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More on books
My reading of Gallant was super fast and easy. I really liked the book but I wasn’t satisfied with the ending. Just left a bit too much unresolved and unanswered for me. It makes me wonder if there will be another story exploring this world. So I now need to finish Elena the Brave and review it by Friday. At the very least I will do a review and edit it to reflect completion later. As I was reading I noted mention of Kiev (Kyiv) being nearby in the story and so the folklore is closely connected, geographically, with current events.
I didn’t mention it before, but I am also reading a biography of Led Zepellin. I requested this almost a year ago on Netgalley and the publisher has still got it listed as pending, even though it was released back in November. The copy I am reading is an ebook through the library. It’s a rather hefty volume and I had renewed it once and reserved it again once. I will need to renew it again as I am not even halfway through it. One thing I don’t like about this book is the way it chronicled the development of Jimmy Page from his early days but the other three members are only mentioned as they join in and through a few references to earlier experiences later in the text. In any case, some of it has been quite enlightening, particularly in regards to the creative process of making albums. As for the other aspects of their lives, it’s pretty unsavoury. Not that this is any revelation as I remember hearing the stories of the band when I was growing up, albeit in rather less ugly detail.
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Books
I have a few books I am currently previewing but requested a few more recently. One was the upcoming release, Gallant, from V.E. Schwab who wrote The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I’ve read and liked some of her other work too. Anyway, I have tried to get a review copy from Netgalley and Edelweiss but had no luck. Well I happened on to the UK version of Netgalley and it was available for request and my wish was granted. :) I started reading last night and it’s a pretty fast read and it seems to be a much shorter book than the last one. I believe I will have it completed and reviewed by the 1st when it’s released.
I’m also reading a follow up to a book I read last year called Elena the Brave. It’s a sort of middle-grade adventure/fairy tale sort of thing and that’s due to be finished shortly too. I’m enjoying it but it seems to be a longer read than the previous volume so is taking more time.
I’m currently listening to Where the Crawdads Sing and I am enjoying that a lot. I’ve seen it on bestseller lists but hadn’t paid much attention to it. Then I noticed it was available from the library and snatched it up. There’s a murder mystery involved and it involves an isolated girl who has lived in the marshes of North Carolina all her life. I should say it’s assumed to be a murder but the story is still unfolding.
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Weekend
The boys had their boosters today so we are a fully triple vaxed family now. :)
COVID-19 is now a major thing around here. Over 1000 cases the past two days and I assume it’s going to move to a much higher number soon. I feel like I am going to get it every time I go out now. I’d like to limit shopping but it’s hard to do that when so much is still missing. There have been some alternate shops that have supplies but now everybody realised it and now there are bigger crowds there and longer lines. And lower supplies.
Today we got a mesh system for our wi-fi. We’ve had some problem spots in the house from way back and this is a means to support our internet use, I guess. Several of my devices have gotten much faster now. The main problem is my laptop, which sometimes is fine and other times is not. It’s not so different than it was before the mesh.
News of current events is hard to watch right now. Tonight the Scientist and I started to watch the “series” Get Back about the Beatles making the Let it Be album and it was fascinating to watch. Each episode runs well over two hours and we saw about half an hour so. I look forward to seeing more.
Here in Australia autumn begins on the first day of March. Our temperatures are staying reasonably hot until Monday. From Tuesday they will be dropping considerably, as though that’s the end of the hot weather. Of course, I know there’s more heat to come but it’s kind of funny the way the forecast is set out.
I had a couple of bunches of bananas that were getting really ripe and finally made a banana bread tonight. It came out rather nice except that it didn’t rise. Or I should say it rose and then fell once it was out of the oven. I’m doing the recipe from memory so maybe I need to adjust the baking powder or soda amount…I’m making another one tomorrow but a request has come to add chocolate chips and we don’t have any. I hope to find some to add and I might make them muffins instead.
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Totally in it
Our local covid numbers continue to grow with 213 cases announced today. This is similar to the past few days so it still seems to be growing more slowly than those over east did. We do have the advantage of learning from the experience of the other states though, so perhaps we will avoid the super high numbers they’ve had. There are currently two cases in the hospital, which isn’t bad considering there are over 1000 active cases. It does make me wary of being in public too much and for the most part, I’ve been avoiding crowds as much as possible.
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Travel hiccups due to COVID
I got a message last week telling me the itinerary of my travel had changed and I now had to change airports in Tokyo. The problem with this is that foreign nationals aren’t able to use public transport in Tokyo, leaving me without a valid flight. I called them and was on hold for some time then gave up. The next morning, the Scientist phone when their customer service opened and waited for close to an hour while he was working. He then put me on to the representative who had found alternative flights that would help me reach my destination. The problem was they only had code-share flights which would mean I wouldn’t have the generous seating space that I purposely chose. And the code share flight was a considerably cheaper option, based on what I saw while searching flights. After discussions on a couple of days with the representative, I finally chose to cancel the flight and choose another option. I will point out this was a call center in Hong Kong and the connection by phone was terrible. Also the last rep I spoke with was so hard to understand because every time he spoke there was static on the line. I don’t fault the reps at all but the rest of the service was rather poor. Even the hold message was done in quite broken English. The app for the airline was also rather poor so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s unlikely I would book any further flights with the airline in the future. By the way, it’s going to be two to three months to process the refund. :(
While waiting for return communications on the previously booked flight, I went searching for flights through other airlines. I might have gone with Singapore Airlines except the flights would be in and out of Perth and I didn’t want to risk not being able to get back into the state. Also the flights were a bit more expensive than they had been when I booked my original tickets. But I had a pretty good experience on my previous flights with them and the food was good too.
Ultimately I chose to use Qantas Airlines and book the most direct flight to Dallas, which includes 15 and 16 hour flights between Sydney and Dallas. This shortened my trip by nearly a day and the only layovers are in Sydney. On the way, I have a ten hour stop and I’m thinking of going into the city and being a tourist for a few hours, mostly outdoors. Anyway I booked my trip and went to pay and had an issue trying to use Paypal where I clicked on done to avoid the payment (there were reasons I tried Paypal that didn’t come to fruition). When I tried to go back to the payment page, it showed my ticket was confirmed and I soon got a strange email telling me they couldn’t issue the ticket until I filled out the information for entry into the US. Not that filling out the information made any difference. I tried to call the airline but the hold times were long so I didn’t stay with it. I decided to wait and see what happened over the next day. Still there was no way to make payment. I then noticed my account showed something in the “basket” and I went there and paid for a ticket. Except this had a different booking number. This time I got an itinerary and several other emails but nothing like the strange one I got with the previous ticket. My account now showed two trips that were the same except for one flight. There was no way to remove the other one. I ended up calling the airline and waited for three hours to speak to an agent. Once I got through, it was a matter of five minutes to fix the problem.
Within a day of getting that sorted, it was announced our border was going to open in full on March 4th. I don’t think I’d have been able to get a reasonable fare but it’s possible more airline options would have been available. Still I have always had pretty good experiences with Qantas so it should be fine.
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Widespread
I think we can now say COVID has become widespread in the community. Yesterday we had 37 cases and today it’s 51 cases. And sadly, we’ve had a second COVID death in the state. It’s amazing it’s only the second one and it’s been probably close to two years since the first one. The stats now include self-administered RATs, which may account for the increase in reported numbers.
Meanwhile, the grocery stores are still looking rather bare and there are limits on purchases. At the moment I’m just shopping a few days ahead of time as the chances of getting all that is needed are pretty low. The train tracks in South Australia are still being repaired and there’s an expectation normal supplies will start again sometime next week. The COVID issues are obviously a different story and may take much more time to return to normal.
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Same but different
I think it was in the middle of last year I suddenly developed pain in my hips and glutes area. It was painful enough to take painkillers and I went to see my physiotherapist, who worked out I had gluteal tendinopathy. I’d never had it before and never heard of it either. She set me on a course of exercises and saw me a couple of times along with ongoing clinical pilates classes. It got better and I wanted to make sure I kept the muscles in good shape. A month or two later I had joined the gym and was improving my fitness so I thought that would be the end of it.
Fast forward several months to this weekend when I developed a similar pain on both sides that became worse on the left again. Again I had to take painkillers when it was particularly bad. After a few days I realised this was the same thing I had before. I went to see my physiotherapist this morning and I was right. Except this time the problem is I have overdone things and my muscles were quite tight. She did dry needling on both sides and then massaged it. The massage was quite painful on the left side. I have to lay off cardio exercises that work the lower body for several days. But I’m free to do as many pilates classes as I like. And I have several home exercises to do, some of which I had already started on.
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This and that
COVID numbers are rising here but still not quite exploding. We had 31 cases a couple of days ago but have been hanging in the 20s each day otherwise. But thanks to these higher numbers, there have been some changes to requirements for isolation with and without symptoms here. Also, the isolation upon returning to the state is now down to seven days, which is a good thing.
In my work situation as a support worker, there are two other people I work with to support one client. Recently one of them had travelled to an eastern state and is back but having to quarantine. The other one got a promotion and started training this week. So I had been left to cover for both this week and next. It’s quite disruptive for the client and also a burden for me as the only support worker available. The changes on isolation mean I should be unburdened with most of the hours by Sunday, assuming no COVID symptoms come up. A new worker is going to be introduced soon and we are hopeful for a good fit with the client. That makes this week a bit easier to get through.
My travel plans are feeling more and more solid with the upcoming changes. I won’t be too surprised if we are properly open by the time I return in May. I just have to avoid getting the virus throughout.
I got into the pool for the first time in months a few days ago and it went really well. The only issue was limited time as the pool and gym close at 5 pm on weekend days. I had gone to the gym for half an hour and then the pool but had a few hiccups along the way. First of all, I couldn’t open the locker (it’s digital and I might have mistyped the code I wanted). It took ages to find someone to help me with that. Then upon getting my items, the lockers in the pool area mostly wouldn’t lock even though they haven’t been there are long as those in the gym area. The actual swimming was good and I managed to get in 22 laps in the limited time. I was shifting between freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke and felt pretty comfortable throughout.
We are in the middle of a brief chill in the midst of summer heat. A couple of days ago it was super hot but yesterday and today have been significantly cooler, especially with the strong breeze. From tomorrow it should be shifting closer to normal for a while.
I’ve recently begun listening to audiobooks instead of music while at the gym. This helps me finish listening much faster than before. I currently have two books out from the library, one of which is in high demand. It only became available last night but I began listening today so I can finish it in the two weeks that it’s available. I had already started the other one but it’s not in such demand and I may be able to just renew it once it is due. I will just keep watch to make sure nobody requests it in the meantime. I can easily return to it once the other book is finished.
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Adjusted plans
With the recent changes to plans for opening borders, I was really unsure of whether my travel plans were still going to be doable but I think it’s all going to be okay now. My trip involved a return through Hong Kong but I have changed the route to go through Sydney. In this way, I can now transit in Sydney back to WA and then quarantine for two weeks at home. For all I know, the borders may well be open by then but it seemed prudent to make a change now rather than risk waiting to see what happens and have difficulty changing flight arrangements. Making this change did cost me extra money but it leaves me feeling much more confident in my plans than I was after the recent announcements..
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Brief doctor visits
On Tuesday I saw a gp about the results of a blood test. I’m honestly not sure why I had to have an appointment. I had a cytomegalovirus test that came back equivocal in December and then had a repeat test a couple of weeks ago. That one also came back the same and that’s why I was called in. It could just be a false result or perhaps a reactivation of a virus I’ve had in the past. But it’s not really of any concern since I have no symptoms and it’s not causing any problems.
This morning I saw the specialist regarding my CT scan and blood tests and that was a short and easy visit. My iron levels are so good I am almost on the upper end of normal. She doesn’t think there’s any need for further investigations so I won’t be having the capsule endoscopy after all. I do have a follow-up blood test and doctor visit to do then, just to monitor things. I suspect if everything is still good I won’t need to see her again.