• Daily life,  Family,  Fitness,  Travel

    Stuff

    I am still keeping up with exercise to some degree. That isn’t translating to any weight loss as yet and it also isn’t translating to increased muscle mass. I am a bit stuck on that part because I know I have built up muscle but to stay the same that would mean I’d have to lose muscle somewhere else and I don’t think that’s happening. That said, I am not sure how much stock to take in the scales that do all these fancy computations on the body. I am finding it’s been a struggle to get through exercise sessions lately. Usually, I will start feeling better after going for a while and the rest comes more easily. Not the case recently though.

    I don’t think I mentioned here yet that my dad went home just before Thanksgiving and is doing okay. It seems he is suffering a bit of confusion since the second stroke but other issues don’t seem to have changed a lot. I did speak with him a few days ago and had a slightly longer conversation. Still quite brief but he was able to get more out on that occasion.

    Game Fanatic has been trying to get hold of a Playstation 5 for some time and the pickings have been limited since its release whenever it was. Then EB Games said they had some available for pre-order last month and I rushed there to get an order in to find out they had sold out. I was put on a waitlist in case more units arrived than predicted. These units were supposed to come fairly soon after the orders were taken but I didn’t hear anything further. So I stopped in one day last week to check on the status. It turns out they were still working on calling people about orders and I was able to collect mine after all. So Game Fanatic now has the monster-sized machine which blocks our tv and was able to add a couple of items to his limited Christmas list.

    The Scientist hasn’t had any real holiday from work in ages. I don’t count the time taken off when he had surgery earlier this year. As of tomorrow, he’s off until early January. Here’s hoping the time off allows him to recharge a bit for next year. Also, the Scientist had a birthday last week and he’s now started his last year of his 50s. I took him out for lunch at a Thai/fusion restaurant where they had robots to deliver meals to tables and it was a good meal. Then we went to Holey Moley to do mini mini-golf and a game of bowling, both of which were lots of fun for us.

    We still don’t have any definite dates on our borders opening here in WA but it feels like it’s getting close to reality now. I have been playing around with dates for travel for next year and it seems like it might be okay in the second quarter barring any delays from newer variants.

  • Body and Mind,  Family,  Fitness,  Home and garden

    A few things

    Just a little update from my last post. I’ve been going to the gym for over a week now. In fact, I went eight days straight with no break. Yesterday I didn’t go because I had a clinical pilates class with the physiotherapist and tai chi on. I’m glad I missed it yesterday because my muscles were pretty weary by the time I did the pilates and 1.5 hours of tai chi (which includes fan class). Today I took the day off from exercise and tomorrow I go back and do my weights routine. I’m trying to make that an every third day routine with cardio workouts the other days. I do the pilates every second week as it’s expensive but helpful and my insurance ran out on it months ago and the tai chi is only during school terms (two-week break coming up). I’m hoping to do a bit of swimming instead of the cardio soon.

    My dad is doing well at the moment. He had his 80th birthday on Sunday and it was a low-key kind of day. He started occupational therapy on Monday and today he starts his speech (moved up a couple of times). The speech is what he needs most as he struggles to communicate. That said, he’s much improved since just after his stroke.

    I finally contacted the clinic where I was referred to about osteoporosis and it turns out I just have to wait to hear from them. This is part of the public hospital system and they send out appointments. I’m hoping I don’t have a long wait and I hope I get an appointment time that can fit into my work schedule. I am a bit embarrassed to say I had a bit of an accident at the gym on the weekend when I stepped off a machine and tripped over the one next to it. I had forgotten how far off the ground it was and my balance was way off…and this is the sort of thing I need to be careful about with my bone health. I’ve got a bit of a bruise on my shin now but it’s nothing terrible.

    I managed to move up the boys’ Covid vaccinations by a couple of weeks by getting appointments at the gp office. Previously I couldn’t book them in as the allowance didn’t cover their age group yet. But yesterday I checked and was able to get them set up and then I cancelled the other ones. This will be a lot more convenient and easier for the boys too.

    I’m trying to decide whether to upgrade my phone now that the new iPhones are coming out. I’m a bit annoyed they haven’t brought back the fingerprint scan as the face login doesn’t work in the dark and with a mask on (I can overcome the mask issue with my watch though). It’s not that I don’t like the face login but it’s not really enough on its own. That might be a deal-breaker as this was something that has been mentioned as a change. My phone is only two years old so it’s not an immediate need. I am, however, considering the new Apple Watch since it’s supposed to be a major update this year.

    I didn’t mention this earlier but we got a Roborock vacuum a couple of months ago and the Scientist takes great delight in it. He had a great time programming it to vacuum in certain rooms. It’s not set up to clean the entire house but it is taking care of several rooms now. The only snag is the fact our carpet is really old and it keeps unravelling so that the vacuum gets caught in it regularly.

    Well this ended up longer than I expected…