Back in June, I did a radio interview with 3AW. During the interview I mentioned that one of my goals (#18) was to meet Sir Richard Branson.

Shortly after the interview, a caller rang in and said that they might be able to help put me in touch with him. They had the details of his personal assistant.

I spoke with the caller (Bronwyn) and took the details she had. Until a week ago, I had done nothing with them.

Last week I thought it might be time to try the email address that Bronwyn gave me. So I sent an email, hoping that maybe I would get a response. Personal assistants tend to be the gatekeepers, so if I could get through this one, I might have a chance.

I eagerly checked my email inbox the next morning, and to my shock, there were two emails.

One from the person that I emailed, saying that she was not the personal assistant but would pass my email on.

And one from his actual personal assistant. Saying she loved Project 183 and had passed on my email to Sir Richard.

Cool I thought. But I still didn’t want to get my hopes up.

The next morning I eagerly checked my inbox, and to my shock and excitement, was an email from Sir Richard Branson!

Here is what it said:

Dear Heath,

Flattered you should want to meet me. Happy to get together the next
time that I’m in Australia. We’ll send your note to Danielle Keighery,
who will fix it up. Likely to be in December when I come to launch our
Pacific routes. Great idea!

All the best,
Richard

Can you believe it?! I now have a direct line with Sir Richard Branson (and his actual email address!).

Given I am moving to the UK next month, the meeting in Australia would not work, but we have spoken again since this email, and will be meeting in the UK in September.

Until I actually shake his hand (and maybe get a picture of him with a Project 183 magnet) I won’t get too over-excited, but just for him to write an email to little-old me is pretty damn awesome I reckon.

I have just discovered a phone that, for its time, was revolutionary.

Introducing the 183 Space Saver!

It was described as one of the first attempts at a compact wall phone, for those that had little wall space.

Now, if I could get my hands on a 183 phone, that would be really cool.

It seems that everyone is really getting into the fun of magnets!

The first 20 photos have been sent back now, and are available to view here.

To those that have sent through photos so far; thanks. I have loved every one.

To those still to send through their magnet photo, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

And to those yet to request a magnet, get in quick. There are only a handful left. Just leave me a comment.

Here are a couple of my favourite photos so far.

After a mountain of paperwork and a month-long wait, I have finally had my UK Working Visa application approved.

London, here I come! Two weeks to go until take-off.

Month completed: August 2008

At the start of last year, my younger brother Nicholas was accepted into the primary school teaching course at Deakin University that he wanted.

Just one hitch - it was in Warrnambool (about 3 hours away from Melbourne).

After some early hesitation, he is now loving Warrnambool campus life. The campus even has a golf course that is free for students!

Last weekend I went down to pay him a visit, and we took Warrnambool by storm (although Warrnambool is usually in a stormy state anyway).

Here is what we got up to:

We went whale-watching and seal-watching, but saw neither.

We tried a bunch of different cheeses at CheeseWorld. My favourite was the Vintage cheddar.

We tried to take a photo of us ‘drinking’ the milkshake out the front of CheeseWorld. We did get better after a few tries. I look as if my milkshake was made with rancid milk.

We went back in time at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, which was actually much cooler than it sounds. It was a little like Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, with olden day buildings and history. There was a treasure hunt designed for children that we did as well (you are never too old for a treasure hunt). The building shown is the Ship Chandlers, which was our favourite of all buildings. We were even offered volunteer roles at the Village, as policemen, barmen, bankers or whatever we wanted to be.

While at the Maritime Village, we had an olden day photo taken.

We visited a market that sells all kinds of vintage items, including turtlenecks…

…and blue caps.

Nicholas managed to smash a smash-proof glass at the local Safeway.

We made fish and chips, which turned out a treat.

The Saturday night was spent at a multi-million dollar sound and light show. The highlight of the show was the extremely non-enthused tour guide, who avoided all eye contact with the group and spoke in the most monotonous tone EVER. She was so bad that she was good.

After the sound and light show we went back to his dorm, ate Cheeseworld cheeses, and watched old episodes of Sooty and the IT Crowd.

And to any Warrnambool locals reading - yes, we did visit the Dirty Angel.

What was my number one highlight of our brotherly weekend in Warrnambool?

The massive fly that did the backstroke in Nicholas’ milkshake while he was drinking it. So very, very funny.

Month completed: July 2008

I love throwing the frisbee around. It is not only great fun, but can also be great exercise.

I had heard about Ultimate Frisbee years ago, had always wanted to give it a go but never got around to it. That is why I put it on the list.

And quietly this goal sat, patiently waiting its turn to be completed.

That was until last week, when the following comment was left on another post by Simon. Here is what he wrote:

Heath,

For goal #171 - head down to Albert Park (south end of the pit straight, near the hockey pavillion) on a Monday night at around 7:00pm. Melbourne Ultimate League Division 2 is played there every week. Ultimate frisbee players are a friendly bunch, so if you get there about 20min early and ask around, someone will have a spot on their team for you!

Simon
(ultimate frisbee player)

Who am I to not take up Simon’s offer? So I dragged my sister Melanie (who had played previously) along last Monday night to give it a go.

We turned up 20 minutes earlier, and found a team that was missing most of their players. The team was called Best Friends, and they were taking on the Melbourne University team. So I jumped on with them, and Mel jumped on with the Melbourne Uni team.

Having not done much research into Ultimate Frisbee (or just Ultimate, as it is known to those in-the-know), I expected a leisurely game involving leisurely throws and minimal jogging, let alone running.

Boy, was I wrong!

The game goes for 80 minutes approximately, and about 70 minutes of that was spent absolutely sprinting my guts out. I have played competitive basketball, football and tennis in the past, as well as competing in cross countries, but this was easily more physically draining than any of those sports.

Here are some shots of me running pretty aimlessly back and forth to get into the play. I am the one in the short black shorts and white t-shirt.

In this photo above you can see my sister Mel (in the black jumper and purple beanie) struggling to keep up my extreme pace.

In the photo below you can see me and my team waiting together for the game to restart.

The game is very similar to Gridiron, and starts with the two teams at opposing end, both trying to get the frisbee to the other end and catching it in their end zone. I won’t go into any more detail than that - you can read more for yourself if you want.

What I can tell you is that Simon was correct when he said everyone is really friendly. We were welcomed with open arms, and one thing I enjoyed at the end of the game was that everyone from both teams got into a huddle, and the two team captains both spoke on behalf of their team, congratulating the other team on a job well done. It was a great way to end a competitive, physical game in the right spirit.

Did the game wear me out? Yes.

Would I do it again? Absolutely.

p.s. It didn’t cost a cent to play. Great exercise, great fun, and no cost. How good is that?!

p.p.s. Thanks again Simon for the tip. Sorry I didn’t get to catch up with you on the night.

p.p.p.s. The photo at the start of the post was a set-up, so that I could get an action shot of myself. It took about five photos before we got one that looked half normal!

My great mate Andy left for Japan last weekend.

As is custom, he received a few going away presents.

Amongst these presents was, in my opinion, one of the most creative and thoughtful presents I have ever heard of.

And it is one you can do yourself, with just a box and an imagination.

Andy received a box, and in this box was a list. The list contained a number of things Andy needed to do or collect during his time in Japan. It included obtaining an Asahi beer coaster, taking a trip to a Sumo wrestling contest, and getting a photo taken of Andy next to a cherry blossom tree.

Evidence of each goal achievement is to be put into the box.

What makes this such a great present is that is shows a lot of thought on the part of the giver, and it is a present that gives the recipient a motivation to get out the front door, live life, and try new things.

In a year, Andy will be back, and he can share his memories and experiences in achieving everything on the list with Jaime-Marie, the thoughtful soul that gave him the list.

Next time you are struggling for a present idea, why not give this a try? I guarantee the recipient will appreciate it. Wouldn’t you?

I added running into the exercise regime this week, and it worked well, with a weight loss of 0.9kg for the week.

Might have been more, except we had Christmas in July celebrations with the family on Sunday.

Now I am less than 4kg away from the goal weight, with four weeks to go.

The reason movie goals are on my list is because I am terrible at watching movies and thus I rarely make the effort.

Why am I terrible?

Because I fall asleep. Doesn’t matter what time of the day or night it is, if a movie doesn’t interest me straight away, my eyelids suddenly become heavy.

So the prospect of watching Gone with the Wind, a 222-minute long movie about love during the war, is pretty daunting, despite the fact that many claim it is the best movie of all time.

As I write this, I have now failed on three attempts to watch this movie. The furthest in I have managed is 90 minutes, which barely starts to get into the plot. I think I need to have about five Red Bulls, and start the movie first thing in the morning, to be able to stay awake for the entire film.

Perhaps I keep falling asleep because the movie is not my preferred film genre. Maybe it is because the film goes for way, way, way too long.

But most likely, I keep falling asleep because frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.

Month completed: July 2008

Ages ago (at least two years now) I was reading a magazine that had a feature on a variety of different ninja forms. Most of them seemed similar, and held no appeal for me. And then I read about ninjutsu.

What is ninjutsu, you ask?

Quite simply, ninjutsu is the art of invisibility.

The art form seemed to be more focused on stealth, and remaining hidden, rather than fighting techniques. And given that I like to sneak up on people and give them a fright, and that I am not too keen to get whacked with a sword, this seemed like the ninja form for me.

Last week I went along to my first class, in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. It was a two-hour session, and I initially thought it would be a very long two hours. I was very wrong.

The first thing we did was meditation. Excellent. Hard to fully concentrate though, as I had just come from work.

Next we worked on weapons training. Cool. I had a long stick called a Hambo, and I was partnered with Mr Beattie (everyone was addressed as Mr, so I was Mr Tully - very Matrix-esque) who had a plastic sword. We did a series of moves that involved Mr Beattie coming at me with a sword, and me dodging the sword and then whacking him with my Hambo. He invited me to whack him pretty hard, which was fun. Less so when the roles were reversed, and he did it to me though!

By the way, Mr Beattie has a black belt in ninjutsu. Also by the way, the picture below is not of Mr Beattie, but just a random ninjutsu image I included to break up the text. Just thought you should know.

After weapons training, we moved onto street survival techniques, and specifically using our elbows to knock someone out (plus a bit of reverse kicking, for when the enemy is behind you).

Most people wear a groin guard during the class. Being my first class, I didn’t have one. Mr Beattie forgot this, and kicked me not once, but twice in the groin. Both times it hurt heaps (remember, he has a black belt).

I did survive street survival, which was lucky because the final part of the class was on reflexology, which is a technique of massage based on the belief that different parts of the sole of your feet represent different parts of your body, so massaging that part of the sole will ease any pain in the related body part. Not sure about it, but happy to go along with it if it meant a free foot massage.

Until I realised that after my massage, I would become the massager. Luckily, I only had to use my feet to do the massaging, but regardless I am not a big fan of massaging another man’s feet!

Shortly after, I looked at the clock. We had run overtime, and the two hours was over. I was impressed; the class had run quickly and that probably had something to do with the variety of things we went through.

When I land in London in late August, I now plan to find a club to join, and continue a new-found interest in this very interesting form of ninja. I would highly recommend it to anyone - after just one class, I already feel that I could better defend myself in combat.