Eating most of my food with a knife and fork

Posted on 9 April 2015 by blackandblueman
UK Prime Minister David Cameron (The Sydney Morning Herald)

UK Prime Minister David Cameron (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Yesterday in The Sydney Morning Herald, I was amused to read that UK Prime Minister David Cameron was recently criticised for eating a hot dog with a knife and fork.

I was amused not because I think what he did was silly or posh or both, but because I have attracted similar mockery myself.

I eat a lot of my food with cutlery because of my OCD.

*

For most of my life, I have been obsessive-compulsive about having clean hands.

It’s only since 2000 or so, however, that I’ve been eating more and more of my food with a knife and fork. I even bought myself a set of camping cutlery to use at food courts (although this was also because I find a lot of plastic cutlery flimsy, and also as a safeguard against places being out of cutlery).

Part of this is a reaction to outside factors – and in all seriousness, one of them has been the growing size of hamburgers.

Messy hands from hamburgers had long made me uncomfortable, but especially during the last 10 years the trend of bigger burgers made eating them even more unwieldy and less enjoyable. So in response, I began using cutlery to dismantle them and eat them piece by piece (I usually save the patty for last).

As a result, I now enjoy hamburgers even more – because not only does a knife and fork make their eating more neat and tidy, it also increases the length of the meal.

Another outside factor that led me to eating more of my food with a knife and fork was the internet, and especially interacting with people online. I usually don’t surf during meals, but I found that trying to enjoy a snack like potato chips but having to constantly wipe my hands between bouts of typing was quite tiresome – so several years ago, I began eating potato chips with a fork.

At first, that felt even more odd than using cutlery for a hamburger – but soon I came to like it a lot. Again, not only did it keep my hands clean, but it gave me more time to savor each chip.

If I’m sharing from bowls of chips in public I still use my fingers, but at home I always use a fork.

Not every attempt to eat more food with cutlery has succeeded, however. Some years ago I briefly tried crunching corn chips into small pieces and mixing them into bowls of salsa to eat them with a spoon, but even that was odd and not very enjoyable. So I always use my hands for corn chips with salsa (although corn chips by themselves I eat with a fork).

I have also eaten Subway subs with my camping cutlery, dismantling them like I do with hamburgers. This wasn’t enjoyably the same, though, so recently I have gone back to eating them with my hands (but not before having moist towelettes close by).

*

I have attracted some mockery for this way of eating – and in one online forum where I said that I prefer to eat pizza with a knife and fork, like David Cameron I was pooh-poohed as being posh.

But whatever his reason for eating his hot dog how he did, he should eat it however he wants to – especially if he enjoys it.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Fear, Happiness, Life Strategies, My Story, OCD | Leave a comment

Mid-Life Crisis (Part 2)

Posted on 21 March 2015 by blackandblueman
(Wikimedia Commons)

(Wikimedia Commons)

Part 1

For the first six months or so, 2012 hadn’t been a bad year.

During the last six months, though, things changed.

At that time, my five years of therapy with my psychiatrist Dr. Khan came to an end due to his retirement. Although that was a shame, I wasn’t depressed or upset about that.

But as Dr. Khan said during one of our very last sessions, I was going through a period of low depression.

Part of that was due to work, which was going through another dreary phase that would mostly last until the end of 2013 (although I didn’t know that at the time – fortunately).

Another part of feeling down was because of a friend who had suffered a major health problem at that time.

There may have been other factors, but if so I’ve forgotten what they were.

Ultimately, though, 2012 ended on a blah note.

The worst, though, was yet to come.

*

At first, 2013 began with some promise – especially with the prospect of a work-trip to New Zealand later in the year, and an extra few hundred dollars in my bank account that was a nice buffer for a few months.

But by mid-year, things in general had soured.

A lot of that had to do with the crummy situation at work. Redundancies reared their ugly head again – but this time, instead of one huge wave at once there were several over an extended period.

My job wasn’t affected – but one of my immediate colleagues had his job made redundant, and it seemed like every month others were losing their jobs. By June, I was aware of at least four rounds of redundancies that had taken place – but as the year progressed, there were more that I heard about as they happened or afterwards.

Overall morale went down the toilet.

As well, there was a huge clampdown on costs. I came very close to not going to New Zealand, but because the client and not my employer footed the bill I was still able to go – but even a simple request for a spare battery and other small peripherals for my new work PC was refused, whereas in previous years these requests had been granted without issue.

Outside of work, funnily enough, both my new work PC and the previous one contributed to an annoying financial saga that dragged on for a few months. For years I had used my work PCs for home computing and other things like watching DVDs, which was legit – but one Friday night my previous work PC suddenly died, which left me in the lurch in several ways.

The next day I bought my own PC, and a few days later I got my new work PC – but my own PC turned out to be a frustrating disappointment thanks mostly to Windows 8, and both PCs required further expenditures like a new modem. It wasn’t the financial end of the world, but for a few months if it wasn’t one computer-related thing it was another.

There were other hassles, like even a temporary loss of interest in reading – which really bothered me, because I’ve always enjoyed reading and many times in the past it had gotten me though rough patches.

But worst of all, there were two strong feelings that had emerged early in 2013 and weighed down upon me for the rest of the year.

It wasn’t that these two feelings were new, because I had considered and experienced them several times before.

But it was the intensity of these feelings that troubled me a great deal.

One feeling was that one day I was going to die, and how final that was.

The other feeling was that overall I had lived a life of failure, thanks mostly to a combination of fear and stupidity. Mental illness hadn’t helped, or course – but although depression and OCD had contributed to some of my life problems, a lot of it was due to being scared most of the time and having few brains.

Again, these feelings were nothing new – but why were they really weighing down on me now?

*

I can’t remember when I thought that what I was experiencing was my mid-life crisis, but when I did it was a grim realisation.

Ever since my late teens when I had first heard of the concept of the mid-life crisis, I had hoped that it wouldn’t happen to me. In fact, I had often felt that the notion of it was rather silly (partly because of the stereotypical male behaviour attributed to it).

But now, it had struck me. And hard.

Whenever my crisis feelings arose throughout 2013, I tried to shove them away, keep calm and carry on. Sometimes, it worked.

But other times, it didn’t.

What also didn’t help was 2013 continuing to be a crappy year right up until the end. Apart from the ongoing dreariness at work, there were three separate situations during the last few weeks of 2013 that left me feeling especially infuriated at myself and others.

New Year’s Eve found me alone at home – which is how I’ve spent it several times and have enjoyed it, but this night I was fed up and pissed off and truly looking forward to this fucking year finally coming to an end.

At midnight, I said good fucking riddance to 2013 and the mid-life crisis I associated with it.

*

But if I didn’t want 2014 to be more of the same, I had to do something – or several somethings.

But what?

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted in Anger, Depression, Fear, Life Challenges, My Story, Pain | 2 Comments

2015: A Life Odyssey (Part 2)

Posted on 9 March 2015 by blackandblueman

1995-2015

Part 1

As I described in Part 1, I was made redundant from the job that I had had since 3 December 2000.

But in several ways, my job had gone back further.

First, I had been outsourced to my employer from the employer before that, one of Australia’s major banks. I had been with that bank just over five years, from 1995 to 2000, and it was there I had begun my career as a technical writer.

Second, the bank became one of my employer’s largest clients, and most of the documentation I wrote and maintained up until my last working day was for the bank.

Third, as part of the outsourcing agreement, on paper my years at the bank counted towards my years of service with my employer – which was an added bonus indeed to my payout.

Fourth, although their numbers have dwindled over the years, there were still several of my bank colleagues at my employer. As the years passed and we moved about within the organisation, we saw and worked less with each other, but we stayed in touch and during the last few years annual catch-up dinners have been good fun (and we’re thinking of another one in the near future).

Finally, and this struck me most of all about the true length of my last job, there were the files on my work computer’s hard-drive and my external back-up hard-drive.

At my employer, I estimate that I’ve worked on at least 2000 documents – and that included some documents that I had created at the bank in 1999-2000 and maintained for a few years until the platform they were written for was replaced.

All of those 2000-odd documents were confidential, and I couldn’t keep copies of them after I left – but during my last few weeks, the idea of having to delete them often gave me pause.

Up to 15 years of work, soon to be gone from my life forever. Just like that – and at times, it did feel like I would be blotting out a large chunk of my past.

On my second-last day, I updated my external hard-drive with copies of those files to hand over to my remaining colleague.

And just before I went to bed that night, I deleted all of my files from my computer. Just like that.

*

I did look for other roles at my employer, but the closest technical-writer position I found was in Singapore – and it also required qualifications that I didn’t have.

There were also a few technical-writer positions being advertised in the US, but they required local citizenship and security clearances.

But even before I saw those roles, mentally I was already leaving.

Being able to stay would not have been the end of the world, of course – but career-wise and most of all financially, it would have remained what it had been for years: a dead-end. Since 2010, my work had changed very little – and since the day I had joined my employer, my income had stagnated with miniscule or no pay-rises (for my first three years and my last two years, I got none).

Having to leave meant having to look for another job, which is not one of the most pleasant things in the world and something I hadn’t done since 1995 – but, it did offer a lot of potential. I would be leaving with a very good payout that meant I didn’t have to necessarily scramble for a new job immediately; I had a wealth of work experience behind me; there was the chance of earning a better income; and there was also the chance to do new types of technical-writing, or maybe even something quite different.

So I embraced the idea of leaving, and that helped me to keep calm and carry on.

*

What also helped me to embrace the idea of leaving was that although I was disappointed about my job being made redundant, I wasn’t surprised.

Since 2010, redundancies had become increasingly common at my employer – and in particular, 2013 had been a very bad year. Almost every month, people had left – and as 2013 progressed, I thought my time would come as well.

It didn’t – but the situation remained as a case of not if, but when.

*

Thursday, 26 February 2015.

Officially, my last day was tomorrow – but today was the day that I would return all of my equipment, have my exit interview and have a farewell lunch with my manager and my remaining colleague.

Because I don’t drive and I had bulky equipment like a large external monitor, my colleague very kindly drove me and my gear almost 30 kilometres across Sydney to my employer’s facility.

My exit interview took only 30 minutes and was completed without any issues.

Half an hour after that, my manager and my colleague and I headed off to what would be a very pleasant lunch at a cafe in nearby bushland.

After 2pm my colleague and I hit the road again, and at 2:40pm she dropped me off near the Westfield shopping centre at Broadway near the CBD.

And as my colleague drove away and I looked east at the city, that was the moment when it truly felt like that was that.

A major era of my life had ended.

And a new one had begun.

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted in Action, Hope, Inspiration, Life Challenges, Life Strategies, My Story, Something to Think About | 2 Comments

Poor Man, Rich Man: Bankruptcy – Year Four

Posted on 21 February 2015 by blackandblueman

2014-2015

Year One
Year Two
Year Three

Last weekend saw Valentine’s Day, which to me has other significance.

Four years ago on 14 February 2011, I was declared voluntarily bankrupt by the Australian Government.

So how was my fourth year living with a cash-only personal economy, and learning again about how to do money?

Like Year Three, it was okay.

Overall, I never really lacked for anything – but towards the end of some weeks, unfortunately, I found myself living down to the wire again (and again). I still have to learn and do more about not living from pay to pay.

A recent unexpected opportunity, however, will give me the chance to start overcoming that. More on that later.

*

Fortunately, there was only one major financial headache during Year Four.

In July 2014 I put in my income-tax return online and as early as possible, which meant that I should have gotten my tax return two weeks later (which has usually happened in the past)…but this time, it took three months. Why? The person I rang at the Australian Tax Office vaguely alluded to my discharged bankruptcy, but that was it.

The reason why that delayed return became a headache was that I had mostly earmarked it for the August 2014 Canberra trip I talked about in this post. A week before I was due to go on that trip, my return hadn’t arrived and I came close to cancelling – but fortunately, a relative kindly lent me the money that enabled me to go.

*

Down in Canberra, though, I encountered another problem – which I overcame, but at first it made me furious.

When I checked into my hotel and informed them that I would be paying cash because I didn’t have a credit card, I was told that I would suddenly have to provide a $100 safety deposit.

Despite my pointing out to them that no mention had been made of this when I’d made my booking, they wouldn’t budge – so I gritted my teeth, paid the deposit, went up to my room and swore violently for some time.

After accommodation, I initially had $400 for my four days in Canberra – but now, after that deposit, I had $300. It was far from the end of the world, but it was infuriating.

I was careful and saw myself through the rest of my stay with no issues, but several more times during those four days I cursed myself and the hotel – myself for going bankrupt and no longer having credit cards as a safeguard, and the hotel for having that bullshit policy.

*

As I mentioned in my last post, recently I was made redundant from the job I have had since late 2000.

Although this was a disappointing development, it wasn’t unexpected – but it also presents some opportunities.

One of these opportunities is the payout I will be receiving. Not only does it mean that I will have a financial cushion until I find my next job – which I hope won’t be too far away – but it also provides the chance for setting up savings, and in the future even investing.

That is very intriguing, indeed.

My journey to financial peace of mind continues to be a long and slow one, but still I am getting there – and now with something extra.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Anger, Hope, Inspiration, Life Challenges, My Story, Something to Think About | Leave a comment

2015: A Life Odyssey (Part 1)

Posted on 6 February 2015 by blackandblueman
(Steved1973/Wikipedia)

(Steved1973/Wikipedia)

Thursday, 28 January 2015.

A week ago, a major era of my life had ended with the closing of a restaurant I had been visiting for almost 28 years.

Today, it was the beginning of the end for another major era.

Shortly after 1:15 pm, and three days after I had returned to work following a month’s leave, I was informed that:

  1. The job I had held since 3 December 2000 would soon be redundant
  2. I had until 27 February to find another position – but if I couldn’t, my employment will end

My 2015 was not even a month old, and already it had gotten off to a very interesting start.

To say the least.

*

2015 is going to be one of the biggest years of my life.

I may find a new job soon – either at my current employer, or somewhere else. Or I may not.

The last time I applied for a job and went for an interview was in late 1996.

As well, a new job will mean other changes, like meeting new people and (perhaps) no longer working from home.

Also, and aside from the new job situation, if I leave my current employer with my redundancy payout there are other things to consider – both concerns, and opportunities.

My mind is already boggling – but, as I have recently been stressing to family and friends, not worryingly.

Although some of what lies ahead is intimidating, at present I am calm and hopeful.

As my site’s credo says, one day at a time at one hour at a time.

The future is uncertain – but there is a lot of potential.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action, Fear, Hope, Inspiration, Life Challenges, Life Strategies, My Story, Resilience | Leave a comment

Pizza Hut 630 George Street, thank you and all the best

Posted on 31 January 2015 by blackandblueman
Pizza Hut, 630 George Street, Sydney (now closed) (Weekend Notes)

Pizza Hut, 630 George Street, Sydney (now closed) (Weekend Notes)

Thursday, 21 January 2015.

Just before 5pm, as I have done countless times since 2007, I arrived at one of my regular dinner haunts – Pizza Hut, 630 George Street, Sydney.

One of the staff who knew me and served me made a stunning announcement.

Tonight, Pizza Hut 630 George Street was closing down.

That was stunning, and sad, for several reasons.

One, I had been visiting 630 George Street since 1987 when I was 16-17 years old (and in late 1993 I also enquired about a job there, but they weren’t hiring).

Two, since 2007 I had been visiting 630 George Street at least once a week, and many weeks more than once.

Three, since Black and Blue Man began in 2010, 630 George Street is where most of it was written.

*

I began dining out most nights in 2007, partly because I simply enjoyed it and partly because I preferred to do creative writing in public places rather than in the isolation of home.

630 George Street became one of my regular venues for several reasons:

  • I’ve always liked Pizza Hut and its Works Buffet
  • the Works was still under $20
  • 630 George Street was close to Town Hall station, where I used to travel to and from work, and it’s only a 20-minute walk from home

As I became a familiar face there, the staff treated me very well:

  • I always got a discount
  • they never minded me staying 4-5 hours each time (and no, I didn’t spend all of those hours eating)
  • if my favourite table was unavailable when I showed up, they would later inform me when it was empty so I could move there

As well as creative writing, I also came to like 630 George Street as a place to work. Up until 2010 when I began working from home full-time, I would leave the office early, arrive at 5pm to have an early dinner, and then at 6pm power on my laptop PC and complete my last 1-2 hours (or more). Even after I began working from home, though, I continued this routine at 630 George Street and other places.

By 2010, my interest in creative writing had waned – but I still wanted to write somehow, and that’s partly how Black and Blue Man came about. Soon, Saturday became ‘blog night’, and has mostly remained so ever since – and because I could stay up to 5 hours at 630 George Street on Saturday nights, it became my usual ‘blog place’.

So as I said above, Black and Blue Man was mostly written there.

(This post is being written at another favourite haunt only a few doors away on George).

*

That last night at 630 George Street, I was told that there may be plans to re-open somewhere else in the city.

If they do, of course I’ll go and see what it’s like – but, an almost 28-year era of my life is now over.

Pizza Hut 630 George Street – and especially the staff who worked there since 2007 – thank you and all the best.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Gratitude, Happiness, Inspiration, Life Strategies | 12 Comments

Black and Blue Walking Man: Berowra to Hornsby, perhaps (Part 1)

Posted on 24 January 2015 by blackandblueman
Berowra railway station, Berowra NSW (Abesty/Wikipedia)

Berowra railway station, Berowra NSW (Abesty/Wikipedia)

Wednesday, 21 January 2015.

Just before 9:45am, I boarded yet another train at Town Hall station with yet another Subway lunch.

The train headed north, and as most of the next hour passed I ate my lunch and read on my Kindle.

About fifteen minutes before the end of my journey, I smiled as I enjoyed being in the moment of traveling by train on a glorious summer’s day through a favourite part of Sydney while on leave from work.

But during the last few minutes of my journey, just before the train arrived at my destination, I looked out the window as part of the route I planned to walk passed by, and some doubts from the night before returned.

Was this a good idea after all?

Shortly after, I arrived at where I planned to start my latest long-walk – Berowra, 38 kilometres north of Sydney.

My planned destination was much closer, however – Hornsby, about 11 kilometres to the south.

But I wasn’t doubting that I could make that distance, though.

Rather, I was worried if some parts of my planned route would let me walk it at all.

Despite those doubts, however, I left Berowra station, turned south and began walking.

*

My original plan had been to walk from Cowan to Hornsby.

Cowan is about five kilometres north of Berowra, and is regarded by some as the last northern suburb of Sydney (although others feel that is Brooklyn, which is another six kilometres north of Cowan).

Up until the night of 20 January, I was still considering Cowan as my starting point…

…until I did some last-minute research online, via Google Maps Street View, and then I changed my mind.

There’s nothing wrong with Cowan, which I have visited once before.

But what concerned me was the (in)famous Pacific Highway, which connects Cowan to Berowra and Sydney.

The Pacific Highway is one of Australia’s busiest roads, but also one of its most dangerous because long stretches of it are still undivided – including part of it between Cowan and Berowra.

And as Google Maps Street View showed me, in places there was no room to the sides of the road or even in the nearby bushland for people to walk alongside the Pacific Highway.

There is a bushwalking track in the nearby countryside, but that track is long and meandering away from the Pacific Highway and I wasn’t interested in bushwalking.

I wanted to walk along or alongside the Pacific Highway, but in places from Cowan to Berowra it just wasn’t possible.

It was only during the last kilometre or so to Berowra that designated cycling lanes appeared, along with nice flat ground alongside.

I followed Street View past Berowra for a while and saw that although the nice flat ground vanished in places, the cycling lanes continued.

Berowra it would have to be.

*

But during those last few minutes before I arrived at Berowra station, I looked at the Pacific Highway again and my doubts returned.

Yes, there were the designated cycling lanes.

But especially next to the cars and trucks hurtling past at speeds up to 100 kilometres an hour, they looked narrow.

And exposed.

And in places, there was no flat ground at all beyond the crash barriers.

Was this a good idea after all?

But there was also another sight, which I first saw when I was only three or four years old and still leaves me in awe decades later.

One day way back in 1974 or 1975, my family had been driving north to visit friends in the Hunter Region. As we drove along this part of the Pacific Highway that I was now looking at as a 43-year-old, I looked west out of the car window and saw the large green valley that contains Lyrebird Gully and heads towards Berowra Creek several kilometres away.

The valley itself is very impressive – and what my young self also found intriguing were the big overhead-powerline towers that stood along the top of the southern slope and, to me, looked like giant robots marching west into the unknown.

I’ve seen that sight several times during the past 40 years, and it has never failed to impress me.

And as it did again, I resolved to walk past it alongside the Pacific Highway and view it from foot despite my doubts.

*

But first, I had to get there.

Would I be able to?

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted in Action, Fear, Hope, Inspiration, Life Challenges, Travel | Leave a comment

Mid-Life Crisis (Part 1)

Posted on 19 January 2015 by blackandblueman
'Uneasy Rider' by Mike Carter (Amazon)

‘Uneasy Rider’ by Mike Carter (Amazon)

In 2006, English travel writer Mike Carter spent six months motorcycling almost 20,000 miles around Europe.

His 2008 book Uneasy Rider: Travels Through A Mid-Life Crisis is his amusing and thought-provoking account of that experience.

What prompted Carter to undertake such an incredible journey? The last three words in his book’s subtitle: “mid-life crisis”.

As Carter explains in the first two paragraphs of his book’s prologue:

The nadir of a man’s life is 42. I don’t know why, exactly. The frustrating thing about a nadir is that you cannot know precisely when you have reached it. That only comes later.

There are plenty of surveys that confirm it to be true, though. You can find them if you’re looking for them. I was coming across them everywhere: magazines in doctors’ waiting rooms, newspapers discarded on trains, television, radio; all concluding that the absolute rock bottom, the pit of despair, the precise moment when a man runs out of steam, suffers a catastrophic crisis of confidence, hits ground zero, call it what you will, occurs at age 42.

Carter turned 42 in April 2006. By then, a seven-year marriage had ended in divorce and he had already endured a couple of years of middle-aged regrets.

This inspired him to boldly (and drunkenly) declare at a 2005 work Christmas party that he would embark on his six-month motorcycle journey and write a regular column about his upcoming travels.

Which he did, as recounted in Uneasy Rider.

*

I was initially inspired to read Uneasy Rider because of my recent liking for similarly-themed major-journey books like Bill Bryson’s A Walk In The Woods, Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Michael McIntyre’s The Kindness Of Strangers.

But when I began reading Uneasy Rider, I was especially struck by what Carter had to say about his mid-life crisis – partly because he wrote very movingly about it, and partly because how it related to a recent experience of mine.

*

I turned 42 in June 2013.

By then, I was already several months into what I would later call my mid-life crisis.

My crisis had begun in late 2012, but I would come to think of 2013 as my crisis year as it mostly dominated those twelve months.

Regular readers of Black and Blue Man may recall that I have previously made mention of this in posts like this one and this one.

At those times, those mentions were all I had planned to say about my mid-life crisis.

But the first few chapters of Uneasy Rider got me thinking about it again.

I thought I’d write some more about what I went through, and how I dealt with it.

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted in Anger, Fear, Life Challenges, My Story, Pain, Something to Think About | Leave a comment

Black and Blue Walking Man: Kogarah to Newtown (and beyond)

Posted on 8 January 2015 by blackandblueman
Sizzler, Kogarah NSW (Google Maps Street View)

Sizzler, Kogarah NSW (Google Maps Street View)

It’s funny how one thing can lead to another.

For Christmas 2013, my young nieces and nephew gave me a $50 Sizzler gift card that was valid until 17 December 2014.

Although there are many Sizzlers in Queensland, where my nieces and nephew live, there are now only three left in New South Wales (there used to be many more, but in the late 1990s for reasons I can’t remember almost all of them closed down). Fortunately, though, those three NSW Sizzlers are also in Sydney and the closest is only 30-40 minutes away by train and foot in Kogarah, whose most famous export is Clive James.

Several times throughout this year I thought about getting down to Kogarah once or twice and enjoying a meal at Sizzler, but I never got around to it – until a few weeks ago, because time was running out for my gift card.

Because I had $50 to spend, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to get to Kogarah twice before the 17th, I decided to indulge myself by having both lunch and dinner in the one visit.

Sizzler permitting, of course – and fortunately they did, so on Saturday 6 December I spent a very pleasant 6-7 hours there.

Apart from the very yummy food, what also made that double-visit enjoyable was re-reading most of a book I’d enjoyed very much a few months before – Bill Bryson’s A Walk In The Woods, his classic 1998 account of hiking most of the Appalachian Trail with a friend.

As well as having enjoyed other Bryson books like Made In America and The Lost Continent, I’d been inspired to read A Walk In The Woods by my long-walk experiences early this year. Although my walks certainly don’t compare to hiking the Appalachian Trail, and at present I only have minor interest in rural hiking, the idea of spending several months doing nothing but walking sounded wonderful.

What inspired me to re-read A Walk In The Woods was another book about a long journey by foot that I’d recently enjoyed, Cheryl Strayed’s Wild.

So during that Sizzler double-visit I once again enjoyed A Walk In The Woods – and while there at Kogarah, it got me thinking again about my own long-walking.

I was planning to go long-walking again in January 2015, when I would be on a month’s leave…but as I sat there in Sizzler and thought about Bryson’s and Strayed’s books, I began consulting information online and came up with an idea.

Why not do one last long-walk for 2014, and use Sizzler as a starting point? It would be a good excuse to go there for lunch again, and give me a lot of fuel for my journey.

But a journey to where?

In the end, I decided that my destination would be the inner-west suburb of Newtown, about 13 kilometres away if I followed the Princes Highway. Not only is Newtown not far from where I live, but its dazzling variety of restaurants gave me something else to aim for – a tasty dinner.

So not only did I leave Sizzler that evening having thoroughly enjoyed my double visit, I also had something – actually, several somethings – to look forward to next weekend.

*

Sunday, 14 December 2014.

Like the weekend before I caught the train to Carlton, which has the closest railway station to Sizzler, and at 11:30am lunch began.

At 1:30pm, I decided to get going and made a last visit to the toilet.

I had no idea how long this walk would take, but I was pretty sure that I would make it to Newtown by 5:30pm where I was planning to meet up with a friend for dinner.

If I followed the Princes Highway, I would be fine – and from memory, there were no dreadful hills ahead.

As well, it was a very bright and sunny day.

At 1:45pm I bid farewell to Sizzler and began my journey north.

*

Roughly 45 minutes, two suburbs and six kilometres later, I stopped for my first break at a service station in Banksia that shared an intersetion with the Banksia Hotel.

Fortunately, as I had hoped, it had been a mostly flat walk along the Princes Highway through Kogarah and Rockdale.

I bought a 600ml bottle of water and enjoyed it very much until around 2:45pm, when I set off again.

*

The next 45 minutes or so of my walk took me another four kilometres north, through Arncliffe and Wolli Creek to Tempe.

Here the terrain became hilly, but not unbearably so.

I had thought that when the next break approached, I would grab another bottle of water from another service station or a convenience store…but as 3:30pm approached, an unexpected opportunity presented itself.

I went into the massive IKEA at Tempe.

Although I’m an IKEA fan and it had been a while since I’d been to one, I restricted myself to a quick visit to the food hall and then a nearby vending machine – where due to mechanical error I wound up with both a 600ml bottle of water and a small bottle of fruit juice.

I sat down and for the next 15 minutes or so and enjoyed both drinks.

Shortly after 3:45pm, I hit the road again.

*

I continued north from Tempe into St. Peters.

Overall, this walk had been the easiest I’d attempted thus far. Although slightly hilly in places, it was nowhere near as bad as the dreaded Lower North Shore.

As well, the Princes Highway made for a good trail to follow.

In several places, though, it was the least attractive walk I’ve done thus far.

Like Parramatta Road and Victoria Road, the Princes Highway can be an ugly old Sydney main road. A lot of its surrounding environments were shaped around it, rather than the other way around; in several places there were a lot of abandoned and semi-abandoned properties; and although in other places there were new apartment buildings, the idea of living right up against the grim and noisy Princes Highway was very unappealing.

But as I approached St. Peters and Newtown on the last leg of my walk, the mixture of gentrified and restored sights got better.

Soon, I crossed the major intersection near St. Peters railway station to the mouth of King Street at the southern end of Newtown.

I continued up King for another 5-10 minutes until I came to the restaurant where my friend and I planned to meet for dinner when it opened at 5:30pm.

Outside Smash Sausage Kitchen I officially declared my walk over – although it was still only 4:30pm, so I couldn’t go inside to celebrate yet.

Instead, I walked a little further up King until I came to a pub and sat down with a nice big cold glass of diet cola.

Including breaks, it had taken me two hours and 45 minutes to walk just over 13 kilometres from Kogarah to Newtown.

It had been another enjoyable achievement.

But my long-walking for the day wasn’t over yet.

*

Shortly after 5:30pm I headed back down to Smash, where my friend soon joined me for a pleasant and very tasty dinner.

A couple of hours later, we headed up King to a favourite old cafe and spent another couple of hours enjoying dessert.

After that, and a short visit to the famous Gould’s Book Arcade, we made our separate ways home.

I know that the walk from my place to downtown Newtown is some distance, so after getting home I looked at just how far I’d walked from the restaurant.

It was just over five kilometres.

So altogether, in a way, I had long-walked about 18 kilometres.

It had been a very enjoyable and rewarding day indeed, filled with walking through Sydney and good food.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action, Happiness, Inspiration, Life Challenges, Life is Good, Life Strategies, Reading, Travel | Leave a comment

Black and Blue Walking Man: Seven Bridges to Cross (Epilogue)

Posted on 29 November 2014 by blackandblueman
Chinatown entrance, Dixon and Hay Street intersection, Sydney (Chinatownsyd/Wikipedia)

Chinatown entrance, Dixon and Hay Street intersection, Sydney (Chinatownsyd/Wikipedia)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

When I got off the train in the CBD, I decided to treat myself to dinner at one of my favourite restaurants down in Chinatown.

That meant a 10-15 minute walk from the station, and fortunately it was downhill all of the way.

Even so, I found myself completing that walk very slowly.

When I got to Chinatown, though, I stayed there for the next three hours and didn’t move.

And apart from enjoying a leisurely meal and dozing a little, I made an interesting discovery.

During dinner my legs continued to ache, and so I decided to see if the Nurofen I carried in my backpack could do something about it. Although I’ve long taken Nurofen for headaches, I’d never taken it for muscle pain.

A couple of hours later, its effect was miraculous.

The pain in my legs was completely gone.

Which was very helpful as home was a mostly uphill 30-minute walk away.

*

That night at home, I discovered on Facebook that someone I knew at work had also done the Walk with some friends and had completed it.

The next day I emailed him at work, and he mentioned that it was the fourth time he’d done the Walk.

He also agreed with me about the dreaded Lower North Shore, and described how after his first Walk that rotten stretch had given him very painful blisters on his feet that hurt for several days afterwards.

My legs ached a little for the next two days, but that was it.

I’d been very fortunate, indeed.

*

So, will I do the Walk again?

At this stage, yes.

As I found, I could do most of it – and with a few tweaks, next time I should be able to complete it.

The first tweak will be to start at least 30 minutes earlier, or perhaps an hour earlier to give myself more breathing space.

The second tweak is to do more walking beforehand. The Walk didn’t wear me out, but doing more walking in the weeks leading up to it will be good conditioning and may give me a better edge.

The third tweak is to have less worn shoes when I do the next Walk. Although I don’t think the shoes I wore set me back in a major way, it will still be good to have a newer pair than what I wore (which I think are at least 12 months old…or maybe even 18 months old).

The final tweak will be a calm mental attitude when walking the Lower North Shore again.

I have to admit, and especially in the immediate aftermath of the Walk, the prospect of once again facing that rotten stretch between Greenwich Hospital and Milsons Point was quite off-putting.

Could I really face those damn hills again?

But I would like to try the Walk again.

And as I found during the Walk, I was able to cross the Gladesville Bridge again – so if I could do that, I should be able to walk those damn hills again.

Next year, we’ll see.

Until next time, stay well and take care 🙂

Posted in Action, Happiness, Hope, Inspiration, Life Challenges, Life Strategies, Travel | Leave a comment