Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Brisbane 2025-2026, December 31

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In the morning I had time for a quick 10 kilometre run then left for the train at 9:15am, then on a bus at 10am and arrived at the airport by 10:40am. The terminal was very empty so I got through security very quickly. Before departure there was time for a small lunch, which was some average chips from Schnitz. I also got a snack from Daniel's Donuts and a drink from the vending machine, then had less than 30 minutes to wait for boarding.

We got held up 15 minutes on the runway as often happens, which meant we arrived at Brisbane a bit late also. The trains to the city were only going every 30 minutes on a holiday schedule, but the next one was only 10 minutes away so could have been worse. Getting off at Central station and walking to the hotel was done by about 2:30pm local time, or 3:30pm Melbourne time.


Before leaving the hotel I quickly got the latest episode of Match Of The Day which only took one minute. The closest Woolworths Metro was a bit of a walk as I was just outside the city centre, and when I got there I realised I forgot to check if there was a fridge in the room, but luckily there was. The supermarket was quite small so had limited options, and no good milk drinks.


There wasn't many fast food options around this part of the city, the best was a burrito place that I think I've been to before. A small with the city in general is the "central" station is still a good walk to reach the actual CBD area where most of the food and retail is. It's a bit different to Melbourne where's there a bit of everything all the way between Flinders Street and Melbourne Central for example, and heaps of trams the whole way along too. I think it will be a better when the new rain line adds an extra station, but that's not expected until 2029 now.


While waiting for the burrito I found a Japanese supermarket while had some USA Welch sodas. I tried the Strawberry Cherry which I hadn't had before, but didn't realise it was zero sugar which often has taste at all, but this one was alright. The burrito was good except for having a bit too much rice and not enough beans, but the chips were not very good.

I watched Match Of The Day while having dinner, and found my legs were a bit tired from standing and walking for more than usual. I tried the nightly BBL game on TV afterwards, but the first team got a low score so it wasn't very close.


16,400 steps with 10.5 kilometres running

Sunday, December 07, 2025

November Review

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This is the November review, almost another year over.


A long list of running notes this month:

  • Orakei Bay parkrun
    • A new location the day before Auckland half marathon
  • Auckland half marathon
  • Aurora parkrun 18:15
    • Good on a slow course with wind and rain, and the week after a half marathon
  • Melbourne half marathon
    • The ballot was open with another increase to $190
    • I didn't register and will look at other options, depending on my winter holidays plans
  • Aurora parkrun 17:45
    • A much better time than the previous week, but working hard on a slow course
  • Berwick Waters 17:30
    • My best time for the year
  • 2XU Wellness Run 10km
    • Happy to finish under 36 minutes for only the second time
    • Could have run a bit faster in the last kilometre
  • Purchases
    • Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 3 in Auckland - only $110 but was size 14 rather than 13
    • Nike Vaporfly 4 - discounted to $175 and immediately felt much better than the Vaporfly 3
    • Adidas Adios Pro 4 - $175
    • Nike Vomero Plus - $200 but had a work gift card so effectively free


The bad month for shares finally turned up, in particular technology shares were down 15% in three weeks. A lot of end of year expenses are still coming through with even more next month:
  • Air conditioner replacement - $3500
  • Car insurance - $1100
  • Parramatta half marathon trip - $750
  • RACV - $150
  • Shoes - $300
  • Tax return - $1300


Nothing much happening for sports and I'm still weeks behind in NFL highlights. I missed the whole regular season of Gridiron Victoria due to lack of information online, I can't even find out where the final is being played yet.


The to do list has a bit more activity this month:
  • Holidays
  • House
    • Attended a few houses for private sale - very expensive
    • New air conditioner installed before summer arrived
  • Running
    • Booked Run For The Kids 14km - end March
    • Booked Ballarat 10km - end April
    • Booked Parramatta 21km - mid June


I've been busy at work still towards the end of the year again. For December I'm planning to do the Advent Of Code again, since it's now only 12 days instead of 25.


That's it for this month:
  • Books
    • None
  • Movies
    • None
  • Music
    • None
  • TV Shows
    • None - many in progress again
  • Video Games
    • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Donkey Kong Bananza bought - don't own the console yet
    • Steam
      • Command And Conquer ultimate collection bought for $10
    • Xbox One
      • Call Of Duty - Black Ops Cold War
        • Finished the game on regular - the campaign was much too short
        • 4 out of 10
      • Call Of Duty - Modern Warfare 2
        • 65 GB + 130 GB installations - but at least it worked on the first attempt