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Our renovation – My home gym
Over the last few years, fitness has become quite a significant part of my life. It wasn’t something I originally set out to make a major part of my routine. I’ve always done some form of excercise, but I don’t think it was truly part of my life, I just fitted it in.
That all changed with a rather unflattering realisation while changing a car tyre. I went to get up from the footpath and struggled to keep my balance.
Something wasn’t right. I was too young for this and something needed to change. I’d ridden bikes for years and, as I said earlier, I always considered myself reasonably active, but I wasn’t actually getting any fitter. In fact, my weight was gradually going up. This was even after I retired and I was no longer entertaining a few times a week. I was however not really watching my diet and I was having a glass of wine most nights. I was also struggling to keep up with my riding group.
Eventually my doctor made the fairly obvious observation that I could probably afford to shed a few kilos.
It was time to do something about it.
Another Reflection
If we were having a coffee I’d be telling you that as I looked at recent posts, that reflections have been somewhat of a common theme. So here is another.
My blog, and how it has evolved across its life. It very much started as a part of my retirement project or as I referred to it ‘What’s Next’. That was more than 10 years ago. Across that period I’ve had periods where I posted regularly and then had gaps. Over the last couple of years those gaps have been longer and my desire to post has waned somewhat.
Once again, I wondered if I would continue it. This time, when I got my web hosting bill. I nearly fell off my chair! The charge had gone through without me getting notice that it was about to renew. It was my fault, as I hadn’t notified the hosting service that the email attached to the account was no longer valid.
I wondered if it was worth the money to continue. Perhaps my blog had served its purpose. I wasn’t sure. In the end, after a chat with the hosting service, I found a suitable hosting plan that better matched how I view my blog. I’m now on a new plan and have committed to a 5-year service.
But as I discussed why I had my blog with my favourite person, I started to think about how I will use it in the future. So many of the posts in the past were about travel, but we are doing less of that now that we delight in spending time with our grandchildren. Our travel is domestic and shorter, but as my favourite person said, there is much to write about these trips.
I also blogged about my journey through my PhD which was very much a ‘What’s Next, project. I completed it around three years ago. It’s a bound book on my bookshelf. I still use what I learnt in the few consulting projects I have but I’m not sure if that is a topic for this blog .
Then there are the general reflections on wine, music, and the world. I realised, as I thought about it, that I have a number of posts on songs that look at the songs in a more reflective tone, e.g. I just want ot enjoy their music – A reflection on Bob Dylan. Perhaps that a direction for future posts?
So with my hosting service renewed, I have whet my blogging appetite with a new motivation to keep on posting!
A reflection – Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction
I was driving home recently when Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction came up on my playlist. I hadn’t heard it for quite a while, but as I listened, I was struck by how familiar it sounded. Not because the world it described was the same as the one we live in today (the song was released in 1965), but because the anxiety behind it was.
Eve of Destruction became one of the anthems of the 60s.
It’s a song about war, nuclear weapons, racial tension, political violence and a generation wondering where the world was heading. I recall talking to my grandpa, a First World War veteran, about the end of the world. I can only imagine what he thought of the rantings of this grade 6 child, having experienced what must have felt like the end of the world while serving.
Listening to Eve of Destruction in 2026, I found myself thinking that although the circumstances have changed enormously, the feeling that the world is somehow on the brink of disaster hasn’t changed very much at all. In fact, as my favourite person said when I discussed it with her, we are always ‘dancing on a pin ’, and that really we are only a step away from some form of disaster, whether it’s man-made or natural.
In 1965, the Cold War was at its height. The United States and the Soviet Union had enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other and all of us many times over. The Vietnam War was escalating; we had the draft, thankfully I was too young, but my favourite person’s brothers weren’t! On the other side of the world, the civil rights struggle was exposing deep divisions within American society. The assassination of President Kennedy was still fresh in people’s minds, and all of this was being presented in our living rooms via television.
Even as a pre-teenager, it felt quite literally as if we were on the eve of destruction, but we survived. The world didn’t end, and in fact we went through a period of peace and greater harmony.
Wine – a fifteen year reflection
My favourite person and I at Taltarni
This post was inspired by Lettie Teague’s articles on wine in the Wall Street Journal.
Her comments, were witty and insightful. Sadly a few months ago here tenure at the WSJ ended. Her articles were an easy read and bring to an Australian wine enthusiast an American perspective on the broader wine world , the US market, what she’s drinking etc. There was barely a mention of Australia or Australian wine. It was a refreshing take as my wine reading and consumption is very much based on the Australian market. And what a wonderful market it is. We are truly blessed with the quality of our wine, but there is so much more out there.
In one of her articles Lettie reflected on changes in the wine industry, and the American market over 15 years. It was an interesting read and led me to thinking about changes in the Australian industry over a similar period.
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