daddy Couldn’t be here”

I first remember reading it about a week after the events, having been sent it by a good friend who was in US Naval Intelligence.

Ironically, the morning of 9/11 in the US, I was chatting to my friend as events unfolded. I had seen a news flash on the TV earlier that night (morning in the US) as the first of the twin towers in the World Trade Centre was hit by what was thought of at the time as a domestic plane crash.

The term and reference “terrorist” hadn’t entered the news at this stage. This only occurred later when the cascade of concurrent events around the United States was pieced together.

The memory is still vivid – late at night for me, early in the morning for my friend – talking to each other over the phone as he traveled to his office located at the Pentagon. He was stuck in a traffic jam and in passing wondered aloud what was the problem causing the chaos. Suffice to say, unbeknownst to us at the time, an aeroplane had just crashed into the side of his office. My friend disappeared for a few months, on deployment , but he told me a few months later, whilst we had been chatting to me on his mobile phone, his commander had been trying to contact him. Opps.

Watching the documentaries and reading the daily’s that have recounted the event has been a depressing, yet insightful experience. I’m thankful and very lucky I live in Australia and am fortunate enough to be able to enjoy the company of my wife and children in a relatively “safer” world.

As they say, the rest is history.

Firefox Profiling People – The old fashioned way

So upon upgrading my Mozilla Firefox Browser just now, I was asked (optional) to answer a 20 question survey about my web browsing habits. The questions were a bit silly in some cases, being your atypical style multi choice, with not much variance/choice.

You arrive at a party, who are you?

a/ wearing the crazy rented costume, drawing everyone’s attention

b/ slinking in as unobtrusively as possible

c/arriving with a group of friends to spread he scrutiny or

d/ what party?

You get the picture. I don’t believe very scientific. However, I plough through the questions and as reward, it generated the below profile of myself.  The full flash driven, menu pop up experience can be seen at the WebifyMe.org website here: http://mzl.la/oroULb

1. I use a Blackberry. I do own an Android Honeycomb Tablet though. Half right.
2. I do have a 2nd old school phone for when I go snow skiing and mountain biking, as a backup. So half right again….
3. I do eat well, but not to the extent of being a hypochondriac and carrying a thermometer around with me.
4. Master of Disguise. I think not.
5. Tarot? What’s that? BUT, to be known as a magician able to weave magic out of thin air. Now that’s cool.
6. Tech Mag. Guilty as charged: Wired, Monocle, T3, occasionally.
7. USB Key: Hmmmmm maybe. Maybe 2 of them. One Waterproof, the other made out of Titanium for rugged handling. Nerd alert!
8. Moleskin Address Book? For 2,200 contacts…. Urrggghhhh fail. However for a notebook, that’s a different story. Matched by a nice Schaeffer or Inoxcrom Pen. I use my smart phone to manage my contacts – enter: BlackBerry.
9. Buttons? Laughter. Plucky. Resourceful. If I could but live up to these noble traits.
10. Friendship Bracelet. Now this one was genuinely nice. If I could be remembered for such endeavor with my friends, than I am all the more enriched and humbled for both the experience and the opportunity.
11. FAIL Location being U.S.A. Nice to visit. Not to live. Australia all the way.

Intriguing. I wonder what my other friends would get on their walls?