loading . . . Weekly Notes 12/2026 ### What's been happening
It's my birthday week - I took a couple of days off and chilled at home. But before that, last Sunday was one of the most anticipated days as Linkin Park was playing live in Sydney. As with a lot more folks of my age, I grew up listening to a lot of Linkin Park. Today's youth have probably forgotten the days of music channels which actually played _music_ - Channel V/MTV would play a lot of Linkin Park's hits from Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Apart from that, one of my schoolmates had a CD of Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory album, and he would get it and play it in the gym we used to go to. So to kick off workout listening to Points of Authority was quite the start for a workout.
With that background, yeah was really looking forward to listen to them live, and they didn't disappoint. Linkin Park was supported by Polaris, a Sydney-based metalcore band. The crowd appreciated them - but to be honest, metalcore and growling isn't something that gets me going so I don't have any opinions on them. Linkin Park, however, were great. The performance was fabulous. The performance was split into four acts, each act kicking off with a small sample of their songs with a sample of Castle of Glass. They had some spectacular lasers and light shows. Emily was still struggling with her voice (Linkin Park had to cancel their Adelaide gig because of illness) but she delivered when it mattered.
One of the most unique songs was when they asked a fan to yell out a number which corresponded to different ways to play a song.. and this ended up being a disco version of... Numb. It was a disco start to Numb, one that was done well. All in all, really good evening, one that we enjoyed. We also ended up buying a tshirt each and this fantastic vinyl of the latest album, From Zero
From Zero Vinyl
Come next couple of days, we had two different plumber visits - one to inspect the major toilet leak and the other was a scheduled visit from Sydney Water to do water audit. The two visits were because we were kinda worried the toilet leak would have major issues, given we were having troubles with both the toilets. Anyway, with both plumbers coming on different days, they checked out all of our taps, shower heads, toilets and I ended up replacing two taps, four shower mixers (they all had cross-thread issues and were pretty old). The new ones are all quarter-turners, so they do only a quarter of a circle rotation and that eliminates the cross-threading issues. We knew this was to be done, just was hoping to take it up much later as we were budgeting for the battery install.
My swimming class went well. For this class, I finally bought the swimming goggles and what a difference those have been. I still can't swim for shit but being able to see underwater meant that it was easier to keep calm and try to reorient myself. I am finding incremental improvements week-by-week so for now, practice continues. The gym sessions were good too. Squats and bench presses continue, with now doing sets of 3 reps of 80kg on the back squat and hitting another new PB of 65kg on the bench press for 1RM. I did try to do 68kg, but that was a fail.
That was about it for the week, I took the Thursday and Friday off for my birthday. For my birthday gift, I got the wonderful news of yet another rate increase, which means our mortgage goes up again, twice in less time than we've paid our first two installments. Such is life, I am very grateful to be in the privileged position to write that. I'm not big for birthday celebrations, so for my birthday I just chilled at home doing some chores. On the Friday, Jo took the day off as well and we went out for a breakfast followed by catching Project Hail Mary at IMAX. Here's a small write up on how the day went.
Happy birthday to me!
On the Saturday, we decided to do a day trip to Blue Mountains. I wrote up separately on that as well.
Our video on the day trip to Katoomba
Sunday was mostly chores day - we got the clothes dried out, Jo cleared some of the weeds in the garden and I finally got to cataloguing some of the vinyls Jo had thrifted over the past few weeks
Some of the thrifted vinyls
### What I've been playing
Path of Exile - I finally got to finish off Path of Exile campaign with my minion build and now just starting off with the maps. I'm not enjoying the maps and I might just stop playing the build. The Steam Spring Sale is on as well and I bought some games that have been on my waitlist for long and now discounted
* Gravel
* CarX Drift Racing Online
* Megabonk
### What we watched
Project Hail Mary - After I listened to the ebook and found out there was a movie coming, I'd been waiting quite eagerly for this. And happy to report the movie was pretty good. Project Hail Mary is a faithful adaptation of the book. I found that the movie focuses more on the mid-part of the book. The start and especially the end feels pretty rushed. That said, looking back at my initial thoughts of the book, I mentioned I found the start a bit of a drag. Getting the balance of too much vs too little is hard, so I can understand why the decision was done. It didn't affect me much, Jo thought it was a bit weird to see Grace's character stand up and climb ladders a few minutes into the movie when he's just out from coma while the book goes through a few chapters before he is mobile. I also noticed there aren't as many flashbacks compared to what the book had so it can be a bit confusing or unclear on what's happening.
About the negatives - I thought Grace's character has more humour injected than the book where he is pretty serious. Ryan Gosling does do a great adaptation as a goofball, seeing the stark contrast as compared to the book is jarring. I think I finally get why book lovers don't like adaptations of their favorite novels. For me, I think the biggest flaw is Stratt and how little time she gets. When I told Jo "Stratt is barely visible" - her reaction she's like who's Stratt. That sums up how little she is shown/introduced. All said, the movie is worthy of a watch and you won't feel the runtime of 2.5 hours is a drag. Just be prepared to turn off your brain when the movie goes from _this is plausible now_ to _yeah no way_.\
### What we ate
Haven, Darling Quarter - For my birthday, prior to watching the movie, we were looking for a place near IMAX. After a quick glance at different options available, we chose Haven Coffee in Darling Quarter to grab breakfast. Haven are known for their coffee and bagels, so no surprise we ordered them. Their Blueberry bagel was sold out, we ordered an Avo & Cucumber bagel (with chimichurri sauce) and Chicken Yuzu Bagel, with Jo getting her traditional almond flat white and me my cappuccino. We split the bagels and went for the avo & cucumber bagel first, assuming the chicken bagel to be the more palatable of the two. Surprise, surprise, the avo & cucumber bagel was the better of the two. The coffees were fabulous and some of the best we had - no wonder it has such a high rating.
The Dingo Cafe, Katoomba - After reaching Katoomba, we stopped by The Dingo Cafe to grab something to eat. We ordered the Chicken Pesto for Jo and the Reuben sandwich for me, and cappuccinos to drink. The food was pretty good - the sandwiches came on Turkish bread which were absolutely fluffy. No complaints on the coffee - not the best that we've had but nothing terrible. The place is pretty open and has a lot of tables so it's a good place to come and sit down.
### Music of the Week
John Butler's The Way Back is one of my favourites from his PRISM album and now there's a music video of the same. Absolutely smashing lyrics and fabulous instrumental work.
### Link of the week
Trucking with CJ has two nice vlogs on driving a road train from Gold Coast to Bathurst as well as a POV on race week of the Bathurst 12 hour race. Good watch!
### Thanks for reading.
Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead. https://sathyabh.at/weekly-notes-12-2026/
