Category: learning curve

Day 717 – But weight, there’s less!

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When I got Covid, I lost a lot of weight very quickly. Like 10 or 12kg in a 7 days. And that was because I was literally too weak to eat anything. I was surviving on Lucozade alone (well, and Myprodol, but that probably had limited effects in the weight department).

Once I was through the acute phase, that weight went back on fairly quickly (probably because it came off pretty quickly as well), which is good, because that initial weight was quite a good weight for me to be. However, over the next 6 months, being fully able to eat and drink (more than just Lucozade), but not being able to do any exercise (see 6000 miles… passim.), I gained a lot more weight.
And that was bad, because that was a bad weight for me to be.

So now I have started with some gentle exercise again, I’m happy to report that I’ve finally been losing a bit of mass. And I don’t need to go into details here, but last week, I managed to pass a significant milestone weight on my weight loss journey. And that means that I have lost 7.2kg since the beginning of the year. Again, this weight is coming off fairly easily because it went on easily and it isn’t meant to be there. A bit of gentle temptation and sensible behaviour, and it goes to wherever spare weight is mean to go.

Given the way I have lost weight thus far, I’d imagine that I’ll pop back above the milestone weight – giving the digital display on the scales and extra 50% work to do again – before I stay under it. But that’s fine by me, as long as the general trend remains downwards.

Now come the hard yards, though. I’m not quite back down to my pre-Covid weight (yes, I have put on that much), and I’d like to shed a couple more kilos on top of (underneath?) that as well, so the next bit might go a little more slowly. But I’m confident that it will go.

Would I recommend Covid as a weight loss plan? Well, yes and no. It’s clearly extremely effective, but it does come with some utterly horrific side effects. So overall, probably not.

Would I recommend eating less and exercising more [thanks, TA] as a better method? Certainly.
But all within reason: unless there is some urgent medical issue that requires immediate and drastic weight loss, be gentle on your body and if it needs a beer or to every now and again, give it a beer or two every now and again.

There’s definitely more to life than a target weight.

Day 708 – Mending/Mended

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I was supposed to to go for boys’ dinner last night. I went to bed instead.

Good choice. I was broken.

I woke up this morning slightly less broken, but went for a precautionary lie down anyway and fell asleep for 4½ hours. If there has been any lesson that I have learnt over the past 8 months (ok, there have been several), it’s that sleep plays a huge part in recovery.

And so this afternoon has been a bit of catch up with a few of the things I would have wanted to do if I had felt able yesterday. (Sadly, not boys’ dinner, but…) Not too much though, because there’s United on TV tonight and I want to try and make it through to full time.

It hasn’t been a particularly pleasant 24 hours, but it’s still been many hundreds of times better than actually getting the real thing.

Go and get vaccinated. And if you already have been vaccinated: go and get boosted.

Day 705 – How long is a 40 mile long convoy?

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OK, OK, I know the answer to that, but as we hear of satellite imagery of a Russian column of armoured troop carriers, tanks, artillery and support and logistical vehicles stretching 40 miles along the road approaching Kiev, I felt that just seeing or hearing the number doesn’t mean much. So I thought that I’d put that into perspective.

So… Let’s leave Cape Town on the N1 and drive 40 miles.

40 miles is the distance from central Cape Town to the far end of the Huguenot Tunnel. Imagine each and every metre of that trip – past Woodstock, Paarden Eiland, Anal Walk, Durbanville, Joostenberg Vlakte, Paarl and out into the mountains – as an armoured convoy.
Terrifying.

Don’t like the N1? I don’t blame you.

So let’s take the N2 instead. 40 miles will take you from Cape Town almost to the gate of the immensely popular Peregrine Farm Stall in Grabouw.
Of course, any attack on Cape Town from this direction would be thwarted by frustration and capitulation at Somerset West and its infernal, constipated traffic light system, which probably explains why the Russians have chosen to come in from the North.

Day 699 – Phone trouble

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My Sony XZ Premium is 5 years old and in phone years, that makes it 100 years old. I’m sure that you can do the rudimentary calculation to switch between actual years and phone years, despite it being a concept I just made up. Anyway, as with many things 100 years old, my Sony XZ Premium is struggling a bit with getting things done, it’s running out of energy and it’s not always able to connect wirelessly to my car anymore.

Sadly, its life is nearly at an end.

I’m not one for paying our local cellphone companies through the nose (or any other orifice) for the privilege of buying a new phone through them, so I’m looking to buy a handset outright and just lob my existing SIM card into it.

First thought, (obviously) a new Sony, but then I saw the price. I know that this switch was going to be expensive, but that was clearly (a long way) out of reach. Samsung doesn’t interest me, Huawei is a no go and I would rather be strung up by cheese wire around my nether regions than ever own an iPhone.

Not even joking.

Suddenly, the playing field is narrowed somewhat. The Google Pixel 6 Pro seemed to be an obvious choice, but The Guru reports some nasty bugs, even though we’re several months down the line from its launch.

And so, with limited time in which to get this organised, I are back to the drawing board. Am I looking at the Poco F3 (another The Guru suggestion) or a more basic Sony?

For me, the camera is probably the most important part of the whole phone, and the Pixel wins hands down on that, but there’s no use in having a great camera and getting great images when you can’t access them because the fingerprint sensor doesn’t work. But then is there any point in having easy access to your images, only to realise that they’re all rather crap?

Ugh. Such an important decision and nothing is jumping out to assist me.

Day 697 – Basic cartography

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I’ve spent the morning as a Cartographer’s Assistant. It was interesting and rewarding stuff, although it doesn’t pay well (actually, it doesn’t pay at all), you can get a bit sunburnt, and – where possible – you should choose not to assist a cartographer in a dog shit filled park.

Unpleasant.

The cartographer in question was my son, using basic triangulation to plot the whereabouts of some bridges, some benches, a lamppost and at least one bin. This was for a Scout badge, and – to me, at least – it looked like all the requirements had been fulfilled. The DSF park in question was Keurboom Park in Claremont, which has likely been mapped already [checks]… yes:

…but this was still great practice for him, should he need to map anywhere that hasn’t been mapped yet.
Especially if there are lampposts and bins and bridges there. People need to know whereabouts those sort of things are.

Thankfully, now that Keurboom Park has been thoroughly mapped (at least twice), I won’t have to go back there. What a disgusting toilet of a place it is. We were there for about three hours, and we probably saw (no exaggeration) about 150 dogs. At a rough guess, I’d say that 50% of the owners cleaned up after their pets. And if you’re looking at [kwik maffs] about 50 dogs per hour, that’s 25 new “hazards” each 60 minutes, or 1 every 2½ minutes throughout the day – just in that bit of the park.

It’s everywhere. Utterly repulsive.

Of course, it could all be so much better if the owners did something about it. The park even provides free bags and there are plenty of (mapped) bins. But the middle-class white people of Lynfrae and surrounds (or at least 50% of them) clearly feel that they are above cleaning up after their dogs.

Probably a good idea not to bother getting a dog then, you wankers. Just a thought.