Spring 2023, Summer 2024 Playlist

In the final week of Spring I was putting the finishing touches into the musical playlist that I intended to embed memories of the past months in. Spring 2023 had been pleasant, as best as I can recall it now. The fading glow of Giunio 23 had carried me through Winter. My work/life balance was correcting itself. My body parts were coming together with enough cohesion that I was even able to complete a mini, late-30s equivalent of Bulktember. A more age appropriate approach. Rehab repetitions prioritised over moving weight. Balancing pain signals with progression. I suffered only moderate lower back pain.

By the end of November, despite a recurrence of my dodgy, left shoulder I was moving well, energised by technology and the future. There was bacon in the Barossa, panini on lunch breaks, lamb roasts in the slow cooker, burgers before basketball games. Lots of coffee. Flowers were blooming, the outdoors was calling, and by mid November my index finger had some blood back in it.

Life was not perfect, but I was enjoying it. It felt like, as spring turned to summer around me that in my life too would bloom into sunshine and blue skies and a semblance of control.

Alas, storm clouds approached, as spring will do. Literally, initially, as late November rain pummelled the house and got into the gym literally hours before we were to set off on a cross country road trip.

December from start to finish was problematic. The road trip that was supposed to be a break was plagued by injury, weather, snakes (actually those were cool) and actual plague. Driving long distances in the rain just to isolate in cheap motel rooms was not fun. It was becoming apparent that my wrist injury was not minor, and the Napoleon movie totally lacked historical accuracy and nuance. In fact, I was craving a return to home life and work routine by the end, knowing fate would choose that moment to at least clear out my sinuses. We returned to a mouldy, ruined gym, more rain, a sad puppy and a whole train of minor inconveniences. The final two work weeks of the year did bring some sense of normality back, and then I got covid and missed out on Christmas. By the time it was 2024 I was exhausted. And I'd felt comfortable enough with where my feelings were to share my Spring playlist that just served to remind me of happier times.

Time never stops though. And through all of this, and the continued wrist pain, insurance drama, back pain, life stress, and shoulder pain it did feel like I've done this all before. It did feel that all I had to do was keep getting through work days, keep doing rehab morning, lunchtime and night, keep going to the beach at the end of hot days, keep making phone calls, keep taking the dog for a walk and mowing the lawn after limbering up that things wouldn't necessarily get better, but they might average out. I listened to the Spring playlist a lot, and of course new music and so I added to it already aware that I was now making a Spring/Summer double album playlist. In some ways it made sense, under the influence of the narrative fallacy: Spring was a rise and fall, summer would be a fall and rise. The perfect sine wave. With gym repairs scheduled and two weddings at the end of February to look forward to it seemed appropriate that by the end of summer I'd feel balanced and I'd have a second collection of songs.

Well, it worked to an extent. My wrist still hurts most days but not that much. I have no idea if the next storm will flood some part of my house. Jobs still cause stress. But I have a Spring/Summer playlist. And I know that I will listen to it for years to come sometimes when things are going bad and sometimes when things are going well and sometimes when some things are bad and other things are good. This is life. I am accepting it. Because I can't change it. Seasons will continue to come one by one and I'll relish posting a mixtape for each one for as long as I can.

Memories of:
Driving down South Road in sunshine. Lifting light weights in the gym. Driving to a bonfire. Books about Mars, and Nipples. Taking coffee breaks in the backyard on WFH mornings. Being in the groove in front of VS Studio while looking out over the Adelaide hills. More hours on my back on the rubber mats on the floor. Long stretches of country roads. FLOWERS BLOOMING. Feeling sad. Being in the groove in front of CS Studio with the air conditioner on and the curtains drawn. The same walks around Croydon. Memories of Paris. Passionfruit. Trying to hold a plank.


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The Equino

My lips are cracking already. Tonight's sunset was exactly 12 hours after sunrise. Luckily my heated gloves just arrived. I am ready to try winter again.

South Aussie With Bradism

Today was almost a quintessential South Australian day. Here's an itinerary so you can relive it.

Get In - We're Going for a Trip

The morning started with a free ride on Adelaide's tram. Destination: a stroll along the magnificent boulevard of North Terrace (for about 50 metres) and then a visit to the Adelaide Central Market. There I bumped into people I knew, and enjoyed a large, strong coffee before loading up a backpack with fresh, cheap fruit and vegetables.

After another free tram ride and some Foodland yoghurt and locally grown passionfruit for morning tea, it was time to get stuck in South Road traffic. Then there was lunch at one of Adelaide's iconic Vietnamese takeaway restaurants for a BĂșn Bowl.

After lunch and some more weekend traffic it was time for another Fringe show as part of the fabric of the end of summertime festivities. I've been to a few shows this year, today's was the Sleep's Hill tunnel, an audio visual display of colour and mushrooms in an old, disused railway tunnel south of the city.


Me in a tunnel.

Following the Fringe, and more South Road traffic, it was time to take a road trip down to the south coast. There, after even more South Road traffic I enjoyed a dinner spread by one of Adelaide's spectacular beaches. The day ended with a sunset walk overlooking the cliffs of Aldinga, before dealing with road works on the expressway on the drive home, and then more South Road traffic.

Not pictured - traffic.

It was also good to see two lots of extended family, two lots of old friends and families, and two dogs.


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Living with PAIN - or - LIVING, with pain

My night time routine is pretty solid these years. Stretches, clean my teeth with Sensodyne, toilet the dog, and then climb into bed while arranging all the pillows between my knees and other joints before adjusting the mattress firmness for my back.

I've contemplated adding some private journaling into that routine. A few minutes to capture the inputs and outputs of my day without any pressure to make jokes or Lightroom my photos. It would be a great way to solidify lessons learned, as well as inscribe some memories of days I hope to one day look back on fondly.

What prevents me from ever doing this is knowing that nearly every night I will be describing pain. Like, if today was an example, it would have gone: woke up, knee was sore. Walked the dog, then making breakfast fucked off my wrist. That's been giving me sharp pain all day, except for when I sit too long and the ache in my hamstring sometimes takes precedence. I spent most of the day writing abstract RAML type definitions and then implementing them in a second library so that they could be imported into consumer API specifications in an extendible way. After work it was cool enough to go outside without melting so I mowed the lawn and like clockwork my dog was dropping a turd on it by the time the grass catcher was back in the shed.

I accepted many years ago that I was never going to get back to a pain free baseline, and until I implant my consciousness into a shitty claw machine attached to a hoverboard that I am going to be living with pain, not tucking my shirt in, and I may never sit on a sofa again.

But there is living with pain, and there is LIVING, with pain. I am choosing the latter and while it is not June, 2008 the principle does bring me some mental stability. Which, in part, comes from physical stability. Rehab and mobility exercises would also be on my daily journals, 2-3 times a day. They don't make me invincible, but I hope that by doing them I make little tweaks like today hopefully just little. They make the bad days okay, and the really bad days just bad. I think this helps me do more living than pain.

I guess it does help knowing that if I ever get truly over it I can sell everything and go hang out in Paris for a while. I might be living with pain, but I will be LIVING. And by that I mean, spending time under trees not moving.

Heat

It was a pleasant, sunny morning on February 29th and I told my wife that I love Autumn weather. And then that night at the Haldi, while we were sitting outside, it got pretty chilly and as we got in the car to drive home I told my wife that I hate Autumn weather. This is the kind of quality japing that goes on as you NEAR FORTY as well as twelve years of marriage.

Anyway, March has been around longer than that and it's been a minute since we had a nice go fuck yourself heatwave and what better time to endure one than over the long weekend.

Friday was hot too. I had to interview someone for work and after turning up in shorts and offering a very professional, "How's it going, bud?" I got through that at an outdoor table thanks to an iced latte.

A visit to Gluttony with old work people for beers and a stand up show was good while in the shade.

At least in March there is a looming equinox and due to the quirks of daylight saving the sun doesn't even rise until after 7pm. So it's possible to get out and about while the temperatures are still only in the mid to high 20's.

On Saturday morning that meant making it about halfway to the central markets on our bikes before the heatstroke kicked in.

Fortunately the central markets has a lot of food in it, and is therefore kept at refrigerator temperatures. We loaded up with salads and fruits and rode home in the shade.

The rest of the day was spent as indoors as possible, preferably on the lower level of the house. There was an unexpected, very welcome burst of rain around 5pm. Just like the cold taps in my house, it was warm water coming from the sky.

After dinner we went to the beach where it was much cooler and much prettier. There was a double rainbow for twenty minutes while the sun set. Then it got warmer again on the way home.

I took quite a few photos of the double rainbow.

On Sunday morning we got up even earlier to try and get a walk to the bakery done with Nash before the heat hit.

This went very well, and we were home again by about 8:30 with no ill effects from the heat. Or so I thought, until the milk I poured into my smoothie jug came out with the consistency of unstirred gravy.

I scooped that sludge out with a spoon and then finished off the ingredients, adding four of the hundred passionfruits that have dropped off the vine over the past weeks.

There was nothing to it but waiting until the evening and returning to the beach for more swimming, and then driving back home for more sweating.

By Monday I was exhausted just from the effort of staying cool, and constantly trying to extract heat from the upstairs through the use of the bathroom extractor fans.

It was too hot to even bother going to the beach again. We just walked in the morning and the evening around the neighbourhood, and waited for Tuesday to return to the office and its industrial strength air conditioning.

I did keep myself cool developing a tag adding and tag filtering component to my latest Sveltekit project.

This morning I woke up early and rode my bike to town for work. It was still hot.

An Auspicious Date - March 4 2024

Nash took us for a walk around the neighbourhood, then we settled down for some oat flour and banana waffle bowls for breakfast.

I had to work in the morning, and made a surprising amount of progress on some automation development - partly powered by a taken home cupcake from the evening before. Then it was time for the final wedding of the weekend. Jarrad - who I hadn't even seen for two years (Fringe, 2022). Jarrad and his fiancé are both living lives of music and art as they approach their forties, so I expected that their wedding was not going to be traditional. That said I did not wear my Kurta.

Around 3:30pm we took the tram into town and walked in The Garden of Unearthly Delights, which was very sunny and empty, which made it easy to identify the other wedding goers. Everyone was mingling in front of the red Spiegeltent, and like the ceremony on Friday there was a lot of colourful outfits but at least one more sailor costume.

Like a Fringe show, the doors opened and we were ushered in to find a seat. Like a Fringe show, the chairs were not super comfortable. Unlike a Fringe show I was handed a glass of champagne, and had the option of some free pickles.

The ceremony was scheduled for 4:30pm. As that time came and went the suspense started to build, but eventually to loud cheers from the surrounding crowd we got our first glimpse of Jarrad and then an even more theatrical entrance from the bride.

It was a real wedding, however, so there was the standard playbook of ceremonial events although with a little more crowd interaction and whooping. And during this were the contrasting yet equally beautiful vows as compared to yesterday.

After the ceremony I tried my first "Pickleback" (whiskey shot with pickle juice chaser). That explains the large pickle platters from before the ceremony. Then we hung out in the artists bar for a while, ate some tacos and a pork bao, before eventually returning to inside the tent which was now sans-uncomfortable chairs and more of a dancefloor.

There were a few short speeches from the family, but then in place of bridesmaid and groomsmen speeches like Sunday we instead got a live show. Satan's Cheerleaders played a couple of songs, earning them their second mention on this website. Shaolin Afronauts then followed up with a longer groove session of afrobeat and dancing. Jarrad moved from the drums to the bongos.

After the music, the bride's side put on a collection of cabaret bits. Starting with a small girl in big heels singing absolutely beautiful opera while simultaneously performing puppetry with paper butterflies and a big folding fan that she used to keep them fluttering above her.

Then things took a darker turn, and a lady walked out to play with fire, eat it, and then breath it with the help of a very muscular man wearing a leather vest over his tanned upper body.

I have written these long entries about this wedding weekend because I wanted to remember the things I saw and how I felt. Already I feel like the chaos of Frantic February is fading into the ether. By the end of this five day weekend of weddings I felt inspired by the back to back exhibitions of beauty. I've witnessed so much love, in all sorts of ways. Romance, family, friendship. Listened to touching speeches. I've been enveloped in so much colour and happiness. It really was a human experience, leaving me quite exhausted but also very happy to have been there. Even Nash has enjoyed the weekend. Every night alone has been balanced out by a long morning walk along the river, or a lake, or up the hill to Prospect. She too will be content that it's over.

That all said, the last thing I saw on Monday night I will not describe because I do not think I will ever forget it. And if I do, I will just search for the number one single by "Hot Butter" from 1969 and I am confident everything will come flooding back.

I left the tent shortly after that. More music was starting up, but the time had come to call it a day and prepare for another week of software delivery, rehab, shaving, dentist appointments and dog walks. As that continues indefinitely, these entries will hopefully help engrave in my brain some of the happiness that came from the last month.

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