Monday 25 April to Sunday 1 May 2022 was the third of three short weeks which had been caused by the public holidays. I spent the entire week in isolation with COVID-19. Hurrah!
The ’rona had actually hit me in strength on the Sunday, 24 April, with a sharp sore throat and a chunky cough, but a rapid antigen test (RAT) came back negative, as has a routine one the day before. But Monday’s returned positive and the symptoms were just as bad.
Each day this week has seen the symptoms gradually decline, and as I write this on Sunday evening it feels about the same as I feel most weekends. I never lost any sense of taste, and the aches and pains were relatively minor. Even the fatigue was about the as usually inflicts me.
Overall I think I’ve been lucky. How good are vaccines!
Podcasts
- The 9pm Election Unhinging: Week the Third, recorded and posted on Thursday. There’s still a reasonable amount of material, even with all the coughing fits edited out.
The 9pm Edict is supported by the generosity of its listeners, and the election mini-series is outside my planned budget because I am an idiot. You can always subscribe for special benefits or throw a few coins into the tip jar. Please consider.
Articles
- REVEALED: Where is the Hill of Dead Pets? Then answer was finally posted on Saturday night. If you still want to try the challenge you can, because the original A challenge: Where is the Hill of Dead Pets? contains no spoilers.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Photos
- The photos in the Waratah sequence 2021 now span 243 days, or a total of seven months from when there were flower buds on 1 September 2021. When will it ever end?
Videos, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
Recommendations
- Hung parliaments: Time to hang up on this piece of political-speak. Bruce Guthrie agrees with what I said in this week’s podcast.
- The Collateral Damage of Queen Elizabeth’s Glorious Reign, being The New Yorker’s review of Tina Brown’s new book The Palace Papers.
- How Electricity Actually Works, a 25-minute video which will break your brain.
- Quolls thriving in new home in South Australia’s Gammon Ranges, early signs show.
- If you’d like to completely ruin your faith in humanity, follow the Twitter account Chaotic Nightclub Photos.
- And finally, a story about geniuses at work: Panic at Israeli airport as US family packs unexploded bombshell for flight home.
The Week Ahead
Monday will probably be my first day out of COVID-19 isolation, although I’ll confirm that with a rapid antigen test first thing in the morning. If all is well, it’ll be a day of shopping to restock pretty much everything in the larder. And maybe a small drink to celebrate my freedom.
On Thursday morning I’m recording the fourth of my election special podcasts. Then I’ll head down to Sydney to catch comedian Aaron Chen at the Enmore Theatre that evening. I’ll return to the Mountains some time on Friday.
In between all that there will be more of the SEKRIT geek-work and editorial consulting, and possibly some writing for ZDNet. I’ll also organise the remaining special guest episodes of The 9pm Edict so everything gets done by the end of May.
Further Ahead
- AusCERT 2022, Gold Coast, 10–13 May 2022. I’ll take part online.
- Federal election, 21 May 2022. I’m not yet sure how I’ll mark the occasion.
- Australian Cyber Conference 2022 Canberra, Canberra, 31 May to 2 June 2022 (TBC).
- Nigel Ng’s The Haiyaa World Tour, Enmore Theatre, 9 June 2022.
- NetThing: Australia’s Internet Community Forum, online, 27–28 October 2022 (TBC).
[Photo: A COVID-19 rapid antigen test showing a positive result. This is the one that finally confirmed my infection on 25 April 2022.]