Not for me are such trivialities. Washing up after last night’s birthday party for Linda’s eldest daughter has been the extent of my productivity today and with the mass exodus from the house completed I can go about the rest of my chores in peace and quiet and most importantly, at my own pace.
It would be nice to be out riding or, at a stretch, walking or doing any one of a number of things which should see me out of the house on such a day but sometimes a Sunday, with a few hours to yourself at home is just what the doctor ordered.
Life continues to roll along at a sedentary pace and the laboriousness continues but it is pleasant enough while I remain upright and I wouldn’t be on the other side of the grave for quids!
There is plenty I could write about to soothe my urge to post in my blog as it has been a busy week internationally and personally but as I sit here the news of the world seems distant and my own journey through life trivial and I can’t find the depth to talk with any great detail about anything.
The changes on my blog which I instituted a couple of weeks ago don’t seem to have increased traffic flow at all. If anything traffic has fallen off although I am still getting a few spammers leaving automated messages in the comments section. The new layout has been a bit of a fizzer but I like it and intend to keep it the way it is.
At the end of the day the main problem with my blog in regards to securing a large readership is the fact that it is not very interesting. I toyed with the idea of making it a sports blog or a cycling blog or even a blog of world affairs despite the fact I know next to nothing of such things but I must say I like it as it is. I guess more than anything it is an online diary. A portal to the world. An activity which relaxes and engages me and releases some creative energy. The fact my life is as boring as the next persons probably exposes the reason for lack of readership. My life is not so interesting that the average Joe would like to read about it! So be it. I accepted my lot in life some time ago. I don’t like to specialize. I just like to ramble. If you like it you are welcome if not, well, thanks for dropping by and trying a sample. You are welcome back any time.
During the week ABC Grandstand posted on their Facebook page details of a short story writing contest where the subject must be an unsung Australian sporting hero. That is a very ambiguous brief. Without more information it is very hard to know exactly what kind of brief it is. An international sportsman who has never been given his due? A local champion in an obscure sporting club somewhere who someone feels should be highlighted? I don’t know but I have taken up the challenge and written a short story about the great Aussie cyclist Phil Anderson.
For those of you who don’t know, this unsung champion was the first Australian to lead the Tour de France. In fact he was the first man from outside Europe to lead the race so he was a pioneer in a couple of ways. He finished in the top ten of the Tour de France five times in a row, a feat not equalled until Cadel Evans came along and he was ranked number one in the world for a short time but was certainly one of the best international cyclists around for quite a while.
He was also the first man in professional cycling to bring a lawyer to contract negotiations; in itself a radical move which horrified the traditional European gatekeepers of the sport but a moment which brought professional cycling into the 20th century. Professional cyclists began to get paid somewhere near their worth after that and Phil Anderson’s legacy can be seen all over the modern professional sport of European cycle racing.
So, considering his glory days were roundly ignored for the most part by Australian sport reporters who deemed cycling to be a part of another world, an alien culture in the land of Aussie Rules, Rugby and Cricket, I consider him to be somewhat of an unsung hero in our sporting culture. He kicked the door in and Aussie cyclists followed. Cadel Evans’ 2011 Tour de France victory is a culmination of all Australian effort over the last 100 years but it is Phil Anderson who proved it was possible to race and beat the best on their home turf.
So, I wrote my short story and will send it off. I have no expectation for it and my confidence was shaken last night when my mother read it and thought my unsung hero was Cadel Evans who I only mention in passing in the last paragraph! Hmmm. Not a good review.
I figure you have to keep trying to capture a bit of attention if you want to be noticed. That being said I have no illusions about my writing. Anyone can write so there is limitless competition and a stacked field and there are plenty of writers far more intelligent and articulate and talented than me who can’t make a living in the writing game. But it would be nice to write something worthwhile and see it in print. Even if it was just a one off. I will keep trying and perhaps one day I will stumble onto a lucky subject have a moment of inspiration and manage to put down something worthwhile which more than a dozen or so people will read.
And so, on this beautiful autumn day I will continue on with my laborious life and enjoy this reign of peace in my house while it lasts. The spell will soon be broken. Not that I mind but life becomes a little more ordered when the house is full and ways of the common man can frowned upon. Such is life.
Have a nice day.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 