Final Phase Preparations and the Bigger Picture

Final Phase

Well! I'm all but ready to go now and everything looks pretty snazzy. I've been living out of the van for most of this week and everything has gone pretty smoothly - if anything I have overprepared.

Regular preparation is not this neat; from 2009

It's lovely, though, I like a well ordered space. Short of a few desirables - stove, shower, sink, electricity, washing machine - there's no reason it wouldn't function well as a semi-permanent residence. Considerably more luxurious than camping off the back of a motorbike!

The plan is to leave tomorrow morning, first thing. I have no idea how I'm going to get out of bed early enough (8 hours from right now), but I'm having breakfast in the mountains with a friend tomorrow morning, so it will happen somehow.

The Bigger Picture

I keep getting asked questions which should be up here, so I'll address the big picture here.

Having just finished at uni, I'm taking 12 months off from fulltime commitments to go on an adventure and get out and see Australia. I'll be working wherever I can, which I think will be predominantly hospitality (for so many reasons). The sketch at the moment is to go first to Bright, in Alpine Victoria, then when the holiday season quietens down head to Melbourne for a month or so: I need to be back in Sydney mid-March til the start of June, to get myself into a job for 2010, among other things.
From then I'll head out and about, wherever I can get work, but also making sure I get around: I could head to the snow, but I also want to do the Northern Territory in winter, Adelaide as well, and I need to head to WA whenever I can get a bit of work on the farms over there with Dad's half of the family. Last thing I think I'll head back east and do Tasmania next summer.
It's only QLD and NZ that are being left out, but I should leave something for another day, shouldn't I? Riding NZ sometime is definitely on the wish list.

I do have my loverly van, which as mentioned is quite an acceptable abode, but I'll be hoping to secure somewhere affordable to stay if I'm going to be anywhere more than a week or two (hence first choice being work in a hotel).

I'll be trying to keep up with this blog, and my motorcyclists' take on the odyssey as well (2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com), though if I can't get good net access I may have more of a twitter presence than anything else (www.twitter.com/JohnSBaxter also updates my FB status).
If you don't know how to get updates about these you should email me and I'll make a mailing list.

It feels like I am missing things... ask me questions and I'll answer those later.

Thanks for watching -
HERE WE GO!


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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)

Preparations: late but progressing well

The preparations are going fine. Though behind they are progressing at more-or-less the planned rate... in fact at probably faster than it! (Quadratic progress curve?) I had wanted to get out early this week: it became apparent that was not going to happen, and rather than leave late this week I decided I may as well stay in Sydney until Christmas and leave then.

My Van Carmelia is great at carrying stuff! It was dead easy getting the roadbike back up North. So I am now officially no longer at Hurlstone Park. The Bike Jill fits perfectly, moreover, up against the side of the van, leaving just enough room to fit a bed in perfectly.

The plan, btw, is bike RHS, raised bed, storage space underneath.

I got a sheet of plywood for the bed surface, some timber posting to support it on one side, some hinges so the two close legs will get past the bike... I have decided to suspend one end from chain from hooks around the top of the van, so I don't need to damage the bodywork at all. Then I can simple fold it up against the wall and throw a hook around one of the legs and it will hang out of the way against the wall/from the ceiling.
Dad wants to keep the plank I was planning on taking (for a ramp), but I got a slab of timber which will work even better (and is prettier wood : ) ). It's a little narrower but that is okay, it will do me good to have a bit of adrenaline flowing each time I get the bike out.

Still haven't gotten around to sorting my stuff but I think I will be able to fit it quite neatly. The bed-plan should leave me lots of storage space with fairly good access.

Initial post: The Situation

The Situation is that I should not be procrastinating writing this blog!

Desired departure is next Monday. (Expected is ~Thursday.)
Upcoming is the Sydney Toy Run on Sunday;
Farewell/HouseCooling this Thursday.

You should come! To both!

For all of the above I have shitloads to organise. Hopefully things will calm down once I leave Sydney, maybe I can write without a feverish sense of wasting time. And who knows, I might even find an internet connection so I can publish it!