You can spend your entire life looking for it… It can’t be bought, and you can’t ask for it.. It can only be given..

If you are lucky, you get to experience something in your life, that will definitely leave a mark, and possibly make you a better human being..

I’m talking about Kindness.. Not the kindness, of someone opening a door for you, or someone pressing the button on the elevator for you.. This is something completely different…

In the past 12 months, I got to witness something, unbelievably good.. A kind of hidden secrets… An underground family of people that have nothing and yet their heart and kindness, has no limits..

But before that, lets delve into what has happen since July last year…

As promised here are more pictures of the transformation of the now possibly largest and newest CrossFit gym in Toowoomba… It practically doubled in size in two weeks (the last picture is a wide one).. New walls, new equipment, new floors two new full size rigs, new sauna, new ice bath, new lights, new timers, new gigantic screen…

Practically a complete new gym, where members have room to move and room to spare, without having to worry about dropping a bar or jumping off a game box…

Olivia and Antony are dead serious about giving you the best possible CrossFit experience, and they spared no expenses in either quality equipment and great understanding coaches, to the point that, well yeah, it feels just like a big family…

I have been knowing Antony for very long time, and one thing that I always admired in him, is that he has always been a straight shooter. His passion for CrossFit became evident to me when at first, I notice Antony getting up at 5 am to go to the gym, following by 12-14 hours of working (hard working I may add) to then find some time to get to the last class of the gym again if possible..

After few years he realised that he wanted a more flexible schedule for his training, so it came of no surprise to me when he decided to actually buy and own the gym, so to being able to adjust his schedule. Well, when you own the gym you have a 24/7/365 access to it… Olivia also play the major role in this enterprise, and again, she run the Gym with a huge dose of passion and dedication…

I was proud to being able to help them achieving this new level of excellence as far as providing a great family place where to improve your wellbeing..

We managed to squeeze a couple of weekend rides out with Baldrick, the guy with the YELLOW Tiger in the first picture..

That was off course before his escapee down in NSW, that unfortunately didn’t turned out as well as planned… I then got a different bike,and therefore we went out for a nice week end again, just around the area behind Gatton.. There are so many beautiful dirt roads around here, that you can probably spend a month just in this area…

As we are in the middle of winter, it was time to test the new firepit, that it does work very well, possibly too well as it burned all we had a bit too quickly.. Still, it was nice to spend the evening around the fire while dribbling about the past and the possible future..

There was one person missing around this camp fire, but who knows where he is now… It seems that  life has taken us on different paths… Maybe one day we’ll get together again… Who knows… Perhaps a Uralla Room 15 reunion…  I heard they had to rebuild the motel after that night…  😂

As mention in the title, when you live on the road permanently, something in your life does change and if I got to be honest it does change quite often as well…

Yes, the scenery is one of those thing and the weather is another one, but the one that you will notice the most, are your neighbours… For some, mainly holidays travellers and people owning flashing brand new caravan, they will describe this to you as hell, and thanks God, they tend to segregate themself, as they don’t really like neighbours and they make sure you will get to know that.. And then, there is the rest of us!

As it turns out, being on the road all the time,it does teach you several invaluable lessons of life.. The most important one, is that you are never really alone. That new neighbours, could be part of what I like to call, your “hidden family”. Now I don’t want to paint this picture all of one colour, as that would be a lie.. But I can assure you, that in this group you will find some “bloody beauty”..

And one of the best quality of this “hidden family”, it is their kindness.. I don’t think there are words to better describe it, but let me say this: Once it is part of your life, everything becomes a better place to be in..

Here are some random pictures of the past 12 months, where you can see a friend partly hiding from public view (he thought no one could see him), some great recycling projects and what I think it is the best way to hide a little dent in your car.. (thanks Bob for all the laughing and your unbelievable knowledge about Armidale).

The weather.. Well we had another flood, but we managed.. I took picture of the creek to show the different stage, from everyday, to just after that many days of rain.You can virtually see steps disappearing to the point where the water started to break out of the banks further down in town.. But with a good amount of water you also get nice big veggie… This was my first experience with yellow zucchini and I’m afraid to say I didn’t know how good they are..

We also had lots of entertainment this year: Night rides, Circus, Tom Curtain (a great hit with young family and kids), Amusement Rides and plenty of food and even Monster Truck.. There were also few bull rides event garnished with good dose of Crusty Demon… Something for everyone…

There is also a picture of a Sportster, and it does come with a bit of a story.. Someone asked me to help them bringing their Harley back to the camp and without a hint of hesitation I jumped at the chance to ride an Harley… What it follow is a story of disappointment and severe physical violation.. I didn’t know it was a sportster and in pretty bad state.. This takes first place for the worst half an hour of my life.. You know, when you see them riding in group through town and you see people watching them and shaking their heads in rage and despair at the same time..

Well I finally got to experience the other side of the coin, and believe me,it will never happen again.. I had to ride for half an hour with my knees above my stretched arms on a metal seat feeling every single bump on the road, unable to breathing properly, due to the Koala clinging position, and with the fear of running out of fuel by just looking at the size of the fuel tank, with two,  for some unknown reason to me, rear view mirror pointing at my scrotum, , and above all while going deaf because of those stupid exhaust pipes.. Like I said, I felt violated on so many level.. But the ugliest part of this experience was the embarrassment I had to endure while entering the town and watching people looking at me while shaking their heads and spitting on the ground… I can’t tell if it was because of my position on the bike or the stupid annoying sound that I was making, but yes, I really felt the hatred coming towards me from those faces…

I got off that “thing” with a ringing sound in my ears for the next 24 hours, and made a promise to myself that I will never break!!

In the end,  I can honestly say that it has been another great 12 months of joy, riding, fixing, building, sharing, learning and entertainment.. I really got to learn the area well this time and what it has to offer, on all fronts. The Lockyer Valley truly has some hidden gems, worth visiting and if you can, you should allow enough time to see the lot..

In the old website, they did advertise this place as the night sky full of stars, and with the right setup, you can get some nice pictures, but there is so much more than that.. I did enjoy plenty of evening just watching the sky turning dark because of the thousand of Fruit bat going towards the Glen Rock State Forest,always at the precise same time and always following the path of the creek..

This year I was also introduced to the Dragon fruit. I feel a bit stupid about this, as I can’t believe I never had this fruit before.. Now, it has become part of my weekly shopping.. I’m also working on some form of micro herbs garden, as I really miss my herbs garden I had in the past..

Not sure of what is happening here but beside three days of cold, we had no winter what so ever and as you can see we got trees flowering in August and temperature hovering around the 35° already.. Without being paranoid,I can’t help it, but I’m a bit concern about what it will be this coming summer..

And it seems that going South it will not help either as Australia has now only two seasons: Fuc$&^% cold and Fuc$&^% Hot, with some floods in the middle.. I don’t mind a good Summer but I do miss the four season that places like Ebor or Armidale do offer, and I’m looking forward to eventually get there even in winter and perhaps having again those great rissoles made under his armpit for the perfect shape by the chef (more of a cook than a chef) at the pub in Ebor…

Hopefully my next blog it will be from somewhere down South on a new adventure..

Drive safe and enjoy the ride..