The first of August

Time certainly flies.

It's such a surreal time. The Delta variant of COVID-19 is unleashing havoc on a number of countries. New Zealand is relatively unscathed so far... no community transmission.

Today is the start of the last month of winter. We almost had snow early last month due to a polar blast. Hailstones disrupted everyone's sleep at 2AM, then we had a light flurry of snow (or snowflakes?) but was not substantial enough to last like 10 years before.

We had a major flood in the South Island, and there's flooding in Europe. There was an earthquake last month in the Philippines, If there are people still denying the existence of climate change then they must be living in a bunker somewhere.

With everything that's happening around the globe, you'd think that priorities would have been realigned at this stage.

On the upside, 2020 Olympics in Tokyo is ongoing, which gives people something to look forward to besides the pandemic and the natural (?) disasters.

***

On a personal note, what do I think of the past 7 months of 2021? With the borders of the country pretty much closed, we don't have overseas visitors so it would have been the perfect time to see more of the country. We did travel in the early part of the year, and a South Island trip last June, and those were awesome experiences, but I feel that I haven't been at home much to make any difference with renovations and such. The cold winter wasn't any help either with getting things done. I wanted to do a lot of things, and yet I find my weekends filled up and no time to do other stuff. *sigh*

This month I'd like to pick up the ukulele and start playing again. I aim to do so at least once a week. Overcommitting is not healthy so I'll set it to a low standard and see how I go from there.

***

Last weekend Christine and I went to the park for skateboarding. This is just my second time to skateboard and I enjoyed the last time so I decided to go for it again. Who knows, it can be a new hobby. I fell on my butt once but I was fine, and I almost stumbled a couple of times. But there was this instance when I sped up too fast and I had to slow down real quick. I slammed my right foot onto the pavement and wham! a sharp pain shot up from my foot up to my knee. I managed to slow down but the pain persisted and I had to go limping to the side. There's no swelling so I did not have it checked. I can still walk but the pain would surface when I twist my right leg a particular way, and when I also have to stretch out my right foot when I slip off my shoes. I'm not getting any younger I guess. I might have to settle for the ukulele or board games (I still find it expensive!) as my hobby.