I enjoyed your experience description and would suggest exposing yourself to, and riding everything you can get your hands on and go with your gut and homework from there. In my my case, the Super Tenere has turned out to be finest and most trouble-free freedom machine I've had the privilege of owning based on those criteria.
If you've ridden some sports quads and scooters an NC700 shouldn't be any problem. A friend of mine got one. He outgrew it in a couple of months. Its a good beginner bike though. I honestly was dissappointed in the power. A 650 versys will smoke it.
The confusion is partly because he came on with two identities, I merged his threads yesterday, and then had to go before I could finish by deleting the duplication and posts that led to.
I think your size is perfect for the bike. If you can ride it with your head actually connected to your right hand you will be fine. I think the tenere is a very well balanced easy to ride bike. You can get just as hurt on your 150 scooter as you can on the 1200. Actually your 150 scares me to death. I live in a college town and see a lot of them. Wouldn't be caught dead on one. Spend a lot of time in big empty parking lots and get to know the bike and yourself. And by all means take rider training course. I rode for thirty years before taking one. It was an amazing experience.