John Gatt's Blog

Moving on the 19th of Jan! Its farming time!

2011-12-27T23:44:00.001+11:00

So our house is sold all the bank documents are finalized and we move on the 18/19th of January 2012. Our new home in Elphingstone is about 2 hours from here so its a big move! we have 140 boxes to pack in 3 weeks... lot of fun!

Teneniel will be going to a school with 39 kids in it she got to spend a day there and loved it! the older 2 will be going to Castelmain High. now for the photos!

What a life..

2011-11-29T22:47:00.001+11:00

Working my ass on the new gaming site www.swtorface.com and starting on a book tomorrow (about this MMO game) on top of that we still have out house for sale and the rush to clean up all the time is driving me nuts!

For the last 3 weeks I have worked 7 days a week and about 13 to 14 hours a day I know it will pay off but damn!

This is one of my Jedi's from this game trying to make him look a bit like me! :P

Crazy day John Gatt is number 1!

2011-11-05T07:27:00.000+11:00

Up at 6am to check on SWTOR news... then clean house for an inspection at 11:30 then off to an engagement at 1 for about 1.5 hours and then a wedding at 3pm... CRAP! All that and I did a Nike workout yesterday and every part of my body is killing!! Lol!

I need to give a shout out to my Dad (John Gatt) Sorry dad check Google I'm number 1 again.. :P

Blaaa odd day for John Gatt

2011-09-19T20:16:00.003+10:00

Selling our Home is a pain, having to pack up the kids and pets up and re clean stuff that I think is clean takes it out of you! I just felt so blaaa today... I will be glad when we can move into our new home!

John Gatt out...

Sold! We got Elphinstone!

2011-08-27T18:15:00.001+10:00

A recap of the photos!

Main room looking at the Kitchen

Yard next to the house

Yard front left (looking at the house)

Gates from inside the property

Front right side (looking at the house)

Carport can fit up to 3 cars

Inside the barn need finishing off

At the back looking at the barn

Looking out to the back

The barn is about 1.5 years old and was never finished inside.

Neighbors not to close but its a Vineyard so I might need to get to know them :P

I just love this tree its soo big!!!

Fiona in the main room next to the fire place

In the kitchen looking at the main room

A better look at the Kitchen

Master bedroom lots of Pink!

2 kids room at the back of the home

Lots of wardrobe space for the girls about 3 times what they have now!

Another view of the main room

The Bar !

The side of the home

More photos coming soon! see it on Google earth here

Weekend looking at new homes...

2011-08-22T11:07:00.001+10:00

Ok so we are making the move, Fiona and I want a new life style we want a nice home and some land some ware around Castlemaine this was the first round:

The first home is like a Barn House its nice and the location is also nice but the home is too small we would need an extra 50k to extend and put a bathroom up stars in the master bedroom. see more here

the 2nd home is real nice its mud brick and stone its on 10 Acres but has solar power we would need to add mains power and would need to build a new kitchen and the one in there was real small and has a wood fire oven.... just a little old for us! again 50K + might make it work for us... see it here

The 3rd house Elphinstone I liked and it ticked a lot of boxes and no the pink paint needs to go!

A big living aria.

A nice country setting.

Yellow gates you can not miss Ok I will have to paint too!

A front yard for a lama Mara wants one named Johno??

Carport will fit 2/3 cars

the inside on the new barn needs to be finished but its big!!

I like the Smallville look of the barn might need a big S on the side...

Real nice views!

Fire place in the main room and lots of cooling heating.

This view is from the kitchen to give you an idea of the size of the main room

and the kitchen is big and modern! lots of room for me to cook!

2 room nice size rooms for the kids and 1 smaller one Judzea and Ten might share one and Judzea might have the other room as a study/reading room as its 1/2 the size.

More pink in the master bedroom lots of paint needed!

So lots of good and you can see more here when you look at it on the map you will see its close to the freeway that's good as it makes it only 1 hour from Melbourne the freeway is a 110km zone but you can hear it from the propriety but not from inside the house. it annoyed Fiona a lot... So we are going back to see it the sound is a deal breaker. For me its just a low hum and it was a real still day so we are going back to have a look .. this is the map:

View Larger Map

Just loopy

2011-08-19T08:05:00.002+10:00

I have to take pain killers for my back as I have Ankylosing spondylitis and last night I stuffed up and took them twice... My God 9 hours later and I'm still high as a kite! Dumb Ass John Gatt!

Sunday lunch

2011-08-14T11:44:00.001+10:00

What to eat for lunch, ok yes I'm just testing a post from my phone ;)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Drake Ct,Carrum Downs,Australia

I love my Jeep

2011-08-14T09:04:00.000+10:00

MMMM Sunday drive in my Jeep "Roxann"

Other stuff I do!

2011-08-13T16:44:00.000+10:00

The tabs you see that the top are my PC gaming blogs Gamingfaces is about all games and swtor.com is just about star wars the old republic the new MMO coming out later this year.

Interview I did with Bruce Dell

2011-08-13T08:40:00.003+10:00

[H]ard|OCP posted this full feature video, behind the scenes interview I did with Bruce Dell, the founder and CEO of Euclideon and the original creator Unlimited Detail technology.

I interview's Bruce Dell for a full look into the past, present and future of Euclideon and the Unlimited Detail technology.

The small company of only 9 people in Brisbane Australia, were in the news again in early August 2011 after having released a demo video to give their fans a one year update. This video received almost 2 million hits in the first 4 days.

Euclideon are a very secretive bunch who normally decline interviews, but the public outcry for them to respond to their critics has been so great that they kindly agreed to this exclusive interview, letting [H]ard|OCP in before, the say, they must get back to work and disappear again until they have a final product.

Please head over to [H]ard|OCP for all the info.

John Gatt dot com

2011-08-13T08:38:00.000+10:00

What the hell why not? you know owning your own name is important in today's age so i just got JohnGatt.com It might even get me to blog more! Oww Nooooo!

On my bike

2009-10-07T15:25:00.000+11:00

This time around I'm trying to do 10000steps a day to get my quota I'm riding my bike over the winter my back has givin me hell but nor it's getting wormer I'm going to make the most of it for starters I go to loose the 5kg I ganed over winter and I hope to lose slot more get my old body back!

-- Post From My iPhone

A change of pace.

2009-04-07T10:55:00.003+10:00

To break it up a bit I’ve started doing a bit of mountain bike riding I found a place that is a blast to ride and give’s me a great workout.

It’s a research nature park run by parks Victoria there is all sorts of tracks and environments to ride in and the place is massive.
I got lost in there the first time (thank god for my iPhone GPS) I keep finding new parts and new tracks,
some look like no one has been there in a long time! The Sand tracks are a real work out and a down hill Sand track gave me a nice face plant in the sand followed by a fit of laughter.

On Sunday it rained like mad but I went back there and I was glad I did the rain changed the face of the tracks the sand was hard and easer to ride on but I got very wet and covered in mud it was a BLAST!

a long road home

2009-03-25T10:27:00.026+11:00

I had hoped to get a blog online in Daylesford as we had a full afternoon there but when I switched on my HP Mini-note, it was dead! Not even a BIOS screen, just nothing. It was getting a cosey ride in the support van, so it was not getting shaken around. So there I was with no Internet, apart from my iPhone, and none of my other entertainment to help me lay back and rest up for the last big day ...

The morning started out with a ride back out of

Daylesford. We had to climb a 150m rise out of town over about 10km. At about 8km out of town things got interesting when I got my 2nd flat for the trip, this time the back tyre. Man, I knew I should have got the punture gaurd inserts for my tyres! The punctures were from a thorn called bindy which is from a weed called cowtrot. It's found where ever you find cows, or it

might just be a farm land thing.

After getting the wheel fixed we headed to the next town to catch up with the others where we downed a Vegemite and cheese scroll (or 2 or 3). Having a hill ride at the start of the run was a killer. My legs were burning at the first stop and we had over 100km to go!

Once my legs warmed right up and the sweets and rolls I ate at the last stop kicked in, I was able to put my head down and bum up for the long ride to Geelong where I would be ending my ride. This was the last stretch. Knowing I would be seeing my wife and kids soon was a great feeling, that, the sugur and my Dad's riding chant of YoHoHoHo coming up from behind got my legs pumping. It was sit back and listen to that chant for the next 4 to 5 hours or pump it up and get a peacefull ride through the contryside with soft music from my iPod ... so I picked up the pace to about 35km/h and as fast as 58km/h on the down hill parts.

Oh look, he's sleeping!

The roos in this part seemed to pick the oddest places to take a nap! I had to hit the brakes for this guy as he was sleeping right across the bike lane and there was a truck coming up from behind hitting his horn, letting me know he was not moving. After passing some more sleeping roos I hit a steep S bend, going down it at 50km/h with trucks going past me, not caring that I was forced off the road into 2 foot of gravel on the edge of the cliff as they overtook me. It was the hairiest thing I have had to go through in my life.

We stoped in a small town called Anakie for a snack before the last leg of our ride. With about 30km to go before we'd hit the edge of Geelong, we decided to stick to a group and all put up with my Dad's chanting ... YoHoHoHo. But lucky for us, he got a burst of energy and in MaryPoppins style, overtook us all to lead us into town.

Then, before we knew it, there it was: the Bay and the city of Geelong. Geelong is the second largest city in the state of Victoria (Australia) and is the largest regional centre in the State, so the ride was not over. We still had to get to the hotel where the Rotarians who where staying on for

the confrence were going to stay. We made real good time and got to the Aberdeen Moter Inn at 3:40pm, with Poppins getting a flat tyre just as we arrived!

This was the end of the ride for me. We had zig zaged across the country from Shepparton, all the way to Geelong, avoiding all the major highways for safety and a for a more peacefull ride and so we could take detours off our path for a nice meal and place to sleep. Some parts were harder than I expected and little things like the music I had on my iPod got me through it.

I will not stop here, I will keep riding. It is changing my life for the better! This ride has given me a new confidence in myself and helped a good cause at the same time. Thanks to the riders that were a part of this.

Graham Brown (the Druid) (got a question about a Tree?)

(Princess)Leah Ross ( If you thought Princess Leia was tough in Star Wars, wait till you ride with this lady!)

(Flash) Gordon Ross (no hope in hell of catching him!)

(Sniffels) Eileen Gatt (got my hankie, lets go!)

(Marry Poppins) John Gatt Snr (he may look odd on the bike but he keeps going!)

Laurie McGoldrick (Silent Steady Eddi) you won't hear alot from him but he's always there!)

And a big thank you to Margaret Brown, our support van driver. Thank you for being there at every stop to feed us and keep us going. Without you this ride would not have been possible.

chilli on my willy

2009-03-23T15:18:00.002+11:00

So the start of day 3 was signalled by the sound of rain. We were at 500m above sea level and we had a cool change over night.

We all had to put on our wet weather gear and get ready for a lot cooler ride up to Daylesford. That sits at about 700m above sea level.
I thought I'd be smart and put some Tiger balm on my legs to help with the pain. I rubbed it in and it warmed up my legs fast, then in a rush without thinking, I went for a leak before we headed off ...wooow that woke me up!!! Whenever using Tiger balm or deep heat, wash your hands real good!!!

We got to Daylesford in good time. Day 3 is meant to be the toughest and it was hard but the cold made it less painfull than other days.

-- Post From My iPhone

killer day two

2009-03-22T13:45:00.006+11:00

We got into Heathcote at about 4pm last night. It was a gruelling 112km ride or the killer was actually the heat. It was about 34c out and which make it 43+c on the road. I could feel the heat raidating off the road. My feet were hot!

But we got there and I was able to relax with a cold beer and a good pub meal. Over dinner, we went over our next ride. The first day had been 112km of flat riding in the heat. The next ride was about 60km up hill! We all had an early night cause riding in that kind of heat realy takes it out of you.

The ride today started off ok but we got straight into the hills. The heat was still with us and OMG did I feel it! My rear end was killing me and so was the rash I was getting on my inner thigh from the waxing I had done last weekend ... and as soon as we hit the big hills I found a new world of pain in the form of a leg cramp. It was ok in high gear as I got to put the right preasure on it but when we got to the spinning on the steep slopes, it would cramp up for a world of hurt. Getting off the bike and taking 3 steps would fix it, then I would hop back on and keep going ... till it cramped again ...

We stopped and put some cream on my leg to help with the cramp, refilled our drinks and some of the group went into a little Sunday market and got a hot dog that would come back to haunt them on the next hill. I avoided the greasy sausage in bread as I knew my stomach would not handle it with what I was about to do ...

We hit hills out of there at a 7% climb. It was slow going all the way up till we got to this nice little bridge and got a break, only to be short lived by the arrival of the next hill!

Then, it happened ... I felt the front tyre going flat. I had picked up a punture when we stopped at the bridge ... I hope you like the photo. We tried to pump it up twice but it was no use. It was going down too fast, so we changed the tube but didn't get it quite right. I had a lump in my front wheel. It did get me the next 25 km but I had to put up with bumping all the way. It was driving me crazy. We got to Kyneton and had a nice meal then checked into out rooms which were a lot nicer the the hot cabbins with no 3G reception we had last night. I had a nice cool shower then fixed the wheel and the puncture in the other tube before starting this blog.

I keep thinking I must be mad for doing this. The pain I went through with the waxing was nothing compared to the type of pain this fat geek has gone through on this ride so far ...

lunch on day one

2009-03-21T11:54:00.002+11:00

Well, we have the first 47km done. It was an easy ride but it's warming up. The last member of our team has joined us for our lunch stop in Rushworth. Sangers are on the menu for lunch. It's great to see I have excellent 3G out here.

-- Post From My iPhone

morning hydrate

2009-03-21T06:40:00.003+11:00

So, it's 6:30 am and I've just started drinking! Us Aussies are big drinkers but this morning I'm on the hard stuff: water. It's going to be a hot day so I want to get about 1 litre in me befoure I start the 100km ride. We all crashed early last night and I woke to find my father trying to turn on my mini-note so he could check his eBay at 5am ... his eyes lit up when he found I had a laptop with 3G. He commented to his wife that he needed to get her one ...

on the road ... or should i say track ...

2009-03-20T14:31:00.002+11:00

Well, I'm on my way to Sheperton, sitting on the train, reading the latest Bicycling mag.
It's a 3 hour train ride to where we start. We will be heading out on the ride at 9am tomorrow.

I have lots of entertanment with me: my iPhone, my iPod Nano and my up HP 2133 Mini-note but yet blogging here is the most exciting thing I could think of doing. I'd be lucky to get 1 hour out of the Mini- note but I might give it a go as there is not lot to look at ...

-- Post From My iPhone

testing the 3g

2009-03-19T13:59:00.003+11:00

Just checking all is working with my 3G USB card from Bigpond. It's not as fast as my ADSL2 but it's working and I can post. Here we see me with my Dad (John snr) and his Mrs, Eileen heading out on a 60km ride last Monday. Looks like I need to get some sunscreen on my head as I got an odd pattern of sunburn on my scalp from where the holes in the helmet are ... LOL, it kinda looks cool!

packing my bags

2009-03-19T13:26:00.003+11:00

So I head off tomorrow and I'm frantically getting all my kit together. I will be doing some of my blogs on my iPhone but in the evenings when I have time to relax, I really don't want to be using my thumbs to type.

I am lucky enough to have access to an HP 2133 Mini-note which I will be taking with me, with a 3G wireless card that will allow me to do more in-depth blogs and post photos from my camera. The HP 2133 is a small laptop with a 7 inch screen. It was one of the first true netbooks that are now dominating the market. Not only will I be able to blog but I've also ripped quite a few DVDs to watch in the evenings when I am relaxing after my ride. It's not the fastest notebook in the world and it's not anywhere near the speed of my MSI Core 2 desktop replacement notebook but for this type of trip it's perfect. It fits right into my pannier (the bag that custom fits onto the rack on the back of my bike).

I've been using this notebook around the house to check email every now and then. It's had some major battery charging problems. You literally have to shut down the notebook to get it to charge. But after a complete update of all the drivers and also upgrading to Service Pack 1 for Vista, the performance has more than doubled and it's also now able to take a full charge, whilst running, in less than an hour. The biggest problem with Windows Vista, which this notebook is running, is that it takes quite some time to organize the hard drive. This notebook has never had the opportunity to stay on for any serious amount of time because my wife who had been using it is pedantic about power saving and shutting things down. By leaving it run for a few days, Vista was able to organize the hard drive and get all the essential stuff it needs to do after a fresh install done. It was trying to do this whilst being used in the past, therefore hindering its performance and battery charging abilities. The hard drive was going nuts the entire time. I've seen this happen quite often with Windows Vista. You really need to give a new Vista PC about a week to run and get its crap together. Once that's out of the way, the system should run fairly smoothly. And with the HP 2133, it's running a lot better than it was a few days ago.

earthquake?

2009-03-18T16:30:00.002+11:00

I’m sitting here setting up my HP 2133 mini-note laptop for my ride and we just got hit by another earthquake... What the? That's the 2nd in 3 weeks. We are not meant to have earthquakes in Melbourne Australia!!

and the waxing video is online!

2009-03-18T15:43:00.001+11:00

Here we have it.. want to see me in pain?

re-edit ...

2009-03-18T08:53:00.002+11:00

Had some problems with the green screen on the waxing video, so I had to re edit it I had over an hour of me screeming in pain to edit down to a 5 min video.. Hope to have it up later today.

-- Post From My iPhone

the head shave

2009-03-17T13:02:00.001+11:00

Shaving my head n waxing my legs!

2009-03-15T13:44:00.000+11:00

Owe: My God what have I gotten my self into!

As if things were not bad enough! I ride out in less than 6 days and I do have butterflies, but today I have a lady coming around to shave my head for her donation! SHAVE MY HEAD! I am thinning a little but I love my hair! But shaving my head is not the bad part! I have another lady coming over to WAX MY LEGS!! I have a lot of hair on my legs. I don’t like pain! My heart is in my throat thinking about it! I think I might need a stiff drink, or six!

And yes, I will post photos and a video for all you sadists who want to watch me in pain. I just hope it gets some of you clicking on the donate button!

Ride vlog

2009-03-11T00:03:00.000+11:00

Hit the HD Button for better quality.

Hard to easy

2009-03-09T13:23:00.001+11:00

Three weeks ago when I first said I'd do this ride I started by riding 10-12 km per ride. The first time I rode to Frankston. I rang my wife to brag how good I was ... I then needed a two day break. It's a three day weekend here in Victoria and this is my third ride in as many days. Saturday I rode sixty km, yesterday I did twenty five, today I'm doing thirty. Yes, my legs hurt but it's a good hurt ...

-- Post From My iPhone

Riding the cost

2009-03-07T12:50:00.001+11:00

Mordialloc pier
One of the best thinds about this training is the rides I get to do right from my door today I'm riding into the city and I'm doing it along the cost.

There is nothing like taking a break at a pier siting down for a drink listing to the waves and the birds.

-- Post From My iPhone

Posting from my iPhone

2009-02-25T13:36:00.001+11:00

Working out tools I can use on the road when I'm riding I thought I would give this bloging tool a go. It's easy to set up and use and cost me $2. Not too bad at all let's test a photo!

Well that's easy! This is a pic of my trip computer from my ride on the weekend this was taken at my 1/2 way mark I ended up riding about 95km and I lived !

-- Post From My iPhone

Playing around with bloging tools..

2009-02-25T11:36:00.001+11:00

I’ve been bloging for some time now on www.tkArena.com and on www.viaarena.com and I’m looking for a easy to use place to just talk with out anyone telling me what I can and cannot post.. this will be my place I hope just to talk about what I am doing with work life in games … what ever..

Ride blog 2

2009-02-25T11:17:00.000+11:00

Full info about John’s End Polio Now Ride here

Ride Blog 2

I will never forget the sunscreen again! I went out on the weekend for a big ride to a beach town named Mornington and got some nice sun burn!. The round trip was 54.2 km. When I started it was a little overcast but it turned out to be a warm day of about 28c …

View Larger Map

After I got back I played around with maps. I found out my whole bike track is available in 360 view photos. So here’s a link so you can all see where I rode.

Click on the map After it loads up, all you need to do is click on a camera icon over on the left. Each icon represents where I made a turn. Or you can drag the little yellow guy in the top left of the map area to any point on the map for a full 360 view. Once the photos load above the map area you can then click and drag around to change the angle of your view.

You can see all the trees, homes, cars, but not many people. And yes, I checked the nudist beach at the end of Sunny Side Road on the map but there were no surprises there! J

What I have started to do is to map my photos to not only show what I see on my rides but where I see them! Panoramio is the photo tool for Google maps/earth. It’s an easy tool to use and will bring a whole new life to your photos.

So as I rode along on Saturday, for example, I took photos at various spots using my iPhone. After I got back I then uploaded them to Panoramio and then added them into the spot on the map where I took them. Before they get loaded into Google Earth or maps they need to be approved by Google. Otherwise someone could take photos at Sunny Side nudist beach and put them on Google maps! So my photos are not there yet but you can access them directly through my links below.

The state I live in has been ravaged by fires over the last few weeks as you may have heard in the news. Hundreds of lives were lost and thousands of homes, not to mention hundreds of thousands of hectares of bushland. Before the big fire started we has a small one that wiped out a park I like to ride through. You can see what it was like in the Google map and what it’s like now from my photo:

Getting from where I live to my goal (Mornington) I had to go up Oliver’s Hill. It is the first major rise in terrain along the eastern coastline of Port Phillip Bay. It was named after local Frankston fisherman, James Oliver, who built the first cottage atop the hill, in the mid-1800s, from where he kept watch for fish in the waters below.

This isn’t really a very good photo of the hill. After that bend it goes up, up, up:

It was going up that hill where I found the limitations of my new bike.

I got this bike for riding around the trails near home. Most are paved but some are off rode, so it was the right bike at the time. But this thing is horrid on hills and to get to Mornington I had to get through Mt Eiliza. So although it was a nice ride, watching people on road bikes scream past me with ease, as I was busting my guts and sweeting my ass off trying to get up the hills, was very disheartening.

This is where Apple saves the day … kinda. Cranking the music up on my iPod Nano gave me a new thing to focus on and got me through to Mornington.

I road down to a popular fishing spot on the cost named Snapper Point (named after a type of fish you can catch there: Snapper ) I reached my goal … Mornington pier:

Then it was just a matter of turning around and doing the same trip in reverse.

Along the way home I stopped in a local bike shop, Joan’s Cycles, on Frankston-Dandenong Rd,

to check out their range of road bikes. Later that night I ended up ordering a road bike:

So although the mountain bike is great for keeping fit and exercising and even dirt terrain riding, when you have a goal of distance, a specialized road bike will handle it much better. The weight is about a quarter that of my mountain bike. So all in all a good weekend. Now, off to put more moisturiser on the sun burnt calves ...

Ride fat boy ride

2009-02-25T11:05:00.000+11:00

Ride Blog 1

So, my New Year’s resolution this year was to get my ass fit. For the last five years, I’ve done little to no exercise on a regular basis. That combined with working on my ass all day and playing MMO games at night has led to a very unhealthy existence. And on top of all that, I’ve had to

deal with a spin disorder called Ankylosing Spondylitis, just to ensure that if I do try and move too quick, or get up early and exercise; I get pain as a reward!

My father recently approached me with something which was enough to get me motivated. He told me about a ride him and his new wife are doing to raise money and awareness for the Polio Plus foundation. Our good buddie Mr Bill Gates, who

keeps me on my ass solving compatibility issues with his brilliant operating systems, decided to set Rotary International up with a challenge. Gates has donated US$125 million to the project and will donate an additional US$100 million if Rotary raises US$100 million as well.

Polio was a disease that crippled whole populations during the 1950’s and 1960’s. In most countries, it has effectively been wiped out with an oral vaccine but there’s still work to be done in countries like India. The number of reported cases is dropping each year but with more funding, polio can be completely annihilated.

Polio is an acute viral infection which attacks the nerves and muscles, disfiguring limbs and spines, and crippling those inflicted. I might complain about my back condition, but that’s nothing compared to polio.

Over the last couple of years I have got to spend some time in India. Seeing first hand what this disease can do was enough to make me realize that I could do more with my privileged life and also help these people at the same time. The only catch is, I have to ride 500 kilometres (270 miles) to raise the money! That’s not riding on a motorbike, that’s an old-school push bike and it’s not going to be down hill on a flat surface either. The track over cross country involves several days of hill riding.

Me starting training. Don't laugh too hard at the bike shorts!

The journey will start on Saturday 21 March in Shepparton (Victoria, Australia). We then ride for 108 km (67.11 miles) to Heathcote. Day two we head to Kyneton which is 58 km (31.31 miles). Then about the same on the third day where we’ll stay overnight at Ballan. The fourth day steps up the pace with 73 km (45 miles) to Geelong. And finally on the fifth day it’s a whopping 98 km (60 miles) along the Bellarine Peninsula. Oh … what have I signed up for?!!!

Let me get something straight: I am not an expert bike rider, or at least I have’t been for at least ten years. Riding 20-30 km is not an easy task for me. So this is not going to be a walk in the park what so ever! It’s going to take a lot of preparation over the next six weeks.

Doing this type of thing for myself has never been enough motivation. Now that I’m doing it for the Polio Plus foundation, and to help Rotary get that extra 100 million out of Mr Gates, I’ve got the determination and drive to do this. But obviously the main point of this ride is to raise money. This is where I am hoping our readers and the tech community can help out.

What I intend on doing on the ride is to track our daily events and blog about the adventure. I’ll also blog about my preparation for the ride and all the gadgets I will be taking with me.

Keep up with my ride here at http://johngatt.blogspot.com/