Over the past six years I've tried a few ways of getting through winter - surgery, northern hemisphere holidays, global pandemics - with varying levels of success. Winter 2024 featured none of those and while I was still embittered about the cold a lot it was probably the most tolerable winter I can recall having. Though not as tolerable as hiking through forests in western Europe.

What was the trick to this?

Better warmth strategy. I bought an alpine-quality puffer jacket in May, and upgraded my old North Face jacket during winter as well. I bought gloves with mini heaters in them. You just need to recharge the batteries every couple of days.

I discovered the benefits of wearing pyjama pants under my tracksuit pants for extra warmth. I bought new socks. I wore beanies. There was a single morning it was cold enough to justify wearing all of the above at the same time. Most of the time I was able to coordinate a few of these together such that I did not feel cold while being outside. This resulted in less grumbling.

Indoors, I gave up on watching television in my freezing living room and spent every night at home in my study with the door shut and the heater running. Even that was still pretty chilly and didn't stop me from teaming the pyjama pants and tracksuit pants at times, but it was tolerable.

Good distractions - one technical project and one mindless pastime. The former was designing and building the quiz website. The latter was beating Breath of the Wild, which I actually completed around the second weekend of July and then I didn't play any games after. But it got me past the solstice.

Getting sun on my arms at every opportunity. Mostly by timing my lunch breaks for around 2pm on days when there were no clouds, and walking really fast to justify removing my jumper.

Also what definitely helped was not getting sick, other than the tail end of a cold in the first days of June. How I managed this is probably due to a lack of social activity and well timed vaccines, but it absolutely made the season way less shit. Also having most of August off when it was serendipitously quite sunny certainly accelerated the transition into spring.

All of that was good, but I think solid routines were the real key to getting through winter. Trips to the markets on Saturday mornings, walking Nash to the bakery on Sundays. Birthday month's daily desserts. Inviting myself around to Alex's fire on the weekends. Coffee and progressive trance between 9 and 10 each workday.

A paper titled Routine and the Perception of Time in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that a key factor of people remembering time as passing more slowly was "anchors of novelty", and by removing a lot of novelty from my life in Winter it certainly does feel like it breezed by.

Actually, considering I did work two major projects, changed jobs, had a colonoscopy and a two week holiday I'm not sure those enjoyable routines really did help that much, and maybe it was the pyjamas plus tracksuits that was the real MVP.

Or perhaps it was actually the new music.

There's been a lot of weather this week, basically every time I walk out the door the planet looks different.

Flashes of colour coincide with brief bursts of sunshine.

This cool tree does its annual thing of looking good against a blue backdrop.

Mist rolls in to give all the vibrant flowers a spooky haze.

Sunsets come later, and you can feel warmth after the work day is done.

Whole streetscapes seem to exist purely as a tableau for you to walk down on Saturday mornings, drinking coffee.

The last six days of my holiday (2.4% of a Jupiter day) have passed by at the normal, inevitable speed of life on planet Earth. Overall, an excellent break, where I accomplished nearly all of my to-do list (leaving enough to feel justified that it was a suitable amount of tasks) as well as relaxing and living in the moment occasionally as well.

Tuesday - a leisurely stroll around Morialta, with a break for breakfast, and then coffee on the way home. Plus more home-made pizza because, why not, it was holidays.

More wattle.

Wednesday - the sun was forecast to be shining, and I'd thought of doing a bike ride in the morning but after putting on my red shorts I decided I'd prefer just to walk around Croydon looking at flowers with Nash and drinking coffee. Here we are both enjoying a sun-patch.

In the evening, caught up with J and then took on the quiz at Big Shed with other members of Pump up the JAMB. Took out second, which I was quite elated about.

Thursday was my Azure Certification study day, noting that a lot of that study was while walking around the neighbourhood, clearing out my closet, walking clothes to the charity shop, cooking dinner, and working out. But mostly it was a lot of Azure study. I did walk Vanessa over to a friend's before dinner, and walked home westward watching the dark-purple sky light up with lightning flashes in the distance. As I wasn't getting rained on, this was pretty epic. I was listening to Azure study material at the time.

Friday was more exam revision (while walking around Croydon) followed by the exam which wrapped up around lunchtime. The rest of the afternoon was a blur of eating, working out, walking in the sunshine (and rain), and then writing up all my feelings about the intense cram session as my brain decompressed.

Saturday was a busy day, starting with a very short, slightly misty walk around North Adelaide with Nash who enjoyed the occasional patch of sun, but wanted no part of the activity once she realised the bakery wasn't our destination.

After that, went to the Central Markets for some produce and a good coffee and a brunch with Vanessa's friends, followed by a workout and then afternoon tea with in-laws. Then, dinner and showdown with Alex.

Sunday, the final day, partly cloudy but no rain, has had the feeling you get when you spend the afternoon in the winter sun and then the night settles in, multiplied by sixteen. That's not to say it hasn't been pleasant or productive. It began with the customary North Adelaide walk to bakery, pide-based pizzas for lunch, and then an afternoon doing some coding for the quiz night.

Before sunset we drove to the beach for a final walk in the sun.

I bought coffee all but two of my days off. The garden is looking fresher, the seedlings are shooting up ready for planting in September. I've seen family, friends, the beach, the hills. I've hiked and walked and been productive around the house. I watched half of a movie, and didn't play any video games. I've exercised nearly every day of the break. I've eaten desserts every day of the break. The flowers in the backyard are just starting to bloom, and there's fresh skin on my fingers after the friction burns of the first Tuesday from using the pruner... Hopefully these are good omens for the next chapter of entries tagged 'Office'. If not, I am not afraid of temporary unemployment once more.

I'm not retired, but for a week I'm technically unemployed, and its been ten days since I last got paid to use the toilet.

To give my memory even more of a break, I'll capture what I've done so far on my holiday.

Saturday - cloudy with some rain. Managed a coffee stroll with Nash and Vanessa to Anchovy Bandit. In the evening, Callum's 40th which featured a thirty minute epic video and way too much food.

Sunday - Bakery stroll. Vanilla slice. More strolls between showers.

Monday - Dad Hike, followed by apple pie.

Tuesday - Finally, bluer skies. Bike ride into town for physio in the morning. Coffee, bike ride back home. Much mulberry tree pruning. Bike ride back to town for dentist, and then home.

Deadpool and Wolverine in the evening. Many laughs, but the tiny seats may have reverted all the work the physio did that morning.

Wednesday - Road trip to Willunga and Encounter Bay. Much sunshine. A lot of coffee. Sea air. Later, a walk to the supermarket.

Thursday - Jasmine coming into bloom.

Banana pancakes and puppy walks to the cafe.

First trip to big box hardware for a few months. Planting seedlings ready for spring.

Friday - foggy morning by the beach, then sunshine.

Drive to Freeling for lunch and family. Watched Boomers vs Serbia basketball - epic game.

Saturday - Sunshine. Morning walk to markets to re-up on fresh food and drink coffee. Aerated the future vegetable patch, added compost and erected the trellis. Stuck one stake in upside down. Then workout, salad in the sunshine, followed by visit to Alex's in the evening to watch two close games of football.

Sunday - More blue skies for the bakery walk.

Beer in the sunshine in the afternoon, followed by homemade pizza and watching USA vs France basketball.

Monday - Ridiculous amount of sunshine. Another walk to Anchovy Bandit, and around Prospect.

Some more gardening, another workout, then a visit to Semaphore with Nash - wearing shorts - for ice-cream and a walk down the jetty.

Dredging my past journal entries for inspiration for quiz questions has given me the following insights about my creative process, particularly recently.

1. Good pun opportunity or play on words
2. Follow up thoughts about a previous entry
3. Photo of something, often paired with #1

Well it was 17 degrees today and it didn't rain which apparently is enough for me to reinvent myself into a good mood. So I'll write down some things that happened for future reference. None of which has any importance, but maybe this could come in handy for whatever I decide to plan for my fiftieth.

I rode my bike for the first time in a month. It's very pleasant and I enjoy the scenery. Unfortunately I don't have a bike lock up as of last month, so I have to park my bike on the street. I lock it up on Rundle Mall where there is a lot of foot traffic to hopefully keep it safe. And if someone does steal it, I will respect the universe's decision and walk to the tram in my helmet and shorts.

I got my whooping cough vaccine today. While it cost $50, you need it to be able to hold newborn babies. Despite both of these drawbacks I got it anyway. On the plus side, the pharmacy was close to my favourite coffee shop in the markets and they were open on a Monday, so I got to enjoy a very nice coffee while walking around the city between customer sites in 17 degree air.

I am getting better at using GPTs, partly because the art of filling the prompt window with relevant content for the best result is coming more naturally, and partly because AI companies are releasing models with even better training that makes it easier. I was puzzling over how to write a specific sentence or two for work over the weekend, and on Sunday night I realised Claude AI might nail it if I gave it the subtext I was after explicitly, and it nailed it! So I sent off this piece of pre-sales to someone, and when I read it today I saw that they'd stripped the subtext right back out again.

Oh well, Claude AI was also helpful with my seasonal anatomy puns.

Other than that my time is being spent building APIs, making bulk meals and rehab.

It's forecast to be 20 degrees on Wednesday, so who knows who I will be by then.

Obviously July and August take their names from two legendary caesars of ancient Rome. I've always appreciated the power an individual man must have had for the whole western world to keep his name on the calendars two millennia later. What I didn't truly get was that not only did they both get months named after them, but they got the months of idyllic sunshine and long, pleasant evenings and lifting up togas to let your toes sink into the coarse sand of the Mediterranean shore... Basically the month with weather the exact opposite of what Adelaide experienced today!

On the other hand, I bet neither caesar got to experience the warmth of wearing their tracksuit over their pyjama pants for an entire day.

One day of Winter 2024 survived. Cooked a beef stew and pumpkin soup. Heated gloves helped.