Welcome to the personal blog of Ganesh and Lauren! Feel free to visit the contact section and drop us a line. Thanks for visiting and enjoy your time here.

2010 Resolutions!

Thursday, 31 December 2009

You could almost say 2009 for me was exactly like the picture to the left. I spent most of the year plastering the walls, whiteboards, blackboards, refrigerators, iphone, gmail and my desktop with to do lists... hundreds and hundreds of to do lists. The things that were most likely to be done were the things I really cared about that were broken down into manageable chunks... so this year I'm only going to do things I really care about. Me! Not general societal expectations... Not things I think I should do... Not things other people want me to do... Not things I think I should do for other people... Only things I care about. I spent too much time this year on other people and my projects have lapsed as a result! 2010 is the year to finish everything I start and love every minute of it!

• Write a Nepalese Cook Book: My hypothesis is that Nepalese cooking is healthier, cheaper and more satisfying than traditional western cooking. I'm setting out to eat and cook nothing but Nepalese food for the month of January, writing a cook book we can use at home in the process, saving money and reducing my waisteline (that's the theory anyway).
• Have a 'Do something different' month: I feel like I'm stuck in a rut at the moment, repeating the same activities over and over again. I would like to dedicate February to doing something different/unusual everyday - something I wouldn't normally do. Something small, as I obviously have to work, but something new/unusual/inspiring/fun!
• Play more sport: I'm keen to join taekwondo officially this year. I have the money. I want to play sport. I want to be able to defend myself and I want to be more involved in the local community. I think this will be a great way to meet new people as well and hopefully recruit more like-minded individuals for the Sustainable Streetscaping Project. I should be braver and ride the bike to work more often. Or at least once or twice a week. 60km or so isn't that bad and it definitely gets the heart pumping! I'll also be joining dancing classes at monash uni in march when the union reopens. It's cheap, it's fun and it's a great way to break up the work day!
• Creative Recycling (T2T): I'm continuing this resolution on from last year. I really want to make a go of this. The time is right. The idea is fun and good. And I'm so so close! Aiming for 1000 sales at least by the end of 2010.
• Learning: I still want to learn Nepali. I need to devise a better way to teach myself though! I'm also loving the iPhone as a learning tool. By playing the guess the flag game I've almost taught myself all the flags of every country in the world. I'd like to work on world capitals and geography next. Then learn more history and philosophy through iTunes U (an amazing open university concept I'm completely taken with!).
• House & Garden: I'd like to implement my ultimate garden design and put the finishing touches on the interior decor of the house. It's so refreshing walking into a house that inspires!
• Be better at my job: I was a bit slack in 2009. A lot was going on personally and I think I let the team down at the Synch. I'd like to make a proper go of it this year and take a lot more initiative at work.
• 43 things: Achieve another item on my 43 things list!

If anyone has some unique resolutions or good tips on how to keep them let me know!!

Labels: happy new year, new years resolutions

posted by genloz at 3:31 PM 1 Comments

2009 recap

Wow.. the end of another year. It always creeps up so quickly on you! December has just flown by with Christmas preparation, the trip through the Nullarbor, extreme distress over Copenhagen and the lack of climate action, last minute catch ups with people we haven't seen in a while and projects! Yes, we have finally finished the four poster bed. After sleeping on a mattress on the ground for an entire year we have built a bed out of reclaimed and renewable timbers. I've always wanted a four poster bed so I'm living out my romantic princess fantasies atm. Thanks must go to G for his patience with the router. I was much more likely to take the quick route and chisel things out but his routering has given the bed a really smooth and professional finish.

I should also add here that we had a lovely Christmas... simple and fun with family and friends. And this year I extended the invitation to a number of people who were going to be by themselves this year... overall a Christmas how it should be.

Now for the part I've been dreading... How did I go on this years resolutions??? Let's take a look:

• Get Healthy: Okay, well it wasn't 10kg, apparently I like chocolate too much for that, but I did lose 3kg this year. I've also given up some of my bad habits like baking cakes and treats every weekend but there's a lot more work to go on the exercise front in 2010...
• Carbon Footprint: This is a tough one. If I exclude the trip to China/Japan (which I offset) I've done very well... including that trip it's been a disaster!
• Style: I have made an effort this year. I've introduced hats and accessories to my outfits and made some real progress with choosing clothing and putting outfits together. I still slip up occasionally though - like today! But I'm happy with how this went this year. I think I'm ready now for an end of year cupboard clean out.
• Creative Recycling: Another lapsed one I'm afraid. Too much other web dev work has meant this has fallen behind. On a positive note though the coding of the site should be ready by January 10th 2010 so we can start filling it up with data!! :-)
• Voluntary Work: I did join the SES this year, though it's been a long intake process with the forms only just recently being filled out. I've also made contact with the council and organised to run some free courses through the Olympic Adult Education center next year so I've been preparing for that as well... And of course trying ot acquire funding for the Sustainable Streetscapes project!
• Learning: On books this year I've been very good. I started borrowing from the Ivanhoe library and have almost finished reading all of the top 100 books as voted by the British. I also undertook a conversation class with the CAE and attended some bollywood dance lessons (before they closed down!). Not much progress with the Nepali - I need to convince G to help me with my podcast - learn nepali through song :-) And I have scoped out some dancing classes I can afford at Monash starting in March next year - yipee!! One good thing about the location of the synchrotron is that you get access to all of Monash services :-)
• 43 Things: I did achieve my life long dream of going to see a solar eclipse this year!! Woo hoo!!
• Focused Blog Posts: You be the judge!
• Make 2 new friends: Hmm... well I'd have to say I've made 1 good friend this year - definitely something to work towards next year as well :-)...
• Mini adventures: It wasn't quite 1 per month... 7 in total, plus a very long (and expensive!) trip to China and Japan is pretty good though. In backwards order 7. Drove through the Nullarbor 6. Participated in an Adventure Series Race 5. Rode around the Bay in a Day 4. Skiied in a blizzard at Buller 3. Bike rode the artists trail in Heidelberg 2. Went horse riding through vineyards down the Mornington Peninsula 1. Lived the life of an 1850s Gold Mining couple at Sovereign Hill
• Be less sensitive: I think I am actually... at least I project it on to other people less!

I'm looking forward to another exciting year ahead!! I hope you all had a productive, happy and healthy 2009 and I wish you all the best for 2010!!

Edit: I should note that there has been some fantastic progress with household projects this year. I'm almost at the stage where the interior decor is perfect and I've sketched out plans for the ultimate garden which we're currently working towards. One of the great things I learnt this year was vision posters. I put them up in relevant areas and am continually inspired to improve the house :-)

Labels: 2009, new years resolutions, summary

posted by genloz at 1:10 PM 0 Comments

Mini-Adventure 7 Recap: Perth to Melbourne

Monday, 14 December 2009

No set of mini-adventures would be complete without a trip to the desert... Or the nearest limestone plain as the case may be. Xin, Ganesh and I set off on the epic once in a lifetime journey across the Nullarbor from Perth to Melbourne by car - 3456km of mostly desert on Friday the 11th of December 2009... It was a slow start, getting used to the manual camper van and trying not to rip out the gear box by moving from 1st to 4th gear but once we made it out of the city and on to the highway it was smooth sailing.

Checkout our journey below!

Labels: melbourne, mini-adventure, nullarbor, perth

posted by genloz at 6:06 PM 0 Comments