Rhinovirus RNA – POSITIVE.
So that’s why I’ve been sniffly and vaguely lethargic.
I took a PCR test because I was at the doctor’s for unrelated reasons and figured I might as well. We live in an age of technology, and I find it cool that we can just know this stuff.
Still no idea where I got it, but I suspect it was the office.
A couple of weekends ago I took part in the Brisbane to Gold Coast 100km cycle for cancer. It was pretty rough to be honest. I wasn’t well conditioned for it and there were some stonking headwinds that destroyed me (and several others I talked to).
It was cool though. We arrived at South Bank 5am and milled around for an hour and a half, until we all filed onto the Southeast Busway and rode some 60 kilometres in the pissing rain to the first rest stop. It was pretty shocking. I was drenched through, and there were people at the first aid tent under foil blankets trying to warm up. Thankfully I’d organised to stay the night on the Gold Coast so I had a change of clothes at that point.
But after the rain, the wind picked up. 55 km/h gusts which were a headwind for most of the remaining course. It was absolute carnage. My internal monologue was particularly negative for most of it, but at the second rest stop there was only 15 km or something to go so I figured I’d be able to make it.
As I got near the finish I knew I wasn’t making good time because I spotted the crew coming up behind me packing up the route. I joined the two other people who were being ushered along by the last first aid car, and we made ok time. But in the last kilometre of the route we turned a corner and suddenly the skyscrapers forming a barrier from the wind weren’t there any more so we were buffeted with the full force of it straight off the Pacific.
I gave up and sat at a bus stop for a few minutes before getting back on the bike and getting to the finish line. Pretty pleased to have made it. I’d do it again, but yowzer.
That night I had a fever. This is apparently a thing exercise can do. I enjoyed a warm bath, had lots of protein and snacks, and slept for 12 hours.
On my recent camping trip to Woody Head I managed to scratch the ever loving heck out of my sunglasses. I don’t know how, I just picked them up and they had deep plough marks across the middle right in the line of sight. So I walked into Sunglass Hut to see if they sell replacement lenses and the lady was like “lol no” and I ordered them online from a third party who does.
Apparently Luxottica, owner of Sunglass Hut and the monopolist in fashion sunglasses doesn’t give customers the option to repair broken sunglasses. I suppose they expect you just chuck them out and buy a new pair. The industry seems to be rife with plastic waste.
But it was pretty easy to find Sunglass Fix, an SEO friendly name for a company that makes replacement sunglass lenses for a bunch of Luxottica brands.
The replacements were easy to pop in and I took them out for a bike ride for the first time today. They’re not as warm hued as my old lenses, but there’s something so weirdly crystal clear about the world with a good pair of polarised lenses. I would recommend.
I took another ride over the weekend along the bikeway down the Western Freeway/Centenary Highway I’ve ridden to S’ place before, and that stretch between Toowong and Taringa is a long and persistent climb. But I wanted to do the whole length, partly for something to do, and partly because I wanted to write about it.
My goal was to get to Darra station and catch the train home. That would give me a handful of kilometres on the clock, and would be a nice easy day since I was just recovered from my sniffles (so I thought).
The hills out of the city were, I don’t know, kind of fun. Hard to climb, but there were some huge downhill stretches you could cruise for ages at probably too much speed.
I found an interesting looking path just on the other side of the Brisbane River and followed it to Rocks Riverside Park and the old Oxley Wharf (not in Oxley, but right on the border). A bunch of old industrial totems had been left as decoration, which was cool. Good find.
All in all did about 30 kms by the time I arrived at the train station and found out the trains were shut down for the weekend. So I rode part the way home and caught a ferry the rest of the way.
Closer to home, my shrimps had babies. I bought shrimp for my tank in September to replace the first lot that died earlier in the year due to the unfortunate pest control incident. They started off so little! But not too long after I saw a bunch of shed exoskeletons and they got the zoomies, and it turns out one of the females had eggs.
It was kind of exciting even though I assumed the fish would eat them all. But I set about getting more hiding places and twigs and rocks and things just in case.
I didn’t see anything for ages until the other day I looked in the tank and saw some tiny, tiny little shrimp on top of the rock. Two new babies. Evidently the only ones to survive the tank and get big enough that the fish wouldn’t hassle them.
Since then I’ve found another female with eggs, so there will be possibly more shrimp in the future. Or more tasty snacks for the fish. Either way, how cool!
