Coming back from my jog, I filled in an enquiry form about the London to Paris bike ride, which I’d had my notice-board as a reminder for several weeks. Having looked into the details, I’m in two minds about doing this sort of thing. Of course, it would be a wonderful challenge to do, and a great way of meeting like-minded people. And it goes without saying that the big issue foundation is always a very good cause to raise money for. But I’m a little bit apprehensive about the amount of money that needs to be raised — £1300 by 20th May, and I’m also not sure if I will be a will to get full medical clearance and insurance for this kind of event, considering that I’m still having many days of extremely low energy, and that my most recent hospitalisation was just four months ago.
Of course, I can make this a self-fulfilling prophecy — if I say I’m not capable, then I won’t take any further, if I sign up and immediately start worrying about the amount of training I’ll have to do, or the amount of money I’ll have to raise, then I will never get anywhere near either target. If I decide that I’m going to go all out and do it, then I could theoretically pull out all the stops and make it happen — but there would be no point in even considering this without discussing it with my doctor first. I’m all for a challenge (and have done 100 miles in a day three times before — just not on consecutive days), but I think this one is a little bit daunting for now — perhaps I should try and find some one-day cycling challenges within the UK, and complete one of those first. If that goes well, there is always the London to Berlin cycling challenge for next year.
Well, at least the thought of this ride has got me thinking more about getting back my bike — my main bike needs to have its rear wheel sorted out, but I have the racer in the back garden which I can use in the meantime. What can I do now to make sure I have the motivation tomorrow to go out for a decent bike ride? Of course, I’ve already broken down the steps necessary to move from a lethargic state to getting started on a bike ride, but what if I’m just too busy working to be able to switch off and get out? My mind turns to the ‘think bike’ road safety signs, and wonders what else I can do to make the home environment more geared up towards chucking me out, rather than staying put!
See — preparing house for exercise mentality (separate post to follow)
I also remind myself of the simple anagram love/velo (velo is French for bicycle, and we all know how much the French love their cycling, not to mention their romance is well). A picture springs up a continuation of this play on words to make ‘lovelo’, with the two o’s as bike wheels, and the v as a heart, which could perhaps extend upwards to make the seat. That might be something to play around with later — it is always so much easier to come up with a very quick concept sketch than it is to have a completed drawing; ideas, rather than final presentation, have always been my strong point, and I still hope that one day I will be to find someone to work with who can instantly (well, reasonably quickly at least) turn my ideas into finished presentations. In the meantime, I just have to accept the fact that I probably have to come up with 10 ideas before one even makes it to the drawing board, and even when I start sketching anything out, however simple, I tend to go round and round in circles so many times. This has always been my great frustration, but I was thinking earlier on that the Internet can give incredible opportunities to partner up like-minded people.
I have no idea how many people will read this blog post — at the moment, I know that it will be very few, because I don’t even intend to start seriously promoting this blog until I have at least 100 posts, and until I’m a little bit more stable in my daily routine. However, once a few people do start reading it, who knows what possibilities might arise, especially as this blog is aimed at like-minded creative people. It could just take one person to take one particular idea from one post and run with it, or I might just find myself that by laying out a simple idea in text form I am able to quickly translate it into a finished project.
You might be asking just exactly what I mean what I’m talking about projects based on just one word, but that is always a starting point for a brand, a website, a project, an advertising campaign, a building, or just about anything else that has to be created. If I just look around the notes I made in 10 minutes after having a shower, I can see several other words I wrote down or quick sketches that I made that might also be turned into projects in some form at some stage.
A lot of people say that you should keep things yourself, and as I say this, the computer tells me I have reached the maximum amount I can dictate before the memory is full. So maybe I shouldn’t just blurt out everything in one go.
Next instalment to follow later.