Rather than a list of quantifiable resolutions I'll inevitably fail to tick off, I've set myself the broader goal this year of improving my work-life balance, which in this case means aggressively rolling myself off the bed and out the front door for reasons other than work or grocery shopping. The region I live in is flush with natural spaces, human history, and a decent array of local city sites, and outside of the occasional pandemic restriction it's really only been my own slothful nature that's prevented me from seeing much of it despite living here for over a year and a half now. It's time to emerge from the shell.

So far I have managed:

• A walk to see what's along the river in the other direction. (Not much! It's a flat, shady stroll though, with a few parks dotted along the way and a little bird-life to keep it interesting.)
• A visit to the main street Sunday morning markets and the independent bookstore there, where I finally purchased a local wildlife guide as well as a book on octopus intelligence ('Other Minds' by Peter Godfrey-Smith - a bit of a slog, but interesting enough).
• A drive up to the lookout on top of the mountain near my apartment; yes, the one that likes to catch on fire now and then. The view was nice, but the urge to linger was crushed by the discovery young couples rather like this spot. Ugh. Canoodling.
• A trip to one of the biggest waterfalls in Australia!

The last was yesterday, and was by far my most ambitious outing yet: a five hour round trip, though to be fair I was driving very slowly at points because I wanted to enjoy the rainforest scenery and increase my chances of seeing a cassowary. Alas, despite the many signs cautioning drivers (watch out! stay in your car! do not feed!!), there was neither hide nor hairy feather to be found. I would probably have more luck with a passenger in the car to play spotter; it's hard to gaze into the bush while also needing to keep a close eye on the road.

The waterfall itself was magnificent, though at first all I arrived to was... a massive bank of cloud and a distant thundering sound, a turn of luck over which I had to chuckle. I wandered away to the gorge lookout instead, and warily ventured a little way down the trail that would lead to the waterfall's base. The sign warned the full track can be fatally difficult, and it was no joke; though I would have only gone about 300m at most, the trek back was a battle, simply because of the steep incline and oppressive humidity. If I ever want to do this trail for real, it's going to require some serious #fitnessgoals preparation, and perhaps use of the nearby campsite to make a full day of it. Still, it served its purpose as a diversion, and by the time I staggered back to the top the cloud had cleared and bared the cascading water sheeting endlessly down from the ridge. As I watched, a pair of sulphur-crested cockatoos parachuted down to a tree sticking out from the gorge, steering only with gentle adjustments of their cupped wings.

I don't see myself re-visiting often. It's a long drive just to stare admiringly at water + gravity for half an hour, especially when there are other (smaller) falls and waterholes much nearer to me, one of which I've already flagged for my next out-of-town jaunt. Worth at least one trip for sure, though, and despite the lack of cassowaries there was other wildlife for the spotting: wallabies, pheasant coucals, a flock of crimson finches, the striped spider politely munching its lunch in the bathroom, a horde of tiny froglets crossing the roads between the canefields during the wet (that in retrospect might have been cane toads... eek). Also a herd of very fat and enormously docile brahman cattle; I had to delicately wind myself between a nursery that had camped itself on the road, and even the littlest calf didn't so much as twitch to have my car come within a metre of it.

Outside of weekend adventures, I bit the bullet late last year and signed up for wing chun classes at the primary local martial arts academy. While it's been an adjustment to go back to it, I am already remembering why I enjoyed the practice so much. It's confronting sometimes, it hasn't taken long to start collecting bruises, and there are some things I preferred about my old studio compared to this one, but 2 hours a week goes a long way to improving both my physical and mental health. Last class I learned a new method for breaking arms :)

Holiday get! T'was nice; not as reinvigorating as I hoped, but in fairness I was comparing it against my last one which was three weeks long and involved a considerable amount of catharsis. I did catch up with the core crowd as I wanted and spent many hours lying facedown and not thinking about work, so it covered the fundamentals.

I also felt a flush of fondness flying back into the Town, which was unexpected but nice. I think it is finally starting to cross over into registering as "home". A place I have some claim to.

Of course, since I've returned to work it has been Absolutely Non-Fucking-Stop and will pretty much remain so until the end of August at the earliest so what ho, once more unto the breach and all that. I'm glad the point was to find a job that could double as a life because damn if that ain't exactly what I got. I don't know that it's my one true job; I feel like it perhaps brings up a few too many of my stressors and plays to too few of my strengths. But I also still have no idea what my one true job is and at least this one lets me run around in the dirt.

quietmoon showed me their video game cataloguing system a little while back and I instantly went starry-eyed - and proceeded to have a go at it myself, of course. A highly valuable use of my time as it knuckles in how I'm not allowed to buy more games until I at least clear some more of my owned-and-unplayed list, oh my god. I also think I need to embrace the world of Let's Plays; let's be honest, I have neither the skill nor the time to complete every game myself, and there are plenty of stories that are just as fun to watch.

The new laptop arrived! Rather earlier than I was expecting, given the estimated arrival date was the 24th of June, but I'm not about to complain. Set-up has gone smoothly enough, and while it would be nicer to have a proper desk instead of a small kitchen table, I'm overall thrilled by the end result. The functioning is so far swift and clear; I've a good monitor to accompany it; and while less storage was the compromise for not breaking the bank, I'm not too worried as I don't play the heavyweight games on PC and I have another 450GB of external harddrive storage that I think I'm going to bulk store some of the smaller indie games on. Also, Steam HAS saved most of my on-going progress so I don't have to figure out how to transfer any of that across! Hooray!

Amusingly (or exasperatingly?) there is no denying that gaming laptops are still marketed towards a particular demographic, however. The laptop itself is all gunmetal and dynamic edges, and it came with a pack of obnoxiously edgy stickers: gas masks! skeletons riding motorcycles! a severed hand, skateboarding! It doesn't feel like it's any kind of a trade secret that video games are played by an enormous variety of people, but... here we still are.

I instead pulled out some old stickers I bought yonks back and then never used, and so has new laptop been named Ghost in honour of the Destiny Ghost gracing its cover. Also because gunmetal and dynamic edges.

I concluded the day by playing StarCraft for the first time since I was fifteen years old. So much fun. Did I mention it's completely free now? 

It's smoky and windy today; never the most encouraging mix. There was a fire on the mountain yesterday and I guess there might still be, though Rural Fire Service map isn't showing any active in the area. Hmm.

I seem to have a knack for giving life updates right at the hinge point of change - I went into the office at the end of last week for a meeting, enjoyed the experience immensely, and promptly went "bugger this" and moved right back in. It's already been a huge improvement to both general contentment and work productivity, which was well-timed: a number of deadlines coming due has meant all brain cells on deck, though I'm pleased to say I skittered across the finishing line safely and can enjoy the long weekend guilt-free.

As of today, they're winding back covid-19 restrictions enough that we can again go to natural areas and do natural things, though only within household groups or with one or two others. If I get my act together a trip to a local park I like might be nice. It's more fun bird-watching with someone else, but I can still usually see enough on my own to make it worthwhile.

I've also been trying to slowly wrest some of my out-of-control takeouting back to a reasonable level, if only because the pile of associated garbage is starting to feel like a mounting sin. I won't say it hasn't been fun sampling from restaurants that don't usually offer the service, though. The foodie scene in the Town honestly isn't half bad, for all that I am still pining for a decent Thai joint. There is great Indian, passable Chinese, but the Thai? Ouch. The nicest thing I can say is that it hasn't given me food poisoning.

It's the ever-contentious Australia Day long weekend, and with the awareness I'll get very mopey if I don't leave the house or do something productive, I've tried to line up a few activities to keep me moving.

For starters: shopping! I went to a local market last weekend and was sadly underwhelmed, but upon saying as much to a coworker, they recommended a different Sunday market on the other side of town. It's quite possible things are just slow because it's so soon after Christmas, it's the season of hot mugginess, and it's not really the peak tourist period - but I'd still love to find some reliable local produce. Fingers very crossed that the jam and preserves lady is there because I finally tried out the tomato and onion relish I purchased from her at a charity fete and it was incredible.

Still chewing over what movie to see. 1917 is dubiously at the top of the list, mostly because my brother enthused so strongly about how amazing he thought it would be, but "doubtlessly super grim war film" feels like a pretty heavy choice for life 100 seconds from midnight. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood might edge it out for all that I have no sentimental connection to Mr Rogers. We'll see.

I've had some solid successes in turning nice loaves out of the breadmaker, so I think it's time to see if I can do something funkier. Monkey bread, maybe? Also come ON self, we own the blender, we ought to use it. Suggestion: homemade mango lassi.

Lastly, I'm honestly overdue to put together a proper disaster kit and plan, so I want to at least nail down all the most important basics. I'll thank myself for it if a cyclone blows through!