The "one chili" icon at Adelaide's premier Sichuan restaurant equals a lot of chilis. I didn't think the sizzling chicken with chili and pepper would be as hot as, say, the three chili icon "fried chicken and chilis" - The picture of that one was mostly chilis and a few bits of chicken. Now I understand the scale they're using. Luckily there are plenty of ice cream choices to balance out the acid and oil a few doors down.

At least I'm not cold tonight.

Recording this learning for future reference, although I'm sure I'll have a reminder of this tomorrow.

There has been a lot of talk in the media these days about the extreme price of iceberg lettuce. I rarely eat iceberg lettuce, so this didn't bother me a lot. But now I kept seeing lettuces on social media and thinking if they are that expensive surely they must taste good?

Alas, nine dollars is far too much to spend on a single lettuce. Even if I did have a bunch of falafel, hummus, grape tomatoes, beans and corn all in the fridge needing something leafy to go with them. Nine dollars could buy a kilogram of chicken breast, or two-thirds of a craft beer on tap somewhere, or most of a terrible, plastic office chair, or 3.6% of a hospital admission gap. Or I could invest $9 in like 100, 123, 138, 144 penny stocks.

Then I thought back to Cyclone Yasi, and the price of bananas in 2011, and how I practically didn't eat a banana for eight months.

In hindsight, I could have bought one banana. It might have cost me about nine dollars (adjusted for inflation) for a hand. But I didn't. And you know what? I might still have that nine dollars in my bank account, and I don't recall fondly any of the non-bananas I ate in 2011.

Today I thought that I didn't want to be on my deathbed centuries from now thinking about 2022 and how I missed out on one of those delicious nine dollar lettuces just because the price was obscene and no matter how many house parties I hosted no one was going to leave behind a lettuce. So I bought a nine dollar iceberg. It was pretty tasty. There's a bit of my backyard where the sun comes down the side of the house at lunchtime and I sat in that slice of sunbeam with my eyes closed and I savoured each shredded morsel.

Fuck you 2022.

Today I stepped in dog poo in Burnside.

There was a news article about Sydney being cold and having a top of only 15 degrees for the third time in history. I was like...

It was not 15 in Adelaide today.

I am privileged enough as a human being to have someone clean my teeth for me twice a year. I had a new hygienist this year who was not shy about asking me halfway through if I'd eaten almonds that morning.

Hopefully this was due to the almonds I'd eaten that morning.

Autumn is definitely over.

One vote for dogs who look like their owners.

The pumpkins and mushrooms strategy was not very effective in Quacks of Quedlinburg.

There wasn't a lot of sunshine today. What little remained when I finished working I enjoyed by walking directly at it for a few kilometres, letting it warm my face and light up the trees and leaves around me. Around the midway point I saw a raven trying to get at some rubbish that was on the nature strip outside a house. I was listening to a podcast about parenting at the time. Not an actual parenting podcast, more like a psychological assessment of parents' approaches to parenting and how (or if) it has any influence on the resulting adults. This was of interest to me because I'm 37 and the babies of today will be the experienced nurses and manual handlers of my aging, crumbling body, and also social psychology is interesting.

So anyway I was feeling paternal about this trash eating raven and I approached it to see what it was trying to peck. Someone had thrown a full tub of cream cheese into the gutter and the plastic lid was sealed. The raven scarpered when I arrived and landed on the opposite side of the street to watch. I opened the lid and left the cream cheese for it to eat and maybe share with its babies after I had set off into the sunset. Ravens are smart birds. They remember when you help them. The way my body is aging and crumbling I might need their help too. Hopefully not with opening cream cheese containers.

Sit there, face my knees to the left, look at the camera, lift my head a little higher and to the right. Click.

One more? Perhaps the last one wasn't very good. Smile a bit more, keep eyes open. Click.

Another one? Eyes wider? Smile broader? Click.

Maybe they just like taking a whole set for some variety? This time perhaps a cooler, more relaxed expression. Burning eyes, like a male model. Click.

A fifth? Sure. This time ultra relaxed, confident. Feel sharp. Look sharp. Click.

Reviewing the identical series of photos. Man, I was consistent.