Author: Gary

Most weekends I head to the local beach for an early morning walk.

This weekend, I also visited a glass exhibition at the local botanical gardens.

I’m not a twitcher (bird watcher). I do enjoy seeing birds when I walk.

Here are a few I saw this weekend.

Walking at the beach in the morning feels good.

The glass exhibition was okay. The highlight for me though was leaving and coming across two young men with a little girl. They were passing a rugby league ball between themselves and enjoying the sunshine. In a town whose residents adore Aussie rules football, it’s worth rejoicing when I see people who understand rugby league.

Greetings,

I hope you have had a good fortnight.

I was away in Sydney last weekend. I participated in a conference focussed on military and civilian cooperation in health security.

The conference was at the Sydney International Convention Centre (ICC). Most of the work-related conferences I’ve attended in Sydney have been there. The area is replete with hotels for business travellers.

I stayed in a hotel in the Darling Harbour area. The hotel was within easy walking distance of the ICC.

A sporting highlight for the fortnight was the Dolphins defeating the Cronulla Sharks. The Sharks were on top of the competition ladder, and the Dolphins were in fourth place. After the game, the Sharks slipped to second while the Dolphins remained fourth. This was a remarkable result for the Dolphins in their second year of the NRL competition. Unfortunately, on Friday night, the Dolphins were defeated by the Melbourne Storm in an exciting game. After the Roosters defeated the Bulldogs last night, the Dolphins sit fifth on the ladder with the Storm atop it.

Ordinarily, a Dolphins victory would be the major sporting highlight; however, the national swimming trials for the Paris Olympic Games were held, and some world records were broken. When Brisbane hosts the Olympic Games in 2032, I hope to attend the 100 m butterfly, the 4 x 100 m freestyle relay, the 4 x 100 m medley relay, and the water polo finals. It would be great to watch the men’s and women’s finals.

Like last week, I participated in a couple of interview panels this week. The panel members for each position have now decided on preferred candidates, so hopefully, these posts will be filled soon.

It’s been pretty wet this week. Each afternoon, I go for a walk, which requires some caution. Since injuring myself twice last year, I take extra care whenever I’m walking on wet surfaces. Wet leaves are slippery. Even though it’s winter and most autumn leaves have fallen, there remains a lot of leaf litter on footpaths. I had a slip yesterday, lost balance, and nearly came a cropper.

Monday, 10 June, was a public holiday in many states and territories in Australia to acknowledge the official birthday of King Charles III. I went into the office and enjoyed the quiet peace. Amongst all the closed shops, I was also happy to find a coffee shop that sold coffee, which I enjoyed.

You’ve probably noticed that my diet now consists of eggs and meat. Being away from home can be a challenge. In most places, I usually find a steak or something similar. The challenge is the cost of the meals.

Scotch fillet steak

Fluffy omelette

TWO 88 — Lamb loin chops

TWO 88 — Sirloin steak

This week features management and leadership meetings with my fellow senior executive service colleagues and all the executive-level colleagues from my work group. These meetings will incorporate the personality assessments we all recently completed.

Last week was flat-out and fatiguing. Work extended into the evenings on a few days. At the same time, there were some highlights.

On Wednesday evening, the Queensland men’s rugby league team defeated the New South Wales team in game one of this year’s State of Origin Series. I got myself ready by eating lamb loin chops. The fat from the lamb lubricated my throat, which I anticipated would become hoarse from screaming at the TV. Unfortunately, I had to pay attention to a work-related matter and mute the TV.

Lamb chops — Footy food

On Thursday evening, the Queensland women’s rugby league team defeated the NSW team in game two of this year’s State of Origin Series. The third game in Townsville will be an exciting decider. I got myself ready by eating beef short rib meat with an egg.

Beef short ribs — footy food

This victory was sweeter because the women’s team won in Newcastle on Queensland Day. On Thursday, Queensland celebrated its 165^th birthday.

Physically, this week, I got out and walked for about 40 minutes each afternoon (apart from Wednesday because of work). My current weight is in a steady state. Having been clinically obese most of my life, I now weigh what I did when I ended high school in the early 1980s.

It’s been quite a journey. In the early 2000s, I was morbidly obese and had a body mass index of 35. Following the Atkins Diet, I lost about 25% of my weight. Over the next 20 years, my weight fluctuated, and most of the time, I was overweight/clinically obese.

Last year, I started with the CSIRO TWD and lasted for about six months. I then transitioned to a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. These diets helped me get about six kilograms off and close to a healthy BMI. I’m now mostly eating animal products. By this, I mean eggs, cream, butter, and meat. I don’t know how long I’ll eat like this. It is restrictive, and at the same time, it’s liberating. I like the fact that I’m not wasting food. When I buy a head of lettuce, cabbage, or cauliflower, some of it gets wasted. The same is true for produce like spring onions and parsley. If I buy minced beef, I eat all of it. I eat all of the steak or lamb chops. Even a tough cut like beef chuck gets consumed completely.

If you look at the chart, you’ll see a couple of lapses in recordings. Those lapses occurred because I fractured a patella and ruptured the retinaculum in August. Then, after Christmas, I dropped a blade through a foot and severed an extensor hallucis longus tendon. Both injuries required surgical repair. The recovery from my injuries required incapacitation and immobilisation.

I’ve been involved in several interview panels last month and this month. The positions are important, and it is a privilege to be involved. I’ve been working enough years to see people I recruited rise through the ranks. I look forward to being supervised by people I recruited to junior levels as they advance.

During the week, an official from the National Library of Australia invited me to be interviewed for a national oral history project. It relates to some work I had been engaged in. I’ve sought permission from my bosses, who graciously agreed for me to accept the invitation.

I’ve also participated in a workplace personality evaluation as part of the regular management learning and development processes. I’ve participated in these processes before, but the consultants have used a different tool each time. While the tools are different, the approaches have been much the same. I’m asked to answer many questions, which are then analysed. I get sent the computer-generated results before an interview with a consultant trained in the tool. The results I’ve received are not unexpected. I am aware of my personality profile. I have an interview with a consultant this week.

Until the next entry. Bye for now.

Wagyu scotch fillet steak

Greetings.

This domain isn’t new; however, this blog is.

I’ve removed all the posts and media that used to sit in this domain. I’ve transferred the domain to WordPress.com. Managing a self-hosted site was initially fun but became expensive and complicated.

My intention with this blog is to record some personal highlights that are safe to share.

In 2024, we’ve seen breaches in personal and private information security and accompanying identity fraud. It’s unlikely that I’m going to share too many details. It’s also unlikely I’ll touch on some sensitive areas.

Please note that I’ve added a disclaimer to this blog too.

I don’t want to use this blog to journal life’s “big” issues. It’s more for the routine, so I have a record. My memory is poor, and details often escape me. I never used to be like this. In my twenties and thirties, I could remember details and recall conversations I would have with people. These days, I can barely remember what I’ve eaten for meals in the preceding days.

As it turns out, this blog post was written on Saturday 1 June 2024. A good date for starting something new. It was the first day of a month and the official start of winter in Australia.

After grocery shopping this morning, I walked along the beach. I’ve now got a track which takes me 40 minutes. For me, this means I walk about 4 kilometres.

Breakfast was eggs cooked in butter and lunch was some beef mince cooked in the air fryer.

I did some work this afternoon and listened to the No Such Thing as a Fish podcast.

For tea, I cooked an Australian wagyu scotch fillet steak.

I hope you had a good first day of June and winter (since it’s the official start of winter in Australia).