by ·Comments Off on 6 months to go!

Well it is 6 months till i start on this awesome new trip. My Contiki tour should be paid off tomorrow, flights in the next month or so. It’s all coming together nicely now.

Japan is all organised as I booked my last hotel the other day with my Tokyo accommodation now booked at the lovely Hyatt Regency Tokyo (looks AWESOME and got a fantastic rate. I am slowly putting together a list of all the things I want to do on this trip and will post it sometime over the weekend.

In other news I have booked a crazy Easter Holiday to New Zealand for a weekend, purely just to use up some points i had with Air New Zealand. Flights are Brisbane to Auckland on Good Friday. On Easter Saturday I am flying Auckland to Christchurch to Queenstown and then returning the exact same way after an hour on the Ground in Queenstown. I won’t get to explore much but I have been told its a fantastic flight into the airport in Queenstown. Ill have Easter Sunday to explore Auckland a bit and then that evening I am flying from Auckland to Sydney on Emirates on the A380 (my first A380 flight). After spending Easter Monday/Anzac Day in Sydney as usual, I will fly home that evening with Virgin Blue. Should be a good crazy time!

by ·Comments Off on Projects for 2011

So one of the things I decided to do in 2011 was try and do some of the things that I have been putting off for so long saying “yeah I will get around to it”. Obviously keeping up with the site is one of them. But I had also planned a couple of other proejcts. One of them was a 24″ Digital Photo Frame. I had an old Dell 24 Inch Monitor lying around doing nothing. Then Work ended up dishing out some Old pcs for free that were “take it or leave it” situation. If it didn’t work, it didn’t work. Well my ultimate goal was to turn this into a decent looking digital photo frame. Why put up with a tiny little thing for the living room when I can have this awesome, decent sized hi def screen.

So another thing happened. For christmas my good friend Alisha gave me something to help me stay on track, each day. She gave me the words Inspire in big letters (wooden) that you can mount on the wall. But they wouldn’t sit up on the shelf. So back to the drawing board. Well, I looked at a way to get it on the wall and then thought, well now why don’t i do some “construction” and see what happens.

Well i spent Saturday morning, working in the Garage putting together the letters using some cheap stuff I picked up from Bunnings (with a bit of Dad’s advice) but it turned out pretty well. It’s still sitting on my wall in my room (as u can see below from pics it looks pretty good). Then the same day I started working on the Photo Frame. I’ve named this the “Reflect” Project thanks to a suggestion by an old friend.

So I spent Saturday and Monday rebuilding the old Dell PC for reflect. Started from a scratch install and it took forever (they weren’t exactly speedy). But hey, it was free, I am not going to complain. Now the next step is building the frame of the shell and then moving onto putting the final touches on it. So more updates to come.

Other projects, well there is the usual RNA photo comps but other than that, i am open to more ideas!

Projects

by ·Comments Off on 2010…. What a year!

Well its always around this time of year (well normally a few days before but im giving it to you like a few hours before the end of the year) that I look back on the last year and ponder on all the good and bad things that have happened.

There hasn’t been to many bad things this last year. I mean sure I have had my bad days, where I have had my struggles but nothing royally bad has happened. I mean sure I’ve had sickness (who can forget my Malaria scare) but its been by average a pretty damn good year.

Lets look at the good things that have happened to me in 2010.

* Travelled a LOT! Pretty much spent at least once every month travelling away from Brisbane. Numerous trips to the Gold & Sunshine Coasts, be it overnight, or for the day. Visited Melbourne 3 times, Sydney & Canberra. I got to visit Norfolk Island, that was definately an experience. I also got to visit PNG but see the next point for more on that. I saw the end of one passport now that it has been cancelled. Looking back at the stamps in that passport just makes me reminisce.
* I got to trek Kokoda. I mean seriously… I never thought that would happen ever and it was probably one of my top 5 things for the year (not the top, prolly number 2). Visiting the Track was a life long dream, now come true and seriously it changed my life.
* I met some amazing new people. From all over the place, got to spend plenty of time with them and have made some fantastic new friends out of it (you guys know who you are).
* I got more and more into Twitter. After a solid year of saying “i am so not joining”, i joined in 2009 but didn’t really do to much, well that changed. In 2010 my twitterverse spread like wildfire and am now totally and utterly addicted.
* I moved into the world of Smartphones and Android. Even though i bought the phone just before the end of 2009, I hadn’t really done to much with it. Now that with 2010 fully underway I am onto my 2nd Android Smartphone and fully intertwined with connectivity. I am connected 24/7 which is probably not the best thing, but I love it!
* I got more and more into Mileage & Point Accumulation. I joined Flyertalk back at the very start of 2009 and didn’t really do to much. But the last 12 months I have been heavily looking into the best ways to get the most bang for buck out of the point programs. I have churned 2 seperate cards for points and who knows what the new year will bring with these points.

The #1 thing though of 2010.. It has to be A Current Affair and the Weight Loss. You have all seen it, you all know about it, so I don’t need to say to much about it, but over the last year so many people have given me words of encouragement and support and now this is my time to say a BIG THANK YOU! I love and appreciate you all!!

Now as we all wait for 2010 to come to a close i leave you with the parting words that have helped me all year.

“The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday”

heres to 2011 and all the fun it will bring!

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Well this post today wasn’t originally meant to be about this but will leave that post till tommorrow now, but I thought I would blog about something that happened on tuesday afternoon. I was at work and having a pretty good day to, lots of bookings and not to many problems for a public holiday (just the usual). But my vision started to go funny. Its really hard to describe what was going on but suffice it to say, it wasn’t normal.

Originally i had thought that I was having problems with my eyes and that something was up. So when my break rolled around I went and washed my face and checked my eyes in the hope it was just something in the corner of my eye. No luck, no change there. By the time i was back at my desk after heating up my lunch (break is only 10 mins) I was starting to get some pounding in my head right behind my right eye.

O dear. this was not good. I grabbed the last of the panadol out of my desk drawer (yeah i keep random stuff in my desk at work) and shoved them down my gob. Unfortunately this didn’t do much, the pain grew and grew. I had never had a headache that hurt so bad. I quickly googled migraines wondering if this is what was going on and wikipedia gave me a quick over view for what was to come. Looks like i was undergoing my first ever migraine. O dear!

I tried to push through it and stick around at work, we were getting hammered and I just didn’t want to leave, but the pain got to much to bare. So I had to leave, I got out of there quick as I could and tried to get home before I threw up my lunch (nausea was kicking in). As soon as I was at home, I pretty much just blacked out my room as much as I could and my dad went in search of something for me to get rid of the pain (eventually he returned with some stuff from the chemist) but I pretty much just hid in my room, under the covers for the next few hours.

About 3 hours & 2 panadeine later the pain had pretty much subsided back to what I would classify as a tolerable headache. I managed to drag myself out of bed, clear some stuff up and then pretty much went straight back to watch tv in the dark to let it fully subside.

I had lasted threw my first ever migraine. I had hoped that I would never get them, but i guess that just was not going to happen in my life. Now at least i know what I need to do when they happen again but I just wish i knew what caused it!

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With the Festive season in full swing, it becomes a time to reflect on the past year and look to the year ahead.

This time of year is usually full of eating, drinking and being merry. This year will be a bit of a challenge for me. Last year was a little different. I was in weightloss mode so couldnt really indulge at all, this year. Bit different. I knew i could indulge to some extent but whatever i intaked i would have to work off later. Well i didn’t do to bad really. I did gain a bit of weight but im sure thats a mixture of both christmas and muscle build. So will just be good over the next few days and make sure I get my brain back out of christmas mode and back into work mode.

Enough about that, looking into the new year (i will post about 2010 in a few days) I am going to try and make a few changes to the blog.

First thing i want to do with the blog is I am going to change the “New Mal” Category. From now on that is going to be called Adventures. Because thats exactly what the last year has been and this way i have somewhere to put all the posts about all the crazy adventures I am sure there will be over the coming years. I am also going to try and start blogging a bit more often and try to put some purpose to some of the categories I have. I get a lot of questions about how to lose weight and what i have been doing so I am going to try and share some of those tips, tricks and recipes! Now I am not going to turn this into a food blog or anything like that. It will still be about me but more about sharing some stuff that worked with me for you.

With a new year comes a new set of “resolutions.” I don’t really like the world resolution. I prefer Goals. So we all knew my goals for 2010 were pretty big, 2011 wont be as big, just more of them. So here they are!

1. Learn to Ride a Bike before I turn 30
2. Try to get over some of my fears (boats & rollercoasters/thrill rides).
3. Try to overthink things less
4. Do a pull up. Thats right just 1 pull up!
5. Finish 2011 around 90kg
6. Get back into my photography
7. Go for a hike at least 4 times during the year
8. Be the #1 Consultant at work (also a bucket list item)

These are all really achievable goals this year and I am going to try and get them all done over the next year!

Now you all know I have a bucket list. These are the things im looking at wiping off in 2011:

1. Travel Around the World in First Class
2. Fly a Plane
3. Try to get over my fear of boats
4. Try something I don’t really want to do

In the next few weeks I am going to post my Travel Bucket List for 2011. This will cover pretty much all the extra little bits and pieces that i wish to do with my travels in 2011. All those things you plan to do while you travel.

What are your goals for 2011?

by ·Comments Off on A Current Affair goes to Air!

Well as most of you know I was approached by ACA back in September about my story etc. I did all the taping about 2 weeks after coming back from Kokoda and it was just after getting over a massive stomach bug that had me off work for about a week.

Well it went to Air last night and here is the link for those that havent seen it yet.

A Current Affair Website – Bigmal’s Triumph

I hope you all enjoy!

by ·Comments Off on Updates Updates Updates!

So Life has been pretty good lately. Start of the month went really well, managed to keep myself nice and happy with the way i ate at the christmas party. It was a good night to, everyone all dressed up, I was wearing my nice suit (which i really do thank Vanessa @ Always Habit for helping me out there) and got heaps of compliments on it!

Been managing my food pretty well but unfortunately went down 3kg over the last week and that was probably due to not thinking properly over the last few weeks with snacks etc and working out to much so im still juggling all of that each and every day, but thats the new goal for the new year, maintain the weight loss and keep it off. I can tell that I am slowly putting on some muscle as I can feel myself getting stronger. Managed to do some good heavy weights this morning and could definately see my performance increasing (mind you my arms are killing right now).

I had also been planning for a while to get a new Crumpler bag for work. As most of you know, I love crumpler. But i wanted a new bag that was custom made so that it would be about the whole transition of my life etc over the last year. Unfortunately to order a Custom Bag I would need to fly down to Melbourne or Sydney before the new year to get one etc and couldn’t justify the costs etc on top of the normal bag. However yesterday i was in the Crumpler store picking up a small piece for my laptop and checking out their new range of bags (for shits and giggles) when i saw this amazing looking bag in the window. I asked them about it and he told me that it was a custom made Complete Seed and they were selling off some of the random custom designs they had before the Custom Bag Stores close. I was ecstatic, i loved the design and I had to have it! So i bought it!

As for trip planning, things are pretty much done. Only france left to go with all of asia organised now and booked. France will probably be planned in the new year as I am going to hopefully be accompanied by my friend Yena. Who is going to join me in Normandy for some history!

Hopefully!

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I get asked a lot how i lost all the weight and what are some good tips to be able to help be healthy or lose weight.

So I thought I would put some of those tips up on the blog. For everyone to see.

1. Being healthy is a mix of both eating and exercise. you can’t have one without the other. No point.
2. Exercise is worth the effort. It may hurt, it may feel like crap but after a while it will become fun. Choose something you enjoy doing. If you like walking, go for walks, if you like riding a bike, ride a bike. But if your trying to lose weight, twice a day was my best tip for how often to exercise (at least 30-45 mins each session).
3. Cut out the alcohol. It is just not worth it. I made that decision early on that there is no point in drinking back on my hard work. So its gone (apart from the occasional drink).
4. Eat plenty of vegies. Non Starchy vegetables. Nothing beats a salad made of Roasted Pumpkin, Eggplant, Zucchini and Capsicum with a bit of Rocket dressed with Lemon Juice and Chilli. Simple, low fat and absolutely delicious.
5. Use your head when you cook. Do you really need all that oil on things? Do you really need that extra portion of carbs or that double amount of protein.
6. Eat wholegrains instead of those crappy processed foods. If your wanting some rice, eat brown or basmatti. Some noodles, use Soba Noodles (buckwheat, absolutely yum cold in a salad). Wanting to use pasta, wholemeal or durham wheat pasta. But just remember to use a small amount of carbs. 1/2 cup of rice or 1 cup of pasta is enough. If your having breads, what about wholemeal, rye or multi grain (i prefer rye). With cereals stick to Bran or Wholegrain Cereal (i like all bran, sultana bran, just right or uncle tobys plus).
7. Its ok to treat yourself, but be smart. A deep fried mars bar is not a treat, thats just dumb.
8. Don’t skip meals. Skipping doesn’t allow your body to process everything properly, your metabolism wont function and you will feel worse. Eat 3 x meals a day and several snacks. This allows your body to keep working. While I was losing weight it was 3 meals a day with 2 or 3 snacks. Now its 3 meals a day with 5 or 6 snacks.
9. Diet Jelly is AWESOME. It is on my eat as much as you like list. Aeroplane Diet Jelly has flavour, tastes great and it makes for a fantastic guilt free sweet snack.
10. Cut out the full sugar soft drinks. Diet Soft drinks are fine but i dont like drinking lots of them. Aspartamine is fine, dont believe the whole “you will get cancer” myth. I have read lots of articles which state it is ok. If you want something fizzy to drink, go for a Mineral Water. Its just water, has loads of fizz and tastes great imo. I prefer that when i go out at night with friends. Squeeze of lemon and its awesome.
11. Seek some help. There is no harm in going and seeing a professional. I had help with a trainer and a nutritionist. Without them I wouldnt of been able to do any of what i have accomplished.
12. Most of all. Don’t give up. It’s not easy. But if you stick with it, gut out the tough times you will be rewarded.

Remember, The Only Easy Day was Yesterday.

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A year ago today I walked into the gym at Adventure 1000 and I was a very different person. I was scared of what was to come and worried about what others would think of me.

I have spent what feels like most of the last hear in that gym, working hard and burning endless calories.  I no longer walk in there worried what others think, frankly I couldn’t care less what other people think of me now.

Over the last 12 months I have walked enough kilometres to take me to Sydney and probably rowed the same (maybe a bit further on thule bike). According to my heart rate monitor ive burned over 300,000 calories which I’m sure is a low range number considering it doesn’t work all the time and at the start I hated wearing it.

The improvements have been noticeable.  I’ve gone from a 7xl down to a large in some brands.  I’ve gone down in shoe sizes as well which is freaky.  I can’t really remember what life was like a year ago.

I have a lit of people to thank but mainly I have a few people.
1. Andrew Burnes you probably won’t ever read this but thank you wo much for making the offer that would change my life.
2. Andy, mate, what more can I say that I haven’t said before. Without you there every day pushing me along I wouldnt be where I am now
3. My family has been there every step of the way. By my side knowing exactly what to say and when
4. My friends each and every one of you have been able to support me in your own way. I try my hardest to see you all we much as I can but I know that you understand.

Thanks to eveyones kind words of encouragement over the last year.  You all can’t comprehend how much it has meant.

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The trip planning for 2011 is going well. Everything is coming together nicely. All of my flights are booked and the North America stage of my trip (we will call it Phase 1 & 2) are coming together nicely.
Phase 1 being Canada, Phase 2 being USA. For Phase 1 it is predominantly the Contiki Tour. I am staying 2 nights pre and post the tour in Vancouver and then its off onto Phase 2. Brad and I had looked at numerous ways of getting down to San Fran including driving the whole way but the car rental companies just did not like us driving over the border one way.
So instead we are catching the train to Seattle, $35 each got us a business class seat on “The Cascades” over the border to seattle. Good deal if you ask me!

Phase 2 begins on arrival in Seattle and we have a good 4 nights to explore seattle, before picking up our car for 3 days and driving our way south. Gonna following US 101 for most of it (apart from a bit of action on I5). I am leaving the planning of the drive up to Brad so all will be good. We are staying 1 night in Portland and then the 2nd night on the Road in Roseburg Oregon. From there it is 5 nights in San Francisco. 4 in the city and then the last night out at the airport. We did things a little different for that last night and booked on Hotwire which is kinda like the secret stays we dish out at work. I used the guides on “Better Bidding” to help, but still didn’t get the hotel we thought it would be. Not to be worried though, good location, good rate, breakfast, wifi, free shuttle to the airport. Can’t beat that.

That day in San Francisco I bid farewell to Brad as he heads south and I head East. That day as I head east was a day of plane spotter flying getting in something crazy, a backwards facing seat! Can’t wait for that. As I fly onto New York with a quick 1 hour stop in Chicago, I spend the next two nights in New York at the new “Element Times Square West”. By new I mean it only opened a week ago. I got some pretty good rates there to.

Phase 2 finishes up with these 2 nights in New York and I am going to Cram as much as I possibly can into it. A run through central park, walking over the Brooklyn Bridge, A trip on the Staten Island Ferry, another broadway show hopefully, eating at Katz’s Deli, A slice of New York Pizza, another H&H bagel (cause I miss them ever so!) and whatever else I can fit in. I am sure the girls will want me to do some shopping for them so I have a feeling this will be shipping point #1 (thankfully I remember where the Post Office is just around the corner from my hotel).

With leaving the USA Phase 3 & 4 begins, this being Europe. The first part of Europe is a week in France (Phase 3) which is not really organised yet other than booking the following two tours: Neptune Tour & 101st Airborne Tour

This pretty much takes up the whole reason for going to France but I still have a couple of days in Paris to explore. But this is also where things may be interesting (stay tuned). Phase 4 is Berlin & London. Two flash in the pants stops. I looked everywhere for somewhere decent to stay in Berlin and came across the Pullman Berlin for mega cheap. $110 a night! What a bargain for a 5 star hotel! But by this time I will need to do laundry (last spot would have been New York). So was looking around for a hotel with a laundry and just had no luck. So was googling around and came across a place called “Freddy Leck” It seems to be an awesome Laundromat with a full café & bar, free wifi, lounges etc. So you can chill out while you do your laundry (im sold!), and its close to the Pullman!

From there its onto London. This was originally going to be one of my “splurge” cities. My Splurge cities were based on London, New York & Singapore. New York cause it was my birthday (and everything is expensive anyway), London cause it’s a Middle point and then Singapore because it was the last stop before I finish the trip. So after googling around I found an awesome new modern hotel, right new Waterloo station and Westminster Bridge. But I had this awesome idea, so I emailed them for an industry rate. They gave me the most unbelieveable price and I booked it straight away.

London went from a Splurge stay to a bargain stay! So instead I am splurging a little more in a couple of other places to make up for it! With London all done and organised that completes those two phases.

Phases 5 & 6 being the final steps of my holidays. Phase 5 has been the hardest to plan as I am totally in the dark here. I have no experience at all when it comes to Japan. My only time even looking at Japan had been Narita Airport and that’s about it. So I read, and I read. I used Wiki Travel, Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet guide books whatever I could get my hands on. I used ideas from friends and finally came down to the following Itinerary:

21-25Aug – Tokyo – Staying at the Tokyu Stay Ikebukuro (opens in April).
25Aug – Start heading off. Shinkansen to Yokohama for the day to explore than an afternoon Shinkansen to Kyoto.
25-27Aug – Kyoto
27-29Aug – Osaka
29-31Aug – Hiroshima
31Aug – Start heading back to Tokyo and then head out to Narita. Overnight at Narita
01Sep – Fly out of Narita in the Afternoon.

I know you are saying “stay another night in Tokyo” but to be honest, I was upset I missed out on Narita last time because I was sick and it was raining. There is a good temple there and I have dedicated the day to some plane spotting, regardless of weather.

Phase 6 is the final two stages of my holiday. Hong Kong & Singapore. I found a bargain hotel in Kowloon for my Hong Kong stay and then for Singapore I found an awesome hotel with free wifi and free mini bar. But since I have given up the booze, they told me they would put whatever I wished into it. I emailed them to after good luck with the London Industry rates and they threw in a free Upgrade and Breakfast Daily. Win Win!

So that’s where the trip stands at the moment. Pretty much all that is left now is finalising Phase 3.

Stay tuned!