 
# Adventures In The Air

**15 high-flying tales of airborne adventure to inspire**

your travelling spirit to soar.

by

Ian Usher

(Please Note: these stories are based on personal experience only, and do not constitute any form of advice. Please make your own decisions, and take responsibility for yourself. I take no responsibility for any travel "adventures" that may result from trying any similar activities.)

All material in this book is adapted from the book  
"A Life Sold" by Ian Usher  
or from the website  
www.100goals 100weeks.com

### Adventures In The Air

Ian Usher

Copyright 2012 by Ian Usher

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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# Contents

Introduction

Paragliding

Microlighting

Skydive wind tunnel

Helicopter

Skydiving

Aerobatic flight

Wingwalking

Skydive Colorado

Helicopter skydive

First solo flight

Nude skydive

Fighter jet

Weightlessness flight

Mile High Club

Night skydive

A Life Sold

Submit your own travel stories for publication...?

More adventure travel books

Excerpt from "A Life Sold"

# Introduction

Hi there.

My name is Ian Usher

In June 2008 I put my life in Perth, Australia, up for sale on eBay! "What will you do after you sell your life?" was one of the commonly-asked questions in many of the interviews I did in the run-up to the auction.

My eventual answer was to create a list of all the things I had ever wanted to do, places I wanted to see, and experiences I wanted to enjoy.

Between August 2008 and July 2010 I travelled the world, with a list of 100 goals, and a self-imposed timeframe of 100 weeks in which to attempt to achieve them.

This collection of stories and events is adapted from that journey, and gives an account of the airborne activities and adventures. My hope is that these tales serve in some small way to provide a little inspiration for you, if you have things that you would like to get out there and see or do.

My best single piece of advice for those looking for adventure, and in need of inspiration? Take the first step. Book your flight, order a book to research you plans, or invite a friend to join you. Whatever it takes to get you started. Because once you take that first step, it is a little easier to take the next step, whatever that may be. The third step is a little easier again, and so on. Just make a start, no matter how small.

There is much more detail on my travels and adventures, as well as a more personal insight into the joys and challenges of travelling for an extended period, in my book, available in both paperback and digital format for the Kindle and other mobile devices.

More details and links here:-

"A Life Sold – What ever happened to that guy who sold his whole life on eBay?"

There are also some other links at the end of this book, including an invite to submit your own tales of travel and adventure for potential inclusion in future similar publications, as well as details of other adventure travel books available from Wider Vision Publishing.

In return for this (hopefully!!) interesting, inspiring and informative content, I would ask one small favour. When you have finished reading I would be extremely grateful if you could take just a minute to provide a short, honest review for it at whatever location you downloaded it from.

Your support is much appreciated.

Happy travels,

Ian

# Paragliding

Fourth goal completed! Paragliding in France.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Today was the second day of my paragliding course in Gourdon, in the south of France. I started first thing on Monday morning, along with five other French guys.

Gourdon is another spectacular French village perched high on a cliff top with an incredible view overlooking Nice and the Mediterranean far below. This morning I arrived with time to spare, and walked up into the village itself. Because it was still early there wasn't another tourist around, and I wandered alone through a village that seemed to be from another century.

Yesterday morning we spent several hours running down a hill, hauling a parachute behind us, and then trudging back up in the heat. After lunch we did this again, but with a little more finesse, and throughout the day our skills improved. By mid-afternoon, as the winds increased, we were making small hops and glides, like baby birds stretching their wings.

This morning we did more practice of the same, which is really to perfect the take-off technique, and then at lunchtime the instructor asked us if we were ready to make our first flights. There were quite a few nervous questions, but we were all keen to have a go. I think we were all just fed up of tromping back up the practice hill in the French summer sun!

So after lunch we headed up the hill to the top, and were all a bit disturbed by both the height, and the strength of the wind. But after watching a couple of others taking off, and as the wind died a bit, we were ready to go.

When it came to my turn I took off pretty much as we were taught, and was soon soaring over the ground far below. I received instructions through my radio, and followed the flight plan, landing triumphantly five minutes later away down the hill.

It was a great experience, although over pretty quickly, and because there were constant instructions and things to think about it was hard to take in the view and the experience fully, but I am going back for more tomorrow!

It is very different to parachuting, as the paragliders are much more responsive to small braking manoeuvres, and are designed to fly further and stay up longer. It was quite disturbing to be so close to the ground at times, but not to be within a second or two of landing.

Without the help of the instructors I imagine I would have overshot the landing area by a significant amount, as my approach would have been way too high!

Unfortunately there were no photos taken of the first flights, we all had too many other things to concentrate on, but I am going again tomorrow, so will hopefully get some pix then.

Below is a link to a YouTube video of some paragliding highlights from my course:-

Paraglide Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQZLnc2-UNA

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#  Microlighting

Microlighting.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Pretty soon after I finished college at Liverpool I got a job as an outdoor activities instructor with British Rail, using climbing, canoeing and a whole range of other outdoor activities to teach their youth trainees skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication and co-operation. It was here that I met my friend Mark, who often brought his Manchester-based trainees to our centre for a week.

We have been friends now for about 20 years (where has all that time gone?) and although we only see each other infrequently, we still have a great friendship based largely on mutual mockery!

Recently Mark took up microlighting, and when I arrived yesterday, we went out to the little airfield where he keeps his machine. Microlighting seemed to me alot like much of the surfing I have experienced, alot of gazing at the prevailing weather conditions, alot of indecision, no actual involvement in the planned sport at all, and at the end of all that, a trip to the pub.

This morning the conditions did not seem to be any different, but Mark was keener to get up in the air, and after about 15 minutes to set the equipment up, helped by Mark's friend Steve, I was strapped in, photographed, and we were off!

There was a pretty good headwind, and we took off surprisingly quickly. We climbed to about 1600 feet, and headed off across country. We flew around a couple of spectacular castles, did a practice emergency landing, and then headed back to the landing area, which was simply a mowed bit of grass in a big field.

It was all great fun, the only bit that gave me any sort of alarm was the approach for landing, when I got a real impression of how quick we were actually going. There was a brief bit of alarmed swearing from me as we approached at speed on a thing that seemed to me to be as flimsy as a bicycle, but the landing was smooth and easy, and before long we were packing away and done. Brilliant! Thanks very much Mark, excellent piloting.

Microlight Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaufN1HT7Y0

Steve, Mark's friend at the microlight club, told me loads of stuff about microlighting, and by the end of our visit to the club, and our short flight, I was pretty hooked on the whole idea of microlighting.

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# Skydive wind tunnel

Goal 17 blows into place - skydive wind tunnel.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I am a fairly regular skydiver, and in the five years or so since my first jump, I have now done about 130 altogether. There are a couple of skydiving goals on my list, and one was to skydive in a vertical wind tunnel.

In Australia there isn't any such facility at all, the nearest one being in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. However, there are plenty of them here in the States, and a small detour on the way back up to LA from San Diego took us to Perris Skydive.

My friend Evan, who did alot of the internet publicity for my "ALife4Sale" website was keen to come along, but when he found out that he could do a real tandem skydive there instead, he lost all interest in the wind tunnel, and we went our separate ways for an hour or so as we both went off to do our respective training.

My problem though was that I had lost my cameraman!! I only have a few pictures of the tunnel itself, and of others in the tunnel before I got in, but none of myself in there at all!

It was a very interesting experience, and is very similar in feel to a skydive, but quite different visually. You have the same feeling of being supported by the air, the same pressure on arms, body and legs, but in a skydive there is so much space around you. Unless you are skydiving with other people it is very difficult to know whether you are falling down straight, or backsliding, or falling slow or fast. But in the tunnel there are walls and windows all around, and they provide a great reference point.

I was pretty pleased with my performance, and managed to stay in the middle without too much difficulty, and very quickly managed a few turns, and a few moves vertically up and down the tunnel.

Each person in the group has a minute then flies to the door and gets out, and the next person gets in. The time goes pretty quick, but you can fit quite alot in, and my second minute was really good fun, as I played with fall-rate and moved quickly up and down the tunnel.

I only had two minutes, at a bargain price of $35, and could have happily done more. I can see how time in the tunnel would be a great skydive training aid, but it is great fun too!

Anyway, as there is no video or pix of my time in the tunnel, here is Evan's first tandem jump. Be warned - he was pretty excited and pumped up after the jump, and there is a bit of a language warning!!!

Evan's First Jump Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Q59_x36u0

This next video shows some of the people in the tunnel just before it was my turn. The instructors are excellent. Hmmm, I wonder how I get a job there....

Wind Tunnel Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyrlU9YO9m0

Big thanks to Evan for a great weekend, and for being there, at least in spirit, for goal 17!

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# Helicopter

Goal 29 - take controls of a helicopter.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I woke early this morning at the backpacker's hostel in Kona, where I had to sneak in quietly last night at around midnight, still wide awake and excited by the evening's activities. When I climbed out of the bed the floor felt like it was swaying slightly - I think I spent a bit too long aboard various swaying vessels yesterday!

I got up and found the TV on quietly in the common room, with only one other person watching the inauguration ceremony for the new president. We sat and watched while the rest of the hostel still slept. My timing was perfect, as I was just in time to watch the last couple of speeches, and then the official swearing-in.

After breakfast I walked up to the main highway with my bags, and stuck my thumb out again, heading back to the airport. I had to wait awhile in the hot sun, but eventually got a lift with Kevin, who took me right to my destination - Mauna Loa Helicopters flight training school.

While I was aboard with Captain Zodiac a couple of days before, I got chatting with Kyle, who was working as first mate aboard the boat. When I asked what had brought him to Hawaii, he told me that he worked full-time as a helicopter instructor, and helped out at the weekends at Captain Zodiac.

"Really?" I said. "A helicopter instructor? Fancy that. One of my goals is to take the controls of a helicopter in flight."

"Really?" he replied. "Maybe we can make that happen. I'll have a word with my boss."

So this morning, after a quick briefing, Kyle took me up on a flight along the coast in a little red Robinson R22 two-seater helicopter. We took off and hovered a couple of feet off the ground at the airport while we waited for clearance, and Kyle bravely let me try to hover the helicopter. He had to step in quickly on the controls a couple of times, as the machine swayed about all over the place, with very little in the way of positive control from me at all.

Once cleared we rose quickly and followed the main highway south, and at 500 feet Kyle handed the controls over to me to try straight-and-level flying, which was a little easier. He still had to step in to make corrections, but as time passed he did so less and less, and I started to get a bit of a feel for it.

I was slightly alarmed when Kyle let go of everything, and picked up my camera and started snapping away, but I concentrated on what I was doing, and seemed to manage okay.

We continued south along the coast with me at the controls for quite a bit of the time, with regular verbal input and occasional manual input from Kyle. At the point where we were due to turn around we found the Captain Zodiac boat near the cliffs, and Kyle flew us around it a couple of times as I filmed and waved.

On the way back Kyle demonstrated a dead-engine landing, and then helped me on the approach to the airport. I tried hovering again, and did slightly better than my first try, but it is quite alarming how quickly the thing can get out of hand. One over-correction and it is all over the place, with Kyle quickly having to sort out my mess.

What a brilliant experience. Huge thanks to Kyle, who was incredibly cool and patient, and also to Mauna Loa Helicopters, who offered me the opportunity at a very competitive rate.

Helicopter Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8IcZo_s3cA

So this brings my time on The Big Island to an end, as I am now sat at the airport itself, just along the road from the helicopter school, waiting for my flight back to Oahu. I have had an extraordinary time here, and have experienced so much here in such a short time. Much of it is thanks to Debbie, her wonderful organisation, and her initial contact with Becky at the Big Island Tourism Bureau.

I still continue to be amazed, excited and immensely grateful for the way things just seem to work out so well for me. For example, the set of connections that today led to achieving Goal 28 started with Debbie's interest in my goals way back in June. I then got to meet her in Oregon, and achieve a couple of goals with her help. She happens to have lived in Hawaii, and made some enquiries here on my behalf. This led her to Becky, who I did not even meet. Becky arranged, among other things, a trip on Captain Zodiac's boat, which wasn't one of my goals, but sounded like great fun. On the boat one of the staff just happens to be a helicopter instructor, and in our random chat this came up! And he had some free time just hours before I am due to fly out. Wonderful!

And of course, thanks again also to all the people I have met in this beautiful place. I love it here, and I am sure I will be back sometime soon.

Aloha!

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* * *

# Skydiving

Back in the air, but no skydiving goals achieved yet...

Monday, March 16, 2009

Skydiving has been my hobby of choice for quite a few years now. I did my first freefall jump on my birthday back in 2003, and since then have progressed slowly, doing about 130 jumps over the years.

Progress has been slow compared to many of the people at the club I go to, I think partly due to financial reasons, but mainly due to other distractions. Alot of people that started jumping long after me are now way beyond me in terms of number of jumps, and ability, because once they got started they got hooked, and all money and most weekends are then dedicated to skydiving. They are almost always there every time I visit the club.

I have never been like this. I really enjoy the sport, and the thrill is beyond compare, but once I have been for a weekend, I feel satisfied for a couple of months, and often don't feel the urge to go back for quite a while. It is almost like I have had the fix of adrenaline that I needed.

But because of my recent travels it has now been about 8 months since I last jumped, and have been keen to get back in the air. My last jumps were in July last year, and I wrote about that here, and before that, because of ALife4Sale, my previous jumps were in February 2008.

So, with only four jumps in the last twelve months, I approached this weekend with alot of excitement, and more than a little trepidation.

So, with my reserve parachute re-packed (it has to be done every six months), I packed my gear and headed east out of Perth to York, where the dropzone is situated.

The next morning, after a quick refresher training session I was on the first load heading for 14,000 feet! I was a little nervous as the plane climbed higher, but as soon as the door was open, and I climbed out, the nerves all went away and I loved every second of it!

The rest of the day was brilliant. I did four more jumps, including at the end of the day, my first ever 8-way, eight people in freefall together. There were quite a few of us who were relatively inexperienced, and it was a bit of a mess, but great fun!

I did two more jumps on Sunday morning, almost wiping out a friend in freefall on the first one, a bit of a lesson there!

All in all, a brilliant weekend. I had my video camera on my helmet for all the jumps, and the following video is just a few highlights from the weekend. There is also some footage from another cameraman, who filmed the 8-way from above (thanks Doug). In his footage I can be seen in the bright red suit joining the formation fifth.

Skydiving Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7RQQ8siiKg

It is fantastic to be jumping again, but as yet I haven't made any progress with my three skydiving goals, which are:-

Night Skydive

Nude Skydive

Skydive from either a helicopter of balloon

But I still have plenty of time yet. More to follow soon, I imagine...

Skydiving goals proving to be elusive!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter weekend seemed like an ideal time to go and try to achieve a skydiving goal, but I hadn't taken into account the fact that the dropzone out at York had organised a big weekend event covering the whole four days, and people had arrived from all over the country to jump there.

The place was packed, and when I arrived on Saturday morning, the manifest board was already filling fast, so I put my name down for one of the empty slots on a load scheduled for about an hour later.

I tracked down the other jumpers on the load, but they were all doing stuff beyond my level of ability, so I was going to have to jump alone, which was a shame, as I much prefer jumping with others.

The jump went okay, and I had fun doing a couple of summersaults and spins, but under canopy it was pretty windy, and I was buffeted about a bit. I misjudged the approach for landing, and went a bit far downwind, and got caught in the turbulence from some trees as I neared the ground.

The parachute got pushed over hard to the right, and dropped quickly, and I thought I might end up in one of the trees, but I managed to keep control, and gently steered to the left, and managed a well-controlled gentle landing.

I was pretty proud of my reactions under a bit of pressure, as things could have ended much more painfully! A couple of the others had also had trouble near the ground, and a few of us elected not to jump anymore until the winds dropped off a bit.

However, there were alot of more experienced jumpers still happy to keep jumping, and it wasn't long until it was announced that all loads for the rest of the day were fully booked!! And it wasn't even lunchtime!

My plan had been to do a few more jumps during the rest of the day, and then in the bar in the evening I hoped to round up a few people to do a nude jump the next morning. But with a whole afternoon to hang around, and no jumping slots available, I decided to give up and head for home, and use the time a little more productively.

Maybe next weekend, when things are a little quieter at the dropzone!

Easter Skydiving Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq1PA90WVhE

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# Aerobatic flight

Aerobatics.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Back in July last year, just after the "ALife4Sale" auction had completed, my next door neighbour, Fiona, mentioned that she knew a doctor at work who regularly went flying, and had offered to take me up for a flight, if I would like to. Of course I would!

I got in touch with Rob, and we made some tentative arrangements, but both had pretty busy schedules at the time. Unfortunately in the month that I had left before setting off on my travels in early August, we never managed to find a mutually suitable date, and the flight never happened.

So on my return to Perth recently, I got in touch with Rob again, and we made arrangements to meet up and go for a flight this morning. The weather forecast for Saturday was a bit poor, and it rained a bit yesterday. I hoped our flight would not have to be cancelled, but this morning was fine and bright with no wind whatsoever.

I rode the motorbike down the almost empty freeway in beautiful warm weather, really looking forward to the day. When we had planned our flight Rob had asked, "Do you want a nice scenic tour of the coast, or would you like to try some aerobatics?"

"Aerobatics!" had been my instant response. "I hoped you might say that," Rob had replied, sounding pleased.

So I met Rob at the Royal Aero Club at Jandacot, just south of the city at 9 o'clock, and after Rob completed the necessary paperwork, we went out to inspect our plane, a Cessna 152 Aerobat.

With everything checked out we were soon off down the runway and airborne, and we flew south, parallel to the coast, looking for my old house, having promised Fiona that we would do a couple of low circuits around the suburb.

We found Wellard pretty easily, and I soon picked out the house, being familiar with how it would look from the air from studying Google Maps. It was the first time I have seen the house since walking out the door back in August last year, and it was an interesting way to see the place again. Despite having been in Perth for about two months now, and having passed fairly close by on the freeway a few times, I have had no desire to go back past the house at all - it really does now feel like a part of my life that has been put behind me.

After a couple of laps of the house we headed out into the large training area, where Rob had explained that we had plenty of airspace to play around in safety. After a quick check to make sure there was no other aircraft nearby, Rob put the little plane into a dive, and then pulled up into a loop. Wow!! It was brilliant, and the dial on the instrument panel said we had pulled 4G.

We followed up with four more stomach churning stunts, completing the five basic aerobatic manoeuvres, which are:-

Loop

Stall Turn

Barrel Roll

Aileron Roll

Spin

It was absolutely awesome, and at the bottom of the first spin we did I experienced something I have only heard of before, as my vision started to darken almost to black as we pulled out of the dive, as blood struggled to reach my brain. As soon as the g-force dropped off my vision came back almost immediately.

After trying out the set of five manoeuvres Rob asked how I was feeling, and what I wanted to do next. "More of that," I said. "Can we string a few of them together?" and Rob happily threw the plane into some more wild stunts. Absolutely fantastic!

When time ran out we headed inland and followed the hills northwards, passing over a friend's house in the bush, before heading back to the airfield to land.

Aerobatic Flight Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38pcctvguKc

Back at Rob's house we had coffee, and Rob suggested we go out to his shed, where he said he had a couple of things I might be interested in. I was amazed. In his garage, which is converted into a fully fitted out workshop, he has the fuselage, tail, and one wing of a 1930's designed plane that he is hand-building from wood. It is a Pietenpol Aircamper, and Rob keeps an online diary of his progress here:

 Rob's Pietenpol Progress

He has been working on this for four years now. How long until it's finished? "Another four or five years - depends on the finances." Rob answered. And I thought my 100weeks project was a long-term goal!!

"Oh, that's nothing," Rob explained. "This is just practice for the main project. While I am waiting for some parts for the Aircamper, I have made a start on the next plane, which is a full-size, 2-seater, wooden-framed WWII Spitfire, which will have an engine as powerful as the original Spitfires, and should perform about the same too!"

What is the planned build time for that one? "Twenty five years, again depending on finances!" Wow!

More info on the design of the Spitfire that Rob is building here:

Spitfire Aircraft Company Ltd.

Many thanks again to Rob for an awesome day. It really has given me further inspiration and enthusiasm for my goals of learning to fly myself, and for taking a flight in a MIG jet-fighter.

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* * *

# Wingwalking

Goal 48 - WingWalking.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

My early accident on Colin's Wall Of Death last weekend could have been much worse! The first attempt ended with me sliding down the rickety wooden wall which is filled with rusty nails and dodgy screws, and yet a bit of a graze on my arm was the only injury sustained.

Colin reckoned I was relatively unscathed only because I was wearing the safety tie that he had insisted on, and suggested that for any further dangerous activities, wearing the tie might be a wise choice.

So before climbing up onto the top wing Boeing Stearman PT17 Kaydet biplane, I made sure I was appropriately attired. Pilot Mike told me I would be his first-ever tie-wearing customer!

WingWalking UK is based at a small airfield on the east side of London, and it had taken me about an hour and a half to get there around the M25. It was a busy place, as there was a big gathering of kiteboarders there, flying kites and boarding around on the grass on wheeled boards.

I met Mike and after a very quick briefing I was up onto the top wing, and was strapped in. As we trundled over to the runway I nervously checked the straps again - they felt good and tight, but there didn't seem to enough of them for my liking.

As soon as we got a clear runway Mike gave me a shout, and we were off. Almost as soon as the plane took off, Mike banked it over to the right, and we swooped in low over the airfield.

We went through a routine of turns and swoops, and I was amazed at how low to the ground we passed over the field. Mike later told me that he is licenced to fly as low as 30 feet during a display. It felt very quick being so close to the ground.

Towards the end of the sequences, we went up to about 500 feet, and Mike dived the plane towards the runway, gathering speed, and then pulled up into a climb and another dive - it was like being on a huge rollercoaster.

The whole display lasted about 10 to 15 minutes, and I could have happily stayed up there for much longer, it really was quite an incredibly free feeling. And what an incredible position to to be too.

It was quite similar to the thrill of a skydive, but for a more extended period. By the end I was feeling pretty relaxed and confident.

Afterwards Mike presented me with a certificate, and I hung around to watch the next person's flight. It was fantastic to be right under the plane as it flew over at speed just 30 feet above.

Take a look at the video of my flight here:-

WingWalking Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvls4VLef0

Many thanks to pilot Mike from WingWalking UK, what a fantastic experience!

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* * *

# Skydive Colorado

Relaxing in Colorado.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

After finishing the "7 Peaks in 7 days" challenge I had a couple of spare days before meeting my friend Andrew, also from Australia and also travelling around the States at the moment. As I was due to pick him up at Denver airport, Val and Brenda suggested that I could stay with them an extra day or two and relax a bit.

Their friend Kris, who I had met at the BBQ before we went off climbing, offered to show me around a bit, and we had a great afternoon driving around with the top of her convertible Saab down, through the beautiful Garden of the Gods, and took a tour around the fantastically situated house, Glen Eyrie.

Kris has faced some significant challenges in her life, and does some motivational speaking, and I was keen to hear more of her inspirational story, and quiz her a bit on how she got started on the speaking circuit. What a great afternoon!

More about Kris here:

Kris Harty

Kris dropped me off as Val finished work, and the next activity really caused me to wonder about the nature of relaxation here in Colorado. Val had suggested trying out The Incline, where locals go for a bit of exercise, and I thought it sounded like a good idea!

The incline is an incredibly long and incredibly steep climb up the remains of an old cog railway. All that is left now are the wooden sleepers (or ties, as they are called here). Val's target time was around 35 minutes, as he is a regular at this, and comes a couple of times a week. At the start of the climb we bumped into Laura, who had joined us on a couple of peaks over the previous week, and her training partner.

As soon as we started I found myself at the back of the group, with Buddy, Val's dog, occasionally running back down to me to see how I was doing, and encourage me onward.

The climb was long and tough, and I was panting hard all the way, but pushed myself on. The false summit before the end is a bit of a heart-breaker, but I was very proud, despite being the slowest of our group, to achieve a respectable time of 43 minutes on my first attempt. I am certainly fitter than I was a week ago.

Unfortunately, Andrew's plans had to change, and family circumstances meant he had to fly back to Australia at short notice, so I changed my plans a little too. Val was planning a surprise party for Brenda the next day, and suggested that I should stay for that.

He also mentioned that it was Labor Day Weekend, and the Colorado Balloon Classic was on in the local park.

We were up early the next morning, and taking me to see the hot air balloons gave Val the perfect excuse to get Brenda out of the house for a while, so her family members could get into the house and prepare their surprise.

Weather prevented the balloons from taking off, but the sight of them all inflated ready to go was quite spectacular.

Brenda's reaction was fantastic when she discovered her family from all over the country in her front room. Val had done a great job of getting everyone organised, and Brenda had had no idea that something was going on.

In the evening more friends arrived, and I enjoyed catching up again with many of the people who had joined us on one or more of the peaks. Val and Brenda's nephew Matt was also celebrating his birthday, and was keen to go skydiving, and before long, Val, Eric and his wife Jackie had also decided they would go and jump the next day. I rang the dropzone, and confirmed that I would be able to hire gear there and jump too, and we had an enthusiastic group organised.

This morning we were off fairly early, and at the Canon City dropzone, once my paperwork was checked, and everyone trained for their jumps, we were into the plane and off. I had to sit by the open door, which was slightly nerve-wracking, and my first jump was from 4,000 feet. Also on board were Matt and Val, and their tandem masters. At my exit height I had no room to do anything but roll out the door, and after about 8 seconds of freefall I pulled my chute, and enjoyed the flight down.

On the ground I was given a second parachute, and along with Jackie and Eric, headed back to the plane, meeting the first jumpers as they landed. Matt's face was a picture of excitement, and he had obviously thoroughly enjoyed his first jump.

Back in the plane, now with a lighter load of fuel, I could go to maximum height with Eric and Jackie, and had brought along my small camera that fits in a glove on my left hand. The video from it is okay, but as my left hand also had the altimeter in it, and is used to steer the canopy too, some of the video is a bit shaky.

Skydive Colorado Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSX_bjPrlw0

It was fantastic to get back in the air again, and also good to be a little more current, as I have a few skydive goals to attend to soon. The last jump I did was back at Easter in Perth.

Well done to Matt, Val, Eric and Jackie. What a fantastic day, and all organised at the last minute at a party the night before. That's relaxation Colorado-style!

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# Helicopter skydive

Goal 60 - helicopter skydive.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

I had to be in Beverly Hills yesterday morning at 11am for another casting agency interview. When I saw a similarly full room to the previous morning my hopes faded, but when I had a brief one-on-one interview, things looked much more positive. I now have to go back in on Monday morning for a follow-up, and to have some photos taken - I will update you as things progress.

However, my plans have now had to change a little. I took the RV into Beverley Hills yesterday, and parking it proved to be a bit of a challenge! After that, I drove out to Lake Elsinore, where Skydive Elsinore is located, and am staying here for a couple of nights, but plans to head onwards down to San Diego have been cancelled, or at least postponed for now.

I got to the dropzone yesterday afternoon, and by the time I got paperwork sorted out it really wasn't worth hiring a rig for the rest of the afternoon, so happily watched the action.

It is the biggest and busiest skydive meet I have ever been to, and is largely aimed at female skydivers, as the event is called "Chicks Rock!", although there are also plenty of guys here to jump. They were running three large planes yesterday, and had a big meal and 70s theme party in the evening. Today they ran two planes and a helicopter too.

So this morning I had to get up early and join the queue to hire a parachute for the day, and then wait for the helicopter jumps to start. There was a bit of a mix up initially, as we were booked on in groups of four, and the helicopter could only take three people at a time. However, in the re-shuffle I was bumped up from load 9 to load 5, and geared up when the time came.

The helicopter was pretty small, with open sides, and I squeezed in behind the pilot, the other couple taking the two left seats. We took off, and the small machine climbed pretty quickly, and it didn't seem very long before we were above 4,000 feet and the pilot gave us a two minute warning.

I was first to exit, and when given the go-ahead, climbed out of the door and stood on the skid. I gave the others a quick nod and tried to take in the experience, but couldn't hesitate too long. I jumped backwards, and watched the helicopter appear to accelerate upwards as I fell away from it.

It is quite a different experience to jumping from a plane, as at first there is no wind, and before you pick up speed you really have very little control over how you fall. And the feeling of falling from a stand-still is quite intense. As I gathered speed though the familiar feel came back, and after a very short freefall I threw the pilot chute and once the parachute was open, got my bearings and made a pretty good landing on the narrow landing area.

My little digital stills camera is not an ideal skydive video camera, but as a home-made glove-cam fastened into a modified glove on my left hand, does manage to capture some pretty good video. Take a look at Goal # 60 being achieved:-

Helicopter Skydive Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb1JFprpUtY

Later in the day I did a couple of jumps from the plane at 12,500 feet, which was fun. Chatting with a few of the other helicopter jumpers later, I discovered, somewhat ironically, that Perris Skydiving, just down the road, where I tried out their wind-tunnel last year, has someone who organises skydives from a hot air balloon. Well, my US funds are a bit tight now, but if I manage to sell the RV in time, I might just see if I can fit a balloon jump in too before I leave the States at the end of the month! We'll see. But I am elated to have achieved this goal in such a great place.

Many thanks to all at Elsinore for making me so welcome.

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# First solo flight

Expecting to fly.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I have always been interested in flying, and it has long been a dream of mine to have my own plane, and be able to fly when and where I want. The first step towards this is to actually learn how to fly, and for my 100 weeks flying goal, my aim is to fly a plane on my first solo flight.

While in Port Elizabeth about a month ago, through helicopter pilot John, I met flight instructor Gerhard, and when we chatted about my goals and travels, he became quite enthusiastic, and offered to help out with this goal.

He reckons he can get me flying solo without too many formalities, and with only a few hours of lessons. I have done a bit of flying of gliders before, and did manage to fly a couple of solo circuits, and this gave Gerhard some confidence in my potential.

So from Rio I booked a flight which took me to Sao Paulo in Brazil, and from there to Johannesburg in South Africa, and a final short hop down to Port Elizabeth on the coast. I settled back into the same hostel I was in last time I was here, and gave Gerhard a call.

Unfortunately the next day the weather was cloudy and windy, and Gerhard suggested that we put off our first flight for a day or so. so after an easy day, I met up with couchsurfing contact Karl in the afternoon. Unfortunately Karl is unable to host me at the moment, but was happy to take me for a quick tour of Port Elizabeth, including the new football stadium, in the final stages of preparation for the forthcoming soccer World Cup.

The next day I had to get a couple of passport photos for my Student Pilot Licence, and Gerhard had booked me in for a medical exam. A trip to the hospital for a chest x-ray thinned my wallet down, and after a very thorough medical, I had to make another trip to the cashpoint machine to pay the hefty bill!

At least I got a full, clean bill of health, apart from my eyesight, for which I need a new prescription, again! Not long now, I think, until I have to wear lenses and carry reading glasses too. Oh dear!

Afterwards I spoke again to Gerhard, and once again weather was causing problems for a first flight, so once again I am on hold, hoping to fly tomorrow.

Taking to the skies.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

I was woken early by my phone. Gerhard said that the weather looked much better, and would pick me up in about twenty minutes. After finishing the final details of my Student Pilot Licence application, and sending it off, we headed to the airport, and after a detailed initial briefing, we were off. Our plane for the day was "Delta Tango Uniform", a tiny two-seater Cessna 150.

After being allowed to taxi a very weaving course to the runway, Gerhard did all of the two-way radio stuff, and accelerated for the take off, but once airborne he pretty soon handed the controls over to me again, and I was flying!

There was alot to take in initially, and like learning any new skill, it seems a little overwhelming at first. We did a couple of circuits, coming back in to touch-down on the runway, before applying power, and taking off again. As time progressed Gerhard handed more and more control over to me, and simply talked me through the proceedures, and I managed a couple of good landings on my own. We managed to fit six circuits into the first lesson.

We took a break for lunch, and afterwards we flew for another hour, with the responsibility for the radio being handed over to me too. Driving the mining trucks in Australia served me well here, as much of the radio procedure is somewhat similar, with verbal confirmation of everything said being required.

By the end of the second hour I was doing most of the flying, and confidence was growing. Landings were improving too, and Gerhard seemed pretty confident that I would get to go solo if the weather holds up for the next couple of days.

At the time it is a bit hard to remember to actually enjoy yourself, as there is so much to concentrate on, but it was an absolutely fantastic day, and I really feel I progressed well. It is fun to learn with Gerhard too, as he seems as keen on helping me to achieve my goal as I am to do so!

In the evening Gerhard had suggested I should go along to the local cinema, as it was half-price-night, and he thought "Amelia!", the story of intrepid pilot Amelia Earhart, might still be playing. Unfortunately it was no longer showing, and I had to make do with "The Wolfman".

Tricky landings.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

My second day of landings was pretty windy, but Gerhard suggested we should still go up and see how I managed. He wanted to take me out to the training area, away from the main airport, where there is a smaller grass strip, where we could practice more touch and go landings and take-offs.

The lesson was intense, but fantastic fun! After a buffety flight over to the training area we came in for our first landing on the grass strip, and Gerhard demonstrated the approach and landing. It all looked quite alarming, as there is a steep bank leading up to the touch-down point, and approach has to be quite accurate.

After touchdown we were off again, and into my first couple of circuits. These were fairly leisurely, as there was another plane doing the same thing, and we had to follow him around. But once he left we had the strip to ourselves, and Gerhard had me flying tight, fast circuits.

Almost as soon as we had left the runway, Gerhard would have me bank round to the left and straight onto downwind leg, level out, turn onto base leg, and then turn again for final approach. He let me do a couple of full circuits, hardly saying a word, and just giving a couple of pointers on landing - I am leaving my rounding out at the end a little too late, which I need to correct.

It was great fun, and I especially enjoyed taking off and banking round at low level. Time seemed to go very quickly, as I was concentrating so hard. and as we flew back over Port Elizabeth to the main airport my hands ached from gripping the steering controls too hard.

I can't wait to get back out there again tomorrow! This is one of the most challenging, most exciting and most fun things I have ever tried!

The best pub in the world.... possibly!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Once again, if I needed proof that it is almost always best to say "Yes" to unexpected invites and offers, last night was a great example. After drinking far too much beer while in Rio for Carnival, I have since had a week off, and have had no beer at all while here in Port Elizabeth.

But helicopter pilot and backpacker hostel owner John invited me to join him and girlfriend Angela, and helicopter buddy Martin for a "bit of a sing-along". I had no idea what this involved, but I was hoping it would be at a pub, as cold beer would be most welcome after a dry week.

But I was slightly disappointed as we parked up in what looked like a quiet residential area. It looked like we were going to a friend's house, and approaching the front door I wondered if we should have brought our own beer. But once through the door, I was very pleasantly surprised, as the once-upon-a-time residential home had been converted into a fully fitted-out pub.

The place was fantastic. "Toni's Place" reminded me very much of the first home I built in Australia, very similar in style, but everything was set up to host large crowds. The bar was in the living room, a food servery in the dining room, and the main room and back garden blended together into one large, open area. Out in the garden there was a large open fire pit, and through the night a big fire blazed away.

There was a stage set up, and tonight was an open mic night, where John would be one of the performers. If only I was a bit better with the harmonica, I could have joined in, but I still have some work to do before tackling that goal yet. They had mixing desks, computers, and video cameras, all-in-all a very professional set-up.

There were a couple of great performers, and John too was on early, and did very well indeed. As the evening progressed more people played and sang, and the pub filled up. It was just like being at a big house party.

At one point I said to Angela, "This is why I like hanging around with locals whenever I travel. I bet not many backpackers know about this place, or get to come here."

"There are quite a few locals that don't know about this place too!" she laughed.

Well done John, great performance. A wonderful, timely reminder that I must get on with the harmonica!

Goal 80 - "...and there you will always long to return."

Saturday, February 27, 2010

" _When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."_

Leonardo da Vinci

This morning was beautiful, and the winds were light, but as I waited for my fourth flying lesson, the winds picked up a little, and were blowing across the main runway.

Gerhard had had me do a few circuits around the main airport, then happy that I seemed to be doing okay, we detoured onto a much wider circuit, and headed for the coast. Gerhard took the controls, and dived towards the sea, levelling out just above the surface, then handed control back to me.

We flew along at around fifty feet, just skimming along above the surface of the sea, and Gerhard let me pick my own route, following the coast line closely, passing over rocky shores and breaking waves. At the lighthouse at Africa's most south-easterly point, we banked round to the right, and continued along the coast. It was an absolutely incredible experience, and exactly what I had hoped flying would be like. I think I am hooked!

The cross wind was a bit strong to allow mw to fly solo, so we agreed to meet again in the early evening to see if conditions had improved. At around 6pm the winds were much lighter, and we went out and did three circuits, after which Gerhard had me land to a complete stop, and we taxied in off the runway. Gerhard climbed out, and with a last few words of advice, it was the moment of truth!

I called the tower and headed back out onto the taxiway, and lined up on the runway. The takeoff went without a hitch, and the plane climbed much faster with just one person aboard. I turned right and levelled out at 1,200 feet, and turned onto the downwind leg and made my radio call. One more turn onto base leg, some flaps and get the nose down to maintain 70 mile per hour. A last turn onto final approach, more flaps, another radio call, and then concentrate on throttle, speed, distance, and approach. All went very smoothly, just as I had been taught, and I rounded out nicely, touched down with a bit of a bump, and taxied back off the runway.

I hadn't really had much time to enjoy the view, but it had been a beautiful evening, with the sun setting to the west, and a full moon rising to the east. I was too busy furiously concentrating on what I needed to do to get around the circuit and back down safely!

I didn't dare tell Gerhard that I had quickly managed to take some video while taxiing, and on the downwind leg!!

Learn To Fly Video link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqWhgkV494Y

What a truly fantastic feeling. What a huge thrill, and what a proud achievement. I had gone solo at around five hours of flying time, and I was extremely pleased with myself. Gerhard and his wife Yvette seemed almost as thrilled as I was, and Yvette had made a wonderful certificate for me.

This has certainly been one of the highlights of the 80 goals achieved so far, and I owe huge, HUGE thanks to Gerhard for making this happen in such a short time frame. I think we have both equally enjoyed the challenge though. Thanks to Yvette too, and also John and his staff a Helicharter Backpackers.

I don't think this one is over yet, I suspect I might be back here one day soon to finish what I have started! I am definitely hooked!

For anyone thinking of flying lessons, I can almost guarantee that it will be cheaper to come down to South Africa for a few weeks and learn at Madiba Bay School of Flight than it will be to do lessons wherever you live! It cost me under US $1,000 to go solo! Fantastic!!

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# Nude Skydive

Goal 81 - Dangling in the breeze!!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

I have been skydiving on an irregular basis for over six years now, and have done around 140 jumps in total. I still get a big thrill from it, but do not tend to go regularly enough to progress too much in terms of skills.

At around 100 jumps many people try a nude skydive. I am not really sure why, other than the usual "because it's there" sort of reason. It is something that has been on a mental to-do list somewhere in the back of my mind, and somehow it got added to the list of 100 goals as it was first written out.

And so as I am back in Perth for a while, and my own skydive gear is here, I decided to make a concerted effort to get another goal ticked off. I rode the motorbike over to the dropzone at York yesterday evening, and over a few beers with a couple of the other early arrivals, tried to recruit a few others to my cause.

I put up an open invite on the cafe door, suggesting anytime mid to late-afternoon on Saturday might be the best time for the jump, hopefully the warmest part of the day.

I did a couple of refresher jumps in the morning and early afternoon, and late in the afternoon, as the last of the tandem skydive customers headed home, four of us gathered to plan our jump. Joining me would be Skydive Express staff members (no pun intended!) Split and Thommo, and parachute packer Crumb. As is often the case at skydive clubs, I have known a couple of these guys for several years, and have no idea what their real names are!

Our jump was going to be the last of the day, and I was extremely grateful to business owner and pilot John for flying the extra load.

We geared up, and to avoid any offence to any remaining customers and their families we wore shorts to get down to the plane. There were only the four of us aboard, and we quickly got to 14,000 feet, and when we got the orange light, and opened the door, it was pretty chilly.

We had all sorts of grand plans for our exit and jump routine, but with no jumpsuit, control in the air is very tricky, and we messed the exit up badly. When we all let go to try to sort it out the two bigger guys (and by that I mean body mass, nothing else!) fell away quickly, and the new slim, lightweight me could simply not catch up to them at all.

Eventually we all had to separate and open our 'chutes, and fly down to land. Beer was already waiting for us, from the carton I would be required to put on at the bar, as is customary for any new first skydive achievement or event.

Here's a video (on my own website, because it was banned on YouTube!!) of the whole sordid, messy affair....

Nude Skydive Video link:-

http://www.100goals100weeks.com/xtras/video/61-NudeSkydive.mpg

Thanks to the others who took part, Thommo, Split and Crumb, to Camilla on camera duty, and to Johno and the rest of the fantastic team at Skydive Express. Time to go and celebrate with a beer or two, as there is a carton of beer waiting on the bar. Cheers!!

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# Fighter jet

Three goals in one day! Goals 85, 86 and 87.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

When planning a couple of the more expensive goals on the list, I ran into a few problems. Initially I had planned to go to Russia to experience a weightlessness flight, and a flight in a MiG fighter jet. However, I ran into two problems. The first was that the flight in a MiG cost anywhere between $12,000 and $16,000, depending on the package chosen. Without a book deal signed yet, and without having done a stroke of work for over two years now, finances will no longer stretch to this, so it was back to the drawing board.

The second issue was that the plane that the Russians use for the weightlessness flights is currently out of commission, and not expected back into service until October!

So it was back to Google Search, where eventually I discovered Howard Chipman, and his Florida-based company Aurora Aerospace. Howard operates weightlessness flights in his Rockwell 700, and also has an L-39 fighter jet trainer, and offers a flight in this as an add-on to the weightlessness adventure.

After a few emails back and forth we worked out a date, and this morning Moe and I turned up at the St. Petersburg/Clearwater airport, where we eventually found Chip and his partner Veronique, and started preparations for my L-39 jet flight.

Goal 85 - Fighter Jet Flight

While not quite a MiG, the Czech-built L-39 is a fighter jet used by many airforces around the world as a trainer for the MiG, and has many similar characteristics. It is a beautiful, sleek machine.

Kitted out with flight suit and a helmet, I was briefed and we headed out to the plane. In the cockpit I had a further briefing, and paid particular attention to how the ejector seat worked. I kept my hands well away from the big red handles.

The L-39 sounds just as good as it looks when the jet fires up, and we powered up and taxied out to the runway. Takeoff was fast and smooth, and the climb to height was impressively quick.

After a few easy turns Chip handed the controls over to me, and I tried a few turns. The controls were light and responsive, and it seemed very easy to turn quickly. We moved on to rolls, and after a couple of demos, I managed a reasonably satisfactory effort, followed by a much more confident roll. The plane handled so well, and was such fun.

We did a couple of stalls, and a steep climb to a stall called a tail slide, which results in a spectacular fall into a steep dive.

As we headed back Chip asked what else we should do, and I asked him to show me what the plane was capable of. Wow! He threw us around the sky through a series of linked manoeuvres that was like the fastest rollercoaster ever. The G-meter in the cockpit showed maximums of +4.1G and -0.5G, which Chip seemed very pleased with.

We finished with a low pass along the beach, dropping down to around 200 feet, and then did a fast low pass over the airport, followed by a steep final climb. What a stunning experience the whole flight was.

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# Weightlessness flight

Goal 86 - Weightlessness Flight

After lunch Moe and I were briefed for the weightlessness flight by Veronique, who would be our instructor and assistant. We were flying in a Rockwell 700, apparently one of only 30 of these planes still flying. It was carpeted and fitted out very nicely, but almost completely stripped of everything in the rear for floating around in.

The weightlessness flight involves taking the plane up to height, putting it into a dive to build up speed, then pulling it back into a very steep climb. The G-force at the bottom is around 2G. At the top of the climb the plane is pushed over towards another dive, and at the top of the parabola, there is a period of zero gravity for around 10 seconds.

I went first, and tried a sitting position, then kneeling on the second parabola. Lying flat on my front, and then on my back were fun, and the next two I tried with a couple of other small objects floating, and releasing some water from a water bottle, which was fantastic. The final parabola was a summersault, assisted by Veronique.

I strapped myself back into my seat, and it was Moe's turn. Looking out of the window, I was amazed at the incredibly steep angle of climb. And then watching Moe seem to magically lift off the floor of the plane was amazing. I hadn't really appreciated how odd it must look when I was doing it. She followed the same progression, and it was very entertaining to watch.

For the last couple of parabolas we got to lay together and float up at the same time. Once again, what an extraordinary and incredible experience.

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# Mile High Club

Goal 87 - Mile High Club

Although not one of the usual experiences on offer, Chip agreed to fly straight and level at around five and a half thousand feet for 15 minutes or so, and with the curtain to the cockpit closed, goal 87 was achieved too, in much more comfort and luxury than the more common commercial airliner lavatory location. No further details or description needed or available for this goal, I'm afraid!

On the return to the airport, we discovered that the excitement of the day wasn't quite over, as one of the three landing wheel lights refused to come on. We didn't know if the wheel hadn't come down, or if it hadn't locked into place, or if the light was at fault. A test of the light indicated that all was fine there, the problem was more serious. Chip told us that a gear-up landing may be necessary, but that people "usually walked away from them"!!

Eventually the problem was resolved by some sort of manual back-up system, but the landing was a little tense, and Chip put the Rockwell down very lightly, putting as much of the landing impact on the right wheel, not the suspect left one, and all went well. The whole incident was dealt with incredibly calmly and professionally, and Moe and I felt very much at ease in such capable hands.

What an incredible day! Huge thanks to Howard and Veronique at Aurora Aerospace for their incredibly professional and friendly service. What an amazing couple, very inspiring. Thanks too to Moe for being a wonderful partner on these goals. One in particular I couldn't have achieved on my own!

After a quick shower we met again with Cari, and her husband Mart for a lovely celebratory Thai dinner at the lovely little restaurant right next to our hotel. The perfect end to a brilliant day.

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# Night skydive

Goal 91 - Black night.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

It was supposed to be a full moon, but thick clouds had darkened the horizon, and looking out of the window of the little plane, everything appeared ominously black. There was a little light left on the horizon where the sun had set behind the mountains about forty minutes earlier.

It had been an eventful and tiring day at the dropzone, and most of the staff and customers had already had a few beers. By the time 9pm came around, I was the only skydiver that hadn't been drinking, and along with Skip, the pilot, who had also remained sober, I was the only person on board the little Cessna.

Being the only jumper tonight was good, in that I didn't need to worry about other canopies in the air at the same time as me. One of the biggest dangers of jumping at night is two jumpers not seeing each other, and getting wrapped up together. But the down side of being alone in the plane was that there is nobody else to share the ride to height, to laugh and chat with, and to dispel the nerves.

But with just Skip and myself on board the plane climbed to height very quickly, and as I fiddled with my camera and gave my gear a final check-over, I was surprised to hear Skip yell "Two minutes!" over his shoulder. I looked at my altimeter. 3,500 feet.

By the time we turned on to jump run, and Skip powered off, shouting at me to open the door and take a look, we were at 4,500 feet, and I would get almost 10 seconds of freefall. Looking out of the open door I could see the runway almost directly below, and could easily pick out the green lights of the landing marker, a huge T-shaped wind indicator in the centre of a large, flat, open area.

With a nod to Skip, happy with the spot, I climbed out onto the step, and hesitated for a second, trying to enjoy the moment, and the anticipation of what I was about to do. It really was dark out there. The only light I had was a small glow-stick attached to my chest strap, a faint glow from the luminous alti that I had borrowed, and a tiny red light on my helmet that told me my video camera was recording.

One second, and then I jumped into the darkness, accelerating downwards quickly, past the point of no return now. It is quite an extraordinary feeling to be falling in the dark. I watched the alti, and as it hit 3,500, and my audible warning went off in my helmet. I reached behind me and threw the pilot chute.

I could just see the outline of my parachute as it started to open above me, and as far as I could tell all was looking good. I had a small head torch on my wrist and switched it on briefly to check that all was as it should be above me, pleased as ever to see a fully open canopy there. All I had to do now was get onto the ground without hurting myself.

I could clearly see my landing area marker, which showed wind direction too, and set up pretty well, making sure that I was going to land with the marker ahead of me to give me a decent height reference. I went a little too far downwind on the approach, and when I turned into wind for landing the marker was a little further away than I would have liked, but at least gave some indication of how far I still was above the ground.

As the very dimly visible ground came up to meet me, I flared the parachute at what looked like the right height, losing forward speed and lift, hoping to stall to a stop at ground level. But in the dark I had misjudged slightly, and flared too high, stalling the parachute while still three or four feet above the ground. As the parachute stopped, I knew I would drop quickly, and made the decision to roll when I hit the ground instead of trying to stay on my feet, which would have more potential to end in injury.

My roll was good, and I was laughing before I was even back on my feet. I gathered my gear, and was met by Val and the others from the dropzone, laughing at my dusty condition, but offering congratulations for a successful and injury-free night jump.

I felt absolutely elated. I had been more nervous beforehand than I had cared to admit, and the landing area was darker than I had ever expected, but all had gone very well.

Thanks once again to Val for helping out, driving, and offering support and encouragement on yet another goal. Thanks also to Skip for being kind enough to run the plane for a single jumper. And also to everyone else at Skydive Colorado for being there to offer advice, encouragement, good-natured mockery and hearty congratulations.

In this picture, from left to right:- Allan, Chang, Emily, Me, Tammy, Skip, Brian, Darlene: kneeling: John and Nick. Thanks to you all, what a fantastic experience.

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* * *

# A LIFE SOLD

What ever happened to that guy who

sold his whole life on eBay?

What on earth would make someone decide to put their whole life up for sale... on eBay?

When Ian Usher decided that it was time to leave the past behind and move on to the next chapter of his life, that is exactly what he did. The results were surprising, entertaining and challenging.

However, the auction was only the beginning of the adventure. What does someone do when they have sold their life? Well, just about anything they like really!

Armed with a list of 100 lifetime goals, and a self-imposed timeframe of 100 weeks, Ian embarked on what could truly be described as the journey of a lifetime – a global adventure spanning six continents, two years, and almost every emotion.

From the amazing highs of achievement, happiness and love, to the terrible lows of disappointment, loneliness and despair, come along and enjoy the rollercoaster ride of life, as experienced by one traveller who is simply looking for a new start.

Review for "A Life Sold" by "RunsWithScissors" on Amazon.com:-

"I sat down to read this book thinking I would just start it, but could not put it down! I read the entire book in one sitting. When I was done, I felt that I had traveled around the world with Ian, and was better for it. I cheered with him, cried with him, and relived the joy of healing from a broken heart. I was inspired. The book is framed around Ian's goals, but really it's about so much more. The very thing that catapulted Ian into action worldwide is what brought him such joy in the end, with a hell of a journey along the way.

The writing flows well, is accessible and enjoyable with just enough detail. I felt I was along for the ride, and was welcomed to join in the fun, just as Ian so freely shared his goals with so many others. The goals are interesting and enjoyable, and the people Ian meets are just as much fun as the goals. I felt I shared parts of my bucket list with Ian, and although he beat me to it, his accounts invite me to feel heroic and relaxed enough to follow. (Except, I'll never run with the bulls!) There are lots of good travel tips. The book reads in parts like a helpful TripTik, and is very informative about details that matter.

The book reminds us that life is not as much about the destination as it is about the journey, that we are all more alike than different, and that anything done with good intentions and an open heart can't be wrong. Oh, and there's a very happy ending. Expect tears again. It's a good thing."

Review for "A Life Sold" by "theglobalguy" on Amazon.com:-

"I met Ian in Nepal when he and I happened to be on the same trek to Everest Base Camp. I had a vague recollection of the story of the guy who put his entire life up on E-bay, and was amazed at the coincidence that would bring that guy into my own life. Ian was a joy to travel with, and his stories of his adventures kept me laughing and entertained through our two week journey. When he told me that he was thinking of turning the entire adventure into a book, I couldn't wait to read it. Well, now that the book is published, I'm pleased to have been able to finally read about his back story, previous adventures, and the events that followed his and my adventure together.

The book is well written, with a combination of blog entries and personal narration. Switching between the styles is easy on the brain, and never feels disruptive to the narrative. His writing is laid back, funny, and very personal at times. This is a person who has had more than his share of personal challenges, and been able to find the good in everything. It's a great testimony to the human spirit, and the tendency of humankind to help a traveler, no matter where he hails from."

You can read an excerpt from "A Life Sold" at the end of this eBook by clicking here.

# Submit your own travels stories for publication...?

Well, I hope you enjoyed these airborne tales. They are all taken from my two-year, round-the-world, goal-achieving adventure, chronicled in the book "A Life Sold". If you want to read more about my adventures, as well as the other, less adrenaline-fuelled goals, I suggest you take a look at the book. The book also tells the much more personal story of what prompted this radical adventure, and where the adventure eventually took me.

If you have any amazing travel tales of your own, please feel free to email them to me. I am currently working on the next edition in the "Amazing Travel Experiences" series of books, which will be an anthology of tales from other travellers.

YOUR AMAZING TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

Do you have any travel stories or adventures you would like to see published in future releases?

Further info here:

Your Amazing Travel Experiences

If you have any questions, or stories to submit, please get in touch by using the Wider Vision Publishing Contact form.

I hope your adventures and travels are as amazing and rewarding as mine were.

Happy travels,

Ian

# More adventure travel books

If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com, or to your favourite online book retailer for more books from Wider Vision Publishing.

ADVENTURE TRAVEL

16 stories from a world traveller hoping to provide little

inspiration for your next travel adventure.

MORE ADVENTURE TRAVELS

11 more stories of worldwide adventure to further

inspire you towards your own travel goals

ADVENTURES IN THE AIR

14 high-flying tales of airborne adventure to inspire

your travelling spirit to soar.

ADVENTURES UNDERWATER

10 watery tales of excitement under the sea to whet

your appetite for your own travel adventures.

AMAZING TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

15 more stories from one world traveller hoping to provide little

inspiration for your next travel adventure.

MORE AMAZING TRAVEL EXPRIENCES

13 more globe-trotting travel stories to inspire

you to kick-start your own adventure

TRAVEL TIPS

17 travel tips to help you save money, and make your

next adventure less stressful and more enjoyable.

and COMING SOON from Wider Vision Publishing:-

YOUR AMAZING TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

Do you have any travel stories or adventures you

would like to see published in future releases?

More info here:-

Submit your own travel stories for publication...?

A polite reminder:-

In return for this (hopefully!!) interesting, inspiring and informative content, I would ask one small favour. If you have enjoyed this Kindle book I would be extremely grateful if you could take just a minute to provide a short, honest review for it at whatever location you downloaded it from.

Once again, your support is much appreciated.

Happy travels.

Ian

# Excerpt from "A Life Sold"

**Prologue**

View From A Bridge

I stood quietly on the bridge above the dark empty freeway, looking down at the smooth tarmac below. In the distance behind me I could hear the engine of a large truck as it approached at speed. I looked around and saw the lights heading my way, and thought grimly to myself, "This is it. This one is yours."

I would have to get the timing just right. If I jumped too early I would land on the freeway below, probably breaking both legs. That would hurt, but only for a short time, until the truck hit. Wait a minute though! What if I jumped early enough for the truck driver to see me, giving him time to react? What if he somehow managed to miss me? All I would have achieved would be a collection of broken bones, and more misery to pile on top of what I already knew was coming.

I would need to delay my jump as long as possible. Perfect timing would mean I'd hit the ground at the instant the truck reached the impact point, bringing the instant relief of endless darkness. But what if I delayed just a little too long? The truck was heading south, and I was on the south side of the bridge, facing south too. The truck would be out of sight as it passed under the bridge below me. Timing my jump was going to be tricky, as for a second or two I would not know exactly where the thundering juggernaut was. If I jumped too late I had visions of landing on the cab roof, and then bouncing along the top of the container, before falling off the back end into the road. There was a good chance I might survive that, and lay broken on the road, again to face pain and misery.

I should have planned this a little better. But how? If I stood on the north side of the bridge, facing the on-coming truck, the driver might possibly spot me climbing onto the parapet, preparing to jump. Would he be able to avoid me? Probably not, but I wasn't sure.

Maybe I should be down at the side of the freeway, hidden in the bushes. I could just run out at the appropriate moment, without having to consider the pain of broken bones from a poorly timed jump.

What about the driver? How would he cope with the aftermath of such an event? I don't imagine it would be easy to come to terms with something like that, even if one is completely blameless.

Good grief, if I was going to be such a coward about the whole thing, I should perhaps resort to the much less painful bottle of paracetamol tablets washed down with a bottle of whiskey. Ah, but I wouldn't want to wake up in hospital having my stomach pumped.

All of this, and more, flashed through my mind in the few short seconds as the truck closed the distance between us. The moment of truth approached.

I watched the truck pass below me and didn't make a move. The real truth was that I knew I was never going to go through with anything like this. My mind was simply whirling quickly through a theoretical set of scenarios that might provide an easy escape route from what was to come.

With a heavy heart I turned my cycle around, and began pedalling back up the cycle track alongside the freeway. I knew there were some long dark months ahead, despite the approach of another hot bright Australian summer.
PART 1

ALife4Sale

Chapter 1

A New Start

Two years later, in November 2007 I looked back at the challenges with which life had recently presented me, and decided it was time to make some changes. I needed a new start and I had a plan. I was going to sell my life!

The previous two years had taken my soon-to-be-sold life in a new direction, one which had completely taken me by surprise. I had never imagined working in the job I was now doing, and the life I was now living was so far removed from my expectations of two years earlier.

At that time, towards the end of 2005, life had been progressing nicely, according to a semi-structured plan. In November that year my wife and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, inviting all our friends to a big party in the lovely house we had built together in the outer suburbs of Perth in beautiful, sun-kissed Western Australia.

But only days later my life was knocked violently off-course, when I discovered that my wife had met someone else, and told me that she no longer loved me.

After a traumatic few months we had separated. During those dark, lonely, early days I thought a lot about the incredibly happy past I had shared with Laura. I struggled to understand how it could have all gone so horribly wrong, without ever spotting, until it was much too late, a single sign that anything was amiss.

\---

I suppose my journey through life up to this point hadn't quite been the usual progression that most people follow, from school to college, to an entry level job in a chosen field, and then onward up the career ladder.

I did go to college eventually, but only after taking a year off between leaving school and finally settling down to further my education. I had managed to secure a place at Liverpool Polytechnic, where I would be learning how to teach outdoor activities. However, keen to see some of the world first, I deferred entry for a year. During that year I worked in a factory to save some money, and then travelled with one of my school buddies. We went to live on a kibbutz in Israel, where I worked in all sorts of jobs, as a foreign volunteer sharing the life of the community. Afterwards we travelled through Egypt, and then to Greece, where we bought a very cheap car, and drove back home via several European countries.

A short, but well-paid second summer in the local sign-making factory paid off my debts before college. I thoroughly enjoyed my years in Liverpool, but never wanted to work as a teacher in a school, my experiences in teaching practice convincing me of that. Eventually I settled in a job working for British Rail for a couple of years. I worked in their residential outdoor activities facility in the north-east of England, teaching their youth trainees skills such as communication, co-operation, teamwork, and leadership.

But a couple of years later boredom started to creep in and I decided to make a change. Inspired by a couple of friends who seemed to be making a very good living dealing in second-hand cars, I left British Rail, and moved into the small terraced house I had just bought.

Over the following years I managed to do fairly well, making a living doing the odd bit of freelance outdoor training work, dealing in cars and motorcycles, and trying my hand at several other ideas and businesses that looked like they might turn an easy profit.

In those years I managed to make a fairly decent living, but I could see that I was never going to become rich unless one of the many businesses I tried became a runaway success. As a means of self-motivation I started to make a list of things I would like to do, places I would like to see, and possessions I would like to own when lack of money was no longer an obstacle.

It was while on holiday in Kenya that I stumbled upon the sport that was to shape the next few years of my life. This new direction would eventually lead to meeting my wife, and ultimately moving half way around the world.

In partnership with my life-long friend and motor trading buddy, Bruce, I set up and then ran "Scarborough Jet Skiing" for five fantastic summer seasons. We hired out jet skis to holidaymakers at the beach, and sold new and second-hand skis. We also sold accessories, did some servicing and repair work, and sold a range of beach toys too. The north-east coast of England doesn't have a very long summer, so when the weather was good we worked all the hours we could, seven days a week. That didn't stop us enjoying life to the full, and in 1993, during the second summer on the beach, the most fantastic person I have ever met walked up to our caravan, and into my life.

Laura and I maintained a long-distance relationship for a couple of years, seeing each other as often as we could, and eventually she came to live with me for the summer season of 1996. The next year she finished college and moved over from Manchester to live with me permanently.

During the off-seasons, when it was too cold to run the jet skis, and later, after we sold the jet ski business at the end of the 1996 summer season, Bruce and I had tried a few other businesses. These had included cycle hire, wedding cars, and magazine publishing. None of them had offered the same success or fun of the beach.

I worked for the local council at the outdoor swimming pool for the 1998 summer season, the job being relatively easy to get because of both my background in outdoor activities, and my recent experience of dealing with the public in a watersports business. This ultimately led on to a fulltime job at the indoor swimming pool.

During this time Laura and I took our first trip to Australia, where her mother had been born and raised. Laura had dual nationality. Having been born in England she was registered as British, but was also registered as Australian due to her mother's nationality. She had a grandmother, aunties and uncles, and several cousins in Australia that she had never met. We spent six glorious weeks in the Southern Hemisphere summer as England's chilly winter held its grip back at home.

The following year we took our second trip, and were with friends in Sydney for New Years Eve 1999, which was enormous fun. Having thoroughly enjoyed both of our extended visits, we decided that we would perhaps like to go and live there.

Back in England we considered our options. We had often told each other that we both expected to be together for the rest of our lives, and the subject of marriage came up easily. We wanted to be together, we wanted to move to Australia, and we decided that after seven years together, we wanted to be married.

The big day was early in November 2000, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a beautiful cold, crisp, blue-sky autumn day. The wedding ceremony at the registry office was simple, and afterwards Bruce took us up to Oliver's Mount in his van – we hadn't bothered with the expense of fancy wedding cars, saving our money for our future move to Australia. Lunch was in a Chinese restaurant, followed by an afternoon pub crawl down through the town centre to the seafront.

After dark at the beach we had everyone meet and bring along fireworks, enjoying a wonderful, but completely disorganised display. One of Laura's friends had brought along her new boyfriend, who was in the army. He had already thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon pub crawl, and provided great entertainment crawling around on the sand trying drunkenly to light more fireworks as others exploded in wild colours around him. It looked like a battle scene from some sort of psychedelic war movie as he belly-crawled from one firework to the next, and it was amazing that he didn't have to be whisked away to the casualty ward.

The reception took place in a town centre social club, and we had booked an Irish cèilidh band to play, which meant everyone could join in for some well organised Irish-style barn-dancing.

It was such a wonderful day, and I couldn't have been happier, knowing that I was now married to the person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

A year later, after several more jobs, including working as manager of a mobile phone shop, a collector for a finance company, and a labourer on a building site, we sold pretty-much everything we owned. We said goodbye to all our friends and family, and moved halfway around the world to make a fresh start together.

We soon settled into our new life, and absolutely loved Perth, warm and sunny, on the beautiful Indian Ocean on the west coast of Australia.

We lived in a wonderful shared-accommodation house almost on the beach for our first year there, and then rented our own smaller unit in nearby Scarborough, namesake of the English coastal town where we had shared much of the previous seven years.

Australia offered a good life, and although my first foray into business there, renting deckchairs on the beach at Scarborough was doomed to failure, we both found great jobs, and lived a nice, easy-going life together.

Another eighteen months later, after much research, we took the plunge and bought our first piece of land, and built our first Australian home. The house, finished just less than three years after our arrival in the country, was like a dream come true. It was bigger and nicer than anything we could have ever have afforded back in England, and we worked hard together to create a fantastic home and garden. We had a few parties there, always enjoyed by our growing group of friends, and the pool table in the huge living room was always a central attraction.

Our longer term plan had always been to make this house the first stepping stone on our journey to planned financial freedom. Our goal was to end up in a home completely mortgage-free, our target time being within a period of five years. With completed homes often being worth around 25% more than the combined land and build price, the house had already gone up in value. We had also chosen the land well, and houses in our suburb had increased in value even further.

Our next step had been to look for another block of land to repeat the process. Our plan was to build our next house there, to move into that as soon as it completed, and to sell the first house at the same time.

In our next chosen suburb, land was selling well, and we had to queue overnight, sleeping in our cars in order to secure the block of land upon which we had set our hearts. It was in this queue that we met Andy, another expat Brit now enjoying the sunny Perth lifestyle, also trying to benefit from the on-going property boom.

Little did I suspect that this chance meeting would be the catalyst that would irrevocably alter my relationship with my wife and send my semi-planned life careering off the rails less than a year later.

I had my suspicions that something was going on, but could never have imagined the full devastating reality of discovering that Laura had fallen for someone else. That night, when life blindsided me, I cycled away from our home, and without ever planning to, had found myself on the bridge over the freeway. For the first time in my life I fully understood the awful decision and devastating action some people choose when life's terrible surprises come calling. I chose to cycle home and face the future.

Laura claimed it was all a huge mistake and said I was the one she wanted to be with. We decided that we would try to forget what had happened, and move on with our lives. No one else knew our situation, or needed to, I suggested. Laura assured me that all contact with Andy had been severed.

For a while we had tried to get our life together back on course. But a couple of difficult months later it was apparent that all was not well between us. When I discovered that Laura had seen Andy again, I confronted her about it, and she told me she thought that perhaps she no longer loved me.

I was heart-broken, and the following terrible weeks were filled with endless arguments, recriminations and blame. Laura still didn't seem to know what she wanted to do, but after more talks and a painful visit to a marriage guidance counsellor, her wavering indecision ended. It was clear that we had no future together. I was utterly devastated. In that one horrible moment I realised that my whole future had finally been stripped from me, and I faced a bleak, unknown darkness ahead.

Our current work and financial situations meant that the most practical decision was that I should move out. We decided to sell the house immediately, split the money, and go our separate ways.

Somehow we managed to do this without recourse to lawyers, and although on paper it all sounds very civilised and easy, there were weeks of arguments, tears, regrets, and sorrow. I hated every minute of it, and although I had fought with everything I had to try to save our marriage, I knew I had now lost her. I had to accept her final decision and move on.

\---

During those miserable first weeks after our separation, as well as wondering where it had all gone wrong, I also did a lot of thinking about what I wanted to do next. I made some decisions of my own. I had been working at the same shop for the past three years, acting as a rug salesman, and eventually as assistant manager, at the family-owned business. At the age of 42 it was officially the longest job I had ever had – I tend to get bored pretty easily working in one place, and like to challenge myself to take on new roles and learn new skills.

One of the main decisions I took involved my immediate future. If one huge part of my life in Perth had changed completely, then I could not simply continue in the same job, and live a shadowy half-hearted version of my previous life. It was time to leave my job, and do something completely new!

I also needed to earn quite a lot more than I was currently earning, as when we had separated, Laura and I had decided that we would sell the house we had been sharing. We agreed that I would take over ownership of the new block of land we had bought the year before. I would make all payments on it, in addition to all payments for the house-build that was due to commence there very soon.

After talking to a few friends, I decided to follow the path that many others in Western Australia chose when they needed to earn more money, and enter the mining industry. I had no relevant experience at all, but didn't really see this as a big hurdle. I started taking truck driving lessons in order to get the driving license that I would need to drive the monster trucks used in the mines.

I soon had the license I required, and handed my notice in at the rug shop, having already started to apply for dump truck driving jobs. The way a lot of mining works in Western Australia is on what is called a "fly-in fly-out" basis. This means that you live in Perth, but fly in to a remote mine site to work, and then fly back out for your time off. This most common work pattern is a "2 on, 1 off" roster, meaning that you fly in and work for two weeks, usually 7 day shifts and 7 night shifts, then fly home for a week off.

As the end of my time at the shop drew closer I had not yet found a job. It appeared that companies were reluctant to take on new people, often referred to as "greenies", for a fly-in fly-out position. Many of the agencies which I approached explained that companies generally did not take greenies as they were unsure of how newcomers would handle the work conditions. They did not want the expense of training someone new, only to find that the trainee hated the job, and left shortly afterwards. Employers wanted people with previous experience.

Following a couple of weeks of fruitless unemployment, I took a friend's advice, and packed my car with the few belongings I had that were not stored away. At the time I was staying in a borrowed apartment near the beach, the completion date for my new house was still about six months away, and I had no other ties. After a few farewell drinks in the local pub with some friends, I packed the last of my meagre belongings into the car, and hit the road early the next morning, heading east out of Perth.

Kalgoorlie lies about six hours drive away from Perth, in the middle of the desert, and exists mainly because of the huge open pit goldmine there. I drove into town on 4th July 2006 knowing nobody, with nowhere to stay, and no promise of a job at all.

However, things went very well for me there and within 48 hours I had a small but comfortable room, and a job driving a machine called a slag hauler, working in the local nickel smelter. The job also involved driving a nice Mercedes tipper truck with a decent auto gearbox, and an older tipper truck with a very cranky manual gearbox that took a lot of practice to use smoothly. I had to learn a lot of new skills very quickly.

It took me a while to get used to working strange new rosters and hours, and having to cope with night shift work too. During this time I kept pestering the Human Resources guy at the Superpit recruitment office to get me the job that I really wanted – trainee dump truckie in the huge open pit gold mine right at the edge of town.

I would often go to the lookout and gaze down into the pit, watching the huge trucks go around and around. One day soon, I thought, I hope to be driving one of them. Less than five weeks later, I was offered a trainee position as a driver there, handed my notice in at the nickel smelter, and went to start my new career!

The trucks are absolutely enormous and the training was very challenging, but I loved it. At times it was very frustrating, and I made plenty of mistakes, as did many of the other greenies there. But because this was one of the only places in the country that took on trainees, there were quite a few of us to share the mistakes around. Many of us had drifted into town from elsewhere to learn to drive these monster trucks, and I found myself working with a great group of people, all going through the same challenging learning curve.

After the first three months or so I found that the work was now much easier. The twelve-hour shifts did not seem so long, and night shift did not seem so bad. Handling the truck was pretty-much second nature too, and now many of us found that we could drive around, listen to the two-way radio, the FM radio, pour a cup of coffee and eat an apple all at the same time – well, almost!

Every second week, at the end of our block of dayshifts, the whole crew would all head to the pub after work. A few of us who had started around the same time together would laugh about how difficult it had all seemed at first, and share stories of some of the dumb things we had done, and still did occasionally.

It was a simple life, filled with hard work, but also filled with a lot of laughter and a huge amount of fun. I met some great people there, some of whom I know will be friends for the rest of my life.

For me it was also a very important part of my healing process. Living out in Kalgoorlie, with a totally new group of people, meant that nobody knew my past, so it was never mentioned. Long days sat in a truck with just my own thoughts meant that I had time to start to come to terms with the huge, unexpected upheaval in my life.

I spent a total of five months working in the Superpit, and absolutely loved it, but by the end I was ready to go back to Perth. I missed being by the ocean too much, and I missed my friends back in Perth too. I had a final date for completion of my house, and I had enough experience to get a fly-in fly-out job. This would pay more money, and in my personal circumstances, would suit me much better, I thought.

Just before Christmas 2006, a little over a year after my awful marital discovery, I moved back to Perth, and into the newly completed house that Laura and I had designed together. We had planned to live there together for a year or so as the next step on our journey towards financial freedom. Now, as I moved the furniture that we had shared in our previous home into place, I felt utterly alone.

For the past five months I really hadn't needed to confront too directly the huge loss, but now being surrounded by all of the reminders from my past, I had to face head-on the gaping hole that Laura's departure had left in my life.

I hated it! I didn't like being in the house alone. I missed my friends in Kalgoorlie, and the easy camaraderie we had shared as a group. I felt trapped in this new place, a reminder of everything that had once been, of all that I had hoped and believed was to come, and I hated it. I couldn't simply sell up and move on. To avoid Capital Gains Tax, Australian law stipulates that a house has to be your main home for a period of twelve months before you can sell. This had always been our original idea. We had planned to live in this place for a year while we bought the next piece of land, and built the next step of our dream.

I didn't feel like I had much choice, and had to accept that I would have to stick it out for a year. I had already landed a mining job that would mean I was only at home for one week out of three, the other two weeks being up on site in the desert far to the north. I would manage somehow.

Over the next few weeks I made the place my own, turning it into quite a nice bachelor pad with the addition of a large-screen home theatre system and an outdoor hot tub. I bought myself a motorbike, something I had always loved when I had lived in England, but had never had in the five years I had been in Australia. Slowly the house started to feel a bit more like home, although still filled with reminders of a past that was now long-gone.

I started dating again, and met Mel, who was originally French, but had lived in Perth for the past fourteen years. She was in much the same position as I was, although she was officially divorced and had two girls. I was only separated and had no kids to tie me down. We got on pretty well, and started an easy-going relationship about fourteen months after my separation from Laura.

\---

Around the time I met Mel I started my new job, and flew up for my first shift at the end of January 2007. I had landed a great contract, working a 13/8 roster, made up of 6 day shifts, 7 night shifts, and then 8 days off. My flights up and back would earn me frequent flyer points, all food was provided on site, and the pay was significantly better than Kalgoorlie. At the mine site accommodation village there was a canteen, a bar, internet room, a large swimming pool, gym, squash courts and a few other sports facilities. I had really landed on my feet, and soon settled in to the new job.

Since everything was provided for two weeks out of three, and I was being well paid for the long shifts I was working, over the following months I managed to make a fairly significant reduction in my mortgage.

It wasn't all easy sailing though. The work could be hot and boring, and the 12 hour shifts could really drag sometimes, particularly the nights, when it could be a real battle just to keep your eyes open. I missed the easy friendship of the group I had worked with in Kalgoorlie. I made plenty of new friends at Telfer, but because everyone had different lives, and lived in different places in a bigger city, somehow it was not the same as the close-knit little community I had enjoyed in Kal.

One advantage (or disadvantage, depending on how you looked at it) was that you got plenty of thinking time as you drove endlessly up and down in the huge open pit. I really found that I quite liked it, often happy to turn the radio off for long stretches at a time, and think my own thoughts. I always carried a notebook and pen to write any ideas down, or work out finances for some new business plan.

As the year progressed, life continued in a fairly uncomplicated fashion. I would fly off to work and be away for two weeks at a time, and then return for a week. I became happier in my house as I made it more like my own personal bachelor pad, and I enjoyed spending time with Mel and her two girls.

However, as the end of the year approached, I started to think about selling the house. Prices were high, and it was looking increasingly like the market may have reached a high point. I didn't feel like the time was right to buy another piece of land, as it all seemed to be very much over-valued. And to be honest, without Laura, my heart really was no longer in the long-term plan we had shared.

\---

So there I was, in late 2007, sat in a dump truck in a gold mine in the far north of Western Australia, having spent a large part of the previous ten months driving around the same hole in the ground. I had been in my new house for almost a year, and could now sell it without financial penalty. I started to think about my future, and what I might like to do next.

I really didn't want to stay working in the mine during the approaching southern summer, as temperatures would be extreme in the desert. I had worked long and hard, had paid a good chunk off my mortgage. I fancied a bit of a break, and perhaps some travel and adventure.

I made the decision to sell the house. Although a lot happier living there now, the house and its contents still provided a strong, and sometimes saddening reminder of a previous life, and although I felt that I was adjusting well, I wanted to complete the moving-on process, and this required getting rid of the house. It also made great financial sense, as I had paid quite a bit off the mortgage, and the house value had shot up quite dramatically over the year since completion. I would therefore be able to release a good nest egg of cash. One idea I had was perhaps to buy a big motorhome, and travel the country a bit. Perhaps I would work in a mine for six months of the year, over the winter, and then travel for six months each summer. Financially this would be quite viable once the house sold.

What would I do with the furniture, I wondered? Perhaps I could sell it all with the house, offering a fully furnished package. But I also had a car, and a motorbike, and I was considering buying a jet ski for the coming summer too. What would I do with all of them? Maybe I could include them as part of one big lifestyle package?

It hit me suddenly! I remembered an idea my old friend Bruce had had many years before. He must have had a particularly bad day at work, and came stomping into the pub, saying, "That's it, I'm going to get rid of the lot! The business, the car, the house, everything! I am going to sell my life!" He explained that the idea had just come to him. He would advertise the whole package in the Sunday newspapers, as he reckoned that despite the occasional bad day, he had a pretty enviable lifestyle.

However, when he checked the price of a full page advert in a national Sunday newspaper (this was long before the days of the internet) he was a bit disheartened, and he let his idea fall by the wayside.

Now, fifteen or more years later, as I drove my truck down the main pit ramp, the idea solidified into a plan. "That's what I am going to do! Sell my life! I'll include the job too, and will include an introduction to some friends. That's brilliant! How and where will I sell it? Auction it on eBay, of course!"

\---

When I returned to Perth for my next week off I ran the idea past three good friends, whose opinions I valued. I was surprised and encouraged by the results. Two of them thought it was a fantastic idea, one going as far as saying that she could imagine doing the same thing right now herself, as it was exactly how she felt. The third opinion was exactly the opposite, wondering in disbelief how anyone could possibly consider leaving behind everything they had worked so hard to build up.

I thought that if the idea could produce such strong opposing opinions, then there would be the chance to get some publicity for the project, which I knew I would need for the idea to be a success. If I had received three indifferent responses I would have probably abandoned the idea there and then.

I didn't take any immediate action, but let the idea stew a bit, and back at work jotted down ideas and thoughts as I drove up and down the ramps. The idea seemed to be one that just would not go away though.

In December I handed my notice in at work, and flew home after my last shift on Christmas Eve. I had decided to take at least a couple of months off, and between Christmas and New Year I went shopping for a small campervan. I trawled the backpacker hostel adverts boards, and soon found what I wanted. A Swedish traveller was selling the Toyota Hiace camper that had taken her and her friend around Australia for the past six months, and I bought myself a bargain.

I spent the months of January and February on an extended trip across Australia from west to east, on the way calling in to visit old friends in Kalgoorlie, and skydiving at as many different dropzones as I could find on the way. Over the past five years skydiving had become my sport of choice, and I tried to jump as often as I could.

On the journey across the huge open spaces of the country that I had come to call home, I thought a lot more about the "life for sale" idea. I met up with Mel and her kids and we travelled together for a few days, discussing the idea in much detail. Mel embraced the idea with enthusiasm, encouraging me to consider it more seriously.

I finally made the decision that I was going to go ahead. It would be fun, I thought, and might just raise a bit more than selling the house and contents separately, if I managed to get enough publicity.

Mel offered to help me create the website, and between us we mapped out a rough design. I bought and registered the website www.ALife4Sale.com. During a week-long stay with friends in Melbourne I started to write some of the content for the site, while Mel, back in Perth, started putting a website together, inserting my content as I wrote it.

I needed a date to provide a framework and timescale, and decided to aim for a seven day auction period finishing at the end of June, which is the end of the financial year in Australia. It was a pretty arbitrary choice, and when I looked at a calendar and saw that the 30th of June was a Monday, I decided that it might be better to end the auction on Sunday 29th. This meant the start date for the auction would be the 22nd.

I had decided to have a 100 day countdown from the launch of the website to the start of the auction. This was for two reasons. Firstly I thought that it may take a couple of months to build up a bit of publicity for what I was about to do, and secondly I was looking for a serious buyer, and I wanted to give someone time to sort out their finances, and perhaps even visas if they were from further afield than Australia.

I thought a lot about who might be a potential purchaser of the package I was putting together, and imagined several possible scenarios. Perhaps a Perth-based property investor might be interested in the package as a buy-to-let, already furnished and ready for a tenant. When we bought the land we had chosen well, as the house was in a pleasant location, with a nice westerly outlook over a natural bushland reserve, but was also an easy five minute walk to a train station on the newly completed southern railway line.

Perhaps someone from the other side of Australia might be interested in buying a ready-to-move-into lifestyle, particularly if they were coming over to join in the huge West Australian resources boom that was still pushing up house prices, and offering fantastic wages in the mines.

Maybe someone emigrating from abroad might be tempted in the same way by a ready-made lifestyle. Perth has an ever-expanding population, as more and more people realise what a wonderful place it is to live.

Over the next few days, while I had good access to an internet connection at my friends' house in Melbourne, the website really started to take shape, and I started to get very excited about the whole idea. As a practical way of selling everything at once it was brilliant, I thought. It would be a great experience and a lot of fun too.

We came up with the skeleton of the website over the course of five or six days, and I thought it looked pretty good. I continued my journey to Sydney in the campervan, where I did may last bit of skydiving for the journey. I sold the campervan, and flew back to Perth. I was now fully committed to the idea of selling my life, and was keen to get on with it.

We had about two weeks to complete the website, and worked pretty much flat-out to make it as good as we possibly could. We took many pictures of the inside and outside of the house, and all its contents. We took pictures of the car, and the motorbike, the hot-tub and the home entertainment system.

There was a lot of cleaning and tidying involved, and many times as we took pictures, there was a pile of junk just outside the frame, which was shuffled from room to room as we progressed.

On the website itself we included a guestbook and a voting page, where people could make comments or become involved by expressing their opinion on the whole idea. We also built in a bulletin board page where there could be some back and forth discussion on the matter too.

I still was unsure whether we were building something that nobody would ever see, or whether I might be successful in creating some publicity for the forthcoming auction.

I made the decision that if I was going to do this, I was going to do it properly, and leave absolutely everything behind. On the website, I stated that when I was paid by the new buyer, I would walk out of the house with nothing other than one set of clothes, and my wallet and passport.

I knew that I had to get as much publicity as possible for the auction, and spoke to my friend Simon, who lives in London, and works as a freelance reporter. I asked him what he thought the best approach would be to let people know what I was up to. He suggested that he could write a press release aimed at the UK newspapers, focusing on the fact that I was an expat Brit now living in Australia. If it makes it to a UK national newspaper, he explained, it would probably be picked up all around the world. "You may even get to do something on local radio," he suggested, and I thought publicity like that would be fantastic.

Many years before, I had written a book about how my wife and I had met. It was hand-written, and had only ever been intended for an audience of one. It told the story of how back in 1989, Bruce and I had started racing motorcycle road race sidecars together, and how we had eventually set up the jet ski hire business. There had been some very funny moments, and some great achievements.

I wrote about how one day in 1993, the person who was to become my wife walked up to our caravan on the beach, and stepped into my life. I described how we started our relationship, and some of the struggles and challenges we had faced.

I had thoroughly enjoyed the process of telling our unusual tale, even though the book would only ever have one reader. I had re-read it when it was complete, and thought it told the story very well, expressing how I felt about this wonderful person that had come into my life.

The next weekend that Laura and I were together, we drove up to Oliver's Mount, where we would stand together several years later on the day we married, and I handed the book to her, incredibly proud of what I had created. I truly believed we would happily spend the rest of our days together. Laura suggested that perhaps one day we might show the book to our grandchildren.

Eventually, of course, seven years after we met, we had married, and made the decision to start a new life together in Australia.

Five years later, as the relationship crumbled before my eyes, during one teary discussion about what had changed, I pointed out the book, and asked, "But what about that? What about all that we had to go through, all that we had to fight for to be together? That book says everything that I can't find the right words to say right now. What about all that?"

The devastating answer I had received was, "That doesn't mean anything now."

Therefore, as I put the website together, I thought I might publish the book online too. I knew people might want to know some of the background that could bring someone to the point where they decide to sell their whole life on the internet. I thought the story showed how much I felt I had lost, and would perhaps provide some context, so that people might understand. I also thought, somewhat bitterly, why not publish it? After all, it meant nothing to anyone else now!

The book was included as part of the webpage, as an introduction to the rest of my story. I hoped to write this during the build-up to the auction, telling the continuing saga of my adventures. It would cover our move to Australia, the life we created there together, the devastating break-up, and my change of direction that eventually led to the auction.

One of the last pieces of the whole package that I had struggled to find an answer for was how to include my job. I could not think of any reason why a mining company would want to be involved, and the logistics of trying to organise that would have been far too complicated. Eventually I hit on the perfect solution. I went back to the rug shop where I had worked for three years. It was a small family business run by husband and wife, Jenny and Dennis, who had been incredibly supportive and helpful as my marriage had collapsed.

Jenny loved the idea, and as they had a staff member leaving, there would be a position that I could fill on a temporary basis, a job which could eventually be offered to the new owner of my life. I knew the shop might benefit from some publicity if I ever got this off the ground, but Jenny just wanted to be a part of it because she thought it was a fun idea.

Finally, I spoke to a few of my friends too, explaining what I was about to do. I wondered if they would be happy to be included as part of the package. I explained that I was not proposing to sell them, but was simply offering an introduction to the new owner of my life to some wonderful people that were an important part of my life. Quite a few friends were very happy to support me, and thought it would be fun to be part of such an unusual idea.

\---

With everything in place, and the website almost complete, it was final decision time. Was I really going to do this? Did I really want to get rid of everything?

It was now over two years since Laura had finally decided that she was going to leave me, and although my life had improved, particularly since meeting Mel, it was obvious that all was still not well, otherwise this might not seem like such a good idea.

Two years later, nothing had done much to diminish how much I missed my wife. I had moved 600 kilometres out into the desert and had started a new career. I had moved into a brand new house. I had lived a completely new lifestyle working in the hot dusty mines of the outback. And of course, I also had a new girlfriend. But none of this had really changed anything for me. I still ached for my friend, my partner, my lover, my everything – my wife.

Every day, small things would remind me of the past that was now long gone, but still ever-present. The tiles on the shower wall that Laura had chosen, the rug on the living room floor that she had designed herself, the sweater hanging in the wardrobe that she had bought for me on my birthday, the same day I had done my first skydive. The plates in the kitchen that we had rescued from the back garden of the house that we had first moved into in Perth, and that we had washed and cleaned together. The small metal puzzles on the kitchen counter that we had bought on our first trip back to England, two years after migrating to Perth.

We had moved from England at the start of 2002 with almost nothing but a rucsac of clothes each, and so everything in the house that I now lived in alone had been bought in the wonderful four years we had shared together in Australia.

Everything about the house, and everything in the house reminded me of Laura. I decided that if I was going to get rid of the place and move on, I would be just as well getting rid of absolutely everything else too, and making a completely fresh start.

After all, it was only "stuff", I reasoned. The logical and optimistic parts of me thought that the idea might generate some interest, and hopefully sell as a complete package, perhaps for a pretty decent price too! If this happened I would be completely free to travel for a while, and if ever I needed "stuff" again, I would always be able to re-buy new "stuff".

Travelling now seemed like a good idea, I had decided. I hoped this might be the final step in my long process of coming to terms with the gaping hole in my life that Laura's departure still left.
Chapter 2

A Life Online

"That's it!" said Mel. "ALife4Sale is now online. Good luck!"

The 14th of March had arrived quickly, and the website was almost complete. There was a long list of minor adjustments, and some additions that would need to be made, but we were ready to go! Mel had uploaded the pages to the online website server, and I wondered just what we might have set in motion.

Simon had written his article back in London, and that day offered it to a couple of the UK national dailies. He phoned and told me that he had had some interest from both The Sun and The Telegraph, but nothing definite yet. There was a rejection from The Daily Mail, and he was just about to offer it to my old local newspaper, The Northern Echo.

The next day only The Northern Echo had run with the story, printing a huge full-page article on page three of the paper. It was complete with pictures and information from the website, which had just gone live online the day before. They had also run the full article online on their website.

I was pretty excited, but also a little disappointed that I had not made it into The Sun, which has one of the largest readerships of any English language newspaper. Now that would have been publicity, I thought, but at least I had made a successful start.

I had no idea of what was about to come!

Not long after the article appeared in The Echo, Simon phoned to say that he was getting a lot of interest from some of the national papers now, and asked if it was okay for him to give them my phone number. Of course it was!

The phone rang again soon, and I found myself talking to a reporter from The Independent. I was quite excited, and pleased to tell the story of how this had all come about. The interview was very positive and encouraging.

A short time after I hung up, the phone rang again, and a reporter from The Sun asked me roughly the same set of questions. This was all going much better than I had hoped for, and if these two ran articles, the coverage would be fantastic.

On the Monday morning UK-time, which was mid-afternoon in Perth, Simon rang again. He was delighted to tell me that there were articles in both The Telegraph and The Daily Mail, although neither of these had rung me. The Independent and The Sun had also run their pieces after speaking to me over the weekend, so I had made at least four of the UK national dailies. This couldn't possibly get any better, I thought!

I had had a few other calls from UK newspapers, and WHO? magazine in Australia had also called. Despite this I was not quite prepared for the next call, which came from the producer of Australian breakfast TV show Sunrise. They wanted me to come in the next morning and appear live on the show at around 8am. The time difference between Sydney and Perth meant that I would have to be at the studio at around 5:30am!! I cancelled the idea of going out to celebrate St Patrick's Day that evening!

I set off for the studio just before 5am, and was met by a cameraman and shown into the building. I was very surprised by how empty and quiet the whole place was. There was only myself and the cameraman in the studio. A sound guy fitted me with an earpiece and microphone and then disappeared back into a little control room. Other than the security guard who had let me in there was nobody else around.

I sat in the chair at the desk, with a photo-backdrop of the Perth skyline behind me, looked nervously at the huge camera pointing at me and listened to the show itself live in my earpiece. I have to admit I was pretty tense, but excited too. I took another sip of the glass of water at my side. Finally, in my earpiece, I heard a producer from the Sydney end of the connection ask if I could hear everything okay. "You're on live in 30 seconds."

I tried to relax, but couldn't suppress the nerves, and all of a sudden I was live on air, chatting to Mel and Kochie, the household-name presenters. I felt that I did pretty well, didn't stutter and stammer at all, and wasn't given any tricky questions. It was all over in a couple of minutes.

I was out of the studio before 6:30am, and went to visit Mel, as she lived close by. I was pretty high with excitement – I had just been on live TV on the east coast, and it would show here in Perth in about an hour. We watched the TV as I came on at 8am, and congratulated each other on a job well done. We had certainly created some publicity about the auction now!

My next port of call was at the rug shop on my way home. Jenny was very excited, but Dennis had a few well-chosen words of advice! "You looked very serious! It looked like you had a broomstick up your backside! Relax and have fun." I thought about this, and thought that yes, it is just meant to be fun, and if I ever got the chance again, I would try to enjoy the moment much more.

By the time I got home the message bank on my home phone was full and could accept no new messages. I had turned my mobile on after I left Mel's, and it had started ringing almost immediately. There was also a message to tell me the mobile phone message bank was full.

At home I turned my computer on and pressed "Send/Receive" on my email software. It took a while for the "receive" to complete, and when it did, over 1,000 messages had flooded in. As these downloaded, both my phones had started ringing again.

I tried to wade through as many of the emails as I could, but it was an almost impossible task. As soon as I hung one phone up the other would ring. Often both would be ringing together, and in the end I disconnected the home phone and just answered the mobile whenever it rang.

I soon got the chance to give my TV interview technique another try. I was invited to appear on a different Australian breakfast TV show the next morning, followed that afternoon by a live link-up with a UK breakfast TV show. I really tried to relax during both of these, and later my friend Karen told me that I had looked so confident and natural. I was really starting to enjoy all of this, but was panicking a little about all the unanswered emails and phone messages.

The next days were absolutely crazy. It was just non-stop. There were constant phone calls, interviews, photographers taking pictures for newspapers, and many radio show appearances. I was also trying to deal with the never-ending flood of emails. Calls started to come in from America and other parts of the world, and I appeared on US breakfast TV show Good Morning America.

I was absolutely worn out. I was often up before 5am to dash to a TV studio for an appearance, and then still doing interviews with US radio stations at 11pm. On many occasions people would call to schedule a radio interview time, but I explained that I could not really promise that my phone wouldn't be engaged, as it was ringing constantly. In many cases I was then asked if I could go live on air right there and then, and within 30 seconds I was in the middle of another interview.

One morning I woke up and thought, "Oh no, I've even started dreaming about doing interviews in the middle of the night!" But I paused for a moment, thinking, "Wait a minute! That feels a little more real than any dream."

I looked at my mobile phone, and found I had forgotten to turn it off before going to bed. I checked the call register, and discovered that I had received a twelve minute call at 3:30am. I had no idea who I had spoken too, or what I had said, but had a vague feeling that I had done okay. I just laughed – I had wanted some adventure and excitement, and I was getting more than I could have possibly imagined! I was going to try to enjoy every aspect of this experience.

But not everything was positive. The Daily Mail in the UK ran a huge double-page spread about the book I had written. They had obviously downloaded a copy from the website, and had gone through it with a fine-toothed comb. They had cherry-picked certain sections, choosing incidents and events from the story to sensationalise. Taken out of context, the parts the article focussed on made the book sound like a terrible warts-and-all exposé. The huge spread had featured a photo of Laura, and I had no idea where they had got it from. It was a picture I had never seen before.

I discovered later that they had turned up on my mother's doorstep back in England, and had hounded Laura's parents too. Laura called me, outraged firstly that I had told our story, secondly about the newspapers hounding her parents, but mainly about the fact that her photo was in the paper. "How did they get my photo? Could they have hacked into my computer? Or did you hack into my computer, steal it and give it to them?"

What?!! I tried to explain that this particular paper had never even spoken to me, that I had released the book simply as background, and still stood by it as a wonderful love story. None of this was being done to get back at her in any way. That had never been my intention at all. In regard to the photo, I had no idea how it had appeared in the newspaper, or where they had got it from. I tried to convince her it was certainly none of my doing. "I don't believe you, I don't know what you're capable of any more!" she said, and hung up.

I thought long and hard about my motivations for publishing the book. I had to admit that if I was completely honest, there was a somewhat cynical, financial element to my decision. I had thought I might be able to make some extra money from the book. But in my heart I also knew my intention had never been to cause anyone any hurt. It was obvious that I could not simply state that I planned to sell my whole life without providing some sort of background. The book would provide such detail, explaining how I felt about Laura, and give some insight into how losing her had affected me. I still stood by what I had written as a wonderful story of love triumphing over adversity.

I took the book down from the website, refunded everybody who had bought a copy, and cancelled all access to the material, which was password protected. I wrote an apology to any and all concerned, and published it online. I had been pretty naïve, I realised, about how it might be interpreted, but we all make mistakes and misjudgements at times, and this was one I was going to have to live with. I had done my best to put it right.

I was really surprised about the overall level of interest there was in me, and my reasons for taking this action. Most people seemed to perceive my decision to sell everything to be an extreme response to my situation. I really had imagined most of the interest would be about the lifestyle package that I was offering, not the motivations behind the package. Naïve again, perhaps?

In those early days I was also contacted by several documentary makers, all based in the UK. They all sounded very professional, and a few of them said they would send me discs of some of the TV documentaries that they had produced. It all sounded very exciting.

When I told Dennis at the rug store, he suggested I should talk to a friend of his who was a Perth-based documentary producer.

It was just before Easter weekend, and I arranged to meet up with Celia, whose company had quite an impressive resume of programs that they had produced. We got on pretty well, and she suggested that they were in a much better position to document what was happening, as they were right here in Perth, and could be with me much more than someone from the UK. She also suggested that they would like to start as soon as possible, as some amazing things were happening right now, and they would like to film over the long weekend. An overseas team would miss a lot of the initial early chaos.

I was in two minds about how it would be to have a documentary made about what I was doing. I took a bit of time to think about it, whenever I managed to get a few brief minutes of thinking time between calls and interviews. I quite liked the idea of being the focus of an unusual tale, I had to admit, but I also wondered about the downside of always having someone there with a camera in my face.

I spoke again with Celia, and she put my mind at ease, convincing me that they certainly wouldn't be there all day every day. Eventually we came to a tentative agreement that we would start filming over the long weekend, with no formal agreement as to where that may lead. This was something that we would be able to firm up over the following days.

I felt pretty comfortable with the arrangement, and met Britt, who would work as the main cameraperson and interviewer for the documentary. She would also occasionally use another camera team to record material if we went out and about.

Over the weekend Britt was at the house quite a lot of the time, and filmed much of what was going on. She would film me while I did interviews on the phone, and I found that it didn't take too long to forget, at times, that she was even there. Often, at the end of an interview, I would look up to see her filming me from along the corridor, and would be slightly surprised.

We did a lot of face-to-face interview-type of questions whenever the phone wasn't ringing. Britt would ask me a question, but wanted me to respond with the question included in the reply, so that the answers were fully self-contained statements. I found this a bit tricky to remember at first, as all the other interviews simply needed a response to the question. Eventually, with a bit of prompting every now and then from Britt, I managed to get the hang of it.

I really enjoyed the process, and Britt was very easy to get on with. It was quite different from the many radio and newspaper interviews I was still doing, where I found that I was often asked the same, or at least a very similar set of about five questions. I soon heard myself sounding a bit like a parrot, giving the same set of answers to the now familiar questions. I had found ways of expressing these answers that felt natural and comfortable to me, and tended to stick to these, trying some variations every now and then.

After a few days I told Britt I was about to do another telephone interview, and wondered if she wanted to film it? No, she said, as I would probably be saying pretty much the same stuff she had filmed me saying in most of the other interview she had seen me do.

I continued to enjoy Britt's face-to-face interviews, as she asked some fantastic questions, and really got me thinking about a lot of stuff that I hadn't given much consideration to recently. She managed to delve subtly into my past, emotions, motivations, relationships, future plans, and much more. It was quite a fascinating process to go through, and I tried to be fully open about everything. I did wonder in the back of my mind how it all might look when finally edited.

Over the Easter weekend, and during the weeks following, there were also developments in a new and very exciting direction. I had received a few emails from Hollywood production companies and independent producers interested in my story. I had responded to them and given them a contact number, but never really expected to hear any more from them.

My first inkling that there may be some serious interest in the possibility of my story being used as a movie script was a call from a guy in the US called Andrew Panay. I had a long chat with him, and he told me that he was one of the producers of the movie Wedding Crashers. Oh dear, I am not really a big Owen Wilson fan, but after our chat I did take a look at the movie, and quite enjoyed it. Andrew told me that he was in contact with Walt Disney Pictures, and the President himself there was very interested in the idea as a movie script.

I tried to retain a healthily protective scepticism about the whole thing, but over the next few days I received several other calls form both major studios and independent producers.

One of the more surreal conversations I had went as follows:

Movie Producer (very casually): "We see this project as a Tom Hanks-type of rom-com!"

Me (a quick, tongue-in-cheek response): "Tom Hanks? No, no! I rather saw George Clooney playing me!"

Movie Producer (not picking up on any of the humour in my voice): "Yes, we could possibly make that happen!"

Me (almost speechless with surprise!): "Riiiiiight....."

One of the best contacts I made during those first few weeks was with a guy who specialised in publicity for unusual internet projects. I received an email from Evan, and wrote back when I got the chance. We kept in touch, and eventually, when things calmed down a bit, I gave him a call to see what help he might be able to offer. He told me of his work with Kyle McDonald, who had created an unusual internet project. He had started with one red paperclip, and had swapped it for something else. He swapped the new item again and repeated the process over and over until he eventually ended up with a house. Kyle had just signed a movie and book deal, arranged through Evan, and another of his contacts, a movie agent called Brandon.

Evan, Brandon and I had a conference call one evening, at the point when there were quite a few emails and calls coming in from movie producers and studios. I had realised that if I was at all interested in following up with any of these potential offers, I really needed an agent who knew what he was talking about.

Again, I had spoken to Dennis at the rug shop, and he had suggested I should perhaps speak to an Australian-based representative, and gave me a couple of ideas of people who might be suitable. I eventually got to talk to one of these guys, and was quite unimpressed. He seemed completely confused by what I was doing, and had nothing to suggest other than perhaps selling the story to an Australian women's magazine. I told him about the movie studio contacts and the interest from documentary makers. He said he would think about it over the weekend and get back to me. I never heard from him again, and didn't bother calling him back.

I had a couple of further discussions with Brandon and Evan, and was starting to feel a bit pressured by the documentary makers with whom I was currently working. They were keen to make a formal agreement about the material they were filming. They were obviously inputting a lot of time and effort, and were keen to know that they had an end result to work towards.

I had put them in touch with a UK-based production company that had been interested in my story as an episode of an ongoing documentary series. An agreement had been made between a producer at the BBC and the Australian team about filming the episode for them.

I was quite excited and flattered. I mean, how often is it that the BBC wants you to be the central character of a forty minute documentary? But a problem was becoming apparent. I had spoken to Brandon about the documentary, and he had told me that there may well be a potential conflict between a movie being scripted, and a documentary being filmed.

I considered both possibilities at some length, and spoke to several friends about my dilemma. I was really enjoying the documentary process, and now felt pretty confident that the people making it would do a great job, and would present the story in a truthful and honest fashion. A movie would be quite a different matter, and, I imagined, would end up being far-removed from any of the reality of the story.

But there was one key difference, and several of my friends had asked me the same question. "How much would you get paid for each option?" Although my original intentions had been to sell my house and belongings in order to move along to the next phase of my life, there was of course a desire to sell my house for the best price I could get. And if I could maximise that through other options too, then that would give me the best possible start for the next part of my life.

I asked the documentary makers about any possible payment, and actually felt a bit bad about doing so. I mean, what a great opportunity it all was, and what fun too. I was informed that documentaries were never paid for, as it may have an impact on the impartiality of the final outcome. I understood, I told them, but in the back of my mind I thought it did seem slightly unfair. As several friends had also pointed out, everybody else involved would be getting paid – the camera people, the documentary company, the producers and the TV company.

I eventually appointed Brandon as my official representative with regard to any possible movie deal, and felt relieved that he could look after that whole side of the crazy situation. Any emails or contacts that came in about movie deals were forwarded straight to him. I was pretty confident that he would do a good job, as he worked on a percentage basis, and it was in his interests to do the best he could for me.

In the meantime I had worked out another deal with Evan, with regard to publicity for the auction. The publicity campaign that I had initially imagined had been achieved many times over in the first week after the launch of the website, but of course, additional publicity would not do any harm. Evan usually worked on a monthly fee basis, but I explained that I could not afford this, and would really have no idea how effective his work had been, as I had generated such a huge amount of publicity myself.

Eventually we worked out percentage-based deal, which would pay Evan on a sliding scale, dependent upon the final price that the auction raised. I was quite happy with this arrangement, as anything that Evan got paid would be out of extra money that I raised over and above my initial hopes and expectations. Evan was very positive about how the auction would go, estimating a low figure of $600,000, but suggesting that $1million could be a realistic possibility. My original target had been $450,000.

Brandon worked with all of the movie contacts I forwarded to him. He informed me that the original contact from Andrew Panay and Disney was looking like the most realistic possibility, but there would definitely be an issue with a documentary being made. I discussed this with the documentary people, and they argued pretty strongly that there was no reason why both could not be made, and would possibly even be beneficial to each other.

I went back to Brandon to argue their case, as I was still keen to make the documentary. He discussed it further with Disney, but eventually came back with the same answer. Disney would not permit a documentary to be made if they were to enter into a movie deal.

I felt caught in the middle of all this, and was feeling a little under pressure. Eventually I decided to take myself out of the equation altogether, and put the documentary people in direct contact with Brandon. A day or two later the documentary people decided that without a formal agreement at this stage they could no longer go on spending money in a speculative fashion, as it appeared unlikely they would end up with a finished program. I understood, of course, but felt that I had now burned my bridges, and hoped that something concrete would eventually come out of the extended negotiations with Disney.

During all of this, the craziness of the on-going media attention continued. I had returned to the rug shop to work, but would spend a lot of time answering my phone, and dealing with one interview request or another. On a couple of occasions camera teams from Australian or international news shows would come to the shop to do an interview, and Jenny, who loved all the publicity, made a couple of TV show appearances too.

I received an email from a producer at the Jay Leno Show in America, and was quite stunned. Now that really would be big time publicity! Unfortunately nothing ever eventuated from that, but a trip to the US would have been great.

I was also contacted by a producer at The Tyra Banks Show. I had never heard of Tyra Banks, and did a little internet research. I was somewhat worried by the content of her shows. It certainly seemed to be targeted firmly at the trashy, sensationalist end of the market! When I next spoke to the producer I raised my concerns, but he informed me that the show was a one-off, featuring people who had decided to make radical change in their life.

I made it very clear that I had never discussed publicly the details of the break-up of my marriage, and would not be prepared to do so on the show. I pointed out that I had only ever stated in any interview that I had made a discovery one evening that had blindsided me, and that our marriage had ended shortly afterwards. With this proviso agreed upon, it looked like I might be heading to New York very soon.

Unfortunately, the producer had left things until the very last minute, and although I was prepared to go on short notice, flights were very expensive. The show's budget would not stretch to that expense and another trip to America fell through.

I was continuing to write a daily blog about what was going on in the 100 days countdown to the start of the auction. Finding the time to do so was a bit of a challenge sometimes, but I knew it was worth it as it would serve as a great diary of these strange and interesting days.

Often I would write about what was going on, but I was always aware that part of the reason for the blog was as a sales pitch for the "product" that I was offering. Often my blogs were therefore about great days out in Perth, the wonderful weather, and the laid-back beach lifestyle.

I continued to receive a huge number of emails from individuals who wished me well, or offered support and encouragement. Probably about 95% of the incoming mail was positive, but there was certainly quite a bit that was very negative too. Some people suggested that I was an attention-seeking idiot. Why couldn't I just deal with my problems quietly like any normal person would, without having to tell the whole world about it? I think many people missed the point that I was not doing this for sympathy, merely in order to sell up and move on. I had simply told the story about how I had reached this point as background, to explain how I had arrived at my decision.

The bulletin boards on the website were proving to be equally interesting. Again, a huge part of it was positive, encouraging and supportive, but there was a small and very vocal minority that were very negative too.

I had one particularly enthusiastic detractor who accused me of being a hoax and a fraud, suggesting that the auction would never happen, and that I was conning the world's media. For what purpose, I wondered, in response? Other people wanted to know the ins and outs of my finances, my personal relationships, and other private details. My reluctance to divulge absolutely every private detail about myself was taken to be some sort of proof that there was some big fraudulent scheme developing here.

I quite enjoyed the negative comments and criticisms. They gave me a chance to respond to issues that many others must be wondering about too, and an opportunity to show people that all was exactly as I presented it on the website and in the press. But as I was to discover, there really is no convincing some people!! I didn't worry about it too much.

Although I tried to avoid it as much as I could, it was impossible to avoid my private life being dragged into the press. One unusual and somewhat surprising story appeared in the local Perth newspaper. I thought that the Australian press had a bit more integrity than much of the UK's gutter tabloid press, but the article was a bit of a disappointment.

Mel and I had been in a relationship for about a year by this point. We had met over a year after my separation, and enjoyed a pretty easy-going relationship. I was often asked if I had a current partner, and never really answered directly. Firstly, Mel did not want to have any part of the publicity, and secondly, I believed that any current relationship was nothing at all to do with the sale.

However, one local reporter did not see things that way, and went and did some digging, quizzing colleagues at my skydive club. The article that was written was not very positive, and suggested that the "heartbroken" man selling his life on eBay was perhaps not all that heartbroken after all, as he was in a happy relationship. What was not pointed out was that this was now two years after my separation.

On the bulletin boards, my favourite critics picked this up as proof that all was not right here. If I was lying about this, what else might I be lying about? I decided to address the issue head-on, and linked directly to the article myself, pointing out that a couple of years had passed since my marriage had ended. I asked how long I was supposed to wait until I began looking for a new partner, and some new happiness in my life. Also, after some discussion with Mel, I pointed out that our relationship had not quite been the blissful union that the news article had suggested, and that we had in fact now separated. Mel had eventually lost patience with my lack of commitment to the relationship, and had decided to move on. I really didn't like having to make such personal matters public, but had to be somewhat realistic, and accept that this was part of the down-side of all the publicity.

After a few weeks the publicity died off a little, and things started to return to some semblance of normality. A couple of friends from the east coast of Australia had moved over to Perth to start new careers in the mining industry, and they stayed with me for a few weeks. Another friend from the UK came and stayed for a while too, as he visited several companies with a view to getting a job in Australia, and moving over with his family to live here. It was nice to have some visitors who were also making some huge changes in their own lives, who understood my position and actions, and offered plenty of encouragement and support.

In the calmer days after the initial craziness died away, Mel and I made up and got back together again. We had discussed our relationship, and what being together again might mean. I had been at pains to point out that I really didn't want anything too serious or involved, and hoped to keep things very much on a casual, friendly basis. Mel seemed happy to agree to such an arrangement, and a little sense of normality returned to life as things settled back into some sort of routine, and I resumed my duties at the rug shop.

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I was still doing occasional interviews, answering the same set of questions that I had been asked hundreds of times before. In most interviews the series of questions was very predictable, and my answers had become pretty automatic. This generally is what I would be asked:-

"Can you tell us what you are doing?"

"Why have you decided to do that?"

"How much do you think it will all sell for?"

"What will you do afterwards?"

"What do friends and family think about it?"

Sometimes there would be other questions included, such as why my wife and I had separated, or what she thought of the whole idea. Another favourite was about how I could sell my friends. I was always very keen to explain that I had never, ever said that I was selling friends. I was simply offering, as part of the package, an introduction to a wonderful circle of people who would be prepared to offer a warm welcome to a newcomer.

I must have been getting a bit too comfortable doing these interviews, as I really enjoyed it when something a little different happened. I particularly enjoyed the breakfast radio show type of interview, where there would be a panel of two or three presenters, and laughs were their main aim. They were much more challenging, and a lot more fun. You really could have anything thrown at you, and had to be pretty quick on your feet with a snappy answer.

It was the fourth question on the list that always gave me the most difficulty. I had been asked so many times in interviews and on the ALife4Sale website forum what I thought I might do once I sold my life. I didn't really have an answer, even for myself. My usual glib response was that I would be able to do anything I liked!

But in the back of my mind, I wondered what it was that I really would like to do. One day I was chatting on the phone to Evan, the US-based internet publicity guy. He suggested that after the auction, when I came out to LA, we would go skydiving together, and he would show me what his city had to offer.

"Great," I had said, "but I guess that depends on how the finances look, and where I am working at the time."

"Work?" said Evan. "No, no, no! You don't understand! This is your chance to never have to work again!"

"Well, I like your thinking Evan," I replied, "but I haven't got a clue what you're talking about! How would I do that?"

"Well, you have to come up with a follow-up project. Something that is internet-based, is quirky and interesting, that follows on logically from what you are doing now, and most importantly – and this is where your money comes from – has a book deal in it!"

"Righto. Sounds good. So what is that then?" I asked.

"I have no idea, that's up to you, buddy!" Evan had laughed.

"Hmm, okay, I'll get to work on it."

This advice sat in the back of my mind for the next month or so. People continued to ask in interviews what I planned to do next, or where I intended to go, and I always answered that I still didn't really know. All I knew was that I wanted to do some travelling.

One day on the ALife4Sale website, a forum contributor called Tess had asked if I had any sort of a "life-list", or set of goals. I did have an old list somewhere that I had written out a few years earlier.

Not long after I had searched unsuccessfully for my old list, Mel and I spent an evening together at her house, and were well into our second bottle of wine. I could still remember many of the goals from my original list, and told her with enthusiasm about many of the things that I had always wanted to do or see. I estimated that out of the list of 100 things I wanted to achieve in my life, in five years since I had written them down, I had only ticked off perhaps six of the goals. That obviously wasn't going to work. If I maintained the same rate of achievement, I was going to die one day with the larger part of my list still incomplete.

In one sudden flash of wine-fuelled inspiration, an idea came to me. As soon as I sold my life, I would set off to achieve all of the things on my list. I would re-write a list of 100 goals, and give myself a time limit. And there it was, almost fully formed, the idea for my next two years – 100 goals in 100 weeks.

As soon as the idea flashed across my somewhat inebriated mind, I thought, "That's it!!" It perfectly filled Evan's criteria, and it would be incredibly exciting to do too. I knew immediately that this is what I would be doing next. My future was looking very exciting indeed.

However, in my excitement, I didn't notice Mel's crest-fallen look, and when I look back on this occasion, I can only imagine the hurt I must have caused.

Mel, as always, supported and encouraged me. She threw herself into designing another new website, cataloguing the goals, designing search options, setting up blog, photo and video pages, and much more.

As I added text to each of the goals, and background to the reasons behind my choices, I became increasingly excited and focused on making this all become a reality.

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For almost as long as I can remember, I have always had goals, even when I never fully grasped the importance of doing so.

When I was very young, I can remember watching a documentary about Ernest Hemingway, a writer born in 1899. He lived a full life, settling in different locations for several years at a time to write, and then moving on. Inspired by his visits to Spain, in 1926 he wrote his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. When the documentary covered this part of his life, it showed quite a lot of footage of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. I can clearly remember sitting and watching those people running wildly through the streets with bulls thundering around among them, and thinking to myself, "I'm going to do that one day!"

When I told my parents they smiled and wished me luck. They were always supportive of anything my brother or I wanted to do, but I don't know if they believed I would ever do it.

As I started to gather my list of 100 goals, including things I have always wanted to do, and places I have always wanted to see, I thought of that day, probably over 30 years earlier. Of course, on the list I started to make, running with the bulls at Pamplona went right at the top!

There were many other things that I had often said I wanted to do, but had never managed to find the time to get around to doing. It was time to put that right. Once everything sold I would have little to tie me down, and hopefully plenty of cash from the sale. My list of goals started to grow.
Chapter 3

The Auction

My idea was to break the news of my goal-achieving new plans just as the auction finished, with publicity at its highest. I would hopefully kick-start my new adventure in fine style.

As the end of June approached, interest from the media began to increase again. By the time the auction started, I had stopped working at the rug shop again in order to ensure that all went smoothly with the sale, and to complete work on the 100goals100weeks.com website.

However, the start of the auction didn't quite go according to plan. I had been contacted by eBay, who had seen some of the publicity about the auction, and had allocated me my own personal eBay rep. Matthew was there to help me with any issues that may come up, and his first requirement was that the sale be listed under "Real Estate", as the house was the major asset included in the whole "life" package.

This meant that the eBay auction could only offer an introduction between buyer and seller, as house sales were covered by many different laws in each state. Ultimately any final bid would not be binding on either the buyer or the seller. This sounded great to me, as eBay could therefore not charge an end-of-sale commission, and the total cost to make the listing online would be a mere $49.95.

I asked how we could deal with the potential problem of fake bids, and Matthew suggested that we set up the sale as a "Registered Bidders Only" auction. Anybody wanting to bid would have to answer whatever questions I cared to ask, and I could choose who would be allowed to bid. This would enable me to weed out people who looked like they may not have made any sort of arrangements to have finances in place, or considered whether they would need any sort of visa to come to Australia. Anyone from abroad would, as a minimum, have to at least be familiar with the requirements of the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Out of the hundreds of potential bidders I imagine I rejected about a third, mainly because many of these had made no sort of plans should they be the winning bidder. I thought I had every eventuality covered.

On the morning that the auction began, many friends came round, and there were a few bottles of wine, and even one of champagne too. There was a wonderful celebratory atmosphere, and at noon Mel and I set the auction in motion! Matthew had told us that once the auction had started we would be able to switch on the "Registered Bidders Only" option, and Mel said she would do this as I raised the first of many glasses in celebration.

A short while later Mel asked me to join her. She couldn't get the option to switch on, and at the moment it was a bidding free-for-all. Bids were already at over $100,000, having started at just $1 only minutes before. The "Registered Bidders Only" option didn't seem to be available, but I said that it shouldn't be a problem, as I would just give Matthew a call. Ah, but eBay help was only open during working hours on Monday to Friday. It was now just after noon on Sunday. We tried the online help system, and Mel struggled for a while, messaging back and forth with a help rep somewhere else in the world. She was told that the option had to be turned on before the auction started, and couldn't then be selected afterwards.

No problem, I had said, I would just speak to Matthew on Monday morning and get the issue resolved. I suggested that Mel should join me with the others happily downing the cheaper wine now that the champagne had been consumed.

By mid-afternoon bids had reached around $350,000, and I confidently predicted that they wouldn't go any higher now. By the time we went to bed the top bid was $650,000.

I had to be up very early the next morning for a TV interview, and with a couple of spare minutes, I decided to take a look at the auction's progress. I was absolutely astounded to see a bid of $1.9 million. As I sat there in amused disbelief, the screen refreshed, and the bid was now $2 million. Laughing to myself, I shut down the computer and headed for the TV studio.

By the time I was interviewed the bids were at $2.2 million, and I was asked what it felt like to become an overnight multi-millionaire. Let's all just stay calm here, I had suggested. I hadn't had a chance to check out the veracity of these bids, and had no guarantee that they weren't fake. I explained the issues we had had with the registered bidders fiasco.

Later in the morning Matthew resolved the issue, and together we looked at the bids. He explained how I, as the seller, could access full details on any bidder, including home phone number, and I got to work.

I made several amusing phone calls that morning, including one to the aunt of a fifteen year old lad in England. Was he there, I wondered?

"No, he doesn't live here," she explained in a broad Geordie accent. "He only uses this number because he doesn't have a phone of his own."

"Right," I sighed. "He has been bidding on a rather expensive item on eBay. Does he often do that?"

"Oh yes, he often buys stuff off the internet."

"Okay, would he be in a position to pay over two million dollars?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Well, his current bid in a pretty high-profile auction is $2.2 million. If he doesn't follow through, I imagine it will be your door that the world's press will be knocking on shortly!"

"Eeee! I'll kill the little bastard!"

And so it went on. Eventually, I had weeded out all of the idiots, and cancelled all of the bids that looked in any way suspect. By mid-Monday morning we were back on track, and the top bid stood at $150,000.

It had been fun to be a multi-millionaire though, even if it was only for a couple of hours.

The rest of the auction week was equally incredible and entertaining. There were live TV interviews first thing every morning, and radio and newspaper interviews for the rest of the day. There was a wonderful sense of build-up to the finale, and friends would call round regularly to see how things were progressing.

I arranged a party for the Saturday evening, as a "thank you" to all my friends who had supported me over the previous months. On the morning of the final day of the auction, the house was an absolute mess.

With Evan's help in LA, we had set up a live video feed from the house, and were streaming the last hour or so live over the internet. By 11:30am there was a house-full of friends, many still there from the previous evening. We were live online, had two TV news crews setting up gear in the living room, a Japanese TV crew filming everything that was going on, and a helicopter circling overhead looking for a place to land.

After the initial drama of the $2 million-plus bids, the auction had progressed in a much more sensible fashion. The current high bid was $399,300, just a few dollars short of my unstated reserve price of $400,000. I was hoping, as often happens on eBay, that there would be a final flurry of bids in the dying seconds of the auction, and the price would be pushed up a bit higher.

The clock ticked past noon, and the auction was over. My computer was being fed through the projector onto the large screen on the living room wall, and I refreshed the eBay screen, eager to see the final bid.

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To find out what happened at the end of the eBay auction, and to follow the amazing two-year adventure that followed, get hold of a copy of "A Life Sold". It is available in both paperback and digital format at all good online book retailers. Search for either "A Life Sold" or for "Ian Usher" at your favourite online book outlet.
