Life in Technicolor

Through out the time I've been in Kansas it's like a life in technicolor.

The burning yellow of summer,
piercing the whiteness of my soul,
The crackeled haze of humidity
nestled below azure blue skies
The lush green landscape
awaiting the golden mask of fall
The winter ice, like crisp rice underfoot
next new life, new ways, spring days

I have one week before I fly back to the UK. The time since May has flown by, interspersed by the adrenalin of work, the company of top people and the relaxed pace of life in Kansas.

With all new travels there's the excitement of something new, the hope that your assumptions are squashed whilst woven with the fresh injection of new stimulus.

Yesterday we had an in-office Christmas lunch, made by the team. As lunchtime drew to a close I was presented with a present, a cowboy belt with a Kansas buckle. Not one to accept presents easily I was so touched by the kind consideration by the team.


I originally thought Kansas was cowboy country mainly through watching cowboy movies as a boy, it's not really but my childhood memories shaped my imagination.

This year has been one of many challenges, new travels, fresh learnings and above all healing power for the soul. If you could do just 1 thing differently every day, put yourself in a situation that stretches you, question how you see things and not forgetting it's the simpliest things in life that make all the difference.

Today it was -15C in Kansas, growing up in Scotland we had very cold winters, frost patterns on the windows, the wind scrapping your skin, but in Kansas your not prepared for the sharp intake of stinging gasps of cold air.

My last weekend in Kansas, it's warming up to +5C, the chill of ice thawing from my bones. Been trying a new radio web service called Pandora. It's free, fantastic but licensing rights means it's not available in the UK. Try it whilst in the USA, music played that suits your own taste, when you want it and rockin your senses.

Really cool.

As the New Year fast approaches what's on the other side of your life window, do you try and look beyond your own horizon and wish for an opportunistic peek, or relish on the excitement of steping into the unknown?


Have a top day.

Full suspension what a blast, hard tail bites the dust!

Since arriving in Kansas in May 2009, today is the 1st time I've been mountain biking this year. It was so good, I rented a full suspension Specialized FSR Stumpjumper mountain bike from Sunflower's in Lawrence. I really like hard tails but this bike blew me away for the ease in which it covered and soaked up the terrain.

The blast was the River Park E Bike Trail, in Lawrence, Leavenworth County, running alongside the Missouri River. Trail distance approx 9 miles through a woodland, skirting a skinny creek and cusping the lip of vast fields. Weather was fresh, dry and calm. Photo of the trail below:


Before I arrived back in Kansas in November my mountain bike was stolen in the UK. From now on it's a full suspension bike for me, the technology is awe inspiring, a privilege to be able to ride such a top piece of innovation.

When I returned the mountain bike to Sunflower's I was given an overview of the new bikes and a Trek FuelEx8 caught my eye. It looks like a switch from Specialized to Trek when I go back to the UK, picture below, cool, sexy, a work on art on 2 wheels..


Time has flown since I 1st arrived in Kansas in May this year. I have less than 12 days before I head back to the UK. It will be sad to leave, so many fantastic people I've met, the work experience, culture and freshness I've absorbed will stay with me for a very long time.

Looking forward to closing what I started @ work and maybe more mountain biking next weekend. Winter may scupper my plans but the interest will still be there. My Scottish experience of cold, wet, windy winters will do me in good stead. Sometimes I relish in the memories of it all, the frosted windows, the cold fog of breath, standing alone pierced by the low winter sun, as dark descends to close the day.

Tonight I finished off the day with a few friends having dinner, realising that we sometimes strive for things, that when we get them they don't really matter in our every day lives. It's our gut feel and intuition that guides us more than anything to what we really need.


Have a top day.

Best Laid Plans Often Go Astray

I went to Lawrence again today, had plans to see a Psychic and get a tatto. Neither happened. Psychic was out of town, he/she must have seen me coming.... and no needle slot for my tatto.

My tatto takes me back to my early years in the 60's when I caught sight of my favourite uncle and a tatto on his chest. I was so mesmerized by this, couldn't read it at the time as I was only 4. It was a few years later that I understood what it meant..."Made in Scotland". To this day I've always wanted the same tatto but never got round to it.

Shortly after the intial tatto sighting my uncle accidently shot me with a hi-powered air-rifle, lost the sight in my right eye. It's a strange story how it happened but it had a big impact on my life later on. I had a real passion and skill for football but my professional career came crashing to an end subject to a medical.....

So when I think of the tatto I also think of my uncle and the anguish he must have gone through, the shock of accidently putting my life @ risk. I came through it and to this day still think highly of him.

Lawrence has a hippy feel to it, like a misplaced surf town in the centre of the USA, when it should be hugging the coast line. The place is full of student dudes bringing a sense of energy and creativity to the town. I'm sure there's a potential HBO show lurking in the backwater with intrigue, surprise and real mid-west sensibilities jumping out from the screen.

As for the Psychic it was not meant to be and my skin has survived another day of the tatto needle.

What's also good about Lawrence is it's top bike shop, Sunflower's. There's a few cool Specialized bikes in the shop and also a Beetle car on the ground floor. Yes a Beetle car, it adds a cool point of presence.



Using my Panasonic camera I picked up a few other interesting photo's of Lawrence, namely a colour glass window and a painting from a local art gallery.






Had lunch @ Milton again, came back later to have soup & fruit salad @ Dean & Deluca's in Leawood, then watched "Brothers" @ the cinema in the evening.

Weathers getting cold now as winter is drawing in, tomorrow potential snow and temperatures below freezing.



Have a top day.

It can't be easier!

I went to another superb art museum of paintings that normally provokes the thought....surely I could do this. Give up my day job and paint...and paint and try to see if I can convince people it's art, expensive and has some hidden meaning.



Or maybe I should should try and sculpt, become a thinker or a motivational speaker...We all have choices, sometimes it's having the courage to have a go, even if we don't have the full-on skills or experience to start with. Tap into your hidden potential it could change your life.



A simple technique on motivation that will allow yourself to be happy in some small way. It's the ABC rule...

A - allow yourself to focus on something that will make you happy, make your choice
B - begin and start to initiate what you want to do
C - continue this process on a regular basis, daily, weekly whatever rocks your boat

For me I'd like to get on a mountain bike and try out a new Specialized Stumpjumper Comp Carbon....such a cool gorgeous piece of machinery...



A - allow myself the choice
B - go buy it
C - regularly get out there and enjoy it

It can be so easy it doen't have to involve a purchase. It could be enjoying what you already have, appreciating the people around you or how you can make other people happy.

Whatever it is, have a top day.