London to Auckland

Sup?Sup?Gangster Dude

This text message reportedly found ‘accidentally’ by my brother in the text messages on my 13 year old niece’s phone. In English this roughly means, “What are you doing my friend? Are your evil uneducated parents still oppressing you, beating you and making your life miserable?

My guess is that the reply to this message would have been a lone ‘Sup?’ or ‘Sup bakatya’.

For those of you who can’t recognize it, it’s ‘communication Jim but not as we know it Jim’.

And that’s my topic for the day. Communication. It’s important for us, not only during the ride, but right now as we work towards getting everything organized and trying to get as much exposure as possible to enhance our chances of catching the eye of people worldwide who can help us make it all successful.

To that end we have the website that gets thousands of hits a month and we expect over 100,000 hits a day during the event. There is a Global London-Sydney Face book group at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=103535926659 . I write this blog about once a month to keep you all informed and I have a ‘twitter’ http://twitter.com/jeremyburfoot that allows interested parties to see what we are up to on a daily basis with the ride. My riding buddy Barrie reckons that only three people read the blog. Barrie, my wife Manola and you, and I’d like to thank you for being so faithful. Interestingly, not one person has asked to be removed from the email update list although I do wonder how many people have classified it as spam!

During the ride we will have the website which will be the main focus point for our followers. The website will have a tracking page that will show via satellite where we are, where we have been, our average speed, what the conditions are like and many other items of interest. On the physiology page there will be daily updates of the rider’s physical condition and items such as weight and heart rate will be graphed to show trends. The site will also have a couple of webcam feeds. Photos and U-tube film clips will be frequently uploaded. The blog and twitter will be updated when news happens, but mostly by the crew as I will have other things to think about.

Domino will be equipped with satellite broadband and the team will have satellite phones. We will also use normal mobile phones at times when they are useful such as going through Europe. We will use VHF and UHF for communications while riding. We riders will be able to talk to each other and Domino through radios installed in our helmets. Each operational team member will carry an emergency beacon that, if set off, will inform authorities in New Zealand of our exact position. More simply but just as important, we will need to communicate our intentions by flag as well. As the Seadoos will be registered as New Zealand Ships we will need to fly the New Zealand flag and, as a courtesy when it counts, we will fly the flag of the country we are passing through. Some countries still require that a yellow quarantine flag is flown on entry as well. As an absolute last resort I reserve the right to use sign language if I get really upset with someone.

Now if Tim Turner was reading this (and I know he’s not because he’s not one of the three) he would say, “Burfoot. Ask me if I care about any of this. Instead of telling us how you are going to keep us informed, tell us some actual news.” Good point Turner.

Now here is the news….I have just got back from London where I met with Adrian Erangey and our new London based team. This team was previously involved with Earthrace so have lots of experience already. The London Team will take care of most aspects of the ride that need to be organized from that end and also chase up sponsorship for us in the UK.

A few weeks ago we had a selection process for the support rider for the event. We now have a shortlist and the contenders have joined the team and are already making a contribution. Final selection of crew will take place in Feb 2010.

We would also like to welcome three new sponsor/suppliers to the team. Capitol Signs has agreed to do our sign writing for us, Johnston Associates has agreed to be team accountant and ‘Skins’ are providing us with skins for the ride. Thanks guys. We appreciate your contribution!!

We have taken delivery of the first Seadoo and it is now sign written with sponsor’s logos. It looks great. VJ Clark is in charge of modifying the machine for testing. This machine is a 2009 model and we will pick up three new 2010 models in December. On a lighter note, I was having a look through the Seadoo manual a few days ago and reading the safety warnings section. Obviously a law firm has been employed to mitigate any risk that Seadoo might face due to the extraordinary performance of these machines. If you took that section seriously you would limit your machine use to: ‘Never to be ridden, to remain in the garage and only to be shown to mates for bragging rights and when they view it they must be wearing a helmet’. There is also an interesting loading sticker on the back of the machine. It has a picture with three people on it and an alternative of one person and a suitcase. That means I can pick up hitch hikers on the ride provided I ditch my suitcase. Tough choice and certain criteria will apply.

In other news we have added our detailed ‘Healthy Living’ message to the site at: http://www.london-sydney.com/healthy-living.htm . Have a read. You might learn something. Speaking of healthy living, I am currently in the USA and have just got back from an eating experience. I have just had a salad at a place called ‘The Cheesecake Factory’. The Factory has an extensive menu which makes it one of my favorite places to eat. The chicken salad I ordered comes stacked 6 inches high on a plate the size of a wagon wheel. The amazing thing is that instead of tasting bland like a normal salad that only a horse or a vegetarian would enjoy, this salad actually tastes good. How they achieve this at the Factory is that they add calories in the form of cheese, tortilla strips, dressings and, I think, green M&Ms. Add to this a margarita that comes in a two gallon bucket and you have an epic culinary event of some 2 to 3 million calories. Sure you do get your greens for the next two weeks but you also get fat.

With all the bad news coming out of the USA over the last year I can hear you all wondering how things really are over here. Well as your correspondent here ‘on the ground’ I can report that all is not as bad as it seems. This maybe because my company recently forgot themselves and accommodated us in a good area but I get around a bit and see a bit so am reasonably well informed. The country is still in shock from the damage inflicted by the greed on Wall Street and that greed is, by all reports, still alive and well. But Americans are resilient, positive and generally intelligent and I believe we haven’t seen the last of them. After all, they gave us most of the great inventions of the 20^th century and they stopped us from having to speak Japanese or German so be thankful and don’t write them off. One thing that has deteriorated somewhat though is service. I tried to get a shirt washed recently and was told it would take two days. I get a quicker laundry turnaround than that at home and sometimes get to sleep with the laundry person. (But not any more after she reads this). And at the Factory last night the service was so so. At one point our waiter winged past and enquired as to how things were going. As a joke one of our group said, “Everything tastes like crap”. The waiter’s reply was, “You’re welcome”. At the end of the night we had to pay the bill and here is where the stupidity really starts. When I first started coming here before the war a 10% tip was considered normal. Now the waiter sulks if you don’t give 18% and no matter how good the service actually was. So we stuck to our guns, tipped 15%in cash and a further 3% in really good tips like don’t bet on a slow race horse and under no circumstances, ever, ever eat yellow snow. So to sum up here…business as usual in the USA and thank God for that. Until next time.