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Sometimes i need to just dump stuff out of my head. Sometimes my kids just say the funniest random things. Judith went out to my daughter at the clothes line couple of days ago while she was hanging out clothes to get a peg. Jadeen just randomly said “I am a stegosaurus”. That phrase has been bouncing around this house since then amidst lots of laughter.

Our brains are amazingly complex things. Sometimes we just do no appreciate the incredible processing power of simple things like coordinating even our vocal cords, diaphragm, lungs and mouth and tongue just to say a simple word. I was listening to Doctor Karl on Triple J explain how Turrets Syndrome caused people to swear occasionally (its not the most common symptom of Turrets and most people with it don’t do this) and he just reminded me to think about how our brains work.

Last night I dream about alien people and apparently asked out loud for a sword (according to Jude).

Yesterday I was able to run 3 kms with no knee issues – I wish I was back to the running ability I had back in the year 2000. However I’m coming to terms with being 12 years older then I was then and my running is fine as long as I don’t try and run like a 32 year old any more. I did a 5km race a couple of weeks ago and managed a personal best in the last 5 years or so so I am slowly getting it back.

Do you run? if yes where and when, if no – why not? Get into the comments or hit us up on Facebook.

My cycling has improved a lot since I got the new road bike and have been focusing on my hill climbing. My Mountain biking climbing endurance has improved as a result. Unfortunately my Gary Fisher Fat Possum broke in half on my last ride. I am waiting on Trek to honour the lifetime warranty and replace her.

Work has been interesting of late. Since I am no longer employed by IT Integrity and have gone back to being my own boss the pressure on my time has reduced. I am doing far more photography, as that is part of our business and we have had a lot more work in that area. I am doing more of the things I love in IT, web design and Excel work. I am enjoying learning new photography and Photoshop processing techniques. I am really enjoying the sports shooting we do as well.

I bought a new phone. After a disastrous attempt to get an iPhone to work without using iTunes I bought a new Samsung Galaxy IIS and am loving its ease of use, its synchronisation with my Google account and my other android devices, the HTC Desire S and the Motorola Xoom 2 tablet. Its great having all my photos from each device synch seamlessly together with Dropbox, my notes in Evernote all synch across all my devices and it works as a phone out of the box without having to connect it to a computer.

I’ll leave you with a selection of my favourite photos taken recently.

This Youtube video needs no introduction - be amazed. Suggest you watch in 1080 HD on full screen!

What a fortnight! I have spent most of the last 2 weeks overseas, largely in France, for the last week of the Tour de France, courtesy of the phone company HTC.

And what a jam packed tour it was. I was required to write a blog post everyday - and I think I succeeded. some days were just so jam packed I fell asleep at the PC at night, or got up stupidly early to edit photos and write an article. Not only was I there to see the tour but I also had the chance to ride thanks to BikeStyle Tours. I was riding a Cannondale Synapse bike and man it was fun. So many times I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming as I rode down and then back up the Col de Manse (including crossing Lance Armstrong's legendary wheat field), riding up the Alpe d'Huez on the morning of the day the race finished there and part of the time trial course in Grenoble.

Then of course there were the other opportunities, I was able to go to the HTC Highroad team bus and meet and hang out with Mark Cavendish, Danny Pate, Matt Goss. Lars Bak, Bernie Eisel and Mark Renshaw.

I also spent the last day in Paris on the Champs Elysee in a hospitality marquee with road side seating 220 metres from the finish line. Wow - that was a fast last 8 laps!

I was given the trip by HTC because I fit the following criteria, loved HTC phones (we have 5), heavily into social media, and into cycling and the tour specifically. This blog of course shows all three clearly as I have written about my numerous HTC phones, cycling and social media a lot. My Tour de France Diaries blog for HTC can be seen publicly on Facebook.

I am blogging the HTC Desire S and Le Tour for HTC. The posts I write are all up on their public wall along with the other two HTC Desire S Ambassadors writing from Australia, Shane Miller (no relation) and Scott Fitzgerald.

You can see all the HTC Diaries posts or just my posts.

I will update this article with links to each post as I write them.

• Unwrapping the HTC Desire S
• Personalising the HTC Desire S
• Following Le Tour on the HTC Desire S