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.
Here’s me looking pleased to cross the finish line. Pretty happy with myself.
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.
I locked my bike up and got myself an aloe vera drink as a treatIs it possible to take a good photo wearing a helmet? I don’t reckon it is.
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!
The new babies acclimating to their new homeThis lady is full of eggs.The tiny, tiny baby. Maybe a centimetre long.
As I laid in the tent listening to the midnight thunderstorm rumbling ever closer, I wondered if my luck was about to run out.
A month earlier I’d been contemplating where my next camping trip would be. After a few solo runs I thought I’d invite some friends along as well, and we eventually settled on a date and location at Woody Head in mid October.
Woody Head is a partially accurate descriptor. It’s three hours drive south of Brisbane, halfway between Grafton and Ballina. It sits on a rocky headland in between beaches with rainforest on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other, and has plenty of amenities and even a little shop if you’re so inclined. I picked it because I went here as a kid, and once as an adult, and it’s one of the only National Parks I know where you can camp directly by the beach. It’s a little slice of paradise for $34.85 a night.
I picked up S and drove the EV down, stopping for lunch and a recharge at Ballina, and with a discombobulating timezone change we arrived around 2pm and set up camp.
Here I am doing the incredibly important task known as “faffing”
After camping with a string of leaky, awkward tents I decided to get something with a vague whiff of quality about it and bought the Coleman Instant Up Darkroom 4 Person Tent. It doesn’t quite thworp and pop out instantly like the foldable tents, but it’s pretty easy to just extend the legs out and pull a fly over the top. The benefit of this tent is I can actually stand fully upright in it, so I can get changed or whatever without having to contort myself into an aching pretzel after a mediocre sleep. It’s slightly larger when packed up and I haven’t worked out where to store it in my apartment yet, but it’s so much more comfortable than anything I’ve tried thus far.
My good friends An & Ax arrived shortly after and unloaded their gear, including a big 3×3 gazebo which was perfect to set up a kitchen underneath. In the usual camp tradition, now I have gear envy want to get one for myself. After we conquered nature through sheer grit, determination, and mass produced mod cons Ax went to (unsuccessfully) start a fire in the adjacent fire pit and I unpacked the milk frother and plugged it into the EV to make hot chocolate for everyone.
By the time we’d had a chance to relax into a communal cheese board the sun had gone down. Probably something to do with the time zone change. We chatted for a while, explored the rocky beach in the dark, and took this album cover in the pitch darkness.
We’re not on Spotify but u can buy our cassette
The forecast called for rain, but in the end it was totally fine. Until close to midnight when S spotted lightning on the horizon. We thought maybe it was the flash of a torch but soon after it happened again and this time we all saw it and figured it might be time to fortify the campsite and go to bed.
After unplugging the electronics and putting everything undercover we retired to the tents.
My little blow up mattress was surprisingly comfortable, but with the windows closed to the rain the tent was stifling hot, and my big fluffy sleeping bag was no help. I was exhausted and fell asleep almost instantly, though it didn’t last long because the thunder kept creeping closer and closer.
When it transmuted from low pitch rumbles to high pitch crackling I heard the boozy campsite across from ours start to panic, moving cars and hammering in pegs. Shortly afterwards the wind picked up and big fat drops started to fall on the canvas. The thunder was almost directly overhead when a huge crack freaked everyone out and the rain turned from drops into a deluge which I expected to feel dripping through the tent fabric onto my body at any moment. But it didn’t happen. The trusty Coleman held its own just fine.
I listened to the thunderstorm as it passed over and rolled out to sea, then fell asleep until morning when I woke to the sound nobody wants to hear.
It was a sort of scratch-scratching in the campsite. A wild animal was clearly enjoying something we’d left out the night before.
The toilet block had a sign warning campers to protect food from goannas, and there was no way I was going to mess with one of those danger units before breakfast. So I kind of just imagined how good it would be if the goanna would just go away of its own volition as I avoided the problem and slipped back to sleep.
Thankfully it wasn’t a goanna. Instead it turned out to be a bush turkey that got into the flimsy garbage bag and spread detritus all over the camp which An had the misfortune of being first to discover, and thus clean up. Turns out the native animals are all clued into where the food is, so we learned quickly never to leave a garbage bag unattended.
That morning for breakfast I just had a hot chocolate and disappeared to the shoreline for some alone time and glute stretches to undo the rigours of sleeping on the ground.
The tide was too high to swim so we decided to go later.The forest in the distance is eroding and falling into the ocean.
C, unable to get time off work, rolled into camp at about ten o’clock. The sign says you can only set up from 2pm but there was nobody there so we set up the tent anyway. Ask forgiveness not persimmons, etc.
After that we cleared the campsite of anything the turkeys might like to rummage through and piled into Ax’s Jeep and drove ten minutes into the small beachside town of Iluka for ice creams and adventure on the high seas.
The ferry runs from Iluka to Yamba five times a day and costs $11.30 each way. It’s a small catamaran painted blue and white, and a surprising number of people were waiting at the top of the gangway holding take away coffees from the cafe next door. The overly charismatic deckhand invited everyone onboard and we staked an outdoor seat at the rear so we could watch the trip up close.
The diesel engines grumbled to life and we started our circuitous 30 minute journey down the river, around several islands, and in to Yamba.
The serenity was a vibe. The sky was intensely blue with puffs of cumulus suspended lazily in the salt haze, and the water shifted through every colour from blue to green. Shortly after we left S saw a dolphin, which the deckhand jokingly claimed would cost $15. I got the impression he’d used that one many times before.
“You’re lucky, it’s $100 if you see a whale!”
After forty-five minutes we docked at Yamba and started out on our adventure. We didn’t get far before we decided to stop at the bowlo for lunch.
The lunch was good value, but the bowling club was a tacky monument to gambling and had no charisma whatsoever. So after finishing lunch we stopped at the Wobbly Chook Brewing Co for coffee. The Chook in contrast was an open air bar in a cute country town high street nestled among cafes, bike shops, and other tourist oriented businesses. Although the fudge place was closed for the day to everyone’s disappointment.
I wanted to hike up to the lighthouse to check out the view, and I’d convinced everyone else to come along despite the high UV index. But after seeing the disorientingly steep street up and getting lost trying to take a detour, we decided to stay at sea level and walk around the foot of the cliffs to explore the beaches and rock formations.
After getting more than enough sun, we headed back in time for the last ferry of the day.
“It’s a $160 dollar taxi ride if you miss it” informed the deckhand, before rattling off the taxi prices from all the nearby towns to Iluka.
When we arrived back at the camp there was a mess of all over the table and a bush turkey in the distance gorging itself on a plastic bag of powdered milk. I made an inappropriate gendered slur and chased it away, and picked up the mutilated bag of yellow dust between thumb and forefinger with a look of sheer disgust before plopping it into a fresh bin bag.
Thankfully we picked up actual milk while we were in town, but I couldn’t believe a turkey was even interested. Can they digest lactose? Or would it puff up and start to lactate forming an entirely new branch of the evolutionary tree?
My sense of indignance was short lived because in an earlier act of self-sabotage I offered to make chilli for the group that night. The electric cooktop can plug straight into the car, and I have a vegetarian recipe with (almost) entirely shelf stable ingredients so I didn’t need to keep things in the cooler. It’s not a complicated recipe, but it takes about two hours so I had to make a start by soaking the TVP.
After dousing the TVP in water and securing it firmly lest any turkeys try their chances, we headed to the beach for a swim.
The tide was out so the beach we thought would be there was mostly rocks. But we found a nice spot around the corner which was perfect. It wasn’t freezing, but it was sufficiently cold that I took a good 15 minutes before I felt confident putting each subsequent body part under the water.
We stayed until the sun started to set, the headed back to shower and finish cooking. In the end the chilli was excellent. I made little chilli quesadillas paired with cheese and sour cream, and a handful of corn chips on the side. Despite an impromptu cheese board forming beforehand and nobody claiming to be particularly hungry we didn’t leave any chilli left over. This made me very happy indeed.
That night we all tried our hand at getting the fire alight before former girl scout An finally got it going with a little assistance from the firelighters we bought from IGA earlier. Then we all sat around, exhausted but satisfied to the core.
The next day we packed up early, made breakfast on one of the barbecues by the shore, and headed into Iluka for coffee before parting ways and starting the 3.5 hour journey home.
My retrospective thoughts are:
Originally I wanted to bikepack, so my camping decisions were based around small size and weight. But I think I’ve realised I prefer comfort. This was a comfortable trip.
To that end I really want a gazebo of my own. It’s such a practical piece of camping equipment, and it’s so fast to put up. Tentworld sells white ones which presumably reflect heat better.
Next time I’ll take a crate or box to put gear in. The camp table was barely visible under the miscellaneous crap that we brought. And it’s not a particularly grippy surface so things kept sliding off. Having a place to put em all would help a lot.
Don’t forget to bring kindling. And firelighters. But I don’t think I care to cook on a fire when the cooktop used less than 2% of the EV battery for a couple of hours usage. Especially considering how much easier it is. I think it’s safe to say it’s fine to use for a weekend away with no problems.
After filling out and submitting the lengthy and repetitive Microsoft Word drone permission slip, NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service sent me a wildly patronising refusal to fly in the national park, so next time I won’t even botherrrrrr.
Overall it was a great trip and I’d do it again.
There’s something about the ocean, the actual ocean, that puts you at ease. Waking up to the sounds of rainforest birds (turkeys excepted) is a pretty good way to do it. And at a time when living just costs more, you can’t beat camping with good friends. I feel very lucky.
It starts as an indeterminate sound, I don’t even know how to describe it. But shortly after you get the high frequencies and you know it’s a plane. As it gets closer you hear the air start to tear apart, the echo all around the concrete canyons of the apartment complexes. Until finally, the bass rumble in your chest.
As it passes overhead, or even as it passes a suburb across, I can look out my window and see the planes. My bedroom window.
Then, as soon as it’s arrived, it’s gone again. Fading out into the distance and you’re left wondering, when will the next one come? Is that it, can I hear it? Or is it my imagination?
Sometimes, the next one will arrive immediately. You’ll have plane after plane after plane, a constant roar like the other morning starting at 6am. Sometimes there’s only a couple, like tonight.
A couple at midnight.
Again at 1am.
The 01:55 flight to Dubai.
No rhyme or reason.
I’m laying here trying to get to sleep, but my chest is just filled with anxiety. It’s a terrible sound. It’s a terrible thing to live with these machines flying across your home at all hours.
It’s terrible that someone made the decision to deliberately change the flight path.
There are tens of thousands of people living in this suburb, let alone all the others.
And I wonder how much the noise pollution is taking its toll on them. As it is me.
I took this week off to unwind. What better way than out in the bush, adjacent a creek, sitting next to a campfire watching satellites spin past?
I’ve wanted to get back into camping for a while now. I figure it’s a good way to get some downtime without spending a fortune on accommodation. The national parks in Queensland are seven bucks a night, which is a cheap weekend away these days, and there’s plenty of them.
The Qld Government has a website listing all their campgrounds, and you can filter by things like toilet availability, whether or not you need a four wheel drive to access.
I was originally planning to drive north but after checking the forecast figured south had less likelihood of wet and I landed on a little campground called Spicers Gap Campground.
It feels like a lot of things went wrong, but I figure the best way to approach them is with a sort of zen mindset. The first omen, I ordered a V2L cable for my EV so I could power my cooktop and assorted bits. It was sent express post last week but Australia Post managed to lose it somewhere in Melbourne. So I picked up a small gas stove instead.
Then I forgot to bring my water bottle AND the 15l tank of water, both sitting on my kitchen bench. So I had to stop in and get some bottled water.
One cool thing was finding an EV charger on the way at the Queensland Raceway, and it’s completely freeeee. It’s advertised as some ridiculously high speed charger, but I only got about 80 kilowatts, enough to charge the EV up while I ate a sandwich (ham cheese & tomato, stale, from the same fuel station I got the water).
Once I’d topped up to 80% I drove the hour or so south to the campground, only to hit a dirt road up a steep hill with a sign saying “4×4 ONLY”.
I checked the website and yeah, it says it’s only accessible by four wheel drive. But it’s also listed as a regular 2WD accessible camp. So I checked to see if there were any other access roads (there weren’t), then had a look to see if there were any other campgrounds nearby (kinda), before practising my calm and driving off.
Manna Gum, the nearby camp was only 13 km away, but the drive up through the Great Diving Range and looping back on a long and windy road was 85 km.
I arrived about an hour later and un-thworped my pop-up tent in a little spot the furthest away from the only other people at the camp.
Some observations:
There’s no mobile signal (Spicer’s Gap would have been on the cusp of service, so I bought a Telstra SIM specially for the occasion)
There are cows! Lots of them, just chilling around the place.
It’s really nice, it’s a eucalypt rainforesty looking place, and I can hear the creek flowing nearby. Can’t wait to check it out.
It was also much further away than I thought. I went from 80% to 43% battery after the little detour. I know that the cooktop doesn’t use THAT much power, but I’d still feel a bit of that range anxiety getting back.
Especially because there’s no signal I can’t look up nearby chargers hahahahaaaaa oh no.
It was at this time I realised I forgot to bring the ropes for my tarp, and the eggs for breakfast. Almost like I should have a checklist for this stuff.
It was a nice afternoon though. I didn’t really do anything other than set up the campsite and sit around watching cows while trying to get the fire going. It took a little bit of coaxing, because I didn’t really have any kindling. But I got one of the thinner logs to catch fire eventually and it kept itself mostly going all night.
When the sun started to go down, a big swarm of cockatoos tore open the sky with their screeching. A couple of wallabies came out of the trees to snack on the grass, and a big fat possum jumped on the ground right behind me which gave me a fright. Can’t get away from them it seems.
So it was only myself and the campers up the hill at the campgrounds. At the other campsite it was only going to be ME all by myself. Shawn asked if I’d get scaredy out in the wilderness on my own, but there’s not really any wildlife to cause troubles here. Maybe overinquisitive cows?
Though when I went to book the original booking the site told me there were a certain number of campsites at the camp, and also that the same number of campsites were available to book, and I realised that anyone could just scrape that data and find campsites with 1 person staying by themselves. And go steal their nickels or whatever tech savvy criminals might do. So probably not great opsec there, so I booked for two people instead of one because I figured it’s not that much more expensive and it might give said crimbinals pause. I’m thinking about mailing the department behind it to suggest they don’t do that any more.
But overall it was fine, and I’m happy to say that my first night was tranquil AF watching the animals, the stars, the fire. Brain off, relaxation.
Dinner was sausage gnocci.
Around 8 o’clock the fire sort of gave up firing and I decided to go to bed to write some blog.
It was that point I realised the tent I bought is too small. It looked alright by the specs. It’s longer than I am, therefore all good? Turns out nah, I can’t lay down and type without both the laptop and my feet brushing the canvas. I think it’ll be alright to sleep in. A bit squishy, but alright. But I think I’m gonna have to upgrade at some point in the future.
So I’m laying here, finishing up, listening to the creek running down the hill and I’m pretty happy.
Also I forgot to bring a pillow.
The next day I woke up to the sound of a strange bird calling and warbling outside my tent. There were a few of them, and I heard them crashing around outside. Or maybe that was the wallabies.
I didn’t look because it was 6 o’clock and I desperately wanted to sleep. Also it was raining and I desperately didn’t want to get wet.
My choice in tent didn’t help there. It’s the Pavillo Cool Mount 2, another cheapy after my last one leaked. This one also leaked, with droplets beading in where the drizzle was pooling, and also where the front zip just wasn’t sealed at all. Also because it’s smaller, I couldn’t get dressed properly without rubbing all over the wet canvas and getting even wetter. I don’t rate this tent highly, I’m just waiting for it to dry out before I take it back and complain. If you have a favourite small tent for big people that can withstand a light drizzle, let me know!
But ultimately the rain was more than I expected and I wasn’t going to do any hiking or exploring in that weather so I packed up and headed back, considering it a very wet dry run for a proper camping trip another time.
The EV made it back to the free charger with 20% battery to spare. I think it ate up a lot of power defrosting the windows, but it also regenerated 3 kilowatts driving down the Great Dividing Range, so I was pretty stoked.
All up, I had a great trip even though it was a bit chaotic. I’m looking forward to doing the next one properly. Let me know your favourite camping spots!
I have two weeks off so I’m spending the giftmas period with my parents. It’s hot, and I’m sitting on the veranda while Charlie pesters me to throw the ball. There’s a decent breeze, but it looks like we’ve missed the storms.
Dark mode fix: I fixed a bug on the site where it was always defaulting to dark mode. It’s been that way since I first implemented it because I was checking the truthiness of window.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme:dark)") instead of the boolean window.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme:dark)").matches. It should now respect your system preferences, and you can use the little icon in the bottom right to toggle between them.
Missing images: The backend of this site is running on WordPress, and there was a period of time where I was using it to photoblog. Anyway, some of those posts only contain a featured image and nothing else, and the featured image wasn’t showing up on this frontend site. So now feature images will show unless they’re already elsewhere in the post.
Dessert upgrade: I have acquired my mum’s family trifle recipe. It’s not beautiful, but it is my favourite. We made it together on xmas eve, and I’m so happy with it.
Hardware acquisition: I placed a late night ebay bid on an old Thinkpad and put Arch Linux on it, inspired by Josh‘s recent blogging. It’s a lot of fun and even though it’s a few years old, it’s way faster for day to day tasks than my M1 mac. Obvs not for video work, but I want to use it to get back into vector art. Though I see the Arch community has AURs for DaVinci Resolve which is shockingly difficult to get running on Linux, so I might dust off my desktop and put it on that as well.
Beyond that I made rum balls in my parents Thermomix and they came out alright. I blitzed up some almonds for a bit of health, and I think I’m gonna start making protein balls at home as a healthy snack. Do you have any good recipes?
I’ve also booked accommodation for my second week of holiday so I’m gonna take my new bike for a spin out to Bribie Island for a few days. No vlog cos it’s gonna be public holiday and kids everywhere. But I’ll post some bits on Mastodon.
Shawn stayed at my place the night before, so we could wake up and leave first thing. The sun came up as we drove across the border to NSW, spreading sunbeams across the farmland and leaving misty gulleys where the light didn’t reach. The mountains were beautiful, but truth be told there wasn’t much to see from the highway.
We arrived in Coffs at about 9AM and made a beeline to what turned out to be the greasiest, fingerprint-covered Maccas I’ve ever been in. We got McMuffins and headed down the road to the closest beach we could find.
I didn’t bring swimwear or a towel because the forecast was for overcast and rain all weekend. To be fair, there was a little bit of cloud when we arrived, but it cleared out soon enough to reveal blue skies and a high UV index that continued for the entire trip.
After McMuffins, sunscreen, going back to the car to fetch hats, and sitting on the beach watching the crabs for 53 minutes (according to my Google location history), we set off on a walk.
Coffs surprised me with the amount of walkways and free things to do. I’d only ever passed it from the train. It looked like a nice beach and a handful of banana plantations and that’s it. But the coastline is full of parkland and beaches, and all linked together with a nice wide path that extended further than we were willing to walk.
This is the rail bridge where you see the coast for the first time, on the Brisbane to Sydney train. It’s ugly but I like it a lot.
We managed a couple of kilometres to the marina, and poked around the artificial breakwater before reaching Muttonbird Island
The island is attached to the mainland by the marina these days, but is still an important nesting ground for the little birds to dig holes in the ground and raise their chicks. There’s a designated walkway from one end of the island to the other, and signs warning you not to stray, lest you step on a sleepy bird. Or break an ankle.
We didn’t see any birds, I think we were a bit late in the season. But I appreciated the cliffs, and sat mesmerised by the overwhelming power of the ocean smashing against the rocks. And there was a pretty cool ocean bird hovering in the air for most of the time we were climbing the island again to get back to dry land. (Black wingtips, not sure what it was.)
Our inappropriate choice of clothes made for an uncomfortable walk, so we started back to the car to check into the hotel. But we stopped at the surf lifesaving club for lunch first. I had a parmi and Shawn had a chowder.
I saw they had Schweppes behind the bar so I asked if they had Pepsi Max, and the man said no, but the other girl said she prefers Pepsi Max, and the man asked if there’s a difference and we both said YES! and he said maybe they should switch from Coke No Sugar.
This conversation continued every time I went to the bar, and also when he came around at closing time (2:30) to pack up the tables. We had a rapport.
Check-in was easy enough. The place was 90s vintage, but pretty clean and had an amazing view of the ocean, islands, heritage lighthouse etc. The lighthouse came to be my main wayfinding point throughout the trip.
The window between the bedroom and the toilet was an unusual choice, but we devised a roster system to prevent surprises.
That afternoon we sat on the balcony and ate far too much, watching the myriad of bird life screech and warble and do its thing. There were two tourist planes as best I could tell; one dropping off paragliders, and the other one just hanging around in the sky soaking up the sights.
The main gotcha was the lack of wi-fi. Despite the blinking modem on the counter, the lady at the front counter said it stopped working and they removed it from the listing. And lo, turns out I’d booked a place without internet.
That night we tethered to my one bar of Telstra and watched Miriam Margolyes reluctantly trudge around Australia and be grumpy in standard definition.
We decided we didn’t need to spend a whole bunch of money on holiday, so we stocked up on supplies and made sausage & egg muffins again for brekky.
We took them to Moonee Beach and grabbed hot chocolates from the cute coffee shack by the beach called I Bean There, and sat watching the surfers, dogs, and hilariously the kids trying to ride their bikes through the sandy creek.
I spilled chocolate all down my nice white shirt, but it mostly came out with wet wipes.
After brekky we drove up to Korora Lookout. It’s a public access lookout with indigenous significance. There’s a little pedestal to read aloud the story of the area, and a cunty next door neighbour who’s planted bamboo along the edge of their property to stop people enjoying the view.
This was where I saw my first leech: a little inchworm-looking thing attached to the sole of my shoe. I knocked it off, and we both hiked our socks.
We walked to the second lookout, with a purpose built suspension deck that some dude thought would be funny to make swing while we were all standing on it. The views were amazing and I tried (but failed) to spot the train line into town.
We stayed for a moment before setting off on a bushwalk into what I refer to as leech gully (side note, that’s what Indooroopilly means. It’s a corruption of the Yuggera language.)
We started trekking down the hill in a nice moist rainforest setting. We were planning to take the trail a couple of kilometres out, but as we descended and the path got thicker with foliage. The sunlight disappeared. Fern fronds brushed past our legs.
That’s when we saw them.
Mother and two kids making their way out of the forest, looking stricken.
“Turn back!” she said, with fear in her voice.
“The leeches have leeches!”
One of the kids had blood streaming down his leg.
We tried to make it to the next clearing, but I freaked out. Shawn wanted to go ahead, but I couldn’t enjoy a hike when there’s blood sucking parasites waiting to hitch a ride.
We turned back and took the shorter, better maintained path in a little loop back to the lookout.
From there we drove to Sawtell, stopping at a roadside stall to buy bananas, and enjoyed ate them at the lookout.
A friendly family of magpies came to us to beg for food so I threw them bits of banana peel and they seemed to enjoy it. The seagulls that showed up shortly after didn’t care for it at all and were FURIOUS we didn’t have chips.
There was a little path down to the beaches, but we only went about halfway and sat at a cute bench, watching the ocean and avoiding the walk back up the hill to the car.
The next day was a public holiday in Queensland, and I was scheduled to leave on the train to Sydney.
Shawn made up the last of our muffins while I showered and went to the jetty for coffee and a bit of sunlight. There were plenty of cute dogs and little regional planes to spot. But eventually it was time to head to the station.
I’d booked a first class ticket from Coffs to Sydney. Usually I book two, because I’m large, but I figured for the short journey I’d be fine. But a few hours into the trip one of the rail staff started hovering around, awkwardly looking at me.
I popped out an earbud.
“I don’t think I have to tell you you’re a big guy,” she says sheepishly.
“There’s another passenger getting on who’s seated next to you. So I’ve moved you a few seats back to your own seat.”
“Lol,” I laughed.
I swapped seats and the rest of the journey was pleasant, but uneventful.
Tonight for dinner I made pesto pasta. It was made all the more delicious by the fact I grew the basil myself, in my own little urban garden, and made pesto from scratch.
My little garden has grown a lot since spring. With the new tower next door finally being built I don’t think I’m going to get any sun at all over winter. So I’m not sure how everything will go over the newly imposed seasons. But it’s best to remain in the moment and admire the basil, parsley, spinach, and multitude of chillis I’ve managed to grow.
My chilli plants have started to flower, and this one has little fruits forming.
So dinner was great and I feel very accomplished even though the pasta was store-bought.
Today was any other day. It’s January 26th and I made the decision to work today and take tomorrow off. Part tokenistic, part wanted the long weekend, and partly because I have a bunch of work on my plate at the moment and wanted a chance to get it done in peace.
But let’s not talk about work.
I wanted to write a little retro because it feels like I haven’t been up to much, but I know I have and wanna get it all down.
Time for a new bike
In big news I broke my bike. Snapped the frame nearly in two.
I faffed around for months before finally getting myself a bike fit and starting the process of building a bike that’s gonna last me the next ten years. Unfortunately we’re in a bit of a supply chain crisis at the moment, so looking at months lead time with no bike I picked myself up a cheaper single-speed to get me by.
It’s been an absolute treat.
The scary thing is I rode this home.The new bike is SO COOL look at it
Truth be told now I have my single speed I’m not entirely sure what I want from my next bike. I know being a heavier guy I’m gonna destroy this one, which is why I want to build something more solid.
But I’m really loving the simplicity of the single-speed system, as well as how powerful it makes me feel climbing hills in entirely the wrong gear. It’s really good exercise. Follow me on Strava if you’re so inclined.
Reading is what?
Over the new year break I had a week to myself and I was driving myself up the wall. Not because of boredom, but with panic that I couldn’t work out what to do with myself. So I picked up a book.
A few, actually. I’ve been really enjoying reading again. This year I’ve gone through:
Tom Ballard’s I Millenial – I don’t even know how to summarise this one, other than to say it’s a neat summary of what led to our current day political clusterfuck through a socialist lens. It was a surprise, a joy, and led nicely into the next:
The Big Switch by Saul Griffith. It’s a pretty plainly laid out argument that Australia can take action on climate change right now with current technology by replacing all our fossil powered machines with electric ones, putting solar on our roofs, using electric cars to power our houses at night, and save huge amounts of money in the long run. Obviously there’s nuances, but the point is to go all in on the technologies we currently have, while we develop the solutions to the harder climate problems. And the government is listening.
I also picked up Stephen Fry’s Mythos which was interesting because I’d never studied greek mythology before, and it was an okay introduction to it. I found it a bit of a slow going, something about milllenia-old stories not having all the hooks of a modern page-turner. But it was interesting connecting the dots on concepts that trace back all the way back.
I think e-ink
After getting excited about it I put in an order for a Kobo reader from JB. The only ones in stock were all the way down on the Gold Coast so I scooted to the train just in time for them to call me to say there’s an error and they don’t have it after all.
So I sat with the thought and eventually talked myself out of the cheaper device and into the Kobo Elipsa, which finally arrived the other day. And honestly it’s pretty great.
I’ve got three books on the go:
Pictured is Heading South by Tim Richards. It’s a travel journal along the second-longest rail journey in Australia, from Queensland to Western Australia. (Fun* fact, the longest is from Queensland to the Northern Territory just due to the inefficient route, but that’s not as exciting)
At Tae’s recommendation I’m reading Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club. It’s funny, very easy to read, and I can’t wait to find out whodunnit.
I’ve also picked up the latest episode of Meanjin on a whim. I don’t know if it’s my usual style but I’ve been enjoying the short essays and different perspectives, and wanted to see how to transfer an ebook onto the Kobo 😆
The Kobo itself is great. I didn’t think I’d use the notetaking nearly as much as I have been, but it’s very slick. I’ve found myself making little checklists and notes that I’d ordinarily add to my phone, as well as keeping my workday organised. Maybe it’s a write-off!
Then there’s the social network
Josh and I have been running bne.social for coming up on a year now. I haven’t written about it yet even though I’ve been meaning to because I don’t know quite how to sum it up.
It’s basically like Twitter without the nazis and the queerphobia, and it’s run by volunteers around the world rather than being owned by one single billionaire idiot. It’s not without its problems but most people agree it’s a Nice Place where the interactions are genuine and it’s not filled with Brands.
I’d encourage you to hop over and make an account and hang out with us! We’re going to organise a meetup or Brisbane folks at some point, so don’t miss out.
Yeah that’s about it I suppose
I dunno, things are good. There’s more I could write about; my perfection of the banana-blueberry smoothie, the way I’ve optimised the lighting in my apartment to keep my indoor plants alive, the absolute classic CDs I picked up at the lifeline bookfest.
But for now I wanna go read some more The Thursday Murder Club and go to sleep, cos tomorrow the long weekend starts and I have a bike ride to do!
On a steam train ride with my mum, she starts telling a story of the trains when she was young. So thinking quickly I whip out my phone, press record, and get her to hold it so I can actually record her voice over the background noise.
It comes out distorted to ever loving shit.
So this sucks. I have to go back to the original onboard camera mic but it’s SO loud with all the engine noise, cabin chatter, and clanking in the background. Even tweaking all the knobs, you can barely hear mum at all.
Are there any AI tools to isolate voice? I remembered I’ve been using Krisp at work to cut down on the construction noise from next door. Maybe if I run the audio through that…
So I set the sound output from my video editor to go through Krisp, plug in my recorder, and play it through. It’s tinny, it’s dropped some quieter bits, but it’s totally legible! Holy cow.
Now I’ve got an audio track of mum’s voice isolated from the carriage noise. I can mix it back together with the original to boost the voice portion and quieten down the rest. This is kinda a game changer for shitty vlog audio.
This is a pretty convoluted workflow, so it’s really only useful for emergencies like this. But I’m really happy that it managed to recover a happy little memory. And I hope one day Krisp (or someone else, I don’t mind) release either a standalone audio tool or a plugin for DaVinci Resolve.
As an aside, the Google Recorder app is officially off my christmas list. Any recommendations for a better one?
I don’t know why, but the washing maching turned off before it finished draining. So the door was locked and I had to run another 15 minute cycle before I could get my bits out.
It was 38 degrees today, for like, no reason. But it was a welcome change. I feel like I’ve barely had a summer since I’ve been in Australia, so I took a walk and basked in the oppressive heat for a bit before taking shelter in my apartment which inexplicably kept a level 25 degrees throughout the day without aircon. I assume it’s a combo of good insulation and the heatsink properties of the massive concrete structure.
So I’m happy. I’m really enjoying being here, in this place and time.
On the weekend I went to visit R on Macleay Island. He moved from the very middle of the city for a somewhat literal sea change. More specifically a bay change.
I never realised how gorgeous Moreton Bay actually is. From Macleay you can see all the islands, Peel, Moreton, North Stradbroke. On Saturday just after sunset we saw twinkling lights on the horizon which turned out to be boats mooring off Peel which is apparently a popular getaway spot.
Apparently there’s a (not so?) secret bar on one of the islands that’s popular with seafaring types. Just float up and grab a meal. My hairdresser owns a boat, so I know these things you see.
Last year I took a trip to North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) just to take a break. It was pre-vaccine so it was a weird and anxious experience, and I didn’t have appropriate clothes so I came home with a nasty sunburn. To top it off I accidentally and irreparably deleted most of my photos and vlog footage in a freak MacOS accident. So I wasn’t happy with myself, and truth be told it wasn’t a super relaxing experience.
But with my newfound appreciation for the beauty of the bay and the islands, and a bit more of an understanding of what centers me, I think I want to get out there more in some way.
For perhaps a year I’ve had some notes scratched down and a vague hand-wavy plan to do a vlog series centered around the southeast Queensland rail network. Partly as an excuse to get out and travel more, but also because I don’t have a car and don’t want to get one while our weird supply chain issues are making everything increasingly expensive.
So my idea is that even if I can’t drive to all the beautiful places I know exist around SEQ, I can still explore plenty of other options that don’t necessarily get as much love. The concept of travelling to the ends of each line really appeals to me both as a train nerd and also as a poor schlub who doesn’t have his own transit.
My first trip was an easy one, something I’d already done. Back to Macleay Island to circumnavigate it by bicycle.
I wanted to visit Ryan again, but also find my own way under my own power without needing to catch an Uber or a lift. So this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
The day before my trip I found my bike was making a noise, which was super annoying because of COURSE I should have made sure it was in good working order before I set off. The guy at the bike shop didn’t have time to do a service, but he tightened everything up and it fixed it (for a while at least).
The trip itself consisted of bike to South Brisbane station -> train to Cleveland station -> bike to Redland Bay Marina -> ferry to Macleay -> Bike to Ryan’s. It’s a modest 14 km ride on paper. In practice the trip from Cleveland was hilly and without amenity. I lost count of the times I needed to ride on the grass to get back on the path, or a tiny shoulder as cars raced past.
I sent a random email to the council asking what their preferred route is, in case I missed something.
Anyway the rest of the journey was incredible The ferry is starting to show its age, but it’s amazing to be on the water, watching all the islands slide past. The boats everywhere, doing their thing. Some kid on a jetski.
I never realised Stradbroke Island was so mountainous. I was in awe of it in the distance behind the relative flatness of the South Moreton Bay Islands.
I’ve got a vlog planned, I’m not sure how it’s gonna pan out because that bicycle leg of the trip I didn’t have a GREAT time. But I won’t spoil the rest.
My take-away is that Macleay Island is an incredible, weird, surprisingly normal suburban place completely out of place that I enjoyed riding around. Again, it’s deceptively large and I didn’t get as much done as I originally planned, but I had a fantastic time doing it.
Tomorrow I’m leaving on another trip, this time to Gympie (North).
It’s an odd one, because most people don’t realise the trains go up that far. And to be fair, they hardly do. I think it’s two services a day and the rolling stock are OLLLLDDDDD as heck.
It’s an old gold rush town with a steam heritage and not too much else going for it.
But it’s a cheap destination I’m excited to get out there.
I’m sitting on my balcony, the sun is going down casting golden rays across the walls, and I’m watching a tiny money spider bounce around the table in front of me looking for a bug to eat.
I kind of started this post a month or so ago, and checked back in occasionally but only just finished it now. If “finished” is how you’d describe it. Published at least.
But I’m happy. Things are good. And I’m really enjoying being here, in this place and time.
It has been SO hard being in Amsterdam away from my partner, friends, family and all the people I love during the pandemic and I need to fix that. So in some very bittersweet news I am returning to Australia.
As far as I know the only flights to Australia are repatriation flights from Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and London via Qantas. I missed the first round of flights, but another 6 opened up from London and after speaking to work I decided I wanted to be on one.
The TLDR
14 day quarantine on arrival into Australia
Organised on a state by state basis, and rules constantly in flux
Up to 2 “care packages” can be picked up from within the city by staff. Not all items are allowed.
Non-perishable grocery deliveries allowed from Woolworths
Getting to London was not difficult from Amsterdam because The Netherlands doesn’t have any measures preventing travel.
The UK seems to be accepting folks with the same visa restrictions as before, providing they have a valid onward journey. I couldn’t find this information anywhere online and only found out when I was unable to check-in online.
At the KLM check-in desk I was able to check-in by showing the details for my Australia flight, even though it was on a different day. Others were not so lucky. One man in the queue was advised to “book a train or a bus ticket” before he was allowed to check into the London flight.
On the London side I passed through the automated security check with no hassles at all, and didn’t speak to another human.
Uber in London doesn’t seem to have any real preventative measures in place, but the taxis in the cab rank had sealed partitions between the driver & passenger which made it an easy choice.
Checking into the repatriation flight
Before check-in, Qantas sent a COVID-19 health screen form which could be filled out online at the check-in desk.
In addition to the obvious “do you have COVID-19” question, they also asked:
Are you diagnosed or suspected to have pneumonia or COVID-19 infection?
Have you been in contact with someone that is a suspected (being tested) or confirmed a COVID-19 case in the last 14 days?
Have you been on a cruise ship or in a shared accommodation setting such as a hostel in the last 14 days?
Do you currently or have you recently felt unwell with any of the following symptoms:
Feverish, fatigued or aching
Cold or flu like symptoms such as runny nose, cough or sore throat
Shortness of breath
I’m not sure what answering yes to any of these would mean because again I couldn’t find info about it online.
Heathrow was a total clusterfuck. Security took about 30 minutes and it wasn’t possible to social distance because of the layout of the queues winding tightly back on each other. This didn’t stop them from putting up signs advising you to do so, and thankfully almost everyone was wearing masks.
Once cleared, there was a final health check to measure temperature, etc before we were given a little green pass and allowed to board.
Flying to Australia
Upon boarding the flight we were handed a yellow biohazard bag containing spare face masks, hand sanitizer, a pen, an immigration card & several spare bio bags.
Contact was kept to a minimum, and after meals any remaining garbage was only collected in the bio bags.
The flight was a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which had three groups of three seats per row in economy. People were distanced at one person per three seats, and spaced so that nobody was sitting directly in front or behind anyone in the next row.
We were all required to wear masks, and they say the HEPA filters take out the majority of nasties so it’s about as safe as you can get locked up in an airplane for 22 hours. But of course, nothing’s a given.
I remember being relieved they did anything at all. There was no info on the Qantas website about it so I was preparing for the worst, but it was well implemented. I felt a lot more relaxed on the plane (aside from the woman sitting near me who kept taking her mask off and wearing it on her chin. Some people!)
I got to see both a sunset and a sunrise. Watching the sun come up through the tinted Dreamliner windows was beautiful: a giant purple-red orb rising through the clouds, looking like a fiery gas giant in alien solar system.
Melbourne via Perth
Since the flight to Australia is too long for conventional aircraft, there’s usually a stop-over somewhere in Asia or the Middle East. None of the countries that I know of are allowing transit at the moment. Instead the flight ran directly to Perth to refuel before continuing to Melbourne.
The stop in Perth was brief. We didn’t leave our seats, we just sat waiting for the crew to change over and the refuel to finish. I lost track of the time because I was sleepy, but Flightradar24 says it took about an hour and a half.
The final leg of the trip to Melbourne was fairly uneventful.
The Crown. Or in Spanish, La Corona
What happens when you land in Australia?
The very first thing is another temperature check & health screen. This wasn’t the quickest procedure, so we queued in the aerobridge while this was taking place.
Once cleared we were given a detention notice from the Victorian government, letting us know that we would be quarantined for 14 days which we were required to sign.
A state of emergency exists in Victoria under section 198 of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic), because of the serious risk to public health posed by COVID-19.
You must proceed immediately to the vehicle that has been provided to take you to the hotel. Once you arrive at the hotel you must proceed immediately to the room you have been allocated. You must not leave the room in any circumstances
Finally, we were given the information about the hotel we would be staying in. In my case, the Crown Metropol in the center of Melbourne which was cordoned off especially for this.
After that we were herded onto the tarmac and boarded buses directly to our hotel. There was no social distancing on the bus, but we were required to wear our masks through the whole process.
The quarantine
The hotel is a quarantine zone so nobody other than staff and occupants are allowed in.
When the bus arrived we were shepherded off one at a time and given our room number, a care package of various snacks, toiletries & necessities, and many pages of documentation about how things work.
This was the first time I learned anything solid about ANYTHING to do with the quarantine. Before now I’d only heard rumours.
As I understand it’s a rapidly evolving situation, and it’s managed on a state-by-state basis which is possibly why the Federal government has no information for travellers.
Through this time I’ve been an anxious mess but now that I’m in the hotel I’m finally starting to relax.
The hotel room is bigger than my apartment in Amsterdam by a large margin so even though I’m locked in I’m feeling much less cooped up.
The meals so far have been pretty good, all things considered. There’s far too much food provided at any given mealtime, but that leaves plenty of other items for snacks in between.
The hotel, security, and health staff have been absolutely amazing and I’m so grateful to be able to come home. The amount of love and support and human connection I’ve had from everyone while in isolation this past week is truly overwhelming, and I’m beginning to feel that just maybe things are going to be okay <3
It has been SO hard being in Amsterdam away from my partner, friends, family and all the people I love during the pandemic and I need to fix that. So in some very bittersweet news I am returning to Australia.
