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The house that Alison sat looked a bit like this, but unlike Thoreau's digs, was way more than a stone's throw from a home cooked meal and hoogs (that's hugs in Scottish). WHEN you're asked that standard contest question, "Who do you admire the most in the world, and why?" - just who comes to mind for you? Someone famous? Infamous? Completely unknown? When asked this 10, 5 and 2 years ago, I thought of the same gal each time - a friend I met in my travels called Alison. More about her in a moment. This question came up recently in a heated, though chummy debate with a couple of friends about Henry David Thoreau, the eloquent writer/philosopher/inward excursionist who's practically deified by the general public for his contribution to voluntary poverty, or rather, simplicity. Don't get me wrong - he wrote a great book, but when I read that his little cabin was a stone's throw from a home cooked dinner with a loving and supportive family - gimm...

Continuing my tikit on Trial experiments in NYC, we test the welcome at some upscale locations, proving there's almost nowhere a Bike Friday can't go ... MOVIES tikit on Trial in NYC Check out the new videoblogs about a certain Princess Pink tikit living large PLUS Meet Bicycling writer Steve Friedman, father and son Cantos and Bfold staff - the people you meet while loitering under the stoop at a bfold.com ...

Still on a a "transcendental tear" after my Yoga teacher training , last night's spiritual excursion was to a Gongyo - a formal chanting ceremony in the Nichiren Buddhism tradition, as practised by members of Soka Gakkai International . Wiki oh wiki, what is Nichiren Buddhism? Nichiren Buddhism focuses on the Lotus Sutra and a belief that all people have an innate Buddha nature, and are capable of attaining enlightenment in their present lifetime. Nichiren Buddhists believe that the spread of Nichiren's teachings and their effect on practitioners' lives will eventually bring about a peaceful, just, and prosperous society. Sounds good to me! I was first introduced to SGI by leadership coach and friend Chuck Craytor , an SGI devotee for over 20 years. I was mesmerized by the power of even a small roomful of people chanting the key mantra, or Daimoku: Nam-myoho-renge-kyo . From Wiki: The basic practice of SGI members is based on faith, practice, and stu...

This is NOT Obama, sorry. I think it's a photo of Swami Sivananda, founder of the Sivananda movement - from a postcard I bought at the shop. "Nothing is impossible to a person who practices concentration." Could have been said by Obama himself ... If you've ever wondered where those Hari Krishnas disappear off to when they float down the road in their orange robes, their chants and bells fading into the distance ... I think I've sussed it out. It would be a place like the Sivananda center, which in NYC, is actually a real live ashram tucked away in a row house, with resident Swami . Having recently completely a basic yoga teacher certification , I'm in the process of educating myself about as many different forms of yoga as possible - from the Friday night downward-dog-dating scene at some studios, to the fluorescent-lit gym drill to rubbing trunks with Ganesha himself - it's all good. According to Google, Sivananda is a non-profit organization ded...

Fun and games with partner yoga - teacher Michael Kersten shows me a basic Cir du Soleil move Pictured above: Spring 2009 graduates. Spot the Galfromdownunder doing the easy pose - Navasana . Three grueling months are finally done and dusted - I'm now a 200-hour certified Vinyasa yoga teacher, according to the certificate that now sits on top of a pile of books including anatomy, The Bhagavad Gita, the Sutras, and a very thick training manual from Joschi Yoga Institute, NYC. No longer can I make half-baked Downward Facing Dogs with my knees on the ground begging like Fido. Why didn't anyone ever correct me in the past? There's nothing like a formalized course to set you straight on misconceptions you might have had for years. The course was big on anatomy, as Joschi , the head yogi, is a certified authority in that subject, along with psychology, dance, and other related fields. He and business partner Monika run a tight ship; there's no woo-woo laxness about the cours...

Since my book The Handsomest Man in Cuba was first published in 2003, several people have gone over and used it to track down some of the people I met and stayed with. You can read about some of those encounters in this set of blog posts . But I fell out of my saddle when Ken Lyneham from Australia actually went out of his way to locate the Handsomest Man himself. He's not the photographer on the cover (who could well be taking a photo of the Handsomest Man, or maybe Señor Hassleblad is just handsome inside) - but the hunk I met at the only fancy hotel I stayed in. And let me get the record straight - I shook his hand and that was it. So many people have written saying ... didja ... ? Puh-lese. Allow me to read you the closing line in that paragraph of daydreaming: "I let go of his hand." Yes, fully clothed and standing either side of a chicken wire gate we were, when we stopped shaking hands. Get it? More thrillingly, Ken tracked down Lolita - the most beautifu...

UPDATE! Translation at the end of this post ... I've just received a couple of reviews for the German edition of the Handsomest Man in Cuba - re-titled Cuba Particular by the folks at Piper-Verlag/National Geographic Adventure Press. Here they are: Review 1 - Globetrotter Review 1 - a random online review See translations at the bottom of this post ... If you can read German, be my guest and post a comment below telling us all what they say! Although I studied German for 4 years at school, the only words I know are "Lebkuchen" - a heavenly gingerbread cake-cookie dipped in a thin layer of dark chocolate, and only sold around Weinachten (Christmas), and "Sie antwortet, das fussball ihr langweilig ist." which means "she replied that she found football boring." A German friend in New York mentioned that the translation sounded a little strange, so I asked the publishers to reassure me otherwise. Here's what they replied: Dear Lynette Chiang, As your...

Meeting bicycling scholar Prof. John Pucher from Rutgers uni - he lives in Central Jersey and hasn't owned a car for over 35 years. Beats my 15 or so, but who's counting? Read John's academic bio . A cooler article about him in Momentum mag. More about this on the Bike Friday blog. I've just attended the American Institute of Architect's Fit-City 4 , an annual half-day conference Promoting Physical Activity Through Design. It was well attended, and I was one of three people who actually rode a bike, specifically a folding bike to the conference, stashing it under the reception desk. Naturally, bicycling was a central topic in addition to walking and stair climbing. Yes, there was even an expert stair designer on the panel, and the Dept of Mental Health and Hygiene (cleanliness is next to clueyness?) developed a lime green placard you could take away to hang in your stairwells. It reads, " Burn Calories, not Electricity ." Not bad slogonometry, but if...

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Sandy Thompson, formerly of xploring.com, a division of ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi. (I was a copywriter for Saatchi in Australia, Ireland and Creative Director for an afiliated agency, Tribu, in Costa Rica). xploring is about super curious cats like us getting out there among the pigeons, seeing how they eat, sleep, fight, make up, brush their teeth and win Nobel Prizes , multimediaclasting and customer evangelizing - just up my silicon alley. The meeting was fueled by a mutual friend, my former boss Jorge Oller at Tribu. Thank you Jorge for your persistance, not only am I honoring you with the attached photo, I am honoring your capitulation to my Customer Evangelism by showing your Bike Friday tikit in stylish repose (see below). I was excited to meet Sandy because I'm always keen to meet anyone who's been pursuing a similar path to me - out on a limb, living a nomadic life pushing relationship marketing to the nth degree b...

i.e. a bike you can bring inside. Say no more. Wait! Say THIS . OK, I gotta say more ... At the Film Society of Lincoln Center's GreenScreens event on May 5, I was the lone little panelist touting the virtues of transportation you can take with you, not to mention that you can get your leg over a small wheeled bike when you're 64, 74, 84 ... Present at the screening were luminaries of the bike advocacy world including Bicycle Film Fest's Brent Barbur and Portland Bicycle Transportation Alliance frontman Scott Bricker - featured prominently in the film Veer - who came all the way over to the dark side especially for the screening. Unfortunately, the rain kept most people off their bikes and away from the event. I tried to find Scott after the show for a chat, but I guess he'd already winged it back to the west coast. Naturally I did a bit of the crowdpleasing 1-2 with the pink tikit , and raffled off a Traffic Cone Bag . Thanks to the Film Society of Lincoln C...

You never know who you might run into when you least expect it ... As you can see, mother is still on a tear in NYC. Her visit to 'the center of the universe' is drawing to a close and she will soon return to her 15 year post at Sydney's premier stufforama to the stars, Peter's of Kensington. Not only is she the oldest staff member there, she knows how to sell Alessi accoutrements like a deeeeemaaaan ...   MOMIX: Herbal tonic for eyes! Last night we scored $19 frontish-row tickets to the most amazing, trippy, surreal, illusionist dance performance I've seen since Philippe Genty - MOMIX's 'Botanica' at the Joyce Theater . OK, I saw PG a looooong time ago. Perhaps this stuff is now mainstream ... "It's like Circ du Soleil before the latter went all commercial," said mother. Google MOMIX and you'll see it's commandeered by a truly Dali-esque character-choreographer, Moses Pendleton. This show opened with a stunning multime...

Above: My mother is a big Sesame Street fan. She carries a photo of Bert and Ernie in her wallet. Shot in FAO Schwartz - where you can create a muppet of any kind but the one you're actually a fan of, due to "copyright". What's up with that? I want my own Prof. Bunsen Honeydew , the most Chinese of all the muppets! My mother celebrates 71 years on the planet today - here in "the center of the universe" (as my NY friends call it). In a week she's practically walked the entire length and breadth of Manhattan. Twice. Not surprising - she's recently done belly dancing, quigong, pilates, tapdancing and yes, poledancing with me ! Read the full montymedia about that. I wouldn't be surprised if she enrolled in breakdancing like the show we stumbled on in Central Park last Friday - c heck out my movie . My mother's hero? "TINA TURNER". She even took yoga and pilates mat classes at Joschi , where I'm currently enrolled in a 200-hour yoga...

Matador's Julie Schwietert Collazo interviewed me recently on the Handsomest Man in Cuba.

Bike Friday customer Colin Freestone is a long time yoga practitioner. "When I did a cycling trip and neglected my practice I became "unco" (uncoordinated)" he said. Read more . BACK from a month of customer evangelizing in Arizona and Colorado I've headplanted myself into a 200-hour yoga teacher training course at a small, Chelsea studio called Joschi Body Bodega . Yup, as I told my Facebook friends, "this is the year for getting certified in everything you normally pay for". Certainly better than sinking money into high risk stocks! I've noticed that my cycling life has probably created, shall we say, certain imbalances in my mortal coil. Crunchy knees , and a stiffish upper body which I sought to rectify by taking up poledancing . Only trouble with that one - you need a pole! I realized I can't be the only cyclist noticing these changes. I decided that with the right education, I could devise a yoga practise suitable for my bicycling br...

So here I am in Boulder, Colorado, for the first time in my life, and direct from another Arizona Desert Camp . My Colorado Schedule I've already been treated to a couple of nights at the home of the Bike Friday Club of Denver leaders Tom and Dianna McDermott, who took me cougar spotting at the local Whole Paycheck on the first day. Cougar spotting? Git thee with the times or, for those too lazy to click: Cougar – an older woman who sexually pursues men at least eight years her junior.[12] The term has been used in (American) TV series, advertising and film. The 2007 film Cougar Club was dedicated to the subject. It is also featured in the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch "Cougar Den". There was only one possible sighting - a woman in a baby pink Chanel-cut suit, big glasses, blonde hair, beige pumps. Let's say, the kind of outfit you would not ride a bicycle in except for a Bond poster. "At 46, your qualify as a cougar you put on that flapper dress,...