Back on schedule for the February review.
In the miscellaneous section is the great news that the media couldn't stop talking about, the first interest rate cut. The obvious but somehow overlooked negatives are 1) People with savings earn less and 2) People can get bigger loans to pay for more expensive houses. But it's still a relief for society apparently.
Some promising running results at parkrun for the month with three times around 18 minutes or lower, and a 17:43 was the best in nearly a year. My second race for 2025 was the Carman's Fun Run 10km in Brighton. Unfortunately it was a very windy day so the splits were 19:30 + 17:30 for a total of 37:00.
I had a couple of equipment problems this month, firstly with the nose bridge on my Nike sunglasses breaking, and it seems there's no way of replacing them. A few cents of plastic makes the whole product unusable. I bought a pair of Smith brand instead, since they were one of the top rated online. I also dropped my Garmin 935 from a height of less than 50 centimetres, but it's now got some weird bubble under the surface which goes around 25% of the circumference. I've seen some photos online with similar issues, but it usually stays near the outside, so it may be alright to keep using for a while until a deal turns up online.
Lots of money going out to start the year including a $2000 tax bill, $1000 car service, $1000 council rates, and $200 sunglasses. Lots more house costs coming up such as a possible new air conditioner, balcony roof repair, garage door service, and heating service (before winter). Hopefully I don't need to buy a new Garmin watch for the moment, and I may need to pay for holiday bookings too.
The share market was looking like being the good news story for the month, finally reaching some new personal highs not seen in years, only to have nearly ten days of successive losses. That was combined with the reporting season where many companies went up or down more than 10% and usually down. Selling all your companies a day before reporting might not be a bad idea, even if you have to buy the good ones back for a higher price in the following weeks.
The NFL superbowl was on early in the month, and thankfully we did not have to watch the Chiefs winning again. That means were back to just premier league for a while, with AFL weekends not far away.
The to do list is uneventful for this month:
- Blogs
- None of the annual ones done yet
- Running
- To decide on Sydney 10 and / or Sunshine Coast half marathon
- Winter holiday
- Researching more of Japan but still undecided with Europe and USA options also
- Japan also has the world athletics this year, but not until the middle of September
The work report is also uneventful and I haven't been able to progress on my exams for the moment, but might be continuing with the current role until about mid year now.
That's it for this month.
- Books
- None
- Movies
- None
- Music
- None
- TV
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Interesting story but didn't really like the way it was presented
- 5 out of 10
- Dexter Original Sin season 1
- Started terrible but improved as it went along
- However didn't like the conclusions or Dexter's dad in every episode
- 7 out of 10
- Video Games
- PC Steam
- Quake Live
- Only USA servers with FFA and 200 ping
- PlayStation 5
- Checking if a good console deal shows up for games that are exclusive or won't run on my Xbox One
- Xbox One
- Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
- Slowly playing a few hours a week