It was probably an "e", but when that turned out to not be the case I figured it was a "q". Alas it was ironically a "c", as in, I can't fucking C. Okay, I can see quite well and even the optometrist was overly enthusiastic about how excellent the blood vessels and pressure of my eyeballs was. Unfortunately time makes nerds of us all, and the year I turn forty will also be the year I get prescription glasses. To be used purely for computer work, late in the day...

Until now it was a good run. I beat so many eye exams in the past. I'd hoped that denial would get me through this one. All I really wanted was to get a pair of sunglasses for a discount thanks to the thousands of dollars a year I pay for health insurance. But you can't get the cheap sunglasses without doing the letter reading test and getting air puffed at your irises. And while I succeeded at the latter the aforementioned c tripped me up at the pointy end when the letters get smaller than anything I would need to read on a computer screen late at night. Alas.

After that I had to pick out a pair of glasses which was a wholly new experience for me and one that - as someone who had to google how to eat a fig in a toilet stall once - I would have liked some advanced warning for. Why does every pair of glasses make your eyes look so big? Something to tune for next time I guess.

I also got a pair of sunglasses for a discount. And I got my first chance in nearly 19 years since to make another IC joke. Ironic, given that it's years of internet computing that have probably done this number on my eyes.

I reached the end of the excellent Utopia Avenue today. It took me a few weeks. The story was an absorbing ride through the late 1960's, with fully fleshed characters and a real example of how good writing benefits from having multiple protagonists. The way they interact, when they all have their own motivations and back-stories really gives them character. As someone who has been paid to write words about music - something that is not worth doing! - I also appreciated his technical ability to bring sound to life through the written word.

I have been listening to a lot of music from the era as well, thanks to its countless name drops, to try and enrich the senses, but I don't have any inclination to go down a psychedelic rabbit hole so I am writing this now to remember reading about Dean, Griff, Jasper and Elf.

To bring this journal entry back to my own life, I listened to that audiobook this morning while mowing the lawn, pruning the vines and sweeping up half-pecked lilly-pilly berries from the backyard. Then I did some rehab, lat pulldowns and side planks.

The weather so far this May has been amazing, other than the creepy stat that it has barely rained since January. This morning's walk to the bakery with Nash was especially picturesque.

I was thinking yesterday while explaining some Mulesoft concepts how much I enjoy the flywheel of parallel consulting. Nothing forces you to learn something better than having to explain it to someone else. Getting experience on one project, and consolidating it on a blank whiteboard at another is good for the brain.

And then today I had to present something and realised I failed to prepare the content to my usual standard. I'm tempted to blame parallel consulting for that too. But actually I think it's because I burnt three hours more than I wanted to trying to resolve Log4J configuration conflicts between dependencies that hard code their logging libraries. It remains unsolved.

Set a 2024 Deadlift PB after work, to give my brain a break.

Anyway the whole speechless title is in reference to Monday when I went for a walk at lunch and saw some primo blue sky plus autumn leaves plus sunshine combos. I was about to take a picture but someone was walking a dog by me and it was acting nervy so I didn't stop. I figured there would be plenty of other trees before I got home, but they were all ruined by power lines or the angle of the light. And then I was weighed down by ham, cheese, bread and two cherry tomatoes (full size tomatoes $14.99 a kilo).

I'd planned to make up for it by describing the leaves in an entry, but I never did. And because the sunshine is continuing I got the opportunity to take a similar photo. Which meant I didn't need a bunch of words, so it was a photo titled "wordless" but then I changed it to speechless for some reason and the sunny days are unabated so I'm stuck with it now. Oh well!

The routine of an early morning walk, the sights and smells of the central markets, strong coffee and cheap produce has not worn off yet despite its repetitiveness. Maybe because supermarket's are currently selling capsicums for more dollars per kilogram than they charge for beef.

Planned a Mother's Day outing to tasting Australia this evening. It wasn't incredible, but the food was good and not ridiculously expensive. And it was nice to be outside in town at night time in the midst of a lot of other people. It reminded me of Europe.

I did get blasted by Piri Piri Chicken smoke for a good thirty minutes. For free.

They say that strength training is 70% diet, and having eaten the following over three days of a crossfit competition that I watched, I can only hope they are right.

Pide and mixed skewers
A whole tub of high protein Greek yogurt, half a kilogram of berries, and two cups of oats.
Multiple apples.
Protein bars and mixed nuts.
Aloo Ghobi, lamb saag, chicken tikka, roti, lamb.
Four jumbo rolls.
Four 185g tins of tuna.
A small tomato
Not enough mayonnaise
Loaded fries with beef brisket
Most of a litre of salted caramel connoisseur ice cream
Satay Chicken and slaw on rice (was supposed to be on fries)
A whole thing of fries to make up for no fries under the chicken
Mixed nuts
Many, many coffees
A whole plate of beef shawarma, with a side of mixed grill.
Half a punnet of raspberries.

I have to leave Brisbane around lunchtime tomorrow so I only have enough time for three or four more meals...

Plus a Moorhen.