EXCHANGE INTERFACE

So, it's been good to meet some of the colleauges I'm working with. Others…well, they're typical 'guys in tech' and, moreover 'South Asian/West Asian guys in tech', which is to say they're very insular socially, and very closed when it comes to including an East Asian female in their outings.

( people gonna peop )

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Spent a great weekend with friends I haven't seen since their kids were much smaller. I've known B for over 20 years - since before she met her husband C (internet dating back some twenty years) - and although we've moved through very different stages of life, we're still good friends.

I gave her a draft (very drafty draft) of the novel, which I've started to fix/adjust/rewrite. Still trying to work out some of the details about the various characters, the various moving parts of the story, and where everything lands up.

We went out on both Saturday and Sunday, which is a lot for her - she has CFS and struggles with her energy levels. We went for a walk around the area on Saturday morning, and then out for dinner that night. Sunday was markets and then taking me to the station, and by the end of it, I think she was pretty exhausted and sore. At least she gets today off - she doesn't work, is on disability (FWIW). Her husband works, currently the service rep at a local mechanic's place and he's got the knowledge for it, but not the body. They've had a lot going on the last 18 months and are hoping for a stretch of quiet.

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So the hotel is not as nice as last week's hotel in terms of the room and appointments (tile flooring all the way, no carpets, no rugs, and the layout of the room is kind of peculiar), but the location is considerably better for going out and eating and stuff.

Eh. I'll take it.

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Tonight, I'm catching up with a friend for dinner, and hopefully another friend on Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday will be scrounge days, although someone has recommended a place in the city

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Back home, we have a chicken ( possible graphicity )

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Electorate next door has fallen in favour of the Independent. By 40 votes.

WHEW.

That's "automatic recount" territory, of course, but it's been very carefully scrutinised, and so the counts are unlikely to change.

Chook troubles again. I don't want to go into it too much. It's just..tiring. And troubling. Everything is tiring and troubling right now.

The major issue with the chook issues is that B1 is moderately invested in making the chook survive. Not because she's particularly attached to it, but she feels bad about having to tell the vet that she wants the chook put down, and so she goes the medication and the care option. It's the whole "I'm a bad person if other people think I'm a bad person" issue.

We have spent entirely too much on this chicken. She's not even one of our favourites!

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The independent is going hard, but the local candidate is going harder. Apparently he has ambitions of being Prime Minister someday, which obviously he can't be if he loses his seat. But he didn't need to defend it before, so now he's angry that he's having to work. He has the incumbent advantage, too - it's not a guarantee against the toxicity of the party leader ("Temu Trump") but it is an issue when we're talking about how has access to the resources of the electorate - emails, addresses, a party structure for contacting people.

A particularly significant downer is that the independent's campaign manager has hardly been seen, and apparently is not accustomed to running something on this scale. Nice guy, just maybe not up to the challenge. So we have a few old hands who are running things. A lot of old hands, in fact. Including the wife of the man who was the previous MP of the electorate - from the conservative party, dyed conservative to her toes. I may have mentioned her before, and have come to the conclusion that she's both admirable and terrifying.

But seriously, we're wearing out, and the election was only just called.

I'm doing some doorknocking this afternoon. New section of the electorate that's been rejiggered. We're hopeful of getting these people to think of voting for the indie.

I'm also offering to do some doorknocking in an area that's got a high percentage of East-Asian voters. Finding someone who looks like them on their doorstep might give us those few minutes to ask questions.

I need to put up the corflute for the indie on my driveway. It might deter people from using it as a turning point. But also, if they're going to use it as a turning-around point, we might as well get some use out of it!

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Work is busy and getting busier. Lots of meetings this week. I hate meetings. I'm going away this weekend with some women from church, but I also have some work to do on the Saturday. Which I can do remotely (although I'm technically not supposed to, we're all turning a bit of a blind eye on that.

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Still prosecuting the case of card fraud. ARGH.

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Garden is going well. Did I mention I had a glut of persimmons? Sent a bunch away with a friend this morning for her to dry, return some and keep some. But wow. That was at least 100 persimmons, possibly more.



I also managed a capsicum! Never managed that before, so that's exciting. And the capsicum is pretty tasty, too!

Next year: eggplants!

Actually, before that: BRASSICAS. I have made a good start by starting them growing, and planting them out in beds, and watering them with nutrient rich solutions: seaweed solution, compost tea, biogrow, and cauliflower tea.

The 'cauliflower tea' is interesting: it's basically cauliflower leaves left in water until they've rotted away. Because Australian soil is so low in boron, it makes growing cauliflowers and other brassicas difficult unless you add boron for them to form their heads. At least, that's what I've heard. Any rate, I have an assortment of weed teas and the garden is getting fed micronutrients through them.

Okay, I have a meeting in 15 minutes. Another one. *sigh*

We got invited to Christmas Day with the cousins.

Cousin N, same age as me, married with 4 kids. For a while I thought maybe he'd end up running for his electorate instead of our Former PM, but I guess he's happy to stay in the background of the conservative party.

Ironically, this came a day after I put a post up on a 'hosting' group on FB (women only, curated) and it got knocked back by the admins at first, then allowed through after I edited it. And...nobody saw it. Nobody looked at it. Nobody responded. Granted, it was the first 24 hours, but still...

I ended up taking it down.

There were other offers I made about hosting something, but *crickets* on all of those.

So Xmas Day will be with cousins.

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I was feeling a bit blue yesterday morning. I went to two parties yesterday, permaculture group's "local group" Christmas gathering making kokedamas, and an annual Christmas Party with church people.

Regarding church people, (as many of you know), I'm kind of delighted to be included, but a little bit 'odd person out' because these people have known each other for twenty years and I...have not.

IDK. I'm just feeling a bit awkward lately. A bit down, a bit out of it. I think it's something a lot of people are feeling right now with...*makes gestures at the universe*, while others are "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" or "there's nothing wrong and there never was!" while battling all the injustices of the system.

I had a couple of conversations at church though, that cheered me right up. With one friend who's my age, in the same line of work, and we mostly talk shop, but we haven't spoken for a while and it was nice to hear "I'm just going to go say hi to [T]" like it was a priority. And with another friend who is always good with the compliments - but not the "appearance and attitude" compliments but the "you've really thought this through and I appreciate your perspective" complients. So that's always good.

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Monday morning, got in to work and discovered the aircon wasn't working. Temps are moderately crazy lately - in the late-30s, early 40s range easy. After a few calls, it turns out the entire building is having issues. and by 9am it was up and running. PHEW. This is not a week in Sydney that you want to be having a/c issues! Guess we're in for a crazy hot summer.

This afternoon, I'm helping mum with making gingerbread (she needs to say 'no' more often, but she's learning), and then going to my entire-permaculture-group AGM/Christmas Party.

Tis the season to go crazy, falalalalalalalalalala.

Stuff going on in my life:

The daily commute is wrecking me. Unfortunately, it seems it may be necessary due to the system I work on only being accessible on site. And it really is: you cannot access any part of the system while not on-site. Not even the basic monitoring. It's technically blocked. Which is understandable, yeah, but also annoying.

Work is its own degree of effort right now. Apart from the commute, the people at this job trust me a lot less than the people at the last job, where they would listen to me and go, "oh, yeah, that makes sense, make it so."

Don't let me start about the bureacracy either. *SCREAMS INTO VOID*

Anyway I'll put all that into another post.

On the 'plus' side of things...a train strike on Friday means I'm not going in to the office on Friday. Working from home - WOO!

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Garden is coming along pretty okay - a few things looked good in the starting phases and then failed in later stages. I didn't always manage to stay on top of the maintenance phases. *sigh*

Currently, though, I'm getting little bits and pieces from the garden, including raspberries, tomatoes, beans, and stonefruit. I had a friend come over on Tuesday afternoon to help me sort through peaches, and it was great to have someone to talk with while doing all the peeling and boiling and cutting. It only took me a couple of hours instead of the usual half-a-day! And it was lovely doing it with someone else. I sent her away with a jar of a spicy nectarine relish for her pains.

Nectarines are entirely done, peaches are well on their way to being done. Of the apples: Tropic Dorsets are ripe now.

Still growing: Golden Delicious and Galas have just formed. No apricots at all. One cherry, invaded by fruit flies. One Mariposa plum, a handful of the softer multi-stone plums. Avocadoes, but not as many as last year. Heaps and heaps and HEAPS of persimmons and pomegranates. A few blueberries. Some raspberries.

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Pre- and post-election I spent a lot of time on Threads. I quite enjoyed the camaraderie; it feels a lot more fluid and comfortable than FB or Twitter or even BlueSky. I know nearly everyone is gone to BlueSky and I've made a couple of accounts over there, but it doesn't really speak to me the way Threads does.

( social media stuff )

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I can't remember if I've posted this link before: The Sad Bastard Cookbook: A completely free cookbook for the zero spoons crowd.

My thought is: it might help some of you guys out there?

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Social life has gone a little cray cray. Maybe it's the pre-Christmas run, or just a busy time of year? Might just be luck of the draw or something?

Saturday lunch: permie birthday party
Saturday night: church birthday party - curry
Sunday: The Great Train Write In for not!NaNo (a.k.a. "The Month Of Writing Dangerously")
Sunday night: church friend distraction getaway
Monday: church friend distraction getaway - all day
Tuesday: work, then peach-processing with permie friend
Wednesday: work, then bible study
Thursday: work, lunch with a Spidersgroup (writer's group) friend, then trivia night
Today (Friday): work from home (thank you, God), then a Write In near home (Month of Writing Dangerously)

CRIIIIIPES. Are you tired just reading that? Because I actually did it! And I met with an old Spidersgroup (writer's group) friend in the city for lunch on Thursday. And then went to Trivia night My battery is all socialled out.

AND I was going to a sewing social this weekend, but the train strike disrupted that, so I withdrew. Except now it's Friday morning and the train strike is cancelled.

But I'm still not going! I need recovery time PRONTO. Sit around and potter in the garden time. Honestly, at this rate, I'll be trying to take every second or third Friday off through the summer just to have some time at home.

I love people, but my social battery is nigh on flat right now. My social tank is beeping the warning sign at me. Maladicta is yowling that very miserable "I am not where you are, mummy" sound which appears that she wants to wuff me, but mostly she wants food. Ah well, I'll go cuddle the furry stomach and hang out the washing and then actual work.

Or possibly a work rant.

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I'm reading through the LJ entries of two decades ago.

Wow, there was a lot of fannish stuff going on back in the day. Also, a lot of personal angst. Interestingy, I spotted a few familiar names from all those years ago - adafrog, I can't believe we've known each other for about 20 years!

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Got through the 2nd week of work. *breathes* Now just another *counts on fingers and gives up* one, two, many, lots of weeks to go!

One problem: I didn't get paid for last week and the week before. Unfortunately, whoever was supposed to be approving the timesheets didn't get to it before close-of-payroll. So I'll be waiting another fortnight before being paid.

I wonder what the other contractors (contractors need manager approval of their hours in order to get their payroll done) did. I probably should have asked.

Yes, I have savings and I'm not in a dire position. But it's particularly annoying because I haven't been paid since the start of September.

One of the big things (the thing which I was brought on to help deal with) was delayed. Indefinitely so. Upper management is sorting through all the details of it, the lawyers are having a field day. And down in the trenches, we're wondering a little what's going on.

But hey, I'm still employed. (For the moment.)

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Parentals are going away on a tour of Italy and Greece this Sunday. They'll be gone for 6 weeks.

I had lunch with mum today in the city, and we'll go over and have dinner with them tomomrrow. Then I drive them in to the airport on Sunday morning.

Hm. I wonder if I could go over to visit a friend who recently (in the last 6 months) moved into a new place out that way... I might text her and see if she's up to a visit. Although 8am in the morning is probably waaaay too early for her.

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I had a night in on Tuesday and Wednesday - I was going to go out to dinner with some of the hockey women, but nobody could make it, so we cancelled for some other time. And next week is when summer competition starts. Which is not going to be conducive to going out to dinner.

Thursday was trivia night with the usual crowd. It feels like I've seen a lot of them lately, although this may also be because we're solving Cryptic puzzles during the day (c/o a whatsapp group) and so I feel like I'm talking to most of them every day...

A couple of weeks back, some of the guys invited another guy from their bible study to come along. Our trivia team is weak in the sports department, and this guy apparently knows sport. He (and his wife and kids and a friend of kid) turned up on Thursday. Another couple have been on the Whatsapp group about trivia for the last six months, but have never turned up... You guess it right - they also turned up on Thursday.

So we had about 22 people in total on the team, and although we checked it was okay (it was), we decided to split, just for fairness.

A couple of the 'regulars' went over to the 'new' team: they ended up with about 15 people, we ended up with 8...

We came 9th out of 12 - we did very badly - and they came...2nd. D'oh!

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There's a gaming miniatures place across the road from where I come out at the station. I have a bunch of miniatures which I bought a decade ago and then didn't have the time, energy, or space to paint. But there's this shop, and they have painting stations, and the guy I spoke to looked...well, normal in a "could pass in the city without being mentally considered a neckbeard" way, which is not always the case in gaming stores. Or didn't use to be, anyway...

I chatted with the guy, asked about whether there are painting sessions, what the options are, how to go about it. He suggested I drop in one day after work, paint one of the freebie minis (already assembled and undercoated) to get a feel for it, and then I get to take the mini home. It's a thought. I might turn up one Thursday night when I'm not triviating.

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Today is some gardening, some sewing, possibly some shopping. I'm wondering if I could find a sports bra that doesn't crossover - one that allows my dragon to peek over the top of the bra strap.

I also want to sort out some root bleaching. My hair is black, and I'd like to bleach the roots to blonde, then dye it electric blue. And then let the 'colour band' in my hair grow out in an odd-yet-distinctive manner.

I'd better get out in the garden - it's starting to look like rain...

I haven't commuted to a full time job since...September 2019. That's five years. That's longer than my last permanent job! (Actually, it's longer than any job I've held since 2001.)

Haven't been sleeping well, not sure if it's a discomfort thing, a weather thing, or a stress thing. It's possible that it's "all of the above" thing, too.

Anyway, tomorrow onwards, other than actual breaks to be taken, it'll be work-work-work and a WFH day will be an exception rather than a rule.

I think I've also been overdoing it a little. Lots of abdominal twinges while standing up lately. Too much reaching and doing things and so on. Need to slow down again. Do less.

Woohoo! My bible study is having a Christmas in July event tonight.

Look, our Christmas is absolutely in summer, but also: we have a lot of Northern Hemisphere peeps down here, and also A Feast In The Middle Of Winter is pretty much written into our genetic and cultural souls. Plus, who would give up food, drink, companionship, warmth in the middle of the chilly weather? Not I, that's for sure.

We don't have to make anything, we're supposed to just be bringing ourselves.

But I can't do that. I'm in a cooking mood and a cooking mood means a food sharing mood. And I have the bits for florentines (except for apricots, which I've just gone and bought), so it's just a case of doing some baking throughout today.

Also: B1 and I are going to visit the new nephlet (and his mum and brother) on Friday! It's kind of exciting - it's been a while since we've seen them (obvs not the nephlet) so a catch-up is definitely in order.

And then it's a weekend of hockey. Hoo boy. Not sure my legs are going to hold out for that, but we're going to give it a jolly good try. Wish I had a better idea of what to eat to help me keep going.

...still haven't received the work contract to sign up for another However Many Months. Hm.

ETA: 10am - WORK CONTRACT JUST CAME THROUGH.

That was a busy weekend.

Saturday morning was quiet, Saturday lunch with some girlfriends from hockey. Saturday afternoon was the cousin's wedding. Saturday night was the church Trivia Night.

Sunday morning - again, quiet. Early Sunday afternoon was the church meeting about a proposed new building. Sunday late afternoon was hockey.

Less than 15 minutes into the game, I scored a goal. And then one of the opposite team players tripped me up with a stick between the legs, then tripped over me and fell on me.

I fell forward, but rolled over as I did, landing on my left shoulder some. Then the woman fell on top of me and I had my arms up as she hit me and that was when my head bounced against the ground - back of the head, shaken not stirred. I had blurry edges to my vision for a few seconds and decided to go off.

I ended up off the field for the rest of the game. *sigh*

Yesterday, most noticeably my neck and shoulder was sore, but I was also a bit vague at work and not terribly functional. I should have called a sick day, or even a sick half-day but 'powered through' and what usually would take me a couple of hours took a full eight to slowly plod my way through. Stupid.

Got a physio looking at the shoulder and neck, he agrees with me that it's just muscular and requires rest (and some loosening through massage), so that's a relief. Just a slightly achey one.

*grumbles*

That woman on the other team was responsible for several collisions: she has no spatial awareness (backed into me a few times) and a fairly solid body - add velocity which creates momentum and OUCH. Also, the stick-between-the-legs is a very illegal move, and I don't think she really got pulled up for it. I shall be EXCEEDINGLY wary of her in future. And if she does it next game, I'm going to get the captain to have a word with the umpires. Because that's fucking dangerous.

--

Four other women from hockey met for brunch

One is playing in the team above, another isn't playing at all this year (has some medical stuff going on) - and had some lunch and some drinks.

The brunch was nice, but I couldn't stay because I had to head out for the wedding. I also couldn't drink because I go pink when drinking alcohol and it's very inelegant. Anyway, had some food, some chats, but then had to run off to the wedding.

I hope they invite me back - I think I mostly got invited this time because I'm a reasonably close friend with the organiser of this time (although I'm still friends with the others, I don't know that I'd say we're close). I'm not objecting!

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Cousin's wedding, family stuff.

The bible reading went off fine (I could do bible readings with a concussion, I reckon, I've done it so often) and while G and I have never been close per se, I've always tried to talk to her at family events, because she doesn't always attend them and she can sometimes be a bit awkward. I guess that counts! Also, her fiance (now husband) is a little bit quirky and a bit awkward, too, and kind of delightful.

I think the thing about G's wedding was that it felt very tense to me, mostly because she wanted everything to go right - kind of a 'big day should go perfectly' mentality, but with the 'if anything goes wrong I'll blame myself'. But it all went of without a hitch, she and M sang their vows to each other (in boring pentatones, like a Gregorian chant; I can't say it was my preferred choice of song for wedding vows) which I knew about because I saw it at the rehearsal on Thursday night.

Anyway, G's mother came along (Aunty C, I've written about her before), but her father wasn't invited and neither mum nor the uncles told him when it was! But we did send him photos. I hope he's okay. He kind of missed chunks of both his daughters' weddings - he and Aunty C were together when Cousin E married (G's older sister) and they were angry that E had married someone Aunty C didn't approve of, so they attended the wedding but they weren't involved and they didn't go to th reception after.

Anyway, he missed G's wedding entirely. Not that Aunty C was involved. At this point of life (G is about four years older than me) there is no 'family giving the bride away', so none of that stuff.

*sigh*

Family.

G&M had a reception with M's side of the family that night (they're from out of town) and rather than try to drag us all together at once, our side of the family has a reception in two weeks' time. Which is good - we can all be our wild and woolly selves!

As I told M before the ceremony: "welcome to the madhouse!"

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trivia

Saturday night was the church mission Trivia Night. Our table had four people, and then we co-opted the senior minister, and he was going to be our 'Bible round' guru.

We weren't even placing at the end of Round 2 out of 3, but we managed 3rd place in the end! Not bad for only 5 people!

And we'd have done even better if they'd taken the two questions that I was pretty sure of the answers and gone with my answer instead of the senior minister! *smugs*

1. Which is the longest book in the bible?
A: Jeremiah. (everyone went for Psalms or Isaiah)

2. Who wrote most of the New Testament?
A: Luke. Paul wrote more letters, sure, but fewer words. Luke was a doctor/philosopher. The man wrote like words were going out of style.

Anyway, I think we would have come second if we'd gotten those ones correct.

Also the Noah question: how many of each animal did Noah take into the ark? Everyone knows that it was 'two' of some, but there were 'sevens' of others. Apparently the answer is 'two of every unclean animal, and seven of every clean animal'.

I wasn't with my usual Thursday Trivia team (because the friend who asked me to join her team asked five minutes before my usual Thursday team), and they won. *sadface* And I won't be able to go to the next Trivia thing they're going to - it's at a different club, the night after I've had my Mirena put in to try to control my fibroids. I don't think I'll be up to it.

Hm, I have a suggestion for one of next year's "wildcard fill-in sheets" when the Trivia Night comes up next year... *evil grin*

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And then Sunday afternoon was the church meeting about an expansion program.

the meeting was not fruitful; he resigned on the spot

(No, he didn't. That's a quote from one story in a children's book series about a pack of mice and the cat who hangs around with them: The Church Mice. This one was a favourite of my sisters and I: "The Church Mice At Bay" - about the vicar going away on a holiday for some months, and the replacement being...rather less to Sampson and the mice's style than they would like.)

We only just finished paying off the debt on the building that we have, which was renovated, I think, ten to fifteen years ago? And now they want to go bigger.

There was a meeting. Things were said. I'm going to write up my thoughts on it somewhere else because y'all don't want me to be lecturing you on my understanding of church history. :)

The scary part? They don't have a cost estimate. Not yet. But there's already a sunk cost - they started putting this together in 2022, and hired some architects to come and look and work out a project ending, involving a bigger and dedicated worship space, more rooms for conferences and meetings, an education centre that would hopefully remain an education centre (instead of being co-opted for church services as happened to the education centre from the previous church building project), and an actual kitchen. (Hey, don't knock the kitchen; churches should be excellent places for group cooking things - lunches and dinners and potlucks and youth group pizzas, etc.)

Anyway. It was...interesting. But they haven't sold me on it yet. And I'm among the class of people they have to sell it on: have money, another 20 years earning potential, don't have kids relying on me, have a vision for the faith and the church. It'll be interesting to talk about that tonight at my weekly bible study group. If we do.

--

And then hockey. Where I got tripped, and then fell on, and then concussed. Lightly.

I did manage to score a goal before the other player concussed me. So yay.

--

Finally work.

long and extra hours

I have worked at least one extra days' worth - probably two at this stage - doing work out-of-hours for this project. I was on at 10pm last night (after dinner) to finish a few things off.

I ended up having to take all of yesterday's work out and write a couple of new things. And Monday was worked through the fuzz of my post-concussion brain which felt functional but a bit slow. *sigh*

--

Anyway, that was the weekend. It was a lot.

Finally, I could use your advice:

quilt border?

This is my entry for the quilt show this year. Does it need a border of some kind?

Went for a short run this morning - the 1km jog, finished off running at 9.5km/hr for about 2 minutes while I was waiting for the Pantsuit Politics podcast to finish and get through their credits.

Their credits take over a minute. OVER A MINUTE. I thought it might be 30 seconds, but they just kept going and going and going...

Anyway, I feel okay, although I feel like my heartrate was a little higher than usual - 160bpm. I mean, I am desperately unfit but i usually read about 140 after running?

ARGH day at work, trying to determine why these new fields aren't coming through for this interface. Slow, painstaking stuff that has me checking I've dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts. And around lunchtime I realised that it may very well be because the manner in which the application parses the data isn't amenable to an adjustment and so I'm going to have to manually set the the mapping to parse a long string of data into fields.

Eep.

Oh well, better start now I guess, might get it done by COB.

One of the chooks is wheezing. We have an appointment for her for tomorrow morning. *sigh*

You know how people are always telling me to slow down?

( I may have, in fact, slowed UP: warning - my weekend may make you tired )

That said, we do have a four-day weekend coming up.

And yes, Dad is coming to Sydney on Saturday, but...that still leaves Friday and Monday. Damn. Need to work out what he's planning to do and where he's planning to do it.

Mental load is exhausting, yo.