fitness

Woah

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I have been paying for WordPress and this domain name for years now, and I’ve not updated this blog for nearly as many.

I actually forgot what it even looked like, until I got an email earlier (that I only saw tonight) from LiveJournal. Celebrating 20 years since I created my first post, or account, or something. Christ.

Well, the last 5 years have been dormant. Online, at least.

I don’t really like posting things online anymore. I don’t share things to social media. I don’t upload photos anywhere. I don’t tweet. I’ve never fallen for TikTok. I’m just old and grumpy, I guess?

I still consume. I still share memes and posts and content. I feed the algorithm. I just don’t feel the buzz anymore. Is it simply age and lifestyle changing? I’m not sure. Certainly there are people my age and older who are much more active on social channels who receive and enjoy various levels of engagement. Why did I stop?

I suppose I had been fizzing out for a while already. I do feel a bit sad about it, in a selfish, narcissistic way.

Quick status: Still in Estonia. One more kid. Same workplace, but have moved around between teams and through the ranks. Still involved in rugby but not playing as much as I would like. Managed to play a couple of matches for Estonian national team. Pretty pleased about that. We lost convincingly each time. Future looks bright though, new blood coming through, experienced coaches hanging around, new torchbearers pushing forward. Age going up and free time going down. Time impacted by work and by new nearly-two-year-old. Same apartment. Bought a summer house in Haapsalu. Hair has lost any real sense of red. I’m 40. Bought a car a few years ago. Station wagon, still going strong. Been back to Australia a few times. Family have visited here a few times. No close family have died. Yet. Still going to the gym, but can tell time is not really on my side any more when it comes to gains. Will just blame the diet, instead.

How the fuck did I manage to go through 2 years of COVID, and a few lockdowns, without being bored and/or drunk enough to update this? Fascinating.

I bought a new PC over here in December 2018. It’s still running on the same install of Windows now, and I’ve never had to touch anything inside of it. Seems to be getting a little unstable but I’m going to persevere until it breaks me. Good bargain.

I wonder if my 4 remaining livejournal friends are still kicking about. My “old life” contacts are pretty much restrained to Discord, a WhatsApp chat group, and maybe a handful of Telegram, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp private chats.

I really miss web 1.5. Modern internet is so centralised that it sucks and it feels like “non-mainstream” sites now only exist really for fetishes and freaks. I suppose they always did, somewhat. It’s just that nowadays it feels more blatant and single purpose. The feeling of wonder and excitement from days long gone is sorely absent. When’s the last time anyone stumbled upon a random website and said “wow I need to bookmark this”? Even RSS feeds died off.

Apologies for a very moaning post. Obviously I don’t like to share anything too specifically personal here. Which is appallingly ironic since it’s a website dedicated to me and my stories. I’m just scared of the Internet these days, I guess. The only way to be forgotten online is… well, I’m not even sure.

Then again, perhaps I don’t really want to be forgotten anyway. Not yet.

Live

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Keep letting this slip. As usual.

Living in Estonia now. Everything sorted. I’m working. Wife working. Daycare working. Flat is good. Bills are getting paid. Everyone is happy at the moment.

Rugby going ok. Semi final tomorrow. Feeling confident. Still playing tighthead. HRC in Helsinki. We blew our chance to finish the regular season in first place, by 1 try and 3 points. Came third overall. Best +- points differential in the league though. Let’s try to take the championship though.

Gym had to drop back because of rugby. From 4 to 2 days a week, with a sneaky extra session sometimes if we had a bye. Lost some strength, but have sustained most of it pretty well. Looking forward to off season lifting.

Sleep time. Will make a mental note to update more.

Tere

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Life in general has been very very ok. I left my job back at the end of March and have really enjoyed all the free time I’ve had since. Who wouldn’t?

I started jogging a few times a week and was showing gradual improvement, was doing some weights in the garage, a bit of P90X on the side and even 10-12 minutes of “decent quality” skipping each session. I think it all helped a bit but I wasn’t really seeing big results for the two months I was doing it. Having a bad diet is probably the major reason why.

I also started going through some programming tutorials. I have always enjoyed tinkering with programming but never really stayed up to date or even committed to it as a hobby. I have some little ideas I’d like to try out, mostly for fun but if they’re any good maybe for a little money. I also figure that if I want to get some more work in IT in general it can’t hurt to brush up on my coding experience. Sadly I fell into a common trap for me which is to get too caught up going through tutorials and not spending enough time practising and experimenting on my own. I think I’m a bit scared my ideas will demoralise me when I discover they are inevitably more difficult to create than I anticipated. Still, there’s only one real way to progress, I guess.

Then it was June.

Our little family of three flew out to Tallinn via Singapore and Helsinki, as we often do. This time we decided to stop over in Singapore for 2 nights, primarily to give us all a chance to sleep after the “short” 8 hour flight and mentally prepare for the 14 hours of travel coming up. It’s worth it with a toddler, for everyone’s sanity. We stayed in the airport hotel, which was a great decision. Singapore airport is a fair way from the downtown area and we didn’t really want to lug a sleepy, cranky baby that far after the flight. The hotel was pretty deluxe, for us at least, and it made everything simpler. We booked it for our return flight, so there’s the proof in the pudding.

I’ve only been outside Singapore airport once before and that was in maybe 2003 or 2004. I may have even mentioned it on here. Let’s see… Yes, 2004. Fuck, I’ve had this thing a while now. Anyway, it’s still 40°C and 300% humidity there. I thought I was struggling but then I saw how sweaty our kid was and I just felt bad for them. So, I think we’ll just hang around the hotel pool this time.

We survived the trip to Helsinki primarily due to our sound decision to purchase “comfort economy” seats. It’s amazing what an extra 15cm of leg room can do on a plane. It also helps that Finnair have new planes. Finally. Finnally? I’ll pay for that option every time from now on.

Estonian summer was not bad. Perhaps a little cold. We stayed in an Airbnb through June. Cute place.

In July we moved into our new apartment. Woohoo. A nice big one. We’ve been splashing out on decor and kitchens and all those things. It’s nearly complete. It looks good.

So yes, we’re moving here to live. I even got my residency visa sorted out in August. Just in time, because my holiday visa was due to expire after another week. A bit of back and forth with immigration and forms and some stress and phonecalls and meetings and boom… Pink card.

Now we’re here until November. 5 months. Long stay. I’ve been keeping busy by working in the bar from time to time, going to the gym 3 days a week and playing rugby for the local team. I’ve lost 7kg since we arrived, which is nice. I’m really enjoying the gym as I’m making steady progress and after an initial period of crippling pain, I’m loving rugby again.

It took a few weeks for my body to adapt to the physical contact/abuse but now I can actually move about the day after a match. We’ve won the minor premiership on debut in the Finnish league we joined. The semis and hopefully grand final will be coming up at the end of September. Go Kalev!

I’ve even scored a try this season. That means no nudie runs. Phew.

Foxtold

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Hello, dear readers. I hope you’ve missed me. I felt in my heart a burning desire to jot down the latest. I’m not sure if you can actually be passionate about “jotting”… yet here we are.

I’m a bit thrown off by the latest WordPress blog entry UI. It’s minimalistic and contemporary, I suppose. It’s novel, it’s unique… but is it shithouse? Probably not, no.

I just cancelled our Foxtel subscription after 6-odd years of service. It went a little like this:

trumps-youre-fired

Except with better hair.

Since they’ve slashed their prices after Netflix came out in Australia it hasn’t really been too big of a hole being burnt into my wallet. As I’m unable to get both the “iQ” and the “HD” options though it means I can’t record anything and the resolution looks like shit anyway. Dropped.

Speaking of dropped, my laptop has returned from Dell today. I’m yet to unbox it and check its performance. Basically the power from the charger kept dropping out whenever the graphics card was in use. Long, boring story but it involved accidentally having my laptop sent to Perth instead of Lidcombe after it was lost in the mail for a week. Then getting it back in a busted up cardboard box. Let’s hope it works. Or let’s hope it doesn’t work, then I can push for a refund or outright replacement. 4 warranty calls in 4 months isn’t much fun.

Baby is walking and babble-talking now. Pretty cute. Getting big muscles and teeth. Sounds like I’m talking about a thoroughbred or something. Speaking of, I should have bet more on the Melbourne Cup last year. Deane gave me some hot tips and one that was practically a gimme. Too bad I was just playing with change. My sports bet account is a little fatter now, though.

I’m going to try and teach myself some programming again. I dabbled in some gamedev stuff earlier in 2016 and didn’t mind it. I didn’t dedicate a whole lot of time to it though. I should. I’m also keen to learn some other languages and create some apps. Yes, I now sound like one of “those guys”.  However, I’ve always liked doing that kind of stuff. I just never give it more than half a crack. Maybe it’s time?

It definitely won’t really happen with our current home lifestyle though. Evenings disappear in a puff of cleaning and feeding and cooking and sometimes a bit of wine. Then it’s 10pm and I don’t want to concentrate on learning or developing new skills. Then it’s the weekend and I want to unwind. A vicious cycle of non-progress. At least I’ve started some basic exercising again.

That’s right. I’m crawling up the slippery slope that is dad-bod-ism. I dunno if I ever really had a dad bod. I’m probably too big in general to be considered that body shape. I tend to just get boobs and a spare tyre, but all combined it’s simply too impressive to be cute. So, back to wearing headbands and sweating all over the yoga mat I’ve laid out in the bedroom. It was easier when the baby’s room was just a spare room. At least it was easy to move around in there. Doing dips off the side of an IKEA bed doesn’t quite feel right.

Looking forward to finding a way to head overseas again this year. A few destinations on the shortlist. We haven’t cross checked that with our budget yet. Might put that off for a while and let the dreams prosper a bit longer.

Just realised that because I’m resculpting the dad bod I will be able to fit into old clothes again (that I’ve had for about 11 years) but my latest business attire won’t fit properly. Is it easy to take in trousers?

Sympathy for the blog

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Well, holy cow.

I sporadically check my [this] site (narcissist, a lot) and typically just shrug and feel bad about not updating as frequently or as passionately as I used to… The action is fruitless yet I can’t repel the initiative until it’s done. It’s my own site – I know I never do anything with it, yet I check it as if I expect something new to have occurred. It’s like opening an empty refrigerator every hour when you’re bored and expecting a new, delicious food to appear out of nowhere, patiently waiting to be consumed: no matter how many times you try you’re met with denial, self-pity and defeat.

Yes, back in the LiveJournal days things were rosier and friendlier and more conversational and, well, raw. I’ve (semi) often reflected upon how often and candidly I would catalogue my general life experiences (to an embarassing degree, usually). (I even self-critique my use of bracketed asides. I can’t help that. I’ve always found it difficult to only write about one thing at a time when my mind naturally wanders. This is probably of zero interest to you, dear reader, but it’s important for/to me to jot this down. For some as yet unexplained reason)

Regardless, those days have, sadly, long gone for this blog. I do miss them. Somehow they felt simpler. More like an actual journal of thoughts and feelings that I unabashedly shared with the world. Or the web, at least. I guess that it’s still mostly private though if this page only gets 10 hits per month. Even if those 10 hits are probably some form of spam bot. Hi.

Strangely enough, the older I get the more difficult I find it to commit to a routine. Even for breakfast. My “internet experience” has gotten a lot smaller and I find myself only browsing the same handful of sites regularly. I have a lot of pages bookmarked for legitimate reasons but I never really find myself caring/energetic/curious enough to bother both checking and reading them. That is, I might randomly click on one once a month but then decide I can’t be arsed reading their updates. I suppose that’s why this blog has no traffic either.

Anyway. I’m a bit drunk writing this (when else do I ever update?) but even then I sound like I’m on a pointless whinging ramble.

Let’s document some facts (sorry, I know I always end up doing this and become dismissive during it). Someone may be interested in it some day. Maybe I’ll have great-grandchildren who give a shit what their previously 32 year old, dead, great-grandfather felt and thought one Wednesday night.

Marriage is good (hi Marika).
Work is work but things are spinning around to what I kind of want… so that’s good overall.
House is good.
I’m still not a handyman.
Another school reunion is occurring this year. I hope it’s good.
My bowling is very inconsistent.
My patience for games is down.
My poker is dead.
During the week I can’t wait for the weekend.
During the weekend I have no idea what to do with my free time and generally end up sad or drunk in soft-depression for wasting it.
I’m (99% of the time) sticking to my latest P90X3 routine which is keeping me somewhat fit and strong. When I run/jog however my heart feels like it’s dying. I guess I’m fit for sprinting.
Our bar is afloat.
I’m polishing off all of our remaining whisky and red wine (almost single handedly) because I want to get rid of it. In an efficient way, kind of.

Meh. Long enough.

Pardon me, dear. I kind of forgot about you.

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Seriously. I forgot this was here for a while. It’s ok now, I think. I’m here. It’ll be alright now.

Life? Life’s been ok. Thanks for asking. Since my last update I believe I’ve gone back to that KFC once, maybe twice. It’s been a while. Both times were reasonable experiences but not up to the standard of the first one. I haven’t had much to eat today so far and mentioning the dirty bird is making my stomach grumble. Let’s move on, shall we?

Tonight we’re going to see the Dead Kennedys for our second time. It should be fun. Last time was a few years back at the Manning Bar and we both really enjoyed it. Not sure what to expect this time around but if it sounds as good as the previous gig we’re in for a treat. The major dilemma I have is deciding whether to drive in and not drink or get drunk and train in. I better check the set times.

One big news item in the gap between posts I suppose is that Marika’s sister got married. We spent 3 weeks back in the isamaa and managed to catch up with shitloads of people, really, before and after the wedding. Even during the wedding actually, as they used the same photographer that we did. Small world, small country.

The other big news is that we bought into a nifty little bar. Yep, Marika and I are publicans. Well, partly. It’s in Estonia and we’re not, so we can’t get sloshed on our own supply unfortunately. Maybe that’s for the best. Anyway. Cool, right? Yes. It’s only relatively new but already popular. Now we just need to take over the world.

It also means we should probably get a real accountant. I even started dabbling in the stock market, although I don’t really intend to invest much. It’s just a curiosity at this stage. Accountants sort all that shit out for you. I think. The website says they do.

Life achievements:

  • We’re well past both year 1 wedding anniversaries. Go team.
  • Air conditioner has been installed in our apartment (pending strata approval, oops).
  • Fly screens have been installed in our apartment windows (pending strata approval but I mean come on) but not on the sliding doors because the doors are retarded and might need to get re-done.
  • I just set up a Sonos sound system so now we can have multi room audio. Well, currently it’s single room plus the balcony if we want but let’s see how far down the rabbit hole we go.

Honourable mention: both Marika and I are able to do proper pull ups now. We’re strong enough now that any risk of injury is more likely to be from the bar falling out of the door frame than of us dislocating our arms from their sockets.

2014-10-05 15.52.33

Home!

2014-07-29 19.09.26

Work!

On a whim I pissed away a respectable chunk of change on getting some blank keycaps for both of my Duckys. Now I have a colourful yet indecipherable range of input devices to the amazement of all.

Yes, mixed and matched. Sorry if the aesthetic offends anyone.

Apart from these kinds of distractions I don’t really have a lot going on. Both of us are working and I for one don’t have any holidays left. Marika still has a million because she gets spoilt by her company. I’m still jealous.

Maybe I’ll tell you how the concert went next time.

Fucking tomatoes

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I have a low tolerance for them at the best of times. Sure, they’re fine as a base for sauce, or diced up on bruschetta or something light like that. 7 days of tomato soup is just a joke, though. Actually, it might be the green capsicum that is making me nauseous. I’m not big on capsicum chunks, like I’m not big on tomato chunks.

Yep. I’m on that kick start diet again. It’s easier than doing P90x, at least. I think. Apart from the boring food. Today was 3 bananas day… and soup.

Not sure how much weight I’ll lose but it can’t hurt. I lost about 10kg last year through exercise, but then gained 5 back along with a distinct loss of muscle in the months after I relapsed into my old habits of basically being inactive and imbibing beer. Thankfully, I’ve been eating relatively well. It’s the lack of balance that catches up to me. Doesn’t liposuction remove fat cells so they don’t grow back? Someone told me that once and I’d like to believe it. A pipe dream.

Now to the important part: No cat yet. Wedding this year. In Estonia. Politics came into play but we have been navigating through it without too much drama. I should probably make a wedding website or something. Too bad I killed my hosting a few years ago. I might just get another one for the sake of it. I like pissing money away on servers and hosting that I barely use. It makes me feel like I’m doing something clever. Maybe one day someone will even notice it.

I guess I don’t promote any of this crap enough. I’m a bit of a negative nancy/quasi privacy nut when it comes to exposing my online life. Not just my online life, actually, but that makes sense to me.

Bonus gossip: I think I actually want 2 cats.

Tomorrow is Thursday but it’s figuratively Friday on the work day calendar. The actual Friday is still on Friday, but it’s Good Friday. So that’s good. The following Tuesday will be Monday but at least Friday will only feel like we’re up to Thursday. I have to start work early tomorrow to cover for absent staff. I should probably go to bed now so that I don’t feel quite so upset for waking up before my natural rhythm. After this, methinks.

It’s actually unusual for me to go to bed the night before the following day. Typically I won’t retire until after midnight. More bad habits? I think I just don’t like “giving up” on the day and want to pretend I’m squeezing the most out of it, even if that means I just end up playing games or watching TV. Wow, this is inspiring.

I’m making a conscious effort (finally) to improve my un-mastery of eesti keeles (and English, evidently). I’m four fourteenths (or was it five?) through my latest instruction book. I can still read the language quite comfortably, at least at the beginner or intermediate level. Conversationally I can’t process the words fast enough to speak, although I can usually follow the context and just nod along.

I could really go for a taco right now. Tacos and whisky.

Learning the process

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Greetings.

I’m currently on a training course for work. It’s for the ITIL framework. No, I don’t expect any of you to understand or care what I’m talking about. Anyway, it’s interesting and it means I don’t have to go into my work office all week!

Marika and I went to the Future Music Festival last weekend. It was decent but felt too short and getting there and back was a total nightmare. In the end it was still worth it as we fit to see Die Antwoord again and even New Order, who naturally played Blue Monday! Yay.

I’ve been doing P90x, the workout regime, for the past 5 weeks. I’m not even halfway through it yet but I’m seeing and feeling the benefits. I just wish I could do proper pullups. Actually I just wish I had a place to simply attempt to do them. Our flat is the least accommodating exercise centre.

I bought a Scanpan grill pan and some other cookware last night just before bed. Regular price was about $1200 but I’m getting it all for about $300. Thanks, online shopping.

My Tintin collectors book arrived yesterday, too. Haven’t opened it yet but looking forward to it. The original two comics that I haven’t read are in this volume. Very exciting.

Time to go back to class.

Impulses

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Hi there.

I just signed up for a new Telstra mobile plan, for the low-low price of $74/month.

Why? I don’t know. I just sort of kept clicking buttons. Now I have no idea how I’m even going to receive the damn handset they’re sending out, since I probably won’t be home and the post office is only open 9-5. Since my work hours are 9-5:30 (lately 9-7) this could be a problem if they want photo ID.

Well, I guess these problems come up when you act on impulse. Obviously I had an urge to update this blog, as well.

Let’s see.

I got my tax return back and so did Marika. Hopefully I’ll be in the system for next year so I won’t need to fartarse around. In the end something must have been updated, somewhere, because I managed to get it done online. Hoorah!

Winter is gone. Summer is coming. It’s like the opposite of Game of Thrones. Marika’s loving it while all the sensible types are complaining about the heat. I’ve got an extra special reason, as I am currently walking to and from work every day. I believe it’s approximately an 8km round trip. That’s right, no more car.

Well, the car will probably come as an impulse buy in the next month or two as well. For now, I’m trying to get a touch of exercise. Starting in summer with business attire isn’t the best way to start a good habit, though.

I bought some new runners, I think my old Nikes might have been from the 90s. I don’t even remember their age, but they’ve been donated to a charity/laugh bin in the shoe store where I bought their replacements. Matt took me down there for a look. It may be the first time I’ve actually bought shoes with an assistant giving me advice. Running up and down the street to see how they feel wasn’t a particularly flattering moment of the purchasing process, unfortunately.

So, with all this walking and new shoes (I wear the runners on my walk and swap into business shoes in the office. Cool, right?) you’d think I might even be losing some weight. Well, if you didn’t, I sure did. It doesn’t seem to be working. I’ve narrowed it down to mostly my rigorous beer consumption. All those liquid sandwiches are holding me back. It’s a shame to cut back, as they taste so sweet after a long day and a long walk in 30 degree heat. Back to gin and wine, then.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Yes, we went back to Eesti and caught up with whoever was still left in the country. The time went quickly but it was pleasant to say hi to all the folks. I made a trip down to Riga to see John which ended up on par with most of our other sessions. This time, though, we had live ammunition. I won.

It’s been about a month since we got back. Now Piia’s coming. Tomorrow. This is exciting news, for Marika especially.

I expect there will be more updates about that very soon. On her blog, at least.

Happy 11

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Greetings, fans. I hope your summer/winter has been temperate. Mine has been hot and sweaty, like a towel fight in a sauna. Playing outdoor table tennis doesn’t help.

Since we last conversed I am garnishing an extra $9/week after passing yet another certification. I’m also getting a car upgrade, to a small car with 2 seats and about 100km on its odometer. I hear it even has good air conditioning. I’m thankful.

Christmas and NYE were fairly tranquil. Small lunch with a roast (I don’t like roasts) on the 25th, bucketloads of sweat with a few mixed drinks and a midnight swim on the 31st. Marika’s first day body surfing at Manly beach on the 1st. She loved it so much she’s now determined to hit the waves every day. I’m sure she would if we didn’t live so far inland in suburbia. Sydney’s beaches have shithouse public transport options to boot, so driving is the only decent option if you don’t already live nearby. Bummer.

Big Day Out is coming soon. I’ve been very lazy with my already lax exercise regime. I’m using the festival as a motivator to start doing some training again. I have no natural chest. It’s bizarre. If I don’t target it I just end up with a belly and little nipples poking out above it. Methinks that last sentence is going to generate a few hits from Google.

Today we’re meant to be visiting the Terracotta Warriors, since they’re on tour. It’s not a band. You know, those statues from China. I’m actually looking forward to it. I need a bit of culturing up. Somehow, cornflakes over the Daily Telegraph each morning doesn’t quite enhance life with regards to inspiration/perspective/reflection/education. I’m not sure if a few sculptures will either, but it can’t hurt.

If anyone’s concerned, my pokering has been going very well these last few months. I’ve worked on my game a lot and grinded my bankroll to 3x the size that it was. I’ve taken a bit of a mental break from it this last week or so, mainly due to being distracted by the shitloads of video games I bought over the Steam Christmas sales. A few treats for myself, indeed.

Marika’s visa application is underway but not yet submitted. We’ve begun the paper trail. I’m not really worried about the application itself, I’m more worried about my procrastination preventing its quick completion. We’ve made up a checklist and thankfully it’s not a very long one, so I think we’ll manage.

I don’t know why I keep putting off updates in this thing. I blame the fact that I have to actually visit my site to login and post. I tried migrating to Posterous but the import function kept timing out and their support staff didn’t respond to any of my emails. Well, fuck them. For now.