Wow, what a busy day yesterday was! We had both slept in a bit, so my beloved skipped the walk and got straight down to work after breakfast. (I got my walk in, listening to ABC Classic on my Blluetooth headphones.) A second coffee was my reward, and the rest of the morning passed with doing three loads of washing, making myself some lunch, and similar domesticity.

In the afternoon I had a scheduled teleconsultation with Dale, one of the exercise physios from the practice where I did my exercise classes. As part of the package, so to speak, they had provided me with a gym session via the PhysiApp platform. This allows the exercise physio to design me a program, complete with videos showing the proper form for each exercise, and the capability for me to enter my data each time I work through the program. So Dale just modified some of these exercises in order that I could perform them with the equipment I have at home. We were able to speak to each other via my phone through the PhysiApp app. (I had to get out my headphones so that I could hear her properly, but these worked really well.) She could see whether I was doing everything correctly and provide feedback. The call was a bit interrupted, as first my phone started running out of battery, then her laptop! The connection was restored, however, and its objectives completed. Assuming I keep doing them, these exercises will allow me to maintain condition while I am confined to barracks. 

(The physio practice also uses Zoom in order to allow other class members in the same situation to have a virtual exercise session, during which they can see and hear each other. This occurs at the time in which the class was held in RL. I’m not sure whether I will do this tomorrow, but I probably will in future. It’s good to keep in touch with the fellas as and when possible.)

Communications were running hot yesterday! When my beloved had knocked off for the day, she rang our super fund to get some information about some of her investments that had dropped alarmingly. After a fairly lengthy phone discussion, we had a pow-wow about what the information with which we had just been supplied.

Basically, our balances are about where they were eighteen months ago. As we had read elsewhere, the bottom of the market is never a good time to sell out. Fortunately, super contributors in Australia now (as of a couple of days ago) have the option to reduce their minimum pension draw down from 5% to 2.5%. It seemed a good idea to be emptying the bathtub a bit more slowly. The relevant form to accomplish this was emailed to her to be filled in and returned. (Other changes could be made via the fund web site.) We may have to make some adjustments to my pension as well; again, this is something I can do online. These phone calls and discussions took a fair time, but it was a very worthwhile exercise in that we now have a much better grip on what our best course of action is in the current financial situation. 

I needed some “me” time after all this interaction! After a sit in the study I made us some dinner, and we watched State of Play on Stan. This was a British thriller, made in 2003, about a parliamentarian caught up in a mysterious murder plot — you get the drift. The cast is very good, though; John Sim, David Morrissey, the wonderful Bill Nighy, and Philip Glenister, who seems to specialise in seedy, grumpy detectives. We probably saw it on free to air, but if so, it was 17 years ago! All the London locations are very atmospheric, and the dialogue up to Beeb standards. After all the excitement I slept rather poorly, so am happy to have had a quiet day today.