I have been following dear Ivor for years, and he never fails to bring me joy and warmth with his verses so….Sit back, relax and enjoy the chat.
O: From chemist to plumber to poet (well, not just poet but published poet). Who is Ivor?
I: Wow… who am I? I suppose it all goes back to my family heritage. We’re good old convict stock from the Port Arthur penal colony in Tasmania in the 1840s.
My great‑great‑grandfather survived that harsh institution, and here I am — a descendant carrying his resilience, stubbornness, and persistence.
I grew up in a loving, hard‑working family. Dad was a plumber, and Mum was a nurse. I excelled in maths and science at school and went on to become an industrial chemist. I married Carole when I was 25 years old. Three years later, my dad became very ill, so I left my job, became his apprentice, and ran the plumbing business.
After seven wonderful years of marriage, Carole developed MS, and I became her full‑time carer and a part‑time plumber. Eventually, something had to give, and I had a stroke at 49. During speech and writing rehab, with the encouragement of my therapist, I started writing little rhymes. She nudged me toward a local writers’ group — and from little things, big things grew.
O: How did you land on WordPress?
I: I’m still not entirely sure! I think it was my niece Kerri, who lives in Philadelphia. I used to email her my poems, and one day she said, “Hey, Uncle Ivor, why don’t you start a blog for your poems?” Everything snowballed from there.
O: What’s your writing routine?
I: Routine? What’s that! I write anytime, anywhere. But most often you’ll find me scribbling away in my favourite café.
O:How does a poem form for you? Do you have a process?
I: I’m not sure what’s inside my head. I’m basically an observational and visual poet. Wherever I am, I like to photograph what’s happening around me, and those visual prompts often spark the beginnings of a poem.
O: I know from “knowing” you for a few years now that your writing comes from difficult times , yet there is joy and serenity in it. Are you an optimist?
I: Yes, I’ve been through some tough times. But my dear wife Carole, who lived with severe MS for 30 years, greeted me with an “everlasting smile” every day. Together, we always looked forward to the next day with quiet optimism.
O: What’s your relationship with the WordPress community?
I: I’ve made many wonderful friends through WordPress, and I often email some of them personally. Even better, I’ve been lucky enough to meet a few in real life.
O: Ivor and the technology, how’s that going? And what about social media?
I: Technology can be overwhelming. I’ll be 75 in July, and I’ve only had a computer for about 20 years. I mostly bumble and fumble my way through. I do have Facebook and Instagram, but I mainly use them as extra places to share my poetry.
O: What’s your take on AI?
I: AI is an interesting concept. I use Copilot to help with punctuation, photo captions, and intros — I failed English at school — and sometimes to create a feature image for my WordPress posts.
O: Ever tired of the Australian sun? I mean, I live in Ireland, I can’t really imagine having the sun shining all year round. Well, not even all day around for that matter, actually.
I: As I’m answering this, it’s a cloudless 27°C, and tomorrow will be a hot 40°C. I’m definitely no snow‑bunny.
O: Are you an avid reader? And what’s your favourite genre?
I: I used to be an avid reader before my first stroke 25 years ago. These days, I’m always busy writing, and everything takes me longer. By the time I finish my writing and blogging, I’m usually too tired to read.
O: And now a few personal ones:
a. Coffee or tea?
I: Coffee — especially at the Box Office Café. I’ll be having one there shortly.
b. Sweet or savoury?
I: The tooth‑fairies left me with a ravenous sweet tooth.
O: and oh sweet(tooth) boy, if I can relate!!!!!!!
c. Cows or horses?
I: When I walk Frankie past the horse paddock, the horses seem to think Frankie is a very small horse… and Frankie thinks, “Wow, that’s a very big dog!”
O: That’s very funny, I love it.
Sadly, our chat came to an end , so dear Ivor, thank you for being with me today and up to you to say goodbye to the readers your way.
I: As is my way, I’ll finish with a favourite piece of music: Lisa O’Neill – Come Sit Sing (Live at Other Voices Festival 2013).
That is all for now, have a glorious day you all and don’t miss the next episode. And if in the meantime you want to catch up with all the chats just go to :
ADAB: I’m a native Texan living in Austin, the state capital, in the southern USA. I live in Austin, Texas, USA. I also have a blog, which is mostly about bicycling. The name is a reference to a line in the popular Coen Brothers cult 1998 film The Big Lebowski. In particular, it is an homage to the hero, The Dude. Near the end, the narrator says, “The Dude abides.” Since I’m not THE Dude, just A dude, I came up with A Dude Abikes as a pen name. It allows me to write more freely, and I think it’s fun.
Other things about me: We have a slogan, which is Keep Austin Weird, but I think of myself as a fairly regular person. Other interests include: yoga, walking, reading, writing, bicycle and other activism, TV shows and movies, music (especially classical), and comedy. I’m spiritual but not religious, like sunsets, long walks on the beach. That sentence was meant to be a bit silly. I’m single still (Hello, ladies!). And oh yeah, I call myself a fathlete—fat + athlete. I’ve proven by all the miles I’ve ridden that one can be overweight but still be fit.
O: I love the reference to The Big Lebowski. A real masterpiece if you ask me, and even if I can’t relate to your concept of “fat-athlete”, not because I am an athlete but because I believe that too often fit is confused with slim. But back to you now, when and how did your passion for cycling start?
ADAB: I grew up in a north Texas suburb where cycling was part of growing up for many kids. But we could only ride on our neighbourhood streets, sidewalks, or off the road in drainage ditches, fields, or parks. My blog photo is from that time. I discovered that riding a bike means freedom for kids. You can get away from home and your parents for a while, go places, see things, and have adventures by yourself or with siblings and friends. You get to feel the sun on your face and the wind in your hair while your legs are pumping and your heart is beating. You can’t beat that.
A few suburbs over from me was where (disgraced) former professional Tour de France rider Lance Armstrong grew up. It never occurred to me that I could race bikes, use them for exercise, long trips, or later on as my main form of transportation, which I did for many, many years after someone crashed into my car. It was okay, but I didn’t do it for fun, enjoy it, biking was just for getting around. It wasn’t until I was invited to do a charity bike ride that I began riding a lot. That led me to rediscover the freedom, fun, and passion, plus the health benefits of riding for exercise, and the social / community aspects of bicycling. It’s really an amazing thing. There’s much more to it if you get into it. It’s also a privilege to be able to bike for fun. Some people have no choice or cannot afford a bike.
O:But that was just the beginning of a quitechallenging journey, right?
ADAB: Yes, that first ride was a real challenge. I’d never ridden more than 20. But to inspire people to donate to the charity, I decided to challenge myself. I set a goal to ride 50 miles, which happened to be the age I was turning later that year. There were plenty of training rides, and I worked my way up to 30 or 35 miles. The day of that ride was very tough, with heat, many hills, and just hours and hours on the bike. But I managed to complete it.
After that ride, I signed up for another, and that first year of using Strava (the fitness tracking app), I completed 5,306 miles—over 100 miles a week. I was hooked, so I just kept going. The rest, as they say, is history. I raised over $12,000 in six rides, saw a lot of things, met a lot of people, and had many adventures. It’s been hard, especially the last six years of biking every single day. That’s because I’m older now, of course. However, in late November 2025, I had surpassed 52,000 miles in 9 years and 51 weeks. That’s more than twice around the equator in just under a decade.
O: Wow! I don’t really think I have other words here. Do you ever drive?
ADAB: Yes, I’ve driven on and off for many years. I have done without cars when I moved to a place with good public transit, which I really believe in because it’s better for the environment. I also take a walk every day, and believe in public transit, which is better for the environment. But a About five and a half years ago, after 15 years of not having a car (there were many other periods I didn’t have one), I was given a car. I’m proud to say that I’ve bicycled more miles than I’ve put on the car. It’s old and probably won’t last much longer, so I will probably have to go back to biking, walking, and busing. Here in Austin, Texas, we can put our bikes on racks on the buses.
O: Ok, now, I really have to ask this because I notoriously lose it when crossing groups of cyclists behaving like they own the road. So, do you get annoyed with cyclists disrespectful of road rules?
ADAB: Yes. I took a League Cycling Instructor class, so I learned their Smart Cyclingcurriculum. I try to ride predictably, legally, and with traffic—but cyclists ARE also traffic. I use hand signals, always wear a helmet plus use lights and a reflective vest at night. Sometimes I make mistakes–we all do–but I ride very defensively. I want to stay alive, after all. In all these years, I’ve never had a crash with a car or been ticketed on my bicycle. However, I may do something slightly illegal if it gets me out of harm’s way, but I ride assertively, not aggressively. Also, multiple studies in the UK show that cyclists are better car drivers for multiple reasons, but mostly it’s because our brains are “faster at identifying hazards,” develop more efficient “attentional processing,” and “have a higher orientation toward the common good.”
But I am far more annoyed with drivers of two-ton (and larger) cars, trucks, andbuses, aka killing machines breaking the law or driving distracted, drunk, or just recklessly. Far more people get in wrecks and get hurt or die from automobiles than people on bikes do. It’s a false equivalency that drivers who have never biked or not since childhood make. They falsely believe the roads are for them only. That is simply a wrong understanding of the law. I believe we need better driver education for cyclists and drivers so that we can share the streets safely. If everyone who drove spent just one hour cycling on city streets, their perspective would change to be far more careful. Also, poor street design is a big problem everywhere. Separate, protected bike lanes are better for all.
O: Iagree, and I lose it with disrespectful drivers, too. Especially those cutting lanes and queues, or parking where they can’t, thinking they are smarter than anyone else. And that makes it pretty much 90% of the Italians, so you now know why I get so uptight when driving in Italy after 25 years in Ireland, lol. Still most of my annoyance goes against the Sunday groups of “maml”(middle-aged men in lycra), sorry
O:What made you start blogging?
ADAB: Bicycling. I realised all those miles would generate some stories, and they sure did. I’m up to almost 800 posts. Many are not about biking, either. But I slowed way down to focus on a memoir/how-to book, which is sitting, awaiting an editor. Or more precisely, the money for an editor. And now I’ve started a novella. But finding it daunting to finish both and imagine getting them published somehow. Even self-publishing is a lot of work, so I’m not sure that will ever happen.
I invite everyone who might be interested in bicycling to visit my blog. You will find knowledge, opinions, experiences, what to do, and what not to do, and see how my journey progressed. Pro tip: Use the search bar and type in keywords like: helmet – e-bike – cars – streak – fathlete – exercise – goal – discipline – ageing – charity – Buddhism – books – movies – politics. Whatever interests you about biking or my other thoughts, there’s plenty there to read. It’s not going to win a Pulitzer, but you might find something of interest.
O:What’s your take on the WordPress community?
ADAB: It’s mostly very positive. I was very clueless at first, and still am in many ways. I do almost nothing to promote my blog. I didn’t even know what the Reader button was for an embarrassingly long time. I wish I were a better reader of blogs. I find that the engagement simply takes more time than I have or choose to devote. Had I known about that, I might not have ever started. But the other bloggers I’ve “met,” including you, Ortensia, have been friendly, supportive, and kind. Naturally, I have an affinity for other bike bloggers; they are people I dream of travelling the world to meet. Perhaps if I can ever retire or become a full-time bestselling author, I can spend more time on WordPress.
O:Are you a loner or a group cyclist at heart?
ADAB: I guess I’m a loner, because I can go as far and as fast–or usually as slow–as I want. But mostly it’s due to when. I’m a utility cyclist first, so if I’m running errands or going to an appointment, that’s a solo activity. I also find that social rides often start very early, requiring a ride to the ride, people may not know how to ride safely in a group, or they go too fast, or it’s too hilly. But sometimes the casual ones can be fun if I’m in the mood and they’re not blasting music I don’t like. If I go with a friend or two, those are great if we’re similar speeds. Heading out on my own to do a 25-mile loop on my favourite trail is my happy place.
O: And now, let’s go personal. Tea or Coffee?
ADAB: Hot chocolate! Also, sometimes herbal tea. I like the smell of coffee, but not the bitter taste, and caffeine isn’t for me.
O: Sweet or Savoury?
ADAB: Both. I do like salty, because cycling (and to quote Seinfeld, “These pretzels are making me thirsty!” But like George Costanza in Seinfeld, my favourite show, if I had to pick one, it would be sweet. Particularly, chocolate (which I’ve cut way back on). I even wrote a blog post about it titled: “My Morning Chocolate: The Dark Master.” As Kramer said to George, “Oh, you may stray, but you I’ll always return to your dark master… the cocoa bean!”
O: Lol, nice! Is your glass average half full or half empty? In other words, are you a pessimist or an optimist?
ADAB: Realist. George Carlin, the great American satirist, said, “Some people see the glass as half-full. Others see it as half-empty. I see a glass that’s twice as big as it needs to be.” Another comedy great, Lily Tomlin, said, “Things will get worse before they get worse.” I do tend to look at all the bad sides of things, but that’s so I can solve a problem or not be disappointed when things don’t go my way. I know some people who practice what psychologists now call “toxic positivity.” So, you can go too far in either direction. The Buddha said to practice the Middle Way, and I think that makes sense. Getting there is a challenge, though.
I actually consider myself a realist. Another saying I like, which I added to, is, “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, but try not get too attached to the outcome.” Personally, I’ve had my share of stressful, traumatic, hard, and sad things, like everyone. As I said, I’m a regular guy, I’m not special. I’m not very likely to lose a lot of weight (for various reasons), but it’s possible. But one thing I’ve learned is that biking builds resilience. Additionally, things change constantly. So who’s to say which approach is right?
O: I think you are a very wise realist.
ADAB: Aw, shucks, thanks! Biking is something that draws all kinds of people together. So, in my blog and on Strava, I usually avoid being too political. Austin is known as a liberal city. But when it comes to the current US president, I would like to let your readers know that I, like many US voters, did NOT vote for him, and a growing number of us do not support his regime’s policies, and I certainly was not one of them. Many of us do NOT support his many horrible policies, and I feel hopeful things will change. We just celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the US. He famously said, not long before his assassination: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” So at some level, I also am an optimist. hopeful. (Shh, it’s a secret, please don’t tell anybody!) I do think bike riding is a positive thing for our bodies, our communities, and the planet that anyone who can should try.
