September Review

It's the September review, right on time.

Not even a month of running before another injury surfaced, just a minor foot problem which didn't cause too much disruption luckily.

• Lilydale park run, 18:40 finally a good time
• Chelsea Bicentennial park run, 18:45 new event
• Increased up to 19km for weekend long runs, which probably caused the foot pain
• Albert Park park run, lots of puddles, very slow but just made the top 10
• 18 different park runs with a single digit finish
• Harvest Run
• 13km was the longest I've attempted this year
• With the heat, hills and wind I was totally dead by half way
• So dehydrated and only just made it to the finish line

Nothing much happening with shares this month, I sold Domino's for a much smaller profit than I could have got, then the two companies I replaced them with just lost money immediately. Also had to pay $1500 for my tax return, most due to partially taxed dividends since I don't have much other money in bank accounts!

Got to attend a few sport events:

• AFL finals round one - Geelong vs Richmond
• Slow game but Richmond went ahead in the second half
• AFL finals round three - GWS vs Richmond
• Great seat in the front row on level four
• Similar result to the previous game
• NBL pre-season - Melbourne vs Perth
• Melbourne were about 18-0 at the start, never was close after that

AFL preliminary final

I did not win a ticket in the ballot for the grand final this year, so missed out on the great Richmond premiership, although I wasn't so sure they'd win to be honest. A lesson for next year, the gates opened at 8:00am and there was still some space left even an hour after that - I thought they'd all be filled up immediately for sure.

The to do list:

• December holiday
• Not sure about this yet, no running events over that time
• Possibly just a short trip to Brisbane or Sydney
• NBN
• Is ordered!
• Looking forward to a whole 25% increase on current speed...
• NZ
• Is ordered too, all except for car rentals

Just one more month at work and not sure what comes next yet. Got to spend three days on AWS architecture training which was a good break, I would like to keep studying for the exam, but I think the pass mark is ridiculously high so it would be difficult to do without any practical experience.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft
• Short story
• Didn't have much point although I wasn't concentrating while reading it
• 4 out of 10
• The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
• A few differences from the TV show, some characters were different
• The biggest problem was it just had no ending at all
• 5 out of 10
• Movies
• It
• Better than the previous mini series
• Quite a lot of differences from the book, not sure if they were improvements
• 6 out of 10
• It Comes At Night
• Not related to It
• Basically nothing happens!
• 3 out of 10
• Music
• None
• TV
• Twin Peaks Season 3
• Finally back for another season
• Still not sure what I thought of it, was very slow at times
• Didn't mind getting a vague ending, but just not the one they provided
• 8 out of 10
• Utopia Season 3
• Not as good as previous seasons
• Didn't like two character replacements
• 8 out of 10
• Video Games
• PC
• Alwa's Awakening
• Lot's of going back through the various levels after getting new abilities
• Can't remember where to return too though, map is quite small
• 5 out of 10

August Review

It's the August review, enough of winter already. Actually one of the better winters, I didn't even get sick once so far which is a record, but there's still time for that to change.

I might be able to stop complaining about running injuries next month. Did a bit more travelling this month:

• Coburg park run 19:50 with some hills
• Parkville park run 19:15 disappointing for a flat course
• Jells park run 19:45 disappointing again, even with the big hill twice
• Shepparton 10km race 39:20
• At least I was able to run this year I suppose
• Big winds at the start didn't help, just didn't have a good race

Shepparton finish line.

I might make my shares goal for the year with no more setbacks - helps not paying for a big holiday or other such expenses. Got a good discount on some capital raising.

So my total for the season was three AFL games for the season concluding with Melbourne vs. St Kilda. The Demons won the game, but not by much, which meant they just missed the finals by percentage - just a couple of goals would have made the difference. Most finals games will be interstate again this year, but I'll try to attend the few at the MCG starting with Geelong vs. Richmond. I don't know the outcome of the grand final ballot yet.

The to do list is just a holiday list at the moment:

• NZ
• Queenstown (marathon) accomodation was way too expensive at late notice
• Changed plans and will just do Rotorua and Christchurch instead
• Hopefully get to do Queenstown and Dunedin next year
• Christmas
• Not sure what enforced leave will be required yet
• Might do a few days in Brisbane or Townsville, but need to book soon!

Finally work is sorted out, finishing at the end of October - which was going to be a short Asia trip, so that's off until next year sometime now sadly. It looks like there should be a reasonable amount of work to do until then, instead of sitting around doing nothing. Curious to see what comes next though.

That's it for this month:

• Books
• The Langoliers by Stephen King
• Quite short, couldn't remember much from the movie years ago
• 6 out of 10
• Movies
• Dunkirk
• Well filmed, very loud but authentic
• The plane scenes were a bit slow, the rest was very good
• 8 out of 10
• MIFF - All For One
• Followed the first few years of the Australian Orica Green Edge race team
• Lots of exclusive behind the scenes footage
• Lots of injuries and surprise wins and losses
• 9 out of 10
• MIFF - Kim Dot Com
• Surprising amount of actual footage, not just interviews
• Went a bit slow and downhill towards the end
• 7 out of 10
• Music
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ticket for March 2018
• TV
• 13 Reasons Why
• Surprisingly good fictional show about a teenage suicide
• 8 out of 10
• Utopia Season 2
• Some of the episodes are a bit ridiculous, but otherwise enjoyable
• 9 out of 10
• Video Games
• None