Looking back I'm not sure if I was expecting March to be an improvement, but conditions and restrictions just got progressively worse. I should have kept a running commentary of my thoughts about the coronavirus escalation, but didn't think of it at the time, so instead I just have backdated some thoughts, beginning from later in the month.
Now for the normal monthly content.
Had my last running race for a while at the beginning of the month, the River Run Geelong 10km. It was a good event along the bike paths on both sides of the Barwon River in South Geelong, but a bit challenging with several short, steep uphill sections and some narrow bridge crossings. I don't understand why I seem to begin to struggle after 5km of a 10km race while running much slower than a 5km best effort, but I battled on this time and had a good finish. My time of 37:40 was probably about equal to second best.
The next week all the big events started being cancelled or postponed, but parkrun managed to last a couple of weeks longer. I just missed out on an 18:00 at Birdsland parkrun which was a surprise. Otherwise I've been running almost every day, but have a bit of a worry with some regular left knee soreness for about a week now. This is the same area of the knee I've always had trouble with, but has been generally pain free for the last couple of years.
No biking.
Not much more to say about shares than I covered in the introduction. Three bad weeks saw a drop of close to 40%, but there's been two weeks of 5% improvement each since. I sold a few shares along the way during the drop, which has generally proven to be a good decision so far, but I am happy to sit and hold the rest rather than try to time when to jump back in. My investment loan is looking a bit sick now, I think it was a worthwhile experiment though as this was a very unpredictable and fast impacting event to have happened.
Similarly all sports events have been cancelled. The Sydney Kings finished in first place, but managed to lose the NBL finals 2-1 in a best of a five, with the final two games being cancelled. I was even considering going to one of the Sydney games, but it became obvious that wasn't going to happen and they ended up playing without a crowd.
The to do list will probably be limited for a while now:
Hasn't been much change in work other than the shift to working from home completely. Has been a bit stressful trying to keep progress on many small tasks.
That's it for this month.
- The general view was that it wasn't a big deal, and would run it's course soon enough
- Financial experts in particular were declaring that this wasn't another GFC
- That was soon followed by the panic supermarket buying, which was greedy and stupid, but mostly harmless
- Train occupancy travelling to work was a little thinner, but no obvious differences
- Many small changes from state and federal governments, didn't seem very proactive, and often contradictory and unclear
- Started working from home on Wednesday the 18th, as most other people had started doing the same
- Felt like people were starting to make a small effort to keep a bit of distance in public
- The rules had been mostly related to air travel, but were now focusing on keeping the community separated
- Sadly people were ignoring most of the rules, and tougher restrictions had to be introduced
- Daily news reporting the latest infection numbers, always escalating the predicted long term impacts on the economy and employment
- Multiple weeks of terrible 10% losses on the supermarket, not just the industries most impacted
- Too much TV coverage repeating the same facts for hours - not sure who wants to watch that every day
- Thinking about my own situation:
- Employment - lucky to be on a project that should run until early next year
- Finances - got smashed on the sharemarket, but many other people will be in much worse situations, should recover eventually
- Health - still allowed to be outside for exercise to stay fit
- Incredible increase in people outside on running paths and trails:
- Bike riders
- Dog walkers
- Elderly walkers
- Family bike riders
- The majority of people outside for exercise make little or no attempt to maintain a safe distance
- Incredible fluctuations in the sharemarket, lots of companies moving 20-30% on a daily basis
- Stage 3 introduced, the main change was no more than two people outside together excluding households
- Huge payment scheme for all unemployed, some necessary moves but a worry how it will repaid
- Settled into a bit of a holding pattern since stage 3, shopping safety continues to be a focus
- As the pool of infected people increases people starting to be more cautious
Now for the normal monthly content.
Had my last running race for a while at the beginning of the month, the River Run Geelong 10km. It was a good event along the bike paths on both sides of the Barwon River in South Geelong, but a bit challenging with several short, steep uphill sections and some narrow bridge crossings. I don't understand why I seem to begin to struggle after 5km of a 10km race while running much slower than a 5km best effort, but I battled on this time and had a good finish. My time of 37:40 was probably about equal to second best.
The next week all the big events started being cancelled or postponed, but parkrun managed to last a couple of weeks longer. I just missed out on an 18:00 at Birdsland parkrun which was a surprise. Otherwise I've been running almost every day, but have a bit of a worry with some regular left knee soreness for about a week now. This is the same area of the knee I've always had trouble with, but has been generally pain free for the last couple of years.
No biking.
Not much more to say about shares than I covered in the introduction. Three bad weeks saw a drop of close to 40%, but there's been two weeks of 5% improvement each since. I sold a few shares along the way during the drop, which has generally proven to be a good decision so far, but I am happy to sit and hold the rest rather than try to time when to jump back in. My investment loan is looking a bit sick now, I think it was a worthwhile experiment though as this was a very unpredictable and fast impacting event to have happened.
Similarly all sports events have been cancelled. The Sydney Kings finished in first place, but managed to lose the NBL finals 2-1 in a best of a five, with the final two games being cancelled. I was even considering going to one of the Sydney games, but it became obvious that wasn't going to happen and they ended up playing without a crowd.
The to do list will probably be limited for a while now:
- Blog
- 2020 goals still not done - I will keep the original list despite the dramatic changes
- 90% complete with migrating photos
- Car
- Cost was too much to fix the car, so sadly had to retire it
- Keeping the custom plates on hold, and got some money back from insurance and registration
Hasn't been much change in work other than the shift to working from home completely. Has been a bit stressful trying to keep progress on many small tasks.
That's it for this month.
- Books
- None
- Movies
- None - won't be many new movies for a while with all cinemas closed
- Music
- None - won't be any tours for a while
- TV
- All Or Nothing season 5 - Philadelphia Eagles
- A good documentary following the team for the 2019 season
- 8 out of 10
- Lincoln Rhyme - Hunt For The Bone Collector
- A reasonable good adaptation of the book / movie
- 6 out of 10
- Stranger Things season 3
- Had some good moments, but a bit similar to previous seasons
- 7 out of 10
- The Simpsons season 30
- Like most seasons the quality varies a lot between episodes
- The second half of the season was really good though
- 7 out of 10
- Video Games
- Nintendo Switch
- Got the Switch connected
- New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe
- The basic game was a bit short
- The star levels were incredibly painful to complete
- 7 out of 10
- Xbox One
- Forza Horizon 3
- Good to be finished at last
- 5 out of 10