OK, so only a year after we actually planned to do this, we may actually get under way.

We are looking to take a run down inland to Lennox Heads on the Saturday, camp the night, then head back to Brisbane through Mt Tambourine on the sunday.

Dates: 15/16th May, 2010.

Routes are:

Down - through Augustine Heights, Boonah, Rathdowney Kyogle, Koonorigan, onto Lennox Head. Map Here or Whereis map Here

Return - through Nimbin, Uki, Numinbah, Mt Tamborine, Tamborine. Map Here (Advantage of this route is an easy pop out to the motorway and home before we hit Mt tamborine if time runs short)

Brett

It's been a while since I bought my new bike, and I've been meaning to do an update on why I picked the Suzuki Bandit 1250 SA, so here it is (be warned though, it's a bit of a long article). As I've mentioned previously, I bought this bike because I had the money at the time and had wanted a new bike forever. As such, it wasn't a 'Crime of Passion', but a planned, thought out purchase. Having said that, no motorcycle purchase is without some amount of emotion.

The Process

Ok, so how to go about finding the bike to buy? It's terribly boring and tedious, yet exciting at the same time. You could just go to a bike shop, find a bike you love and buy it. If I'd gone down this route, I would have ridden home on a Triumph Thruxton, which would have killed me on the commute every day

So my strategy was to first setup my parameters as follows:

1.    work out how much I wanted to spend and, more importantly, how much I could stretch to. There is a difference. This gives you your budget and allows you to know what you can look at and what you need to ignore. It also lets you know what you can afford at a stretch if you really love it.

2.    Work out what it’s going to be used for. City Commuting? Highway Commuting? Touring? Sunday Rides? Very Fast Sunday Rides? If you want to be real nerdy (and let’s face it, I am), you can allocate a percentage to each so you know what the bias is going to be.

3.    Sort out your ‘must haves’, your ‘should haves’ and your ‘must not haves’. May be things like seat height, riding position, good acceleration, etc…

Once you have these things, you widen your search, then you narrow it down. Get the information about as many bikes as possible, and then use the parameters you defined to weed out the unsuitable ones. The reason you start as wide as possible is because there is nothing worse than settling on a bike, riding away on it, then finding out there was a more suitable bike that you love the look of that you just didn’t know about. It will bug the hell out of you. At least if you do your best and this still happens, you can at least tell yourself that you did the best you could with what you had.

My point of reference was the internet, but the best help was the Two Wheels New Bike Guide for 2009. This has a comprehensive list of bikes that I could sift through and identify the bikes that met my criteria. Once you have your short list, then it gets emotional. Get rid of any bike of the list that is too ugly to live. Ie, it wouldn’t matter how well it rode, or how cheap it was, you couldn’t bring yourself to actually sit on it. Then pick out your favourites, and go test riding. From there, it’s really going to be about the ‘vibe’. The one that gives you the best feelings is your bike.

My Choices

So how did this look for me?

1.    My budget was in the $10k-12k range with a stretch of $13.5k.

2.    Primarily a commuter, but I love weekend rides, and I really wanted something that could handle long rides two up and have plenty left for overtaking. I’m not a speed demon and won’t be dragging the knee anywhere. As far as priorities, I could handle a bigger commuter to give me what I want on the highway.

3.    I wanted a 1000cc, but would dip under that if it still had the go that I wanted. Mainly looking for easy power. Had to be comfortable with not too much weight on the hands. No full fairing, love the retro look. Ideally would like something that has been around a while and has a good reputation.

So from these parameters, I managed to narrow down my choices to 4 main bikes I wanted to test ride. I did exclude a couple that fell within the boundaries mainly based on my ‘vibe’ and what I could see myself riding. The short list was:

·         Triumph Bonneville (this seemed to be my personal favourite)

·         Suzuki Boulevard C50

·         Suzuki Bandit 1250

·         Suzuki GSX1400

The main bike I excluded was the V-Strom 1000. It really ticked the boxes, but I just couldn’t see myself being happy on a chook-chaser on steroids. This really was a personal choice, and nothing to do with what is otherwise a good bike.

My Decision

Oh Darn, I gave that bit away already. Well, not all of it.

I really went into the test-rides expecting to buy a Bonneville, even though it would be quite a stretch. I love the look of them, but when I test rode it, on the highway it just felt a little under where I wanted it to be. The main indicator of this was that I was reaching for a gear it didn’t have. It also wasn’t as ‘planted’ and solid at 100km/h as I would have liked. Finally, as far as the ‘vibe’ went, it just didn’t feel quite right.

Next I took the C50 out. This was a lot more planted, and quite solid through the streets, and even sat nicely at 100km/h on the highway, but it just didn’t quite get up and go the way I would have liked. Nice comfortable bike though and I was a little sad to walk away from it.

The third bike I rode was the GSX1400. I love the look of this bike, it is ‘the’ retro bike, had a fantastically comfortable seat and where the C50 didn’t quite get up and go, this thing got up and went before I’d blinked. It handled well, rode really comfortably, and had more than enough power for the highway. My problem here was I needed a commuter as well, and this was just too much bike for that. I pulled up next to the guy from the bike shop and told him I may as well throw my license away. I seriously could not commute on this without accidentally going way over the speed limit. I tried to hold it on 60km/h a couple of times, but it just didn’t like to be caged. It REALLY hurt to have to walk away from this one, but I have to admit, it scared me just a little, and that’s not a good thing.

Finally, the Bandit. I have to admit, this wasn’t my emotional favourite, but after riding it, I found it was comfortable, sat well at 60km/h, had more than enough power and acceleration, and was just a smooth, effortless ride. Coming off an old Virago cruiser, I really didn’t expect to be buying something that was this sporty, but when it came down to it, it’s a great bike that had the right ‘vibe’. The fact that it’s slightly sporty makes it a bit quicker in traffic, and the value for money is excellent. Finally, it’s been around quite a while and it’s a very well loved bike from all the reviews I read.

So here we are. 12 months down the track and what do I think of her now we’ve had time to get to know each other??? Well that’s a story for another time….

Stay safe and have fun.
Brett.

 

 

So how do you go about buying a new bike? I think there are quite a few ways, but you can probably sum then up into a few categories.


Love at First Sight

Don't need a lot of explaining on this one. The first time you see this bike, you just cannot leave without it, be it at a dealer or for sale elsewhere. It doesn't matter if you can afford it or not, you just have to have it and you do whatever it takes. This one is great if you are single, and if you aren't, it could actually fix that for you. A lot of times, it's not possible and you have to walk away, but for some people, this seems to work. Sometimes, this fuels a long term decision, and will drive you to what it takes so that 6 months or a year down the track, you can still have it.

Premeditated

This method is the complete opposite of the Love at First Site. You need/want a bike, you look at your money, work out what you want, how much you can spend, what is important, then set about finding and buying it. If your parameters are tight, you end up with transport. If you have a bit of flexibility in time/budget, you can still end up with a bike you love, but it's quite a bit more restrained.

Out of the Blue

This could also be called the Let It Be method. You either have no intention of buying a bike, or if you do, you are happy to wait and see what comes up, but either way you aren't really actively looking. Then out of the blue, a bike you love comes up, or a bargain you just can't walk by comes up and WHAM! You just bought a bike.

So these three categories are by no means complete, and sometimes, a purchase can be classed as a combination of more than one. My first bike (Yamaha DT125) was premeditated. I had to have transport, I had a budget, so I started looking, found a bike I could afford and that was ok and bought it. I grew to love it, but it wasn't pretty. My second bike (Suzuki GSX 400) I loved from the start, but belonged to someone else, so I didn't think much about it. Then, they told me they were selling it and offered it too me, so I begged and scraped and got the money togeather. Still love that bike. My third bike (Honda CB 750), I wasn't really looking, but my Cousin offered me the his old bike at a great price so of course I had to say yes and I grew to love it. The fourth bike I owned (Yamaha Virago XV1000) was like the second. I loved it, but someone else owned it, so I just used it as something to aim for in the future. Then they told me they were selling and offered it to me, so off to the bank I went and she was mine.

This process is probably different for people with a lot of money, and different again for people with little, but it's really how I've seen it happen. Buying cars can sometimes be like this, but I think a lot more often, the love and passion are missing and it really becomes a premeditated thing. With Bikes, it's personal.


Brett.

Just sent this one by Terry.

Looks like a nice ride up Mt Mee, through Woodford up to Kilcoy, down past the dams and back home over Glorious.

Ride Map HERE

• Have a leg rest at mt-mee lookout,
• pie for breakfast at woodford
• brunch near kilcoy
• bum rest near somerset
• lunch at mt glorious
• afternoon coffee at maccas albany crk.

Well, it's a terrible problem to have, but I'm facing the prospect of buying a new motorbike. It is truly an exquisite dilemma. I'm not sure about a lot of people, or most people, but for my case, it's not something that happens everyday. Or ever ever... I have been riding motorbikes on the road for just shy of 20 years now. For the first 4 years of this, I didn't have a car, or even a car license, so motorbikes are like a first language for me. Still, even though this is the case, there hasn't been a high turn over of flash new bikes. Or even old shite ones…..

My first bike was a little chook chaser, a Yamaha DT175 that cost all of $350 dollars. About $100 worth of repairs saw it on the road in the good old days of taking it to the department of transport, them looking it over, making sure bits weren't falling off and that the muffler still worked, and handing you the rego. Funny though, she was transport and independence and I loved her as everyone loves their first bike. Given my size at the time, she definitely struggled, but she got me around and would do 80km/hr down hill with a tail wind.

Next in line was an '81 GSX400. If I loved my first bike, I was ready to move in with, and get married to this one. Sporty, quick (compared to a 175 Dirt Bike) and able to actually reach 100km/hr, this one was classic, and at $900, a bargain. First real road trip (see previous comment about 100km/hr) and the ability to finally beat the cars at the lights. Also discovered the fun of riding up Mount Archer, THE bike road around Rockhampton.

Third off the line was the '72 Honda CB750 K2. Old, not so quick and spritely, she cost me $500 and came with a spare bike in parts. She had previously won best 'rat' bike at a rally, the nice way of giving out the 'worst bike and good luck getting home' award. She was unique and infamous around town being gun-metal grey with a King and Queen seat and ape-hanger handlebars. She also introduced me to lovely sound of an inline 4. Now I cannot deny that the sound of a twin, be it Ducati, Moto-Guzzi, Harley or even of (shock horror) Japanese heritage, is a beautiful thing to behold, but there is something to be said about the sound of the 4 as well.  If you doubt this, see if you can get ahold of a clip of a classic old MV Augusta on a race track. Pure music.

My most recent purchase 12 years ago was an '84 Yamaha XV1000 Virago. Even though she was no spring chicken at about 10 years old when I bought her, she was the magic litre and so was the most expensive bike at about $4000. All that money!! No wonder I've made her last 12 years, and she is still going strong. When I say going strong, I have to admit she was out of commission for 3 years, and painful for 4 more before that with starter problems. This is, of course, the bane of the early viragos and it had made me give up on her. However, after increasing nights of dreaming of riding bikes (I'm serious, it go to the point where I would dream about riding 2-3 times a week), I made the decision to go balls out and fix the problem or die trying. This was helped by an article I read on early virago's that said once you got the starter sorted out (and got rid of the wrist destroying handlebars) they are great bikes. After reflecting on this, I realized it was true and other than those two aspects (and old seat foam that killed but could easily be replaced), she had been great. I ordered a replacement heavy duty starter motor from the states and went to work. Of course, it wasn't all fun and games as the motor from the states had the wrong teeth on end of the starter shaft, so I had to cannibalize the reduction gears off the start of the old motor and mate these onto the body of the new one, but surprisingly, it went together and the starter has not missed once in the last 3 years. Add to this a new pair of reasonably straight handlebars, and she is a new woman... Err.. Bike....

So with a new lease on life, and handling better than ever before (thanks to the new bars), why is it time to replace this bike with a new one? Well, with a daily commute through silly city traffic, and a desire to do more touring, I've been thinking a while about reliability and safety. Sure, she has been reliable, and I've not had an off despite many fools trying to collect me, so safe and reliable aren't critical issues at present. However, at 25 years old, I'm not sure how long this will be the case. I've been told by two different mechanics that the carbies are beyond balancing, and that I just have to get used to her running more and more rough. And with a new baby on the way, I'm thinking about that safety more and more. I certainly want to be around for her and not necessarily face questions like 'daddy, why is there part of your leg missing' or 'why do you limp when it's cold?' or 'why does your head set off airport metal detectors?'. Not completely avoidable, but I'd like to do my best.   

Added to these very good reasons are two other factors. Firstly, I've always wanted to have a nice new bike, and have spent all of the last 20 riding years staring at Two Wheels, Australian Road Rider and Australian Motorcycle News dreaming about the new flash toys they have in every single issue. Secondly, we have managed our finances such that, at the moment, the money is there to do it. So, it's off we go, staring at the magazines with a purpose, and bugging sales people in the motorcycle shops with a valid reason now. I seriously can't wait!!!!

Ok, so a weekend ride down to Lennox Head is on the cards, and I'm trying to find a couple of routes to go there and back that will be more fun than the motorway.

Looking through other people's ride suggestions, and peering at the maps, I think the ride down through Rathdowney and Kyogle would be nice, then coming back through Uki and Mt Tamborine. Time permitting, we could also head down to Beechmont and come into Mt Tamborine the back way. Last part of the ride would get onto the motorway to chug home through town or along the gateway.

Anyhow, going down through Augustine Heights, Boonah, Rathdowney Kyogle, Koonorigan, onto Lennox Head. Map Here

Returning through Nimbin, Uki, Numinbah, Mt Tamborine, Tamborine. Map Here (Advantage of this route is an easy pop out to the motorway and home before we hit Mt tamborine if time runs short)

These two rides estimate on Google Maps to about 5 hours each way. I may have to wait until I get a rebuilt seat before trying this one

Well, after a couple of rides up to Mt Mee, and then onto Woodford for a morning coffee, we've been wondering how to get back in an interesting way without a) backtracking or b) chugging down the highway through roadworks and dodging fools.

Looking at a couple of maps, and playing with google maps, I have come up with a proposed route. The other provisor we have is no dirt. I just don't want to go there :) The preferece is for few built up areas, few intersections and not too many houses along the route. What I have come up with is a bit convoluted, but I think the best way to check out if it's nice is to give it a shot. Next time we go up that way, I'll take the route and give it a go and post the feedback.

A link to the route is HERE

If anyone else knows these roads and has advice, shoot it through.

Brett.

The Chinese proverb goes “I was sad because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet”.

I have been looking for information lately on people who are doing PGD (Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis) through IVF and to gauge their experiences and success rates. I wanted something to compare us to as the only other couple we know who have done this, fell pregnant on their first implantation off their first stimulated cycle. When we compare this to our experience of 3 stimulated cycles with only 3 resulting ‘clear’ embryos, of which none have worked, we needed some encouragement that it’s not hopeless. While I was looking, I found a site I had looked at a little while ago, SMA Australia (http://www.smaaustralia.com/). I joined the forum and in doing so, had contact with Julie Cini who administers the site.  

This is a link to a news article about Julie and some of what she has gone through.

 http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22996247-24331,00.html

Briefly, Julie and her husband Ross (who has a daughter Billie from a previous relationship) had a little girl, Montana, in August of 2004 who had SMA type 1. They lost Montana in June 2005 when she was about 10 months old, but fell pregnant again fairly soon afterwards. When Julie was about 2 months pregnant, her husband Ross was killed in a car accident at the front gate of their farm. Zarlee was born 13^th December, 2006 and was also diagnosed with SMA type 1. After just over a year, Julie lost Zarlee on Christmas day, 2007.

I can’t even write this without tears, so I have only admiration for Julie and her strength in carrying on with life. Reading about her experiences helps to put our situation in perspective and Julie’s amazing example certainly helps me see that I am more than capable of weathering the storm we find ourselves in at the moment.  

So. How do you describe the feeling of being a new parent. I once heard it described as having the sun come out but you never knew that it had been hiding. It's the first dawn. Actually, as a new parent, you see a lot of dawns . Noah was a really, really big baby. He was 97th percentile for length and weight. And boy didn't Louisa know about it. After the labor, she developed massive bruising on her abdomen. We think it was due to the contractions with no dilation, and that Noah didn't really have the right muscle tone to actually be delivered naturally.

Once Noah was delivered and was checked out ok, he and I went into the recovery room to give him time while they monitored him, and Louisa stayed in surgery to be patched up. I was so taken with Noah from that first time, but in the recovery room, it was just he and I. I could put my hands into the humidicrib (spell?) and he wrapped his hand around my finger. It is such a generic thing, but it's such a wonderful experience, especially once we were alone and things were settling down. We had a couple of names that we liked, but I wasn't very fussed on Noah. When we were in the recovery room, I ran through the names we had and looked at him, and he really was a Noah. I could go on and on about that time and how special it was, but I need to write other things as well. The next couple of hours are a bit blurry to me, but we went down to Louisa's room (it was a double, but the other bed was empty at the time) and I gave Noah his first bath and a couple of changes. We had a couple of visitors that first night, and once it was late, I had to go home because I wasn't allowed to stay. It was hard to leave, but I didn't go until about 10:30 and was back at 8am the next morning. The next day, Louisa was given a single room with a queen size bed, so I was able to stay for the rest of the time Louisa was in. I'm a bit hazy on those few days, but I remember changing Noah's nappies (I did this for the first couple of weeks because Louisa was so knocked about), washing him, several nights walking around the hospital settling him so Louisa could sleep and rest, him falling asleep on me in the visitors lounge and me falling asleep with him in the visitors lounge.

Finally, the last day came, and we wondered where the instruction manual was, and if they were really just going to let us walk out of the hospital with this little person. I was lucky with my employer. Since Louisa had a lot of difficulty being mobile, I was able to take extended parental leave to stay home for the first 6 weeks. Noah was pretty much a good baby. He didn't sleep the whole night through, but he did sleep for 3 - 4 hours at a time, and once slept for 7 hours which scared us silly when we woke up Since Louisa had a caesarean, she was entitled to a home visit from the child health nurse. She came after we were home a week and said he was ok, but that we should keep an eye on his muscle tone as it seemed low.

The first couple of weeks were hectic, but normal. Louisa was working hard to breast feed, and I spent most of my time looking after Noah and a bit of time fixing up my motorbike to get it back on the road after it had been out of commission for about 3 years. We needed it going so we had two vehicles, and I got it sorted and back on the road after a week or two.

After a couple of weeks, Louisa began to have some trouble breastfeeding. Noah was attaching well, but after a few sucks, would begin crying. This started to get very frustrating, especially at the night feeds. After reading and contacting the nursing mothers (who basically said 'keep on trying to breastfeed'), we decided to try bottle feeding the expressed breast milk (EMB), which seemed to work enough to get some night feeds done and preserve our sanity. We thought there was a flow problem and tried different techniques to work around this. The problem continued though and we went to a community health breast feeding clinic. The lady there was very straight forward and told us we were doing it right, that Noah was having problems and we should bring forward our 6 week Pediatrician check to as soon as possible.

We made our appointment with the Pediatrician we had in hospital, Cath Dawson. Cath was absolutely wonderful. We saw her on a Thursday, and she sent us for some blood tests and told us to come back on the Tuesday. They took a drastic amount of blood from Noah for the tests (even the phlebotomist seemed to think so) and we went back on the Tuesday to see Cath. She was concerned about some of the levels as well as Noah's reflex responses and we were booked into the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane for the Wednesday morning. We were on Robertson ward, where the non-infectious children are treated. We were in hospital for 3 days this stay, during which we had many specialists come to see us including a pediatric neurologist, speech pathologists (who also deal in feeding difficulties), occupational therapists (OTs) and, of course, Cath and her Registrar. During this time, Noah underwent an MRI scan to check for any spinal injuries because of his reflex issues. We also experimented with thickened food to help with the feeding issues. The thickened food seemed to make a difference and Noah began feeding better. Louisa continued to express, so we began exclusively bottle feeding with thickened EBM. We also contacted Louisa's cousin in the UK, who has a daughter with a condition that we knew involved muscular issues. When we had a response, we were able to tell Cath that it was Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Cath ordered blood tests for this as it's a genetic condition, but the results would take about 3 weeks to come through. This was the first time we were told that Noah may have a limited lifespan, and so Louisa and I left hospital facing the possibility that Noah may not live a full life and, based on her cousin in the UK, may be wheelchair bound for life.

We went home and began thinking about what we could do for wheelchair access in our house, and also began looking for flat house blocks, in case we needed to move and build a house that was wheelchair friendly, as ours isn't. We also went back to the hospital to do a Barium-Swallow test, to check what the feeding issue was. We saw immediately that Noah was unable to protect his airway while feeding and that using thickened food was allowing him to feed properly and not choke. Needless to say, we stayed with thickened food.

We also made a conscious decision to not do any reading on SMA until we had a clear diagnosis. On December 15, 2006, the diagnosis came though, Noah had SMA, type 1. This was when we began reading to find out what it was, and what we could expect.

Louisa and I had been married almost 8 years before we started trying to fall pregnant. Louisa was 28 at the time and I was 34. We were happy that fertility wise, this wasn't too late, but Louisa could feel 30 approaching as we both wanted to start before she reached that. 

We'd waited for this long for a couple of reasons. We'd previously lived in a townhouse where coughing loud would usually draw a complaint from the Neighbours, so we were pretty sure they wouldn't hesitate to complain constantly about the 'excessive' noise of a baby. Also, we wanted to do more work on our relationship to make sure we were working well togeather. Finally, I was never very paternal, not having many neices or nephews around to practice on, so it took me a while to come around. When I married Louisa, I inherited an instant collection of neices and nephews. Also, one of the major factors that helped me was when Louisa's sister-in-law Liz had our neice Zoe. For some strange reason, Zoe took a real shine to me, and how I felt about her took me a long way to being ready to have our own children.  

Having said all this, we both realized that there would never be a perfect time to start a family. I would never feel completely ready, if we waited to pay off more of the house, we could be waiting quite a while and out relationship would never be perfect. So, towards the end of 2005, we decided it was time to start trying. We'd already been reading books and researching, talking about it a lot, and doing as much homework as we could. At the start of 2006, we took a driving holiday up to Port Douglas and, even though we started trying in December, this was our time to relax and really start trying.

It did the trick.

We've had some debate since about whether Louisa fell pregnant in December 2005, or in January 2006 on our trip, but in February 2006, the little home pregnancy test told us that we had been successful. A scan at the Obstetrician showed us a little Jelly Bean that was our Noah. Of course, we called him Bob while he was still 'on the inside'. If anyone asked if we called it bob coz it was a boy, we told them no, it's short for Kate. (Any Blackadder fans will get that one) We found out later on that Louisa had Placenta Previa where, early on the placenta starts to grow very low in the uterus and possibly over, or very close to, the cervix. This can be a problem because if it stays that way later in the pregnancy, it can cause bleeding, and may necessitate a cesarean delivery. Thankfully, in a later scan, it showed that the placenta had moved up as it had grown, so this was not a problem.

Louisa didn't cope terribly well with being pregnant. Early pregnancy can be described as just a set of symptoms. A desire to vomit, a strange desire for foods she didn't usually eat, being turned off by foods she did usually eat etc. The second trimester was the best. Not a lot of physical discomfort, but a real feeling of being happily pregnant. The third trimester was the worst. Noah was a big baby and made Louisa quite uncomfortable. He moved well in the uterus for most of the pregnancy, jabbing limbs into delicate places and sitting on organs that didn't respond well. Louisa put on a lot of weight, and retained a lot of fluid. Her ankles turned into Cankles (no difference between the calf and the ankle) and she became very swollen. Louisa also started to snore like a chainsaw going through a hardwood log. Some nights I moved to a spare room at the other end of the house (yes ACTUALLY the other end of the house), and still had to close the door to reduce the noise level enough to sleep. She really was in a bad way though, and I really don't mind. I only rib her about it because I'm usually the snorer, but I couldn't hold a candle to her effort.

Towards the end of the pregnancy, Noah's movement slowed down dramatically. He would move at times, but he would spend a lot of time not moving which started to concern us. The obstetrician put it down to the fact that he was so big, and could't move much any more, and we thought that sounded reasonable too. His pulse was good and everything else was ok, so we just kept on going and waiting for him to decide to come out. And kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Once Louisa was about 10 days past her due date, it seemed like he needed some coaxing, so just before midnight on Wednesday the 11th October, 2006, we arrived at the Northwest Hospital in Everton Hills so the doctors could see if they could persuade him to get a wriggle on.

We were led into a birthing suite when we arrived, and waited there a while. We were then moved into the waiting lounge as there was a lady coming in who didn't have such a recalcitrant baby. Within the hour, she had arrived, pushed a few times, given birth and had headed off to her room. We were not amused. So we went back in and started on the drips and gels and stuff designed to move the birth along. This didn't really work. Louisa did start to have contractions, and she began to dialate, but nothing more. The doctor decided to break her waters, which in her words was the most painful and horrific thing she had ever gone through. She had words with her mother for not warning her about that. This still didn't help and after about 12-13 hours, the contractions started to become eratic and she had only dialated 2cm. At about 5pm, our obstetrician decided we were going to have to use brute force and so we were whipped upstairs for an emergency cesarean. This went quite well, with no complications, and at around 6:20pm, we had a beautiful big boy Noah, weighing in at 10lb 1oz and 59cm long. I couldn't believe how much I loved him from the first time I saw him.

(to be continued)    

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted here. More than a year now. Referenced in my previous post about Noah was that sufferers of SMA type 1 do not have long life expectancies. This was true for Noah. We lost him on 3rd April, 2007. He passed away peacefully at home with his family around him. He was 5 months and 22 days old. My intention now is to try and put down as many memories as possible of his time with us, and also to reflect on how we are dealing with this almost a year after it happened.

This is not an easy thing to do, but as we spend more and more time without him, the only thing we have of him is memories and photographs. Part of the healing process is to move on, and as you do, you think less and less of the loved one that you have lost. It's likened to a terrible burn that, at first, is all you can think about due to the terrible pain. As time goes on, the pain fades, and you think about the burn less and less, sometimes only when you knock the injury and then the pain flares up again. The problem is that when all you have left is memories, the less you think about the person, the more you feel them slipping away. You are loosing them all over again in a different way. We are trying to make sure we remember him without the pain, and re-live the joy we felt having him. Part of this is to express those feelings, to document them, just like the photographs we have are not of the pain and difficulty he had, but of the joy and emotions he felt. The expressions on his face, and love for us we saw in his eyes.

This is about us remembering Noah, for ourselves, and for others.

Brett.

Online Shops:

http://www.mcas.com.au/ - Motorcycle Accessories Supermarket

http://www.motorcyclemart.com.au/ - Motorcycle Mart

Other Riders:

http://motorcycleparadise.blogspot.com/ - A blog by a fellow Brisbane Rider

Just a quick note on a ride I'm looking at. Medium size, from the northside to Nerang, down through Beechmont, up through Mt Tamborine and Wolffdene and back up the highway to home.

Calcs are:

Taigum to Nerang - 94km ( 61 min)

Nerang to Beechmont - 25km (21min)

Beechmont to Mt Tamborine - 25km (21 min)

Mt Tamborine to Wolffdene - 32km (23 min)

Wolffdene to Taigum - 66km (44 min)

Ride Total: 236km ( 2hrs 50min)

Fuel Stops : 2 x 5 min ( I wee bigger than my fuel tank)

Breakfast : 45 min

 

Allow about 4hrs.

We liked it so much, we had to go again. The next of the sunday morning rides was a fairly quick one to Dayboro. We weren't sure of the weather this time, but it cleared up nicely for us. We were also joined this time by my Brother-in-law, Simon on his Honda CB1300. Again, left at 7am from the BP at Albany Creek, heading north this time. Left into Eatons Crossing Rd, being careful of the fool roadworks just between the corner and the first set of lights. Up to 80 after the lights and scoot up to turn right onto Lilly Rd, where we picked up Simon. We headed up Lilly (which turns into Ira Buckby Rd) and then turned left onto Samsonvale Road at the end.

If you keep going along this road, it will take you through Mt Samson, and you will end up on the Samford/Dayboro Road. We decided to try an alternative and headed right onto Forgan Road. This takes you past Lake Samsonvale and you meet up with Young's Crossing Road. Turn left here, then left at the end of this road and you are on Dayboro Road heading to, surpirse surprise, Dayboro.

Now you need to be careful here. We stopped in Dayboro at the Bakery for a coffee and, if you are like me and trying to reign in an expanding waist line, get one of your mates to buy your coffee for you, because the display cabinets inside will be your undoing:) I managed to hold onto a shred of self control and got out of there with only a small iced bun and my coffee. It's a good place to sit at that time of the day, because it is right across from the turn off to Mt Mee, so on a sunday morning, you can watch the endless stream of machinery and riders heading up the mountain. More than a few of them had the same idea about the coffee and (evil) food, so it's a good place for a chat with other riders too.

Back on the bikes, we headed south out of Dayboro on the road to Samford. More than a few riders comming in the opposite direction gave us some frantic hand signals to slow down, and sure enough, about 5km south of Dayboro, we passed Mr Plod on the side of the road with his cash register flashing the unsuspecting speeders. Of which there were few given the amount of warnings everyone was getting. Anyhow, instead of heading into Samford, we turned left (sharply) onto Winn Rd, then a sharp right onto Clear Mountain Rd. Watch this one, it's not well signed and I would have missed it completely if Simon hadn't taken the lead for this bit. The road over clear mountain is simply fantastic, with incredible scenery and a road surface in quite good condition. It's well worth a run over if you've not done it before. When this road ends at Eatons Crossing Rd, we turned right and headed back in the direction of Samford again. Before getting too far along though, another left into Bunya Rd took us along another one of those roads you just can't believe is so close to the center of Brisbane. I turned off at Ferny Hills, but once you get into the Ferny Hills/Arana Hills area, a left onto the Jinker Track will take you back to Old Northern Rd and you are back at your starting point.

This one all up was only about 70km, and with a reasonable stay at Dayboro, I was back home before 9am. And yes, again I have a 1984 Virago, so this is good time for me:) I'll put a rant in the "Brett on Bikes" section about Good Time vs a Good Time. Anyway, this was a great ride, and made even better by doing it with good company who don't want to set records.  

Who is Noah and why do I have a category for him? Well, Noah is our son, born on 12/10/2006 in Brisbane, Australia. Here is a photo of the little man. I know, cute as hell, but I am a bit Biased. Noah is also special because we know that he will not be with us for long. He has been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), type 1. Life expectancy for sufferers is fairly minimal with a median expected life span less than 12 months. As I write this, he is just shy of 3 months old.

For more infomation, you can look at the following two sites. http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic631.htm is quite a medically oriented article, and http://www.fsma.org/booklet.shtml is a more general overview from the Families of SMA website. 

One of the reasons I've created this category (and this Blog even) is so that my wife and I can put down our thoughts on this situation and try and share our story with others. It's been quite difficult for both of us so far, and it's not going to get better from here. I will try add some more detail with future entries, but for now I just wanted to introduce Noah and include why this Category exists.