I gained one kilogram of weight including 900 grams of lean muscle mass over the weekend. According to my smart scales anyway, which sell for half a grand on top of hoping I'll sign up for their monthly premium subscription. So I suspect they have incentive to lie to me. Especially considering the amount of working out I did over the weekend was far out-ratio'd by time consuming pizza, lemon delicious, Freddo cake, baguettes, protein bars and coffees.

My scales also claim based on the electrical pulses it sends through my body that I have a biological age of 30. It's claimed this since October, so I was expecting on my birthday it might go up, which it did not! Even more impressive is that my birthday was actually weeks ago according to my account data, a measure I took for privacy obfuscation.

I have complained a bit recently about having to maintain a pool. Something which is very much a first world problem, but also legitimately frustrating. I took the water in for testing this afternoon expecting another poor result. In fact, today my chlorine was in the good range! The salt and hydrochloric acid was off instead, but the phosphates were back to healthy levels after I poured something from Bunnings in there last week. So I felt like maybe I was getting better at pool chemistry. And if pool issues are a first world problem does that mean that if you solve them you win the first world? Like it's the last level?

Tonight at the quiz we technically came second again, but I left quite happy anyway because I won a jug of beer during Tough Teacher. It was "guess the novel" and after a few passages I said "The Great Gatsby” and I was right!

I didn't remember any of those passages from when I read the book between naps in 2011. I just got an F Scott Fitzgerald vibe and I trusted my instincts. I also did a lot of squats at lunchtime. Maybe those scales are right...

It was a great weekend. The exact days that winter feels officially over, even though I'm sure there will be cold and rain again soon. Despite the many sights and sun, I didn't take any photos. So I'll recap it with words.

Friday night, date night with Vanessa, Lebanese food in North Adelaide. Mixed grill. Hot chips. A lot of salt and garlic. Very tasty.

Saturday morning I needed a haircut so after dropping Vanessa in town for an appointment I parked at my old barber and then walked back through Croydon to see how the flowers were going on my old walking streets. Okay actually I was going to see if one of my favourite jasmine vines was in bloom yet. There were some blossoms, but not enough warm breeze to carry the pollen to me. I got a coffee on Queen Street and then walked back for a haircut. In the mood for supporting more local businesses so I bought some sausages from a butcher and rolls from the baker - these would feature in lunch and dinner later in the day.

Around sunset we walked on the beach with bare feet before returning home for a BBQ. I slept with only one doona.

This morning the sun was shining and glimmering off puddles from overnight rain. We walked Nash to her new bakery and fed her a weekly treat of sausage roll before returning home under sun-showers.

After washing Nash, we drove north for a father's day lunch and a lot of sunshine coming through the windscreen.

Once back home, I walked around the lake as a huge moon rose into the lavender sky. Then I cooked another BBQ.

Yesterday felt like the first day of Spring, and today felt like the first day of summer.

Towards the end of the first week of June I watched the pre-credits scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. We were about four hours away from landing in Adelaide when the precious artefact, sheathed in plywood, was rolled into an immense storehouse of similar crates while the camera panned out.

Today I made an ice coffee because the afternoon sun hitting my window was too warm to contemplate drinking a warm one. How quickly that winter went by since returning from Norway and resuming my daily routine. My 2025 winter routine was a lot of: sleep in clothes with multiple blankets, gentle stretching, double-layer pants and wear a puffy jacket under my actual jacket. Heated gloves. Occasionally put a beanie on over my headphones. Go for a walk, stare at the water. Eat berries and yogurt for breakfast. Work on various projects and initiatives. Coffee. Gym when possible. Lots of chicken because for some reason it was very cheap. Recover from a collapsed lung. Edit photos. Listen to music. Walk to the shops. Savour any sun patch.

There are actually only about thirty photos on my phone from June 7 to July 31st. And half of them are pool chemistry or Nash's GI tract related. It wasn't an exciting winter. It wasn't a bad one (the collapsed lung wasn't much of an inconvenience). I went to the office three times. It was just comfortable and a bit numb. I have no regrets.

It feels like since August started that the sun lingers longer and the coldest crisp is no longer in the air. I haven't double-pantsed for over a month. I haven't charged my glove batteries for weeks. Even though August was rainy and stormy at times, it feels like there was a lot of sunshine in there too.

So where does that leave Bradism Winter 2025? Only some tunes and journal entries to remember it by. Another season packaged up in a crate and being wheeled to its eternal resting place in the database.

The last time I walked the Onkeeta track was in spring 2016. It was sunny and hot and we took Nash on the loop who quickly took to the ponds and puddles. She ran out of energy before the end and I had to leave her with Ness and go to get the car and collect them.

Puddle is still there 9 years later. I think I saw a dog hair floating in it.

Today I walked the track again with Dad in a lot of drizzle and he made it all the way around without tiring or getting swampy. Then we went to Clarendon for lunch where I hadn't been since 2010 for the gap between a wedding and a reception. Then I drove dad back to his house past my old primary school.

Not a lot changes other than the people.

I caught the train into town today for work.

I like being on a train, staring out the window without having to steer or control anything. This is what I suspect dying will be like. A sleepy little tour of my life. There's my old house from 2014. There's the station I used to wait to catch the train from in 2015. There's the cafe I used to stroll to with Nash in 2021. There's the bridge I used to walk across and have to turn my headphone volume up as the train went by in 2024.

I guess I have been alive for long enough in the same place that now trips to town on the train feel like a machine learning exercise. One of many hundreds of runs where I go through my day in Adelaide and I can picture a thousand Brads going off in different directions after leaving the concourse. Off to Pinky Flat with my drink bottle for primary school something or other. Into government house's gardens to accept my IT award. Into the SA Museum courtyard to catch a Triple J broadcast. Into many office buildings. Into the same dentist chair a couple of times.

At lunchtime it was a bit drizzly but also a bit sunny in the way September can be and I walked through the Botanic Gardens where I have been many times over my years and never got sick of. I saw a lot of flowers.

I don't get free coffees in the office any more. I mean, I do, I just have to press a button on a machine myself now instead of going down to the cafe and claiming them. Apparently I also need to clean out the grounds tray when it's full. That is something I have absolutely no problem with, but is hard when you haven't had to disassemble the machine before and you don't want to tug anything too hard and break something before you get coffee out of it. Luckily the coffee machine is in a kitchen shared with other tenants and a small startup person saw me struggling and helped me out - probably thinking at the same time how these poor tech giant employees can't even change the coffee grounds tray.

Well I guess today was machine learning.

I also learned that lavender can be white!