A long time between posts

Yep, that's me in lycra holding up my bike at the end of the 200km ride

Life has been very busy and I've allocated very little time to blogging. The way the end of year is shaping up, it looks like it will be a while again before my next post. I did, however, want to update you with the result of My 2013 Challenge. If you followed the link, you'll see that I was a member of Team Blue Magic. Our goal was for each rider from our team to reach the fundraising target of $2,500.00 each in order to participate in the 200km cycle. I can't tell you how proud I am to say that not only did we reach - and exceed our target - we all rode AND all completed the ride! Camping overnight, using port-a-loos and port-a-showers for the first time was a claustrophobic and eye-opening experience I don't want to repeat again in a hurry, but the weekend was amazing!! Team Blue Magic are the Best Team Ever!! Even more amazing was that our little team of 8 riders raised over $32,000 for The Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in Sydney.  I'm so very proud to have been part of that team and if you happen to be one of the many people who donated, then I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

So, for now, this blog will remain in hiatus until the merry-go-round that is life slows down so I can catch my breath and start up blogging again. I'll still be around the net, commenting, posting images, tweeting... Blogging will simply take a backseat. Ta ta for now. x

iPhoneography Book from Blurb

Late last year I put together a collection of some of my favourite iPhone images in a book over at Blurb. There was a promotion at the time, so I chose images that made me smile and reminded me of the place or occasion, and using Blurb's template, hey presto! a mini book was created. I ordered said mini book and was chuffed with the quality and the rendition of my images. Yeh!

Here's a selection for you to look at:

The skies are just so big in the country, making the landscape so small.

I love taking friends from afar here and see the looks on their faces when they first spot this gorgeous view

Although I managed to get lost on this circuit trail (!), it didn't bother me with a view like this to distract me

I will always look at this view and think fondly of you ~ how we all miss you ♥

Here's the Deal:

Head over to Blurb and take a look at the book, you can preview about 15 of the 60 pages. If you like the sample enough, click on add to cart. And this is where you'll be helping me out. My earnings from each book is set to $5.00 and I'm going to pledge each $5.00 earned from each book sold to my Ride to Conquer Cancer that is happening later this year.

Who is this book perfect for?

* Those in a hurry to get through a book and say, "Yeh, I finished a book in a day". (There are NO words in the book! That's a bonus right there!)
* Those who are into iPhoneography and dig the faux-retro feel you can apply to images using the various apps rendering the world an arty-farty wonderous place.
* Those who hate iPhoneography and belong to "I Hate iPhoneography" clubs. They could take my book along to one of their meetings and make it a point of discussion.
* Those that live in Australia and love this wide brown land of ours and can't get enough of seeing images from all it's parts.
* Those that can't wait to save their pennies and visit this wide brown land of ours - this book contains a teeny little fraction of what they can expect to see when they visit.
* Those creative writers who look for inspiration in images - there's plenty of white space around the images for you to jot some notes down for your next plot.
* Those who love online shopping and getting parcels delivered to their door while wearing pj's and slippers. They could buy it for themselves, or even a loved one (notice the ♥ shaped tree on the front cover!!)How perfect would this be as a gift!
* Those that are starting out in photography and want to use their iPhone as a practice tool - this book may help them to see the world around them with new eyes.
* Those who have had a family member or friend affected by cancer and who don't mind forking out about A$26.95 of which $5.00 goes to Ride to Conquer Cancer. The book can be a sort of super fancy receipt of their donation.
* Those that have been lucky enough not to have any friends or family affected by cancer and see the A$26.95 (with the $5.00 going to Ride to Conquer Cancer) as a testament to their lucky break they have been spared the anguish, stress and world-will-never-be-the-same-again feeling that comes with a cancer diagnosis.
* Those that are just plain nice and aren't necessarily into iPhoneography, but have a spare A$26.95 of which $5.00 goes to Ride to Conquer Cancer, and don't mind helping out a gal with her goal, whilst helping others along the way.

If I've left any other types of people who you think would love to buy this book, then drop me a line and I'll add them to the list.

 What's that? What else can you do? Well, I'd love it if you shared, tweeted, facebooked, google+, tumblered, stumbled, and basically shared the shit out of this post! I would love to be able to write a future post letting you know just how many $5.00 donations were transferred from the Blurb account to the Ride to Conquer Cancer fund.

Ride to Conquer Cancer 2013

A few weeks ago I sent an email out to all the friends and contacts in my address book. I wanted to let them know that although I hadn't completely lost my mind, I was going to be undertaking a ridiculously difficult challenge in 2013. Much to my amusement, several friends contacted me to let me know that my email was spamming them. Conversation as follows:

Me: Oh hi friend!

Friend: Oh hi, ummm, I think your email is sending out spam.

Me: Oh no! Really! I'm so sorry! I hope your computer didn't get infected by any nasties!

Friend: No, nothing like that. Just some long winded email with lots of links at the bottom. No way was I going to click on those links. Pffftt!

Me: Ummm, did you happen to notice what the blurb was about? Did it happen to mention anything about a bike ride?

Friend: Now that you mention it...it did... a 200km bike ride - No wait... you're not doing that are you? *look of astonishment followed by look of disbelief* Bhahahahaha! You are doing that!

Me: Yeh, I am, and that email isn't spam. It's a real email from me. I wrote that long winded blurb and those links go straight to my page over at the Ride to Conquer Cancer. I'm so excited, it's going to be fun and I can't wait! (and I'm not even joking here people).

Now that I've been able to clear up with a few of my friends that I am indeed doing this challenge and that the email was in no way spam, I'm not offended one little bit that some of my friends think the challenge is beyond ludicrous. (sniff...) And do you know why? Because two friends completed the challenge this year and they said it was fun, and they're never wrong about stuff that's fun. Because I will be joining three friends who have also signed up to take part in this challenge, and it's always easier to face up to a challenge when you're with your friends. Because I know that even though my friends laugh and think it's madness on my part, I know they'll support me in any way they can.

It's going to be all sorts of challenging -  physical, financial and emotional. I knew it would be emotional, but just how emotional was evident when I opened up the email to let me know that one of my friends had left wonderful words of encouragement and had already donated - I burst into tears. It's going to get a whole lot more emotional, isn't it...

So please, if you've read this far, then do me a favour and please link this on your FB, Google+, twitter or whatever your favourite social networking site is; consider making a donation (anonymously if you prefer); leave me a message of support in the comments below. I'll keep this blog up to date with how the training, and the whole process, is going. Speaking of training, that won't start up for a few more weeks due to some health things that are being finalised. Now, please clickity click on the startled housewife portrait above and view my page to find out more information about this insane challenge.

Oh, forgot to point out that there is a widget in the margin of this blog that directly links you to my page. Do visit and consider donating. Let's see if we can conquer cancer :)