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“How ya goin’?”

This is The Girl, writing to you for the DC Rainmaker weekly newsletter. Headquarters is still temporarily based way down here in Australia! And I’m 3 weeks in a row now behind on my self-imposed Tuesday weekly deadline! I’m not sure if it’s catching too much sunshine, having more fun things to do- like snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef, or simply because everything in Oz is just way more chill. But I do strive to get back on track for Tuesdays… eventually! Now, if all this Australia stuff is news to you, or this is your first time reading the Newsletter, then you are way behind- go HERE to catch up on past newsletters and what’s the latest in the Maker fam.!

Now, on with the show!

Over last few weeks we spent a few days checking out Sydney, then we hopped over to the islands off of Queensland, specifically Hamilton Island, then finally ended up in Melbourne. While you might be reading this thinking “well that’s a nice life, but where are all of the blog posts?”. Let me explain. You see every year starting around August Ray says to me, “You know how this goes, this is one of my busiest weeks of the year”. That would be referring to Eurobike. Then that cascades into Interbike, into ANT+, into now the entire tech industry has released something bigger and better for Christmas shopping that NEEEEEDS to be reviewed, into Black Friday-Week, into Christmas, into CES, and then finally the Tour Down Under.” I cannot accurately describe for you clear enough just how much time Ray spends on the blog. A lot of time is not even on creating new posts or testing, but everything else involved like answering comments, emails, tweets, Facebook messages, YouTube comments, keeping up with anything else that might be interesting on the interwebs, and that’s not all, I’ve just stopped trying to keep track. So by the time the Tour Down Under ended, Ray knew what was coming. Usually in January of February we try to take off to somewhere for a The Girl mandated blog blackout! Believe me, this is hard for Ray, and sometimes it’s confusing for me too. Like last week while on a day trip to Whitehaven Beach (Whitsunday Island-National Park) Ray was flying the drone and this was the gist of the conversation:

Me: “Okay well what do you need me to do? Where should I stand, or do you want me to get out of the way all together?”

Ray: “No, I’m just flying the drone.”

Me: “What do you mean? What are you going to use the footage for?”

Ray: “Nothing. I just want to fly the drone”

Me: “Yeah but why? Is there a new update or something?”

Ray: “Woman, I just want to fly my drone.”

Me: “You mean, just for the fun of it?”

Ray: “Yes, you’re in a bikini on a white sandy beach, go out and enjoy the water and sunshine. I’m flying my drone.”

Me: *slack jaw, waddles to ocean with blow up doughnut*

So hopefully that got you chuckling a little bit, and you’ve forgiven Ray and I for the stop work for a little while there. I’m sure he was still sneaking onto twitter and other forms of social media so you knew he was still breathing somewhere. But honestly, sometimes I just need to reclaim my hubby from the rest of the internet. A lot times it feels like everything we do has an underlining for the blog, so it was very very nice to only have the cockatoos to worry about for the last few days (that’s another story).

So with that, there is a list of blog posts since the last newsletter below. As well as a single YouTube post, Ray’s in-depth review of what a press kit at the TDU looks like.

If you haven’t read enough banter from me yet, remember to keep scrolling down to the best part of the newsletter, “In Depth Thoughts from The Girl”.

After leaving Adelaide we headed north to Sydney.  We were only there about 72 hours, and I haven’t exactly written a post about it yet.  Partially because the weather was…

This Sunday kicks off the annual ISPO sports trade show in Munich.  This show is all about the outdoors and sports, with a chunk of it dedicated to sports tech. …

The list of companies aiming to get into running efficiency products seems to grow by the week, and this week I’m giving you a look at FeetMe.  At its core,…

Almost every cyclist has attempted to ride on their local bike path on a weekend morning – only to become frustrated with getting a poor-quality workout, due to having to…

The Week in Review is a collection of both all the goodness I’ve written during the past week around the internet, as well as a small pile of links I…

In Depth Thoughts from The Girl

I wish I was saying “G’Day mates” to you right now. But sadly since the time I started this edition of the newsletter I have already reentered the country of France. I have actually been writing this newsletter for over a week now. In between naps, pool time, diaper changing, and snorkeling. Thus, now I am back on the couch in Paris. It’s about 5:50am, because we have a little one who is really unsure of this whole jetlag thing. She fully believes that it’s party time right now. So I’m 2 cups of joe deep, and Ray is sleeping. Later, I am sure I’ll be taking a nap and Ray will be on parenting duty. There is zero point in the both of us being awake, so we have been taking “baby jetlag shifts”.

Ahhhh, Australia. I heart Australia. We had such a great time. Thank you to all of the folks down under who said hi if they saw us, emailed me things to do and places to eat, and in general to the entire nation who is just so damn friendly!

Now I don’t’ want to start a war here, but I have to give Melbourne the nod. That city was awesome. So much good food happening there. The vibe was great. The outdoor green spaces, running and walking trails, so much fun. We were lucky to get to experience the energy of the Australian Open (tennis), as well as the Chinese New Year celebrations. We found a little coffee/ brunch spot, Hash Coffee and Roasters that we loved so much we went back for a second round. I know we missed out on a ton of other great food options but really we only had 4 days, we can only stuff down so much food. We did demolish a solid amount of food truck meals, as there a food truck park happening on the Southbank Promenade while we were there.

Don’t get me wrong, there is not a bad things to say about Adelaide, Glenelg, Sydney, or Hamilton Island. We loved our time there, so much so it is time for me to start campaigning for the Maker Family return next January!

With that, I must go. There are bags to unpack, laundry to do, and of course cakes to bake! Ciao.

~The Girl