Author Archives: countstex

50 Year Service Checkup

A graph showing a weight loss of 8.1kgs over April, May and half of June for the year 2024.
One quarter down, another to go.

I turned 50 this year. It was back in February now (I’m writing this in June 2024) so nothing too new, although I did feel this one more than 40. 40 felt just like another 30 really, another milestone but double that is still only 80 and there’s a decent chance I’ll make it to that unless a major incident turns up, my dad is 81 this year and still going strong. 50 though, double that is 100 and that’s a less likely outcome, meaning there’s a rather large chance I’ve already lived more than half my life. Okay, so the first few years are out of memory and 5-15 is getting a bit hazy, so in terms of what I can actually remember maybe not quite so close, but you can’t argue with numbers!


But thoughts of long term mortality aside this was also the year I got called in for the old 50,000-mile service check, which was brought up at my ‘yearly’ Asthma check up that I last had in 2018, ahem.
For the most part things were good, even the blood sugar which I had feared might be a problem was within the bounds. My cholesterol however was a different story. It was already high at the last blood test in 2018, and four years later things have only worsened, with my level being up to 4.9 on whatever scale that uses. The limit at which one should start on medication is 5.0, so I had a choice to make; start taking the pills to control it or get my weight and exercise regime in order. Now I’ve nothing against drugs when they are needed, but if one can avoid such an outcome it’s always preferable, and so I find myself with six months to ‘have a go’ before a new round of bloods.


To be fair my weight had gotten out of control since around Covid time maxing out at 125kgs, though the usual process of losing during the summer working months and reclaiming the fat over the winters was still in play. Apparently I should be closer to 80 according to most charts, although last time I hit 90, many years ago now, everyone started saying I shouldn’t lose more, but still that’s a long way from 125!

Cutting out the saturated fats was not so much of an issue. Most of what we eat was pretty lean anyway, so it’s mainly been the chocolate bars and biscuits that I’ve had to knock on the head, which has been a tough one for a grazer like me. Now it’s all nuts and protein snacks, and for the most part just eating a normal amount of calories as opposed to the 3000ish I guess I must have been eating to maintain that outlandish weight. Oh and oats, lots of oats, and peanut butter on apples slices, all quite tasty things as it turns out, so no real hardship there.


Exercise-wise things took a while to get going. The suggested heart rate zone is around 150bpm for a man of my age and on the first day this involved lightly jogging for a few minutes and then walking to get the rate down again, such was my level of (un)fitness. Thankfully though it appeared my heart’s ability to tone up outstripped my other muscles as within a couple of weeks I was struggling to get my legs to keep going long enough to keep the heart rate up. Eventually though things evened out, and I even managed to ‘run’ a 5K without pauses or slowdowns for,I believe, the first time in my life.


3 months in and I’m down over 8kgs. Whether or not that’s actually having an effect on my LDL score obviously remains to be seen, but the fact I can actually sustain a bpm of 150 for a good half hour now has to be a decent sign of heart health, which is what it’s all about at the end of the day.

A rather quiet year for Svaneke Shooting Clubs annual “Team Shooting Event”

This year’s “Gennemsnit” winners were “Aktiv Kvinder”

We only had 8 teams take part this year, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves. The atmosphere was still there and the awards ceremony pretty well attended compared to last year even with 5 fewer teams.

We Were Here Too

After finally finish off the Grounded 1.0 update, we decided to move onto a smaller but just as fun adventure in the follow-up to a game we played a year back, We Were Here Too. These games (there are three of them available, with a forth on the way) are quite unique, requiring two players to communicate the part of the world they are experiencing via voice only over an in-game walkie-talkie. Given that we play on side by side machines, this take a bit of extra will power to pull off, but we are pretty good at holding to it for the first of our two play-throughs. Once we get to the final run(s) to pick up the final achievement, we relax that a little.

The puzzle solving involved is not entirely unlike an escape room experience, which we have a particular fondness for both from actual escape rooms and their board game equivalents. And while there are quite a few games that can provide that these days, there is still something unique in the approach taken by Total Mayhem Games with these titles.

Now we still have We Were Here Together to play through before we start the wait for We Were Here Forever, which is due for release in January 2023 and is already available on PC.

Bump in the road

Not so wise

Continuing our adventures with Pathfinder Card Game we’ve been struggling to overcome the approach to Thistletop. Neither of our characters is particularly wise, and so far we’ve not managed to pick up many allies or items that can boost those stats. So when the adventure has two locations that require a wisdom check to close, even temporarily, it’s real hard to get that final villain put to rest.

Of course it dind’t help our first attemt that I forgot to actually add the villian to the decks, and only loaded henchmen, but still, we’ve had some real bad luck when it counted. But we are not to be put off so easily, this will be overcome in the end and we can actually finally get to chapter two for the first time. It will be interesting to see just how much things change up with a whole new batch of cards coming into the mix.