This is the January review already, that month sure went fast. I haven't even had a chance to do the 2014 or 2015 posts yet.
I had a bit more time off at the start of the month before going back to work, some of which was spent catching up on all of the sports I missed while I was over in Perth - three weeks of Premier League matches, an entertaining round of FA Cup upsets and a boring first round of NFL playoffs. I had other things I wanted to make a dent in before the break was over, but hardly got anywhere with that list.
My
running has somehow been injury free for a while now, I managed my best month ever with almost 320 kilometres (and 24 hours) of activities. I'm started to get a bit bored with the same routes though, so managed to add in a few more alternatives:
- Dandenong Creek Trail towards Jells Park
- Gardiners Creek Trail to Box Hill
- Westerfolds Park
I set a new personal best for distance with a 22.5km run as well as the monthly record. I've got a few events already booked and paid for later in the year - Run For The Kids again, followed by two new long distance ones, Great Ocean Road 23km and Gold Coast Marathon 21km.
Back at
work nothing much has changed so far, the first day and week after the break was a real struggle, but it didn't take too long to get back into the routine - and start thinking about the next holidays to plan. A few people are moving around to different teams, but I'm still doing the same stuff for the moment. I might be working as a backup on a totally different project, which should be good for learning a few new skills and technologies.
Had a few peculiar issues at
home. First we had a strange isolated storm in the Eastern suburbs one day which somehow managed to fry the home security system. I heard a faint siren as I was getting close to the front door, hoping it was some other person's alarm that just sounded similar, but sadly it was not the case. It wasn't the kind that could just be shut off with the remotes or the control panel, but eventually we got the alarm disconnected until the security expert could come out and fix it properly. The next weekend there was an unrelated power outage that lasted most of the day - it doesn't take long to realise how sad your life is without electricity. At least the second power outage didn't cause any further problems with the security system.
The month was packed full of sports once again. The
AFC Asian Cup was hosted in the eastern states of Australia, but sadly all of the finals were in NSW. My ticket for the only quarter final in Melbourne ended up being South Korea vs. Uzbekistan since Australia could not manage a draw against South Korea to top their group, they lost 1-0 instead. The match I attended was alright, but nothing happened after the first 30 minutes, we had to wait until extra time for the two Korean goals.
With Iran and Japan surprisingly getting knocked out in the quarter finals it was a pretty easy path for Australia and South Korea to meet again in the final. Despite being outplayed for most of the game Australia went ahead just before half time and looked like they would hold on for a slightly undeserved 1-0 win, only for Korea to score a devastating goal in injury time with less than two minutes to go. It looked like it wasn't meant to be for Australia once again, but a surprise goal in the first half of extra time was enough to win, despite many more nervous moments at the end. Asian champions for the first time!
The
Australian Open was on at the same time as the Asian Cup, which was a strange bit of scheduling. I don't have much interest in (or attention span for) the men's matches, since it is usually just a power struggle from the back of the court, but I watched the women's final in split screen while the soccer final was on and it was good to see Williams beat Sharapova again. I was considering going to a day of the tennis after work, but I didn't find a good day on the schedule during the first week - maybe next year (same for the
Big Bash).
The
NFL divisional and conference rounds (and pointless Pro Bowl) were almost completed in January. After a poor first round the quality of the games really picked up in the next two weeks, in particular a dramatic comeback win for New England against Baltimore after being down by two touchdowns twice in the match. That match was somehow eclipsed by the Seattle victory over Green Bay the following week, they looked totally gone with four interceptions and only a few points, but somehow managed to turn it around and get the victory in overtime. My New England Patriots had a much easier win in qualifying for the Super Bowl, but it was overshadowed somewhat by a controversy involving the match balls not being inflated properly - with no sanction yet though.
The
Australia Day holiday weekend was quite uneventful, this was the first year we didn't have a Triple J Hottest 100 barbecue, but given how much the music countdown degrades every year - not to mention how much later it always finishes - that is not a total surprise. The number one song was quite poor, but I didn't mind the second placed "High" by Peking Duk.
I continue to agonise over my
Easter holiday plans. I finally got my new passport delivered, so I'm free to start committing now, but I don't know if I have enough time to prepare (and stress out) for my first priority which involves Cambodia and Vietnam for the majority of the time. I think New Zealand would be a lot easier, but I'm not sure if I can fill out enough activities with the cities I didn't visit last year. I need to make a decision soon either way though.
So that's it for another month, hopefully I get time for my 2014 and 2015 posts soon.
- Books
- Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
- A "sort of" sequel to the shining with an engaging story
- 9 out of 10
- Movies
- John Wick
- Just a random action movie
- No back story, no real point
- Absurd fight scenes with no consistency
- 4 out of 10
- Locke
- Very good given that the whole movie is set inside a car
- The guy gets a ridiculous amount of phone calls though
- So annoying when he kept rolling up his jumper and shirt sleeve
- The ending was uneventful
- 6 out of 10
- Taken 3
- Pointless
- Nothing to do with the first two
- 4 out of 10
- Music
- They Want My Soul by Spoon
- Took a few listens, but great afterwards
- 8 out of 10
- Brill Bruisers by The New Pornographers
- A bit inconsistent, the first half is much better so far
- 7 out of 10
- TV
- Building Wild
- A cool show on Nat Geo about building cabins in remote locations
- The designs are very imaginative
- A bit suspicious that they always end on time
- 7 out of 10
- Homeland
- The best season since the first
- Only the final episode was a bit of a let down
- 8 out of 10
- Halt And Catch Fire
- Started well, but really slow
- Still got a few episodes left
- Video Games
- PlayStation 3
- Gran Turismo 6
- Only had a bit of time to play, just trying to finish races now
