I didn’t think it would have been that hard to drink 2 litres of water each day but I found it to be quite a lot of water to consume during a normal day.

What I did find was that it was really easily to consume the water in days that I attended the gym, where in some instances I’d do over three litres in a day but then over a weekend I’d do a bit less than 2 litres.

Over the course of the month I averaged 1.95 litres per day, so I didn’t reach the challenge goal. However, given that it was such a massive increase from my close to zero daily water intake, I’m actually going to chock it up as a success.

One thing that it didn’t seem to slow down was my coffee intake and I mentioned to Claire that might be one of my next challenges – no coffee or caffeine for a month, yowzer!

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1. 30 Day Challenge: Drink 2 Litres Of Water Daily
2. Hugo Kicking Back

My birthday started with with Claire, Hugo & Evie greeting me in bed. Hugo ran into the room and wished me happy birthday for the first time, which is more than a little bit special.

Claire found some beautiful paper and ribbon to wrap my presents in, it was a shame to unwrap them really but you’re forced to on your birthday – hehe. I was incredibly spoiled for presents from the family this year & received:

• a brown denim pair of shorts & a pair of nice shirts
• Steve Jobs biography
• Mission Impossible 3 & The Social Network on DVD
• Lindt chocolates
• iPhone dock

After presents it seemed reasonable to bring our weekend ritual of McDonald’s for breakfast forward a day, which while Hugo doesn’t understand days of the week yet – he was more than happy about.

Unlike virtually every other year, we broke tradition and didn’t visit Hogs Breath Cafe for lunch and instead made our way down to a new, local cafe called Luv-A-Coffee not to far from our place. Sterle, Lorraine & Jean joined us for lunch which was great, especially since Sterle was feeling under the weather. I’d only been there once before for morning tea but the coffee & cake was delicious. Lunch certainly didn’t disappoint, I had a ‘small’ serving of spaghetti bolognaise and it was more than I needed for lunch.

After lunch we rolled our way back to our place, enjoyed a chocolate cake that Claire made and Hugo decorated with purple sprinkles & fire fighting candles to top if off. The cake was really nice, Hugo & Evie certainly enjoyed it yesterday and today.

For the afternoon we stayed at home, watched Robots on DVD which is one of Hugo’s favourites at the moment and mucked around at home. Late last night I ventured out to the movies with Shea to see Tower Heist featuring Eddie Murphy & Ben Stiller which was a good watch.

A quick thank you to all my family, extended family & work colleagues for calling or sending me an SMS and also to everyone that dropped me a line on instant messenger and facebook as well – well wishes on your birthday are fantastic.

Onward and upward, 32 next year!

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3. 28th Birthday

I’ve never been much of a water drinker across the course of the day, which I suppose is quite silly since the human body is over 50% water. I certainly drink my fair share of water when exercising but it isn’t a drink I think to consume throughout a normal day.

I recently attended a Franklin Covey training course and it was mentioned that it takes around 21 days to set a new habit. That reminded me of Matt Cutts, a famous Google employee among the online marketing world who regularly does 30 day challenges.

It’ll be the first time I’ve ever taken on a short term challenge like this before and it seems like a great opportunity to assess different aspects of your life and make some small changes around things that might have a meaningful impact, either short, medium or long term.

Tomorrow I’m going to buy a 1 litre bottle of water so I can easily keep track of how much water I’m drinking across the day. Just like I did with my weight loss, I’ll be keeping track of my daily water intake in Google Docs so I can see how successful I’ve been over the month.

As an added benefit, I’m hoping that increasing my water consumption will have the opposite effect on my coffee intake. I really do love drinking coffee, however I know I drink too much of it. So if drinking more water helps with reducing that at the same time, it is definitely a win win situation.

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Steve Jobs
24 February 1955 – 5 October 2011

Adopted at birth by a Californian couple, Steve Jobs grew up in a middle class lifestyle. Destined to attend university as a result of a promise from his adopted parents to his biological parents, Steve attended a university that he couldn’t see the value in and was draining away his parents savings, ultimately dropping out in the first year.

While not realising it at the time, dropping out of university was going to be the most important and pivotal decision of his lifetime. It allowed Steve to attend university classes that he wanted to attend and ultimately lead him to meet Steve Wozniak, who he later founded Apple Computers with in his parents garage in 1976.

In the following ten years, Apple Computers had grown from two employees to thousands and was worth over USD$2b. In another amazing turn of events, Jobs was fired from Apple by the then CEO over an ongoing difference of opinion. Not being dissuaded from his passion, Steve Jobs managed to turn it into a positive by founding a new computer company named NeXT. Later in 1997, Apple acquired NeXT and opened the doors for Jobs to be reinstated as the CEO of Apple. The list of amazing things just keeps on going, like buying a small computer animation business from Lucus Films for USD$10M, which was later renamed to Pixar. Pixar has released a string of animated feature movies, is the most successful in the world, has received six Academy Awards and was sold to Walt Disney in 2006 for USD$7.4b. Apple computers is among the biggest in the world, of any type of business with a market capitalisation of over USD$350b, more than twice that of Google which currently sits at approimately USD$170b.

It goes without saying that Steve Jobs has had a massive impact on the computing and electronics industry. In his 56 years he has literally helped change the world and has been hailed by world and industry leaders as thought leading, visionary, one of a kind and much more.

I’m genuinely sad to hear that Steve Jobs has passed away. Not because I feel a deep connection with him or that I think that Apple is now at risk of collapsing but because through his ideas, determination and brilliance, he helped change the world. There are a small number of people that have lived on the planet that have had such a profound impact on the way we live our lives and it saddens me to think the world has been short changed on more spectacular advancements that we didn’t even think were possible, didn’t know we needed or that could exist.

Rest in peace Steve, the world is a little less bright with your passing.

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After several reminders from Claire, I booked an appointment with Doctors @ Cavill which is conveniently located across the road from my office and went and got checked out. It was the first time I’ve ever had a skin cancer check and I was pleased that after a full body assessment, none of my other freckles or moles raised an eye brow. However, the funky freckle on my arm was cause for a skin biopsy in the same appointment.

A week later I received my results and the doctor confirmed that it was a basal cell carcinoma. I had no idea what that was, but after asking the doctor about it and researching it online, basal cell carcinoma’s are the most common and least dangerous skin cancer, are typically located on the upper body and are a non-melanomo skin cancer.

Nearly as soon as the doctor had given me my results, we were walking back down to the surgery room where I had the initial skin biopsy done and was being prepared to have the carcinoma cut out. Roughly 15 minutes later, I’d had a local anesthetic and the doctor had cut a section of my right forearm out about 3cm long and a few millimetres wider than the carcinoma on each side. The specimen was placed into a jar with fluid in it to be sent to pathology and five minutes later I had three nylon stitches in my arm to pull everything back together.

I’m certainly not going to win any awards from the Cancer Council of Australia for diligently applying sun smart practices. That being said, I’m always aware of the fact that I have fair skin and don’t go and lounge around in the sun. People that know me will often hear me joke that the sun and I don’t get alone very well and this has been a stark reminder of that.

Next time I’m at the shops, I’m going on the hunt for a wide brimmed hat to wear when working outside to give my face, neck and ears a better chance of avoiding going under the knife in the future.

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There are around 1700 people on the organ transplant waiting list at any one time, of which the lucky ones wait as little as six months and the unlucky up to four years for an organ transplant. Last year there were only 309 donations across the country, which represents just under 14 donations per million people. If you were a betting man, you wouldn’t bother placing a bet with odds like that.

Most people don’t know the organ donation wishes of their family members and when push comes to shove, it is the last thing on a families mind when someone passes away – which is one of the reasons we have such a low organ donation rate. A lot of people assumed by ticking the organ donation checkbox on their drivers license that was sufficient, however it isn’t enough.

Medicare now allows you to register for organ donation online, it takes about 30 seconds to fill out the form. By doing so, the government will post you a form for you to complete, sign and return. The medical staff will still ask your family if they want to donate your organs and tissue, which they could object to – however the likelihood when you’ve specifically granted permission through the organ donation register is very unlikely.

I’d urge everyone reading this to take 30 seconds to complete the online organ donation registration form. You never know if and when someone in your family might need an organ transplant and with the current dismal organ donation rates, they could be waiting a very long time. Once you’ve filled out the online form, make a point of having a discussion with your family about your organ donation wishes and get them to join the organ donation register if that is their wish as well.

Become and organ donor today & save a life in the future.

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Shortly after that, Sam from Shave Shack got in contact with me and asked if I’d review their latest arrival – a luxury shaving cream from the United Kingdom named Bluebeards Revenge. I was really excited to hear from Sam, he is a local Gold Coast small business owner and his shaving shop sells boutique, luxury shaving products that the major players ignore – which I think is great.

The first thing that I noticed about Bluebeards Revenge was the kick arse box that it came in. Instead of some puncy pretty boy container, Bluebeards Revenge comes in a simple blue cardboard box with their signature skull & crossbones stamped on the lid. Around the box, instead of the typical ‘you should use us because we are the best’ – they instead inform their prospective clients that it is a shaving cream for real men and that wimps need not apply.

Unboxing the Bluebeards Revenge reveals a clear plastic container with a metal lid, to give it that nice solid manly feeling. The shaving cream has a great fragrance and looks silky & luscious in the container.

It only takes two finger fulls of Bluebeards Revenge shaving cream to lather up in your hands to cover your face. I’ve seen other people use it with a shaving brush & shaving bowl and only use an almond sized amount to produce a beautifully thick shaving lather – so I might need to invest on some of those to experience it to its fullest effect.

Once applied, the shaving cream provides nice protection for your face and my Schick Hydro 5 that I was provided via facebook works with it really well. I’ve noticed that I’m getting very little shaving rash with the new razor and Bluebeards Revenge which is great and it produces a very clean shave. One thing I really like about it is that once you’ve run the razor over your face once, you can put a small amount of water into your hands and re-lather your face to tidy up any bits that you missed in pass one.

After you’ve finished shaving with Bluebeards Revenge, it washes off your face easily with a little water. I particularly liked that it doesn’t leave any residue on your skin either, comes off cleanly and your face feels smooth, clean & refreshed. I haven’t been using it long enough to notice it just yet but it also contains Decelerine, which is meant to slow down beard growth as well – handy if you’re particularly hairy.

Overall I think the Bluebeards Revenge Shaving Cream is a great product. I love that it has attitude and isn’t another sterile product that you’re so accustomed to in the supermarkets. I like the scent, it goes on well, assists with a really clean shave and doesn’t leave a mess.

Now I just need to sort out a badger hair shaving brush & a shaving bowl!

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Like most males, I’ve tried a whole swag of different razors from cheap disposable razors, various Gillette, Schick and electric razors. For my skin, I find that a razor gives me less irritation then an electric razor and for quite some time now I’ve settled on the Schick Quattro Titanium as my razor of choice. It is sharp, a nice flexible head and it gives a close shave.

After trying the new Schick Hyrdo 5 razor, I’ve now found a replacement and my new favourite razor. While the head of the razor feels a little bigger than the Quattro Titanium, the razor glides through stubble and over your skin. I was particularly impressed with the closeness of the first pass as well, it was nearly completely smooth and I had even less irritation than I normally would with the Quattro Titanium.

Schick are suggesting that the new Schick Hyrdo 5 is the best shave for your skin and I whole heartedly agree. I really do think it is the best men’s razor I’ve ever used, certainly for my skin. If you do use a razor, I’d recommend you pick on up next time – if for no other reason than to see what the latest shaving innovation is – it might surprise you!

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I first became aware of it this morning when I received a phone call at work from Suncorp informing me that they suspected that there was fraudulent credit card transactions on my account. That was after they called home & left a message because Claire couldn’t answer the phone and then followed that up with a call to my mobile but I was driving to work. You’ve got to appreciate their persistence to call three different numbers trying to get a hold of me.

I don’t keep an eagle eye on my bank account, so I probably wouldn’t have noticed that transaction sitting on my credit card for a week or more but the Suncorp credit card protection system picked it up the day after it happened, which I think is great.

The Suncorp representative that called me at work gave me the run down on what had happened, also said they’d tried several other transactions as well but they were declined for some reason. They immediately set about cancelling my credit card and lodged a dispute about the charge for me.

Claire checked back through out past transactions to make sure nothing else was on there and it doesn’t appear as though there were. I called Suncorp back to check about what will happen next and was given case numbers for the cancellation & the transaction dispute to follow up on if required.

I’ve been really impressed with Suncorp customer service of late, like for instance sending me warning emails about large money transfers automatically. Now I’ve had them tell me about a fraudulent charge on my credit card and it’ll be resolved within the next few days and my replacement credit card will arrive mid next week.

Great to see them going out of their way to keep a customer informed about their money.

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In the last couple of weeks, there have been four different sets of paper wasp nests forming around the house. Two of the four were in really inconvenient places, such as above the back sliding door near the laundry and in the joint of our clothes line.

On the weekend, it seems like as good a time as any to try my hand at killing the paper wasps again. Last time I attempted it, I was armed with a can of Mortein and I can assure you, when I sprayed their nests – they were very unhappy.

Wanting to see if I could one up the paper wasps this time, I was armed with a can of Baygon Surface Spray and WK-40. You’re probably wondering what WK-40 is; well it is your garden variety WD-40, the spray lubricant with a thousand uses with an awesome new label provided by Andrew for my 27th birthday. The WK-40 was the key in avoiding getting bitten this time, as with the thin nozzle connected you can spray a tight stream of WK-40 for over 2 metres – great for distancing yourself from angry as hell paper wasps!

With a can in either hand & feeling a little like Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters, I walked up as close to their nests as I dared and coated them & promptly ran away as the wasps swarmed the area looking for something to string! As it turns out, WK-40 and Baygon Surface Spray is a lethal concoction with great knockdown power.

In each of the four paper wasp nests, I came out on top without getting bitten once. I’m sure WD-40 didn’t have killing paper wasps on their list of 1000+ things that their fantastic lubricant is good for!

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