For so many professionals co-working spaces tick the right boxes as they seek to realise the benefits of working independently and at the same time maintain professional networks in an appropriate work environment. The great thing about the proliferation of co-working spaces is their variety. No two offer the same, giving people excellent choice.

For a number of years the Roslin Business Community has operated from the wonderful two storey Victorian terrace (confusingly called ‘Roslin’) in Rosslyn St. West Melbourne. As the testimonials on the link demonstrate, there is something special about this property. When Derek and I first walked into the hallway more than five years ago, we experienced a bit of a wow moment, and over the years it has retained its ability to solicit admiring comments from first time visitors. As far as we know, no other co-working space in Melbourne has the same mix of classy professionalism and informality.

We have good news. Due to some changes in our own business, we are expanding the co-working capacity of Roslin. So after being pretty much fully subscribed, there are now many vacancies for new people to join the community. And there’s more (steak knives) …

In collaboration with a trusted colleague, we are opening a second co-working space in Blackburn to cater for those who live in the East and would benefit from an office environment nearer home. The Blackburn space is still being developed, but will be open for members from later this year or certainly by the start of 2013.

The link to more information about Roslin is here. If you are interested in either space, please contact us. I’ll post some details about the Blackburn space as they get clearer.

With some adventuring ahead of us, I’ve started the blog trail here. Enjoy.

Some great development are coming on the Ergo front … stay tuned and we’ll let you know how our business will be evolving into 2013.

On the personal front some exciting and sad things happening too. Check out my new personal blog site here.

On Thursday, Maria and I (with Johanna) are heading westward, way way westward, on a travel adventure through Istanbul, Santorini, Morocco and the UAE. If interested, you can read our reflections on our yurting and travel blog here.

Fantastic opportunities ahead on the business and family front … look forward to updating you as things progress.

Derek and I have loved being trustees of the Melbourne Chapter of the Awesome Foundation. This month, two more great projects each received $1000. If you like hearing stories of people making a difference, check out these two amazing things:

1000 years of wisdom

Do it on the roof

Just about everyone at my stage of life, late 40s, has aspirations associated with physical fitness, health and wellbeing. When I was younger, exercise was relatively easy. Going for regular runs and generally being more active in recreational pursuits was just part of life.

Stereotypically, when I hit 30 a lost it. With young kids I stopped doing sporty stuff with my mates. I had always eaten pretty much whatever I wanted without obvious consequences … then I started getting podgy. I was watching home video one day where I was mucking around with the kids on the floor; I saw my protruding gut and thought ‘Oh crap!’. Blah, blah, typical story. So I resurrected my fitness and began swimming, and other stuff and being more careful about food. But in the meantime a subtle shift started to happen.

Again typically, mid 30s to mid 40s my mind acted as if I was still 20 something, but my body started breaking down. To put it bluntly, I kept injuring myself. And then more recently my second encounter with melanoma brings home the reality that whatever fantasy might be going on in my head, I am not immune to aging.

So these days, exercise is actually a survival instinct, rather than recreation. Not that good general fitness will necessarily fend off the cancer, but my strong will to keep living life to the full is great incentive to stay in OK shape. I say OK shape, because I have also made peace with the what I can realistically achieve in multidimensional life.

For the last few years my practice has been to exercise three times a week. Problem was that if for some reason I missed one, then two a week didn’t seem enough to ward off the sluggard in me. And during winter, if the man-flu hits then it can eat a few weeks before you realise it.

So at the start of 2012 I set myself a simple goal; exercise 5 days a week. But I had to make some changes to make it possible. Firstly, rather than an early (work) meeting knocking out the routine, I made the commitment to get up at rude o’clock if necessary to make sure the heart got started.

Secondly, what worked for me was figuring out how I could minimise the faffing around at the beginning and end … all valuable time. So I decided to compromise – when our local YMCA closed for a major (2 year) refurb, rather than join somewhere else I bought a decent exercise bike for cardio and a few dumbbells. If push-ups and sit-ups are good enough for Tom Hafey, then they’re probably OK for me. So two mornings on the floor in the lounge (Johanna gives me a hard time about the background puffs and groans that accompany her getting ready for school – but she’ll get over it), two on the bike on the back deck and then a swim on Sundays. Apart from a couple of weeks when lurgy has slowed me down, I’ve managed 5/7 every week this year.

For some people that might not be big ‘do’, but I’m feeling pretty chuffed.