While discussing options for a winter getaway, we considered a lot of options. Headway was made into plans for both Vanuatu and Magnetic Island. In the end we picked Hamilton Island and this turned out to be a fortuitous decision.

Other than being not cold, the priorities we had for a holiday destination were: Peace and Quiet. Pools to chill by. Spending as little of our time off travelling as possible.

So one of the best parts of Hamilton Island is that there is an airport right on the island. It took longer to get from home to the plane in Adelaide than it did to get from the plane to the bungalow.

The airport is on the back side of a big hill, so it does not interfere with the natural enjoyment of the island once you’ve landed there.

The fact that the island is so small made the whole stay incredibly easy. We were able to walk to everything each day. There are a lot of tourists and other people zipping about in the numerous golf carts, but these are unnecessary. We even walked to the top of One Tree Hill for the sunset.

The hotel/pools/resort are in the sandy cove. Over a small hill there is the marina/ferry terminal and the shops, bakery, pub and yacht club. Behind/past the resort there is beach and walking trails into the bush and up the hills, leading to secluded coves, shady creeks, cool cliffs and a few lookouts.

Everything from breakfast, coffee, pool, shops, mini golf, table tennis, beer and dinner could be reached by foot.

The hiking trails were great. The network crosses and loops around two heads, with plenty of variety and reward in the trails. We had breakfast at various locations on the island the last three days and it was all peak hiking breakfast experience.

The sunrises and sunsets were also fantastic.

And going in July, after the school holidays, was perfect timing. The pools were close to empty. The water was about 20 degrees. Drinking a coffee by the water and then having a swim was a daily activity.

By the end of the second day I had a thong blister.

Did I have to pay $40 for a bad steak sandwich and a beer? Yes. But groceries from the supermarket and coffee were pretty reasonably priced. The resort itself provided free table tennis, shuttle buses, gym and housekeeping.

It was a very nice place. And I didn’t even go snorkelling or see the crocodile.

Today I was called both Bret and Bard.

I wonder if AI can extract and index all my old spam group chat emails from that outlook file I've backed up somewhere and give me insights on my twenties.

I don't recall even roughly when I first pumped a squirt of Normal conditioner from the bottle in my shower. Some time after the Battle of Issus. It was definitely a while before we moved in 2025, because I remember considering throwing it out instead of packing it. There was no shelf in the old bathroom, and living on the tiles came with some accumulated soap scum.

I did pack it, then we moved and for 16 months the dirty bottle was at eye level every time I showered. It kept on pumping out conditioner though, day after day.

For some reason, the conditioner bottle reminded me of the time I climbed Reinebringen at the end of the Norway trip. Perhaps because - like I had been that night - it was perched on a high up ledge in unpredictable weather. I must have mused this in June last year, and every shower since has prompted the same holiday memory. This could be why I still resisted throwing it out, but the main reason was that it still somehow had conditioner in it. Depressing the nozzle must be releasing less than a gram each time. It felt sisyphean. I was ready to move on, have other holidays, use that unopened bottle of conditioner that I also packed and moved at the start of 2025.

Finally, last month the pumper ran dry. The momentous occasion had arrived. I picked the bottle up from the shelf, and it felt weightier than I had expected. I opened it and peered inside. There was still a considerable amount of conditioner inside...

I was incredibly conflicted at this point. I had been drafting this entry in my head every shower since April and my anniversary of the first shower in the new house. I persisted with the old conditioner, despite needing to pump for extended periods of time to eke any white stuff out. I got tired of this after another week, and finally threw it in the bin today.

This week, coincidentally, I also installed my new great white loofah in the shower. This has actually been in the drawer for the last month. I chose not to hang it until after we got back from the islands, for fate temptation reasons. It's a lot more abrasive than I thought it would be. I don't think that it will be present in the shower in 2028 to conjure any memories of swimming off of Whitehaven Beach.

In the gym about 10 days ago I asked Gemini what time sunrise was going to be in Sydney on August 25th.

"6:22 am" was the answer. And thus the vision for my birthday morning was shaped.

I already knew that I would be waking up in a nice hotel room with an opera house view. Seeing that at sunrise would be nice, I could do my morning stretches, and the early start would give me enough time for a long walk, breakfast somewhere nice, before arriving at the office.

The weather forecast was for 10mm of rain, but I was determined to manifest a dry morning to facilitate the walking.

I arrived in Sydney on Monday evening, and didn't delay much before attending my favourite Sydney institution - the Lord Nelson.

I enjoyed a chicken curry and a proper sized pint of British pale ale, before walking along Barangaroo to get some frozen yoghurt.

I was tempted to have a second pint, but I restrained myself as the work trip was going to be demanding. Perhaps this was a sign of maturity as I turn forty-two. Instead, I went to bed early and set my alarm for 6am, then I bumped it to 6:07 for lols.

I woke in the morning in time for a nice sunrise.

In Sydney, an Opera House view is technically the same as a freeway view. And by the same strokes, a walk across Sydney Harbour is the same as a walk along the shoulder of a motorway.

The weather was nice though. It was raining in Adelaide. I reached Milsons Point and Lavender Bay.

The cafe I believed I was going to seemed a little more like a takeaway shop than a cosy breakfast spot with a pleasant outlook, but only a few metres away I discovered another spot that had its own beer garden and even a view of the harbour. Sort of.

The big breakfast was great too. It really did feel like I had manifested the best possible morning for a birthday on a work trip. I returned back via the waterfront, listening to 90s Radiohead. As I recrossed the Harbour Bridge an ibis flapped across the sky.

I made it to the office by 9am. The eye candy from the windows of the office puts my hotel room to shame. Even if grey clouds and a bit of rain did arrive through the morning. I enjoyed multiple free coffees (including my introduction to the new coffee variety: The Magic. "Two magics please, one extra hot" - the barista did not blink), caught up with colleagues, generated a nice flow diagram, and generally did work on my birthday. At the end of the day I was invited to a function upstairs and enjoyed a free beer as the sun set.

For dinner I attended the local pub quiz solo. I was hoping to manifest a victory there, but after I got the first three questions wrong - all 50/50s - I knew my manifesting was probably dried up for the year.

Is the song I was listening to on my after dinner walk, sticking with Radiohead's discography for no real reason. I walked from the hotel down to Cockle Bay. The day of Connecting had gone well. I wore a button up shirt, drank a lot of coffee, provided strategic insights into AI capabilities for agentic organisations, and enjoyed the view.

The morning's sunrise had not been magnificent. Grey clouds ironically desaturated any colour.

The original dinner plans also failed to manifest, and instead a bottle of wine and Lebanese food was consumed with colleagues instead. It was pleasant to Connect with my team members somewhere with a nice evening vibe.

Sitting around drinking coffee is not a good way to reach your step goal, so the after dinner walk was required. I chose Darling Harbour as my destination in part because I thought maybe there would be a late cancellation freeing up a seat at the IMAX and I would catch a late night showing of The Odyssey. Perhaps this would manifest like my birthday breakfast. That's when I remembered that book from the 90s called The Secret which suggested that you could will things into happening by buying a book. The IMAX wasn't even showing The Odyssey.

Instead of a movie, I sat looking at the buildings and their reflections on the water while that song in the title played. It did not feel apt. It felt like everything was in A place, not necessarily right or wrong, but I did appreciate seeing my current customer's logo on their skyscraper, gleaming off the mirror of the bay. That company was the reason I was sitting there eating an ice-cream.

This necessitated further stepping.