I am preparing at the moment for a new goal, and you can get involved.

On Tuesday June 17 I will hopefully be completing goal 141, which is to travel on the entire Melbourne train network in one day.

I have managed to secure some newspaper coverage for this goal (the MX newspaper, which is handed out free to hundreds of thousands of people every afternoon in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane). This will be the first time Project 183 is getting mainstream publicity, so I am very excited.

The goal starts at about 4.30am on the morning of the 17th, and will last until I finish shortly before 2am the next morning. If you are interested in accompanying me on any part of the trip, let me know. The complete schedule for the trip will be put up shortly.

Just for something fun, I think I might put up from time to time some pictures of the number 183 I see out there in the wide world.

Here is one from my recent trip to Bali. Slightly manufactured in nature, as I put the table 18 and table 3 signs together. Devilishly clever some might say.

If you happen to see the number 183 out and about, I would love to see some happy snaps of it.

Month completed: April 2008

I always thought I was a positive guy. Now I know I am – literally.

My blood donor card just arrived in the mail yesterday, along with a thankyou letter for donating blood, which I did a couple of weeks ago for the first time.

The blood type written on my donor card? A Positive.

So yes, I literally am ‘a positive’ guy.

Corny enough? I think probably.

I have always had a love hate relationship with needles (I love to hate them) so have never put on a brave face and donated blood, even though I know how much benefit there is in doing it (you potentially save three people every time you donate, plus you get free cookies afterwards).

So until I donated a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea of my blood type. Now I do.

The whole experience was actually better than I thought. The worst part was the finger prick I received to make sure I had enough iron in my blood. I was told that it hurts because there are many nerve endings in the fingers. It stopped stinging after a couple of days.

Only when the needle came out was there a slight problem. I think the nurse who took the needle out did it a little quick, as I was left with a big bruise that is still with me now, two weeks on. Nothing worth doing ever came easy I guess.

The key question is – would I do it again?

Yes, definitely. Only a selected group of people can donate blood (the screening questions they ask prior to donating are lengthy and full on – not often does a complete stranger ask you if you have had sex with a prostitute recently!), so I feel an obligation to do my bit.

You should to, unless perhaps you have been down to Grey Street in St Kilda recently.