yay summer

Just got back from the beach. Should've had a camera - water was literally like glass. It was overcast so the horizon vanished in places which is always a nifty effect. Water was crystal clear. It is also still pretty cold though and once you go out past the sand-bar things get a bit nippy. Had the cold water all to myself though there were a good few people out and about but almost nobody went beyond the shoreline unless they were on some floating craft. The closest beach is a comfortable 30m ride and between jetties so it's quiet, with no posers or jet-skies (so far?) and the sand is really nice (best sand on any beach i've been on). Should be a nice night too if the stillness keeps up, it's absolutely dead-calm again (@6pm) which we've had a fair bit so far this spring.

Nice to be 'skinny' again too. You don't notice when you're putting it on but its like i just stopped carrying 2x10KG sacks of flour (and a carton of milk!) around with me everywhere, which is definitely noticeable now it's gone. Not that it ever stopped me getting my gear off at the beach it feels better losing the dugong. Its like winding the block back about 15 years, well apart from the mental and physical scars, aches and pains, and now all-grey hair. Although i'm still getting used to looking down at my skinny knees when i'm cycling. I got some new shorts a couple of weeks ago and they already feel loose - but i think they were a pretty generous "Size 32" to start with.

Of course I should be having a beer or nice limey g&t right about now but the gout is already niggling (probably from a couple of beers i had monday with a visitor, first time in weeks) - my toe was even a bit sore after the first dip. Sigh. More fucking tea I guess. For me it seems the main cause is just not drinking enough water (or actually not weeing enough) - but by enough that means at least 3L per day just to start with. Which gets to be a bit of a drag and if i'm doing physical things i'm not sure I can even drink enough to offset the sweating.

It makes going out a pretty abysmal experience because i just don't enjoy myself. Actually I haven't been enjoying myself much going out the last few years but a couple of beers at least made it passable for the occasional highlight. I can have a few but might suffer later so usually don't risk it. Not that i've had much opportunity anyway but i've been almost dreading when they do turn up - i'd rather just garden or find some way to pass time by myself lately. Maybe it'll pass but I don't care if it doesn't. Speaking of which someone just called and i turned him down, but i might change my mind in the next hour. I was all settled in after the trip to the beach and don't feel like dressing up to hit the city, if i can even find clothes that still fit. I never like going out on Saturday anyway as it's too obnoxious and busy and the crowd a bit too keen, and i'm a little underslept and too cranky to put up with that shit anymore.

I've been eating a lot of chillies at home - i'm getting pretty steadily through my stash of frozen habaneros from a few years ago so hopefully I don't run out before something else comes online. I might have to buy an advanced seedling as growing from seed here without a greenhouse takes a very long time due to the cold nights. I finally finished a bottle of Blairs "Possible Side Effects" sauce this week - i can't remember when i opened it but it's years past it's use-by date although I didn't use it for some time. It's really expensive here in AU so i kept it anyway and after i topped it up with some lime juice it tasted better. It's not the nicest flavour but it's ok, and it's hot. Now onto the "Ultimate Insanity" sauce which has been in the fridge too long ... But due to just not eating much anymore and the palatte destruction of lots of chillies often with limes or lemons ... eating out has become super-bland and quite unappealing.

Work has been quite taxing (in a good way, although i'm a little blah on the whole need to work right now) so i haven't been coding much outside of that. I'm not watching much TV. I watch a small amount of twitch/youtube stuff but not that often. I've been playing PS4 a bit more - although it's mostly DRIVECLUB and Res0Gun. Res0Gun is just a brilliant game and although I'm still pretty mediocre at it the more you play the better you get - it's very pinballish. I turn up my new amp enough to feel the explosions. Yum. The other regular is DC which I do some single-events, community challenges, or occasionally tour events. None of my friends have it so I just see what's there (one just got a ps4 but he's not into car games). I've started doing many-lap races to learn some tracks and cars and with sped-up time it makes them pretty interesting once you get into the swing of things. With the new PS communities I played a bit with the photomode and uploaded some for something to do. I got a couple of messages so I guess somebody saw them but it's a little inflexble at the moment - something like a web forum with each 'community' a single topic. I even tried streaming on twitch today which at least I confirmed my router didn't crap-out, but i'll have to be in the right mood to try that again. And check with a GNU box how it looks.

I finally finished the last book i was reading - it really dragged on, and/or i kept falling asleep on the last bit. I dunno some dreary battle against evil by characters i didn't give a shit about (with a weird and entirely unnecessary prologue which explained what happened afterwards). And then straight onto the next of the 12 part(?) epic it is part of. This could take a while ...

I guess it's time to decide on what to do this fine and warm evening.

I can grab my tea and go wander out in the garden in a pair of shorts until the grass gets too cool and then watch some shit on TV or play a game or just go to bed ...

Or get tarted up enough to go to a pub (not much tarting admittedly) and head to the currently trendy part of town to drink water and hang out with my leery mate and his wanker friends (actually only one is obnoxious, if he's even there) while they get drunk and perve on the chicks half their age. And then ride home feeling afterwards probably feeling miserable (it's just happened the last few times).

Yeah I already decided when he called. Time to go see what the bugs have been eating if it hasn't cooled down too much while i've been here. Still dead calm at least.