October Review

This is the October review, I've lost track of what lockdown stage we're at now.

These are some lockdown notes:

• Getting the average close to 10, but not much further
• Chadstone outbreak quickly accelerated up to 40 cases
• Government ready to make compromises after 3 weeks being stuck around 10 cases
• Starting to rethink the targets of consistent weeks of zero cases
• Finally started moving back towards zero again soon after starting to think it would never happen
• NZ tourists allowed to come to NSW
• Somehow that entitled them to go to Melbourne and Perth also - even though they couldn't travel directly
• Some shops started opening while restrictions are still in force as a protest
• Surprising amount of customers showed up to support them
• Announced the restrictions were coming forward a week, then missed the target by a lot
• 25km travel limit and hairdressers opening was the only real change
• Meanwhile all other changes actually got delayed an extra week, such as retail opening
• Most people didn't seem to realise this was worse than the original plan
• Two days later and again promising to bring forward the next changes due in two weeks
• There always seems to be 30,000 Australians 'stranded' overseas even though 5000 arrive each week
• Now a school outbreak after the previous outbreak was winding down
• Constantly changing and breaking plans
• Made promises of 'significant' changes all week up to Friday
• Saturday said not to expect too many changes
• Sunday no changes
• Monday changes are back on again
• Under 5 cases per day but lots of panic from the new outbreak reaching 40 cases
• Even though previously we were told that 5 might be the 'new zero'
• Food and retail open
• People got a bit too excited for the first day, everyone out and nobody seems to be at work
• Latest media headlines
• Has X changed forever ?
• Office work
• Shopping
• All of Europe and USA numbers just keep getting worse
• Trying to avoid second lockdowns but waiting too long to act

Back to the usual.

Got some good running in, could be the last few weeks before it gets too warm during the day. Had a promising 8 kilometres at 3:47/km, started to think about going for a good 10 kilometres time in a training session. A couple of weeks later did 9.5 kilometres better than ever, but had nothing left at the end and didn't realise I was going so well. Followed that up with a full 10 kilometres on a warmer day that was only just as good as the previous session with 500 metres of slower jogging included.

Finally finished off my Nike Structure 21 at 950 kilometres, probably could have kept going to 1000. Somehow still have many pairs in progress, for at least another month or two. Found a good price for some new Pegasus 37 so purchased them anyway, and a few pairs of running socks.

Also had my first two weeks running over 100 kilometres.

Seems like I say the same thing about shares, each month - a bit up and a bit down. Had two bad weeks leading into the USA elections, just after I reached a new record high of 9K.

A bit of sports wrapping up this month. The AFL grand final in Queensland but with two Victoria teams - I couldn't really pick a favourite so was happy for Richmond to win. On the other hand, anyone expect the LA Lakers winning the NBA playoffs would have been good, particularly disappointing when Miami Heat had two injuries during the first game of the finals.

The English Premier League is still going on despite country-wide lockdowns on the way there. Manchester United are still hopeless and can't get out of the bottom half.

Just a few small things in the to do list this month:

• Shopping 
• See running section
• Tax Return
• Paid over $1000 during the year - still need to pay another $500
• TV
• Got a Sony Bravia 43 and a separate stand
• The stand for the TV itself wasn't quite as wide as I thought, but still just too wide

Back to design tasks at work, a bit worried about upcoming workload due to a few people leaving the project or the company entirely.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None - can't even keep up with a few podcasts
• TV
• Ted Lasso
• Some players were basic stereotypes in the beginning, but improved as it went
• 9 out of 10
• The Purge season 1
• Took a while to get moving and have a theme for the season, but better than expected
• 7 out of 10 
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Fallout 4
• Didn't really like the storyline and the available choices
• Spent way too much time levelling up like Zelda
• It's deceiving with hundreds of levels you will never reach
• 7 out of 10