🗓️ Weeknote 2026-W34
2026-08-24 04:17
More bus rides. Noticed the stretch of road between Long Reef and Dee Why still being used as a caryard.
Intercoms: "Please hold on when standing." "Stay seated, and do not use the stairs while moving". Safety messages, but the intercoms make it sound dystopian.
Morning run around the beach headlands. Drones are used for shark monitoring now. There's been a few attacks recently, taking limbs and lives. More speakers, this time coming from the drones themselves: "Warning. For your safety please evacuate the water. Sharks have been sighted." More people obey obey obey this one. Still... Total Recall, Dredd, Blade Runner vibes.
Swims. The flagged area was small. Current warnings. Is nothing safe these days? Blue bottles washed up on the sand. Niece. No touchies. Stingies. Ouchies. She did well with a walk around the lagoon and back along the beach. A minor crack of exhaustion, swept up in Grandpa's giant hand-seat.
It's still Winter, but I'm sweltering, breaking out in sweats in the humidity. Swimming is warm. I'm in shorts and tshirt most of the time.
Visit mum. New plantings in the garden. Night visits by bandicoots. Turns out they're a native to these coastal parts, and quite prevalent. We walk to groceries and a "Fellafel bar". I got the lamb in pita. Mum the fellafel bowl. It was huge. I helped with the hoovering.
Half-bused half-walked to the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Turns out the graphic novel reading, was not a reading, but Q&A session with the author Melissa Chan and artist Baduicao. It was a good experience and makes me want to read their book You Must Take Part in Revolution. They talked about censorship across countries, the future of art, political issues, with good humour and honesty.
Walking from Wynyard to Eveleigh was a long way, but on foot I got a new appreciation for these southern Sydney suburbs. Terraced housing, small bars and cafes, graffiti. Walking back through the city on a Saturday evening, the night coming to life.
Joined a monthly Bushcare volunteer morning. We pulled weeds at Kooroowall Reserve. Apparently they faught a few times to keep the place from development. John's (second from left) wife (deceased) got the name approved (Kooroowall indigenous for Bandicoot) to help keep the place, as it was simply "Lot 11" which made it susceptible to development. I'm paraphrasing, but it was a nice morning chatting with people who care about their backyard.
We were mainly removing Madeira vine, Privet, Asparagus fern, and Tuckeroo saplings (which are native, but invasive, and a little too prevalent here). We battled jumping ants and spiders which result in a bush dance of high knee lifts and slapping of inner thighs and calves.
More synergy of bush and housing. Trees become part of the fencing even. They just build around them. Probably endless work for fencers in these parts.
More IT support for the fam. Replaced an old router (1) with an older router (2) that works. A reminder to keep your electronics.
Gifted an old Sony Discman. Been listening to CDs laying around the place. Looking forward to my next visit back to Utopia or Sandy's Music to buy a CD again like I did 20 years ago.
I continue being more offline. RSS feed down (my server down) so enjoying actual websites via my blogroll. I'm toying with Offpunk on my laptop and Android via termux which has some rad offline reading capability. But mostly I just read books more, and notice real life.
📺 Watched
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Breakdown (1997)
***First DVD I've watched on an actual DVD player in about 20 years. Found tucked away behind some CDs and puzzles at mum's. Nothing spesh. Rednecks vs tourists, highway chasies, trucks and Kurt Russell. Just some fun, fairly tame action. -
Videodrome (1983)
****An odd Cronenberg one (no surprise?). Can't say I understood it much, but it was weird enough to keep me entertained and dad awake.
📚 Reading
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Finished The Omega Book (issue 1) by James Patrick
****- Comic I picked up in the city. Nice sci-fi feels. If I'm around I'll pick up issue 2 in September. -
Finished Virtual Light (1993) by William Gibson
***- I kinda ruined the start by reading it on short plane trips, which make it hard for me to concentrate because I get tired, but I enjoyed the second half. I came for the stormy DIY makeshift cities and techy sub cultures battling with evil corps, and it delivered pretty well. -
Started Trading in the Zone (2003) by Mark Douglas
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Started Idoru (1997) by William Gibson
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Started Mastery (2012) by Robert Greene
🏃 Activities
Continue a slow progression in running KMs. Elevation is suffering in these parts but that's ok. Enjoying the exploration.
Will be doing some ferry and train rides this coming week. Looking forward to more wandering and visiting some friends I haven't seen for a while.
Some meta - I have absolutely no consistency with these notes these days. It probably makes it a little difficult to follow along, but it helps me get "pen to paper". I have some more topic-specific notes in draft, but as usual I struggle to complete them because I keep creeping the scope. Who knows what they'll end up as. Also I seem to be a lot busier than I was expecting on this trip so these things are taking a little time. My sporadic inconsistencies and random structures and topics are probably a reflection of who I am anyway, so I'm rolling with it, whatever "it" is.