Jo Ackroyd’s Big Biking Adventure

A lovely friends dad’s ’special’ friends brother-in-laws cats funeral directors uncles brothers goldfish has told me that Russia might be more than I can chew!

(Identity protected to preserve the innocent)

I’ve bitten a chunk…

Maybe there is another view too.

You hear all the negative stories, but not the happy endings. You hear about misery but not triumph. You hear that the new neighbours are buggers, the next village eat their own children and that you dont trust anyone over the border.

Then the neighbours become friends, the next village makes fantastic stew and we find profit in trade over the border. It all becomes relative to our perspective.

We do the same in this country don’t we?

Nottingham don’t like people from Mansfield.

Londoners are not to be trusted.

People from the Isle of Wight have webbed feet and Burton upon Trent is an inbred town.

You see!

According to stories from our own inhabitants we innately trust no one.

Why should a view of Russia be any different?

Yet when you visit the Isle of Wight you do find nice people there, but they can also swim very quickly!

Maybe the stories and warnings are valid, perhaps they are told to keep us safe, to make us aware of a new and different environment. They could be told as methods to make us realise that our normal malaise is just not right when we are out of our comfort zone.

For all of my rememborable life I have been afraid and worried by such stories and because of this I have not lived the life of outrageous behaviour I wish I had.

So, I take the meaning and the intent. I will be especially careful the closer I get to Russia and I will seek out trustworthy advice as I go. I’ll maybe look for like minded travelers to meet up with at opportune times. I don’t want to be naive.

But equally, I don’t want to be scared of humans living human lives any longer.

After all, that’s faith isn’t it?

Communication, Expedition Preparation, Random Thoughts

As always, strange days and an even stranger disposition.
Well, lots to say, but lets try to boil it down, condense it to what really matters.

I took the bike out on saturday and found it to be very different to anything i might have ridden before.

The vibrations of a single cylinder are amazing. It compares to a Japanese motivated twin poorly and is a worry to ride. While you know it runs and starts the worry is that it will stop on the next stroke of the piston.

One piston half the size of a bottle of Coke being thrown up and down, up and down 4000 times a minute, imagine what that means. Think how long a second is, stop and count it and consider. Think.

The vibrations! I got off and everything shook. I felt a tingle in my toes, my fingers vibrated for ten minutes and although I thought I needed a pee, I found I was numb between my legs. Many female friends would say thats not changed…

The ride made me consider all sorts of things. One moment I was thinking of how hard the bike is to ride compared to my Honda, how I might of made a mistake.

Then I thought I need a relationship with my bike. My Honda has the benefit of years of feeling and thought, perhaps I need to consider a relationship with an inanimate object. While logic tells you this is stupid and nothing more than romantic mechanical notion, we all admit to quietly talking to our cars, our bikes, our electric carving knives as method to soothe our souls and not theirs.

My aluminum adventure for the front end seems to have been poor design. I blame the forethought.

I think the gearbox is dodgy. Maybe highly viscose oil has made it sloppy but it’s not quite right, especially for the mileage. I dont really know!

The Autocom doesn’t work, need to think that out, the back brake is low, I wonder if it will be comfortable the further the relationship develops? The helmet peak seems to create a vibration in my head, the top box doesn’t fit and the panniers - well we shall save that for another day, but generally I think you can plan but adaption is the key to existance, when I forget this I become worried and torture myself with thoughts of plans I havent laid or of plans I failed to deliver, when actually the answer lies in adaption.

Time will tell.

Things are OK. Today I’ve had a revelation.

While some people are cynics and some are supporters, far more are quiet and have a relationship and children and feel they have lost the adventure and wish they might of, kind of, would have.

Well, for now, they dont realise that their lives are as fulfilling and entertaining as mine but viewed through a different times and relationships.

So perhaps this is not an adventure for me, as much as living a smile for others.

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

Strange ups and downs, smiles and sadness, disproportionate in the ups - isnt that a positive thing to think!

A great phone that i only partially understand but I can see a potential for, I know of people who could make it really work, down load software to make it just incredible.

John in Phones 4 U was very cool.

While the brand is crap, the guy was cool.

I woke this morning, feeling crap about all sorts of things, yknow those days when you wonder how you got here and why its all about such mundane rubbish! On the back of the wrong ideas you wonder if tomorrow will be a sequeal to today or new play by a differnet author.

Sequeal - hehehehe  - sometimes mis spelt words are just as funny as life viewed through the bottom of a beer glass!

Insurance for the bike in europe for a great deal of £260 for a green card.

gotta go and water the radishes, then go up the apples and pears to say goodnight and not let the bed bugs bite, but if they do use dynamite!

Uncategorized

Who would have thought that something as inanimate as a mobile phone could be so sought after?

There’s a battle raging at Phones for U! I’ve had to ring everyday to get hold of one!

Still Im assurred its in and now has my name on it.

It’s a Quad Band Nokia 5800 with 8 GB memory card and I’m taking insurance out world wide so I can claim if it ‘disappears’.

How odd that a phone should be so sought after!

I can’t imagine why!

I’m going to have to play with it to get used to it. This technology thing is going to be a strain, but nice to have a new ‘thing’ isn’t it!?

I pick it up tomorrow so I’ll let you know just how shiney it is!

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

Appraisel at work that meant nothing but also had no negatives, although I tried to account for my shortcomings to give some humility to the process, I also viewed the process as a gentle persuader to new life.

Kisses for no reason. A friend sent me kisses and a smile, while I don’t know why, I won’t question too hard as long as they continue to flow…

Welding completed. It seems my approach has worked all the welding was done in a day, the whole thing is complete. I have a strange feeling that the more I wonder design and create the less usefull those aspects become. They seem to be worthless in themselves but useful only as a way to gain focus and to create my own belief sytem. They give reassurance and I suspect little more although occasionally the practically built items may work, insurance looking good, fork springs have just popped together!

Expedition Preparation, Random Thoughts

You can relax and call me anytime, as long as it’s not in one of the countries I cant get reception…but I have two SIM cards that should work in 90% of where I’m going.

I’m very pleased by the simplicity of this.

It might be a little expensive, but still, understandable and simple: SIM4Travel and Planet Plus Global SIM.

Insurance seems positive for the moment - although I await to hear a price. I have personal insurance but I need thrid party liability and prefereably theft for most of the trip. After fretting for a while, I’m hopeful but its surrounded by a smell I hope will be caught by the next wind.

It seems insurance for India and Pakistan is not possible though.

And talking of which, the Indian visa has been returned today, and it’s wrong!

How? Visa validity is measured by the date its applied for not the date of the trip! ! !
Annoyed and at the end of my patience, I realised I had steak for lunch in the fridge, time to chill.

It seems the Visa is now useless to me and would need to be cancelled before I can pay them for another.

Time to give up on this and relax. Work it out on the way…

I’ve cashed my savings, spent as much as I should but not as much as I could and decided there is no turning back now.

So for those of you who keep asking…and I must say, the text below applies to a certain ‘type’ of question I’m recieving from some cynical people. In general the question is asked with a purity and an excitement thats just full of joy, wonder, helpful comments and kindness. That kind of question I want to hear every day.

A  small handful of peolpe have a tenuous nature in their voice, they are asking because they hope I fail before I succeed, they doubt and suspect. You know the type. The parade around you with an atitude that makes you feel small and abashed for no real reason other than they look down their noses at you…they are few, but the mark they can leave is great if you dont think about the impact of these people and consider it so you might dismiss it for the rubbish that their views implant into your way, you might carry it with you for longer than you ought.

If you are suspicious of the truth in me or the factual basis of my ideas. If you suspect I’m proving a point by foolish endeavour or that I might be distracted and unusual in a more unusual way than normal, then you also realise that now I’m English and eccentric, but also driven by my desire to be different for a reason that’s very, very simple.

I dont want to be you, or him or her. I don’t want to be simply ‘around’, living a life thats predisposed upon me by the people we refer to as ‘them’.

Tin foil and oranges are part of your lunch time routine which will see you through to retirement. Not mine.

So next time you ask that question… wonder why you ask. It’s not because you doubt me. It’s because you doubt you. Face up to the nervous laughter that strays across those lips as you ask and realise that it’s not because I fall short of expectation but because you have never realised your own.

Stop waiting for me to fail and help me to succeed, every bit further I get is through help from everyone, you can join in as much or as little as you please, you can watch and just have kind thoughts or look on in wonder.

Be Positive, believe, have faith!

Equipment, Expedition Preparation

With huge disappointment comes a lesson.

Its interesting that some recognition of a change in my life is becoming so self evident through daily tasks.

I’m incredibly disappointed by the aluminium welders.

 
In truth, I’m furious. Rather than show my despicable anger I have been well trained to remain calm. Its not good for the soul, to keep in such anger is awful, to pain yourself into a state where you try to be reasonable means that inevitably the pulsing thoughts stay with you for longer and parade around your mind to drive you mad inside the otherwise calm moments of your life. The time you should be spending in a state of calm is replaced by a singularity of thought about what you should of said, how you could have been, how you might of been - the man you wished you were.

In place of - the culmination of years means i know that if my fury is released Ill regret not the physical state, Ive never been that kind of physical, ever; but the replay in my mind and the concern over whether someones feeling less than they might because of the thoughts and spoken word Ive conjured to be upon them. Otherwise known as a wimp. Security within the post event justification of being kind.

Perhaps.

So, after a day of fury that the welders have accomplished so little and purported to have completed so much, I stirred my own broth of anger and drowned my sorrows after noticing that I had displaced my emotions upon my brother and his partner!

They took on my emotions. I released them without thought of consequence, telling what I considered to be little more than a tale of my day and disappointment, only to discover they reenacted between them the dissappointment I had been feeling, between each other!

We ended with a smile and a laugh, although I do wonder what also happened behind closed doors. They are strong and friendly, firm friends as much as lovers so I have faith they have few arguments.

I however have decided, after the fury and displeasure, that…

well, i had decided that they have left me with no alternative, time is so late I cannot find more welders, not at least during my normal working day, so I felt bound to continue with them and play a suffering but polite fool.

Then anger took hold to withdraw the goods to tell them the facts of my displeasure in terribly argumentative terms and pull away scornful at their inadequacies.

Now. Now  I feel more adult. Ive thought they know nothing of my feelings and explosions are not as helpful as quiet conversations.

Tomorrow Im going to try quiet discrete conversation to prove not only that I am the master of my destiny but also to show that people will respond to other forms of persuasion than anger.

They feel compassion and companionship, which is a relatively helpful way forward as long as it does not interfere with either ego or macho chest thumping.

Ill report another day how successful divisive and more emotional tactics might be. After all I will be testing faith, not myself.

Uncategorized

There is a feeling of warmth, something warm and comfortable. I feel a softness, a fur, a warmth that’s comforting in the same way the fetal position under a duvet can make you want to stay in bed for another hour.

It’s embarrassing to admit, but the warmth is my extended belly sitting in a wholesome position on my thighs while I read Sam Manicoms motorcycle adventures while eating breakfast on the toilet.
I’m not sure what is more disturbing.

Eating while reading or the fact I’ve put on weight.
(Could be the toilet and reading thing too.)

I’m hoping Peter is telepathetic and is going to ring and offer to take my passport to either the Uz embassy in London, or the Taj embassy in Austria…I have a preference!

Peter. Yes I mean you! Hello ! I feel as though we have little opportunity to talk but will hold you as a friend nevertheless. One day in years to come we will pick up a conversation as though tomorrow has not been quite the duration away from yesterday as it has been but becomes closer in our minds than the calender shows.

Oh, and I don’t really need the passport thing going on!

I have had some bad news today, the springs from Hagon aren’t going to be here till Tuesday, delivery is getting later and later and the worry is not so much the springs being delivered as how long it will take me to fit them and get it wrong and learn and get it wrong and ask and eventually get them right!

Tony at Hagon has a talent for making bad news palatable! When he told me, I couldn’t fault him. I believe he is trying and being thwarted.

What a great word, thwarted!

Can you imagine a life without the boundaries and fixtures we are held by today. Can you imagine giving up on the values you carry so dear to your heart now that have been instilled within you from not only society and up bringing but also years of descendant indoctrine?

It’s not only this that’s holding you back but you.

You hold yourself in such high esteem and judge your success by the view others hold of you that to succeed in anything that really matters to yourself is to be released from a bondage that holds not your body but your mind.

To be seen to move away from the value that’s placed upon you by others is probably the most difficult desicion to make in life.

It follows you and therefore needs the belief few people can give. It follows every day, we all do it, we call different lifestyle choices as Pikeys or Hippies not realising that what we are doing is judging the life style choices of others as not acceptable to us because of the life we expect and not the life we believe but because of the life we endure.

I’m hoping to go and learn that I shouldn’t judge.

I have no reason to endure. Life shouldn’t be endured as much as enjoyed. Three letters that make more difference than any amount of positive thinking.

Gradually, I’ll leave behind with every mile moving from what we might have to endure, to a riasing of my smiles to what I hope to simply enjoy.

Expedition Preparation, Random Thoughts

To hold hope in your heart and realise your ten years too late for an occurrence that should have dominated your younger years. Not this trip, simpler. More ordinary. A girl.

But I’m also enthused by the queries and smiles Ive found tonight.

Today, I’ve been part of a meeting where I had the opportunity to sit back and view the life and decisions others made through the eyes of a stranger. They not only followed a process that was random, but were so unrelated to the strangeness of their remarks, in the world context that I am about to follow, that I had to, well, snigger.

I’m quite obsessed by a thought that’s unhealthy. While finding Faith I might forget to discover more about love.

Beautiful glints in your eyes, marvelous smiles and fantastic curls in your hair.

I must think more about Pakistan and a single rather than double visa, that would mean an ‘in’ visa while the ‘out’ would be variable by design of the process. I should imagine myself in Kaliningrad because I’ve naively discovered its part of the Russian Federation states and so I doubt Ill be able to travel through it. Visa is single entry for the wrong month…

Why is the MSR hydration bag black when in hot countries where it will be needed this will absorb more heat than it should?

I’m so incredibly ill at ease with a life that’s difficult in all the wrong ways. Now is my opportunity to discover new sides to a life less ordinary.

I’m privileged and must remember my privilege carries a cost of realisation. I must remember that the cost is the reason for the going, the being and the pushing forward to a something new and undiscovered.

Expedition Preparation, Random Thoughts

I have lost Faith, I cant deny it, but there is also something else going on.

It’s as though Christmas or your Birthday is here, unwrap a present, and find another layer, strip back the postman stare and the black and white cat, pull away the newspaper tear and there at the back of my mind I’m thinking Faith is still there, I believe everything will work.

And if only 50 % works, Its 50% more than anyone else around me.

What is interesting is the more I think about things the closer I get to a realisation that…oh my god Im turning soft!

It’s all about love also.

I’m feeling unloved I feel as though I’m not sharing my love.

People need people dont they? As much as they pretend they dont, they do.

We need to talk, to discuss to look into each others eyes and feel that we mean something more than then WE believe, but only as much as they trust us to be.

I don’t have that.

It’s a release, realise that your not bound by the ties of others. Breathe a sigh and gain strength, take heart, look forward, look to what you have and could obtain, not material gain but just smiles.

Count the smiles you have and take a guess on how many more are to come.

If it’s not thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands…..then you need to join me to find your future, to find something you can be proud of and that might lead to an adventure thats unspoken by others around because they are too scared to get involved.

There is a lack of discussion. People become afraid when you mention a task like this, afraid in a way that cant be explained but only felt in silencepeople metion appropriate words of encouragement but precious few throw themselves into the world that divorces you from material wealth and career progression. Are these real things, can we feel a tangible asset from them or do we percieve them to be what they are through a value we place upon them?

It’s people that push us forward. Think the thoughts others do not favour. Be unpopular by being positive because through these thoughts we carry with us the rest of humanity that have decided that yesterday was good enough for tomorrow.

For me, every now and then, tomorrow is just not good enough.

Some people have a hard time pulling away from the safety of their current lives.

See you soon - feel the faith and embrace it.

In any way you can.

xxx

Communication, Random Thoughts