Well hello
I hope this finds you in good form.
As you may or may not be aware I am planning a little disappearing trick shortly. Work has been very gracious in allowing me time off to indulge in some travels and so I will head away this weekend with my two-wheeled friend for some adventures. The trip is part mountain, part city and part whatever terrain I roll over between the two. Packing my life for several months into some small bags on a bike is not something that I have ever done before but traveling without my bike is not something I have done much of either. My thinking is to start the hard way and if it all gets a little too much then it's always possible to make life an awful lot simpler for myself.
As I am traveling solo (aside from any looney tunes I may meet along the way) I realised that I would like a focus or some means of keeping myself grounded. With this in mind I have set-up a website to share the experience with family, friends and indeed anyone else who may be interested in my folly, seeing as the www is so public 'n' all. So, "Tonight Matthew, I am going to be ... The Bionic Dude".
If you wish to follow my progress (or should that be regress?) then you should keep in touch with thebionicdude.com where I will document my metamorphosis from desk job to nut-job over the course of the next several months. I am not certain what format the blog will take but I am conscious that it needs to be fun for both of us or else it's not worth doing. It will likely not be a daily travelogue (snore) rather a blog of stories, thoughts and moments as they occur. I have RSS on the site for those that use such things and for others I will likely circulate new posts via email ... not sure, we'll work it out as we go along. For those that use Internet Explorer, there may be some small compatibility issues with the site, it might be worth stepping into this dimension by downloading a real browser such as safari.
So, best to check out the site for more information about my little trip and for those that are about Dublin this Friday night, then feel free to swing by the Market Bar on Fade Street for some hello and goodbye drinks. I will likely be there 6.30ish ... the more the merrier.
It remains for me to say a few words of thanks; firstly to mom 'n' pops who are doing a little too good a job of pretending not to worry about me, to my great friends at Merrill Lynch for allowing me time off work, to my buddy Ross who helped me with all the comms for the trip as well as adding frills to this website and making it look prettier (didn't he do a great job), to Barry, Pilu, Cap'n Santini and Camilla who all helped me get some stuff I needed home, to Dara and Mike who have been very generous with their bike-touring advice, to Tom for allowing me to use his rear reception room as mission control, to my good friend Mia who found my marbles (ironically) and of course, to the great Dude in the sky for providing me with Planet Playground in the first place. Thank you all very much.
Please stay in touch ... no doubt the more world-wise amongst you will be good for some much needed advice.
So, it's goodbye from me and 'later' from The Bionic Dude .... mind how you go
Giller and the Dude