The last couple of days have been busy in terms of interaction. On Monday we a virtual drinks session via Zoom with our niece. This went well, apart from a slight mishap involving their son and a chair leg. This was quickly resolved off camera, however, and the meeting resumed afterwards. Yesterday morning I also had a teleconsult with my psychiatrist (I needed a renewed authority to be supplied with my ADD medication). This was followed in about half an hour by another Zoom meeting.

The latter, my second Zoom get-together, was a group exercise session delivered by my exercise physiologist Lauren. She dispensed both workout instructions and technical support with her usual aplomb. There were five aging participants — as Shakespeare would say, her subjects we — although that is usually under fair control. All applied ourselves to the physical and technological challenges. The session was quite a lift, as was the opportunity to chat briefly to my oncology exercise buddies. I used to go to a Thursday morning class in RL, but am intending to keep up the Tuesday morning meetings as well from now. If any such opportunities come your way, my advice is — get set up, and give them a go! Forgive the cliché, but we are all social animals. I find these virtual contacts make a fair-size hole in the quarantine wall. 

Having grown perhaps overconfident after this experience, I suggested to my ex-RMIT buddies that the face-to-face coffee morning we used to have each month in 3D could be transferred to Zoom. My email turned into a bit of a magnum opus — writing a procedure again, after five years. They were undeterred by my prolixity, though, and many were interested to explore a virtual meeting further. So I set one up this morning, crossed my fingers, and sent them out the meeting invitation. (My earlier instructions were probably superfluous, given that the recipients are all capable retired library folk. But they allow me an occasional bit of mansplaining.) 

My beloved and I have just been for our walk, in which we racked up nearly 4 kilometres. (Incidental exercise over the rest of the day will get me easily past that mark.) We took our usual route up to Wattle Park, which like most such includes an oval. The last time or so that we we did this walk, we counted the steps around the circumference of the oval. A circuit takes 600-odd steps, equating to 0.46 of a kilometre;  two times around obviously gets you pretty close to a kilometre.

The reason for all these calculations is that my beloved wants to maintain and step up (sorry) her aerobic exercise. I do a circuit of the oval with her, then either do some stretches or just read my messages, while she does a second circuit for a bit of HIIT. For those new to this, High Intensity Interval Training has been around for a few years. It involves alternating moderate speed exercise with short bursts of going flat out. This is supposed to be very time efficient, i.e. one can achieve a bigger training effect with this type of exercise than with the same amount of time at a constant speed. (There is quite a research base behind this claim, apparently.) While I was participating in the ACU research study a few months ago, I started each session with about 20 minutes of HIIT cardio. Since then I have lost a bit of condition, but I intend in future to accompany my beloved on this second circuit. (She leaves me in the dust at present — not that it’s a competition — OK, it is.)

Off to my GP tomorrow for some prescription renewals. I had hoped to have a flu and pneumonia shot while at the practice, but they have none. I rang a nearby pharmacist, but it was the same story there. Apparently the vaccine is in short supply — everyone is waiting on deliveries. The GP practice has me on a wait list.