The London Biker

As most of you know I’ve been living in Melbourne out here in Oz for about 14 months now. It’s been a blast – working for a pretty funky company that’s allowed me to explore new ideas and ‘do cool stuff’ as well as discovering a pretty funky country.

Squash with Ken... even though he won the trophy he's still a pretty nice bloke.

Australia has been good to me – it’s helped me lose a not-insignificant amount of weight (4 Stone/26 Kg), it’s helped me discover an active lifestyle I didn’t really understand I had or could even make happen. It’s provided me with friends that I’m going to be exceptionally upset to leave behind…. it’s a culture and a life-style I’m reticent to say good-bye too. Working out of Australia has been a real experience – I’ve never really heard the phrase “drink a can of harden-the-fuck-up’ and get on with it” before – but I have to say I agree with the general principle… Melbourne is the arse-end of beyond as far as the rest of the world goes, but that doesn’t seem to matter when you’re here – only when you’re on a plane trying to get here.

I'm going to miss the ride-outs with Nigel - actually I'm just going to miss Nigel.

I land back in the UK on Thursday (17th) morning – I’ll be in the office from Friday (18th) and back to my old tricks – still working for Lonely Planet – just doing it from a slightly more ‘connected’ city… which should make my life a little easier… oh… and being in the same hemisphere as my wife may also be quite pleasant – scrub that – I can’t wait to get home to Catherine.

I shan’t miss a few things from Oz – the price of books for example, or the sad lack of any technology launched in the rest of the world in the last 12 months, or the customer service (seriously… I didn’t think it could get worse than London). But they’re trifling things and I don’t want to sound like I’m moaning. I am looking forward to being in London again – how well it’s connected to the rest of the world, the feeling that you can actually change the world and the ability to grab absolutely anything you need – ever – by jumping on the bike and finding the right part of town… then haggling for it! I’m also rather looking forward to being so near France and the rest of the continent again… I didn’t think I’d miss the ‘idea’ of being able to dash over the channel…  but there you go.

Here it is then – the final post from Oz, the final goodbye in the office and the final farewell to dear friends… but as the New Zealanders say… “you don’t lose a friend, you simply gain a place to stay in London.”

Well that’s done. Mr Thompson (Director General BBC) and Mr Smith (Chief Executive BBC Worldwide) have left the building. They spent today here at LP Towers out in Footscray. Once I got over the picture of the two of the most influential and powerful people in world media in Footscray it was good to see them getting the latest news on what Lonely Planet is up to, what we’re planning next and how our relationship stands right now.

And relationship is the right word. Over the last couple of years it’s fair to say that both Mark and John have come in for a barrage of complaints and concerns from other media outlets. As Mark described the journey so far – a bit ‘bumpy’. But here’s the bit that made me happy. One of the first things John said, quite passionately, when he stood up in front of the whole company was “Lonely Planet is not for sale”. He emphatically stated he had no thoughts of selling Lonely Planet and that Lonely Planet was incredibly important to BBC WorldWide. That was a great boost to the gathered throng who’ve grown tired of the rumours and rumblings out of the UK that the BBC was being forced to get rid of LP. Then what topped it for us was Mark standing there saying exactly the same thing.

So am I confident about the future of LP? Damn right.

This weekend sees the start of a few small runs out of Melbourne – a little further afield than I’ve managed before – and with any luck they’ll contain as much excitement as the full-on trip would have done.

The big outback trip looks as though it wont happen – news on why at a later date – so I’m attempting to get some combination outback, off-road, on-road runs in over weekends. That essentially means no more than 500km at the most over two days with one night camping.

This is the first of that series of runs and is the famous Ballarat, Bendigo, Melbourne triangle. Bendigo and Ballarat are towns built on the history of Gold – and both are responsible for the early wealth of Melbourne. I’m expecting great sweeping vistas across the goldfields and majestic and dirty off-road sections that will challenge the road tyres on the XT660

Blogs posts and photos of course as and when I’m on the road this weekend – but no video as the camera is still in the UK.

Any suggestions or detours on this route? Anywhere I simply can’t miss? Stretch of road that will make me cry? Please do help…….

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I’d almost feel sorry for Starbucks if it wasn’t for the fact that whilst they certainly do produce a vast amount of mediocre coffee they are a massive pain in the butt that has driven the quality of coffee in London to the floor and beyond…. here in Melbourne the vast selection of independent coffee shops results in some of the best java in the world… I’m not saying that Costa are any better, they’re just smaller, and yes I do prefer their coffee, and their stores and frankly – their brand.

So why is Starbucks making this complaint a PR disaster? If upheld it’ll show that the big SB has something to worry about – to be specific it shows that whilst they’re niggling over the small print of an advertising campaign they seem to have forgotten about the customer. Fight back, take Costa, improve your coffee, change your stores put a little of the zest that you seem to have in buckets with your off-brand stores and run your own survey. Simples.