Diet and revised Sturgis plans

I have been back at work for a week now, the holiday is just a wonderful memory. I am also on a diet, I was overweight when we started the holiday and of course it only got worse so now I want to lose at least 20kgs! Janet has got us both on the "drinking man's diet" for a couple of weeks and then we are going onto a detox seven day diet out of hell.

We will clear our social calendar, retire to our home with the curtains closed, discourage any visitors and just go to work and then back to the house to drink mixed juice made up of fruit and vegetables for each meal, there will be no alcohol or coffee either - I think I may have to pad the walls of the house! We'll see how it goes. Janet I will probably try to kill each other after the first day, let alone seven!

We have also decided that 2010 is the year of saving money, no more spending large amounts of money on restaurants, so this blog is going to go back to detailing braais and potjies as it was intended. We will still be doing lots of biking and on those rides there will obviously be the occasional restaurant for breakfast etc., but no more evenings wasting money on mediocre meals.

The reason for this year of almost monastic living is to save money for the Sturgis trip in 2011, after much discussion between Janet, my daughter Christie and several friends I have decided that the Sturgis trip is still on but with one major difference.

We were recently chatting about the trip and Christie was asking questions like;

"So, are you going to be camping for the whole trip?" innocent smile on her face.

"Yes," I replied "apparently the ablution facilities are first class."

"Will you have a chair for Mom to sit on in the evenings?" laughing now.

"Well no, but I'm sure there will be benches around."

"So when Mom wants to go for her afternoon nap, she will have to go to a tent?" almost hysterical laughter.

"Well yes," by now I'm beginning to see the light, Janet has a slight smile on her face.

"And when she gets home from the rally every night she's going to have to climb into a tent?" both of them almost falling about now. "I think you should let Mom stay with us and you go to the rally."

"Yes!" the first word from Janet.

I was guided, mostly by my lovely daughter, to see that what I had been doing was insisting that Janet take part in my dream because we always ride together. What I failed to appreciate was that what is a dream for me would be more like a nightmare for her, Janet is not a fan of motorbike rallies at the best of times but, bless her she is happy for me to go so this how it is now going to go;

We fly to the UK where I will spend a couple of days with my family, then I fly out to the US for my adventure of a lifetime after which I return to the UK laden with tee shirts and photos to collect my wife and return to South Africa.

Don't despair about what I have written here, there will still be lots to write about; in my last post I mentioned the upcoming Freedom Road rally and last night I got a call from Des about the 3rd annual Polar Bear run which will take place in the second half of July, there will be lots of riding!