Random observations:

There are storms in Sydney, too. The wind goes CRAZY.

Craig and Suzzi went for a wedding on an island. It rained. I wonder if Craig actually brought his wet weather gear like he said he should.

Tara has lost her shyness around Bun. They are playing now. I'm not quite so good with kids. I have no idea how to play with them. (Come to think of it, I don't think I knew how to play with kids even when I was a kid. Hmm ...)

Inland Australia in the summer is Singapore without the aircon.

You could sail here in lycra and shorts. You'd have to be mad to depend on the weather being in the 30s and the wind staying below gear 3 strength, though. (All the same, I think it's nearly perfect. So far, cold hasn't been an issue. *touch wood*)

Traffic in Sydney is worse than in Singapore. No kidding - we had a two hour long commute today. Ouch.

I miss our training buddies. Seanny and Joel, come along soon!

Courtesy of my LJ friend Mags and her link to this.

...

There are No Stupid Questions. But there a LOT of Inquisitive Idiots.

Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99% perspiration, which is why engineers sometimes smell really bad.

With focus, dedication and steroids, men can achieve impossible dreams. Like breaking a world record. Or growing their own breasts. (Heh, like Jono?)

Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now.

Minds are like parachutes. Just because you've lost yours doesn't mean you can borrow mine.

When birds fly in the right formation, they need only exert half the effort. Even in nature, teamwork results in collective laziness.

If you want to get to the top, prepare to kiss a lot of the bottom. (Now this one seems particularly true of the world today!)

It takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but it doesn't take any to just sit there with a dumb look on your face.

We promote family values here - almost as often as we promote family members.

It is a curious thing, that the busier we get, the narrower our view of the world seems to become, as though the thoughts of things to be done form tangible clutter forming blinkers to obscure from our mind's eyes everything except the single moment in front of us.

I'd forgotten this was coming out this year.

And this one was out (here) last month but I never found the time to get to the cinema. (Though it might just end up on the plane at the end of the year, if I'm lucky.)

I was walking across the carpark and the crows were cawing to the gloomy morning. One funny little bird was going, Whee-hoo, whee-hoo.

When that soft bird-whistle became more intense, I turned to find a VERY BIG BIRD behind me.

Well, not really. It was just Brett whistling at me to get my attention.

He sounded so much like a bird, though!

Growl, growl, growl.

That's not grumpy me, that's just my stomach.

Who'd think that eating could be so difficult?

Nothing says 'summer's over!' as well as coming home to find the sun setting half an hour earlier than you're used to. There aren't many other ways to mark the change of the seasons hereabouts.

Drivers here haven't improved in my two-week sojourn away from home. One nearly ran me down as he (or she, I didn't manage to catch the license plate, let alone the gender) horned his way into a left turn while I tried to go straight.

Sometimes I wish I had a flashing neon sign to put on my backpack that says:

KEEP CLEAR
OR FACE $5000 FINE

Or 2 YEARS JAIL. Or something like that, anyway. Think that would make drivers take notice and stop trying to turn us into roadkill?

Speaking of driving, there was a very amusing sign at the driving test centre I saw that announced very politely that we were to (and I quote)

please collect your temparory licienses

from some office or another.

Sounds like some species of bacteria, if you ask me.

This isn't a bad thing. Pesto is good!

However, having it spill in a bag is maybe not such a good thing. Fortunately it was stored in a waterproof compartment.

It is now twenty past 11, still a long way in my day of trying to keep awake so I won't end up jet-lagged the whole week. Once you get in the habit of sleeping until noon it is terribly difficult to break. So I must stay up until the evening before I allow myself to crash until the next morning.

Simply put, all those hours you gain flying west = more sleep going there and less sleep coming back.

If I allow myself to sleep around 8, that's 8 and a half more hours to keep going. How on earth do those Subaru Imprezza Challenge people do it?