Back in Port…

So first port of call (pardon the pun, i had to say it) is port macquarie. The timetable was a full one with two coffee courses, cafe biz where i competed in the latte art comp and was also the MC. Even with a full schedule i was still able to get out on the bike a few times each week and got to ride some new hills and terrain around the area.

The coffee courses were fantastic. I must admit the first day was a little nervous as it was my first time with teaching a new format to a different group of people. After the first day however, things started to flow, the attendees were getting into it and i was starting to find my rhythm and method to teaching the course.

Try to imagine a motivational speaker crossed with a barista crossed with a drill seargent and thats pretty much how the course ran. Not only do i teach them how to make coffee but also getting them to set up their own workflow, systems, cafe set up and role play. All the time having to relate everything they did to the reason they are there…getting out there and finding work.  So needless to say it is extremely rewarding to be able to pass on not only skills in hospitality but also being able to help boost their confidence and attitudes.

So after two weeks and two courses done it was off to Sydney for Cafe Biz 09. For anyone that isnt aware this is a cafe trade expo where business’s come to display their products and services, also cafe related workshops and coffee competitions up on the main stage.

I’ve competed in a few comps before hand and thankfully each time i’m getting better. Each time i compete i try to take something from it and apply it to the next one. This time round i forgot to do that and of course because of that i’m now starting to get a reputation among the competition as ‘Shaky Hand Luke’. Almost every comp so far the first few coffees poured my hands shake. Not from nerves but just the whole experience of being in front of judges, a short time to do it in and of course only getting one chance to pull it off. My last competition feed back was to make a couple of coffees during prep time just to get rid of the initial shakes but i totally forgot about it and so what happened was the first coffees came out terrible. Oh well, wont forget next time.

So after the comp was done it was onto what i was there for which was the MC for the 2 days. From what i remember is  more people have a fear of public speaking than of death by fire. Dont ask me why that is but there was definetlely no fear there what so ever. In fact, people were coming up after the event thinking that was my day job. Classic!

“No, this is my first time as an MC” i would say.

“But you never seemed lost for words, and you made the whole event enjoyable to listen to”. they replied.

aah if only they knew. For anyone that was there and is reading, i apologise for all the corny and cheesy one liners. Most of the time i don’t even know I’m saying them.

So cafe biz was a great success for all people came and looks like there might be more work as an MC for other events. Woo Hoo!

MEGA UPDATE!!

Ok, so by now you’ve figured that i’m not much of a computer person and can be very slack on the social upkeep.

If you havent then hopefully the time difference between this post and the last one proves it. Being the case there might be frequent occurences of large periods of nothing followed by a big update session.

Well much has happened in the last couple of months. Yes 2 months already, crikey! There has been plenty of coffee drunk, hills ridden, roadtrips, coffee training, event mc’ing and of course plenty of eating.

Now is the lovely joy of remembering it all and putting it down. Here goes, happy reading!

rain rain go away!

the last 3-4 weeks has seen nothing but miserable weather for riding.  last month started off great with some awesome rides for the first week then it just went downhill from there. now this month hasn’t gotten any better with only about 4 rides in and just a couple of swimming sessions. the only consolation was riding up to comboyne last week(the only ride last week). it’s about 30km inland from port macquarie and it’s a constant 8% climb for about 10km. a few of the switch backs kick up a little bit and there’s a couple flatter sections along the way to help if you’re not feeling too good or feeling good and can pick up the tempo. i went out with ed, a friends partner who’s going over to Europe for a cycling trip and needs to get some hills into his training. we got to the bottom at around 5:30pm just as it was starting to go dark. the whole ride up was pretty much in darkness and we just had the moonlight to outline the road. my legs were feeling a little stiff from lack of training and since i haven’t done the climb before i thought I’d keep it on a steady tempo around 14-15km/h on the 39-21. once at the top the road opens up onto big green fields and pine trees. the temperature also dropped a few degrees and it got cold very quickly. ed’s partner met us at the top and got a drive back to port. it’s a pity night time riding is a lot more dangerous because there’s something amazing about riding when there’s a stillness, the sun isnt beating down on you and the cool breeze helps to keep the heat down. i must say that this has got to be one of the best climbs so far and cant wait to go up it again in about a couple of weeks time.

besides that there’s been very little on the bike and it’s getting frustrating. so much so i’ve pulled out the basketball and started to shoot around for some fitness. it’s still nice to know that even after not playing much basketball for a year or so, it only took around 30min and my aim was as good as before.

the sun finally came out today so on the bike for a couple of hours to stretch the legs out. bleck! how demoralising it felt. the outlook for this week seems bright so the aim is to get some 100+km rides in, get the legs kicking again and lose these extra couple of kgs that always seem to come when the riding stops. what can i say, i love food.

all aboard the luke’a'motion

well it looks like the holiday(about 2 1/2 years) had to come to an end and now it’s time to pull the proverbial finger out and get stuck into it. i spent last week in port macquarie where i had my new work orientation. this meant sitting in one of the courses to see the structure and flow over the 4 day course. even though there were only 6 people in the class it was really motivating to see how their attitudes changed over the 4 days from ‘playing the victim’ and ‘finding an excuse’ to ‘ i can do this’ and ‘if it’s going to be it’s up to me’. who knows what may come of it but at least it’s giving people who haven’t had a privileged upbringing or have fallen on hard times to give them a little bit of confidence and an extra skill to get the ball rolling again. so I’m back down in port macquarie next week for about 3 weeks with 2 courses to conduct on my own (eek!) then cafe biz straight afterward s.

the next dvd is starting to come together with filming hopefully commencing in the next 3 to 4 weeks. once filming is done john(my production guy) is estimating a max of 4-6 weeks for completion. this means the dvd will be done by the end of june. one more dvd and one small bank account once again. so between producing a new dvd, running coffee courses and the odd consultation and demonstrations it’s going to be quite a full schedule. fun fun fun!

Less is more….

Sound familiar? i’ve heard (and said) this phrase on countless occasions. It’s one of those oxymoranic phrases that speaks a lot of truth. It was just the other day how coincidentally this phrase came into the 3 things i enjoy the most.

Coffee, Cycling, Classical Guitar.

Coffee…. while down in Tasmania i’d spent a lot of time teaching and pouring latte art. Whilst all of this coffee frenzy the term ‘less is more’ was popping up quite frequently. For a lot of baristas, the mind set of more designs in the cup is better, however too much can crowd the coffees’ surface and leave you with more of an abstract impression than anything else. To this day, even though being able to do 3-4 rosettas in the cup, there is still no better sight than a well executed single rosetta…..less is more

Cycling….. when i started cycling i used to freak out if i missed a day to train, however as the years go on, you become  experienced and more importantly start to listen to your body for tell-tale signs of fatigue. For the last year or two my training regime has mainly been 5 days on 2 days off. On the 2 days off would be laps in the pool. Every so often there would be occasion where i couldnt get on the bike and the 2 days off could stretch out to 5 or 7. Yes the first couple of rides back in are a little bit stiff but nowadays i’m finding with the couple of days off, the legs are feeling less fatigued and so when it does come to lifting the threshold i’m able to push it that bit harder and therefore improve the following time round, speed and stamina wise ….less is more.

Classical Guitar…… as stated previously, getting back into guitar practice has been somewhat challenging as i almost have to start from scratch. This is no setback as i’m now starting to hear the pieces of music i used to play in a different light. A lot of music written in the renaissance are quite basic with vey simple melody lines, however this time round i’m starting to listen to the melody inbetween the notes. sometimes the space inbetween the notes are more important than the notes itself. It’s easy to play a peice of music through according to what is written, but to really into look it and take the time to play around with how the notes are played, emphasising different areas can put a completely different spin on a once familiar melody. So sometimes playing really quickly and thinking ‘yeah this is awesome’ can be good, slowing it up and giving some thought to the space inbetween the notes can be better…..less is more.

Revive the Renaissance

It’s been quite some time since i’ve played the guitar. A very long time. I’m not talking about just picking it up once and awhile, playing a couple of familiar pieces and then putting it back down again. I mean really playing. My normal routine while i was studying at the conservatorium and afterwards would always be to start of with some scales, arpeggios, then a few studies from certain composers to limber up the fingers and get the dexterity, hand eye co-ordination and sight reading up to speed. After all of that it would then move onto a certain peice,  and practicing on it until i would either get too frustrated or my hands start to hurt, whichever came first.

I could say that it’s possibly been about 3 years since i’ve done anything like what i’ve just mentioned. Not because i dont like guitar anymore but for myself i go through phases where i might play/practice up to 3-4 hrs at a time for months on end and then other times not touch it for months on end.

It still surprises me sometimes how after such long periods the mind is still able to remember certain pieces of music and even though they dont sound as fluent, the recall is still there.

So i picked up the guitar the other night and started doing a usual practice, however it was to my embarrassment of how woeful my technique currently is. Sight reading is almost non existent, speed is….well slow and the memory is starting to get a bit hazy. However all is not lost as it sparked a new vigour to revisit one of my more favoured music periods, the renaissance.

Music written in this period conjures up images of 2 and 3 piece bands playing in the courts of old. They would play the music for dances of the court where  simple time, counter point and elegant melody lines rained supreme. This also means that it isn’t too difficult to play making it a great way to get my form back. So pulling out the old renaissance music folder i found some familiar pieces and also some new ones to practice.

The fantasias of Francesco Da Milano and Alonso Mudarra are always some of my favourites aswell as some of the others from John Dowland, Luis de Narvaez and John Johnson. So hopefully now it’s just a matter of practicing often enough to ingite the spark and once again enjoy the awesomeness of playing classical guitar.

Farewell, for another year.

For the last 2 summers, i have become good friends with another cycling obssesed person, Simeon. Simeon lives in France, races professionally and works for a bike touring company.

Now this guy has the right idea. The last 2 years Sim has come over to the sunshine coast for the summer to do the base miles for the upcoming season. If i had a choice between sub zero temperatures, snow and ice or sunny weather with the occasional rain, the decision is fairly obvious.

Unfortunately the summers go too quickly and today was the last day to get some good km’s in before heading off. The last few months we have had some great rides and way too many corny jokes exchanged.

So thanks again for the great training rides, company, motivation and very much look forward to next summer. Hopefully with not as much rain. All the best for the season ahead and i hope myself and all the others helped with your upcoming races.

mmmm farewell chicken!

Wednesday cup Sprint 1st and 2nd

Back from Tassie, the land of bakery goodness

Well the trip to Tasmania was a great success. The Latte Art Workshop was a hit among the attendees who found the evening educational and insightful. The coffee company whom hosted the night ended up picking up a new account which was a nice bonus and a few DVD ’s were purchased on the night.

We got to plenty of bakerys, cafes and tourist sights along the way. If i had a dollar for every bakery we popped into, i would have about 12 dollars. Add that onto all the cafes and you would have yourself a semi rich, fat man.

More importantly, i got to spend some time talking with Sean Edwards (Cafe Culture Magazine), whom as of today i guess you could say he’s my new boss.  Sean also runs Hospitality Courses for Work Skills/Employment Agencies around Australia. These courses are designed to provide hospitality related skills, personal development and confidence building for the umpemployed. Sean has done some amazing things for the Coffee industry and it’s a real privelidge to be working with him in this area. I’ve always enjoyed teaching people whatever the subject may be and i guess it really shows as Sean is excited to have me on board.

The latte art graveyard

Hobarts’ Best Espresso and Cafe

Same goal, different angle.

I remember an old mentor of mine saying to me  ” write your goals with ink and the game plan in pencil “. the message behind it was that to make your goals solid but not when or how to achieve them. As with life things can arise which might delay them but they should never erase them. Such is this case.

My goal last year was actually quite simple. Promote the DVD, get my health back and refocus. Check, check and check. The DVD is now distributed Australia wide, i dropped 15kg and now back to my original weight when i was competitively racing. I’m faster and stronger on the bike than i’ve ever been and i set some new plans for the following year.

My aim was to work solid for 6 months, save as much as possible and then start my trek around Australia. However like i said, spanners do come along. The work that i moved to Brisbane for fell through and i was left with just the 2 days at the markets. This was fine considering i’ve been living on 2 days a week work for the last 18 months. So the decision was ‘do i try and find more work somewhere else or move back?’ As the old sayings go ‘when one door closes another one opens’. The same day i lost my job i bumped into a business acquaintance i hadn’t seen for a while.

He asked me where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to. I told him about my plan to go around Australia making coffee and riding my bike. He then explained that he’s been trying to find someone to do some workshops for him in various coffee establishments around Australia but has had no luck due to their commitments and responsibilities. i explained to him that after today i have no commitments and would love to help out.

After a bit of a chat we come to myself being flown down to Tasmania to do a couple of latte art workshops for a coffee company and possibly with many more lined up for the year to come. Same goal but different angle.

It’s got to start somewhere

Well it’s been a long time coming and it’s finally happening. It you havent figured it out yet, 2wheels9bars is pretty much my world in one phrase. Road Cycling and Coffee, whether it be making it, teaching it or drinking it.  From now until hopefully a very, very long time in the future i’m planning on doing a lot of both here in Australia and around the world. Hopefully i will be able to share the love and joy i have with both and possibly anything else inbetween that may arise.

So here’s to happy reading!