WALKING - A NEW YEAR REVOLUTION

As I write this blog, my thirteen-year-old daughter is glued to Friends pruning her feet on my/our couch. Viewed from the kitchen table, this year has had its moments.

My routine has been pretty much the same, get up, make sandwiches pack my kids off to school, walk-coffee-walk, back at the kitchen table for 10:30. Head down, bum up from 10:30 to 15:30 – DING-DONG one child home. Oven on, quick feed. Then we pivot, is it a football night? If it is then we race across town, laptop charged for two hours catch-up in the car, or if it is fine, a treat on the grass. Mask-up Lasagne run into Bondi, race home, quick re-heat, PLEASE shower, wine, wash dishes, wine and laptop quick look - then it’s Netflix time. Turn to my right, wife asleep, dribbling. Now we hit a low point (dribbling?), do we or don’t we empty the dishwasher before we go to bed, snacks on the bench, fruit in the school bag – (take out yesterdays crushed fruit) - shower, truly this is done on the lowest of blood sugar, quite dangerous… (we are now both dribbling) – 30 minutes of Instagram reels, huge guilt, kiss, kiss tomorrow I promise, and then, and only then, sleep…

It cannot last – this is no way to live…I’m off for a walk…

In 2021 I turned 53 – officially as old as my Dad was when he was told off quite severely by my mother for getting too much beer in Tenerife (Uncle Geoff being the partner in crime). My Dad says he was not sleeping in the shower, and I believed him, albeit I think he was fortunate that Steve Jobs was still grumpy at home looking at the phone thinking I can do better than that – this phone needs a camera. Mum, Dad you did a great job, but what exactly did you do with all that down time? For goodness’ sake, we had a cleaner…!

Being 53 with pre-teen kids is not unusual, I see many of us during the school run.  However, what is different in 2021 between my Dad and I is this - we now have so much more to do, so much more to think about and so much more to action every day; more than my Dad ever did. So, a life with beer as a close friend is relegated to beer as a distant cousin you see only once a year. To be a parent in 2021, during lockdown, meant being more than physically fit – you had to be mentally on your game, every hour of everyday. In 107 days of lockdown, I became quite the artist, an architectural model maker and fitter than even I thought possible – I will admit to looking in the mirror every now and again and saying, “not bad Mr Todd, not bad at all”.

And so it came to pass that my morning walk, that hour of freedom that I invested in every day (4 hours at the weekend), my time to stretch it out, breath and reset, my elixir, my clearing of the mind without which I would have struggled. But more importantly, walking has become a good friend a trusted friend that helps me reconnect with the human vessel, the flesh and blood that I merely rent that needs to be functioning more than ever – every single day. It has taken me a long time to understand and respect that ‘how I live’ is ‘how I live’.

We at Freeworld Australia have taken walking seriously and in it we believe we are witnessing the revolution of the patient Australian – the walker, the stroller and the bay walk dreamer. Our trifecta of walking products aims to serve the walker in us all from dawn until dusk. From ‘recovery’ to ‘distance’ we have you covered and in our Comfort Plus you are anchored in an everyday shoe that has pure comfort in its DNA.

The Freeworld Australia Comfort Plus is the ultimate all-purpose walking shoe. The unique design works to keep you on your feet no matter how far you have to go. Don’t be distracted by aching feet and ill-fitting shoes. With Freeworld Australia Comfort Plus, you can continue walking for many hours longer than you ever thought possible. Give yourself the bandwidth to think clearly and enjoy your surroundings, which is one of the most significant benefits of walking.

Designed for people who spend time on their feet for either exercise or work, the Comfort Plus has been created to reduce fatigue and speed recovery time at the end of the day.

We are a brand with big ambitions, but we are not running for the finish line, instead we will push through with a walk, gentle for some, a yomp for others. We are a brand that does not want you to cross the line at all costs, instead we want to relax the mind and let the body recover one step at a time. We are not about “just doing it”, and we are not looking for you to find your athletic heart. We are a brand that wants to simply walk with you, together on a journey of insightful discovery. Come help solve the world’s problems as you walk around the bay. Your bay, wherever that may be.

Merry Xmas from the Freeworld Australia team – be safe, be kind and be a walker!

Freeworld | Walk With Australia | Walk Yourself Well.