December Review

It's the December review.

I spoke to soon about being the last lockdown notes, although it's more like lockout notes now:

• The new summer 'covid normal' got revealed
• It's much worse than the one promised in September after 28 days virus free
• The new rules run until the end of January before any further review
• The first cases from hotel quarantine inevitably arrived
• The media wasted no time to incorrectly claim 'the streak is over'
• A new outbreak kicked off in North Sydney
• Borders starting to get shutdown again, Victoria probably too slow to react
• NSW response was very light compared to the recent SA response
• Only 'suggest' ideas like wearing masks
• While SA couldn't even leave home to exercise at one point
• NSW continuing with single figure cases but starting to spread to different locations
• The same headline in the news every day
• NSW fireworks
• Closely followed by the SCG test match
• NSW outbreak made it's way to Victoria - the streak is actually over now
• Many changing restrictions for people returning from various areas of NSW
• But if you get in before the deadline you often get to avoid the rules, defeats the point
• Massive delays for:
• People waiting at the NSW border to avoid getting locked out
• People waiting to get tested in Victoria
• Back to masks for all indoor locations, could have been worse

Back to the usual.

More of the same running, finally got back to do some track sessions instead of always doing a weekly long 8-10km training session. Depending on how this current outbreak goes we were on track to have parkrun start again on January 16. Other larger events aren't looking as promising, as some planned for February and March are being cancelled already.

At long last got to retire three pairs of shoes - 600, 700, 975 kilometres represents over six months of activities. Started on two fresh pairs, felt a bit more comfortable but not as much as I expected. Having the same clothes and shoes repeated every day can be a bit draining, so any change is still good.

More of the same for shares too, I was having a great week at one stage only to lose 6% of everything on Friday, pretty painful.

The premier league is pushing on despite escalating virus numbers in England and numerous breaches by players and staff. I haven't had any interest in the NBA so far over the first couple of weeks of the season, maybe after the NFL playoffs are done. Watching a few overs of nightly BBL is more practical given the time zone issues with American sports.

A small amount of action in the to do list:

• Holiday
• Did not plan in advance due to possible border issues - turned out to be a great idea
• Since ACT or NSW were not practical, decided on a short SA trip instead
• Running calendar
• Certainly haven't committed to any events, but had a look at some options for 2021
• Yearly reviews
• Made a start on those

It hasn't shown up in the corporate directory yet, but apparently got promoted to manager before the end of the work year, so that was a good result but should have achieved it sooner. It's probably going to take a while to move up to senior manager and beyond.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None
• TV
• Alice In Borderland
• Japanese show with English subbed voices, was a bit weird
• The story was good, not sure if a season two is planned, seems possible
• 6 out of 10
• Survivor South Africa season 6
• Good up until the end, then no deserving contestants were left
• 8 out of 10
• Survivor South Africa season 7
• Haven't finished yet, but frustratingly poor gameplay by most contestants so far
• 3 out of 10
• The Flight Attendant
• A good idea, but far too much going on
• I didn't like all the inner dialogue of the main character
• 5 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Finished the main story, but then it just keeps on going !
• I really didn't enjoy the constant negativity and downward spiral of the main story
• 6 out of 10