happy Mondays

A title bearing little relevance to the text, but I was struggling for inspiration. Yesterday was among the dullest work days I have endured. IBM continue to frustrate me by not delivering servers and I have got my event horizon of looking busy. Beyond here lies catatonia. I struggled through until two in the afternoon, some of that struggle made more struggly due to Sunday's beer and wine. Then I headed out for a run. Instead of the standard Botanical Gardens/Domain I headed down to Circualr Quay, under the Bridge and around the back of the rocks and the newly restored piers in what I think is called Walsh Bay. Quite nice and - shock - quite flat. At last, a flatish run. Another highlight was my rediscovering one of the oldest pubs in Sydney, one that I believe has been used in a few movies and TV shows and one I should definitely have taken my bro to when he was here. It is caled the Palisade Hotel, sits on top of a hill overlooking what I still think is called Walsh Bay. It is an old red brick federation place with equally old wooden bits. It looks as if it has not changed in a hundred years. Though I'm not sure if it is actually that old. I had a drink there years ago, stumbling across it while on a bike ride around the City. I now remember thinking I'll have to remember this place and I of course I forgot all about it. I'll have to rememeber it this time.

The best thing about going to lunch at two is that I get back, coffee in hand, at a little after three and I leave at five. While waiting as my coffee was prepared I ws fortunate enough to be in front of a TV screen that was running through hat seemed to be a Shane Warne bowling masterclas. Sigh. A bespectacled, woolly haired rotund gent who I would put money on working in IT gasped 'you have got to see this' to which my English accented response was 'I would really rather not.' Three nil. Bollocks. I was looking forward to watching the whole series, but t seems somewhat pointless now, whatever happens. The Ashes is all about winning, losig or retaining and we've lost. I don't care if we get thumped 5-0 because that makes no difference to the series and I therefore don't anticipate being at all interested in the next couple of tests. As with the England hordes at the World Cup in Germany it is the travelling masses that 'deserve' better. But maybe if we started wininng stuff our support would not be as good/entertaining/whatever? Another sigh.

Sal got home from the work having handed her notice in, we polished off the remains of Sunday's baked dinner and then, with no thrilling finale to an absorbing third test for me to watch, we headed out to explore our new neighbourhood. The part of the neighbourhood we explored was the nature reserve that runs form Willoughby Leisure Centre - more on that in a moment - down towards Middle Harbour by winding through Flat Rock Gully. Loads of vegetation and a stream running (well, limping after so little rain) through the gully. We spotted three decent size lizards on top of a flat rock that you could convince me the gully was named after. We heard kookaburras laughing and at the end of the walk saw a group of galahs grazing behind the leisure centre, two of which seemed ot be going through a very noisy matin ritual. Naturetastic! I will be back with a camera. I clicked a couple of shots of trees with bark patterns that camo gear may be based upon. Very cool.

The path down through the gully is twisting and narrow, steep in places, mainly dirt and tree roots with a few flights of stone steps hacked straight out of the bedrock. The gully has quite rocky sides with the vegetation clinging to what cannot be espcially thick topsoil. It amazes me that Australian flora manages to cling successfully to so little. We were passed by a few runners on the way down; I will be tackling the gully in the near future as a cross country hill run. Apparently it is a 4km trip to the Harbour, and also apparently the stream can become impassable after heavy rain. Unlikely anyone in he next few generations will be around to see that. Well, according to Al Gore. At the bottom, on the other side of the stream, we saw a couple of mountian bikers. If the path they - pressumably - rode down is anything like the path we - definitely - walked down then respect is due. Balls far bigger than brains. They were in full-face helmets and the front suspension on their bikes was fairly industrial. They certainly looked the part.

We walked back the way we came, and as we did I tried to work out how somone on a bike would tackle the uphill and concluded they probably wouldn't. We passed the galahs and then went into the leisure centre where we collected a couple of free passes that last a whole month. How good is that? The guy on the front desk was a bit of a legend. He gave s the run down on prices and let us in for a look around. A well equipped gym, a decent sized pool and a huge open gym area, like the ones you see in US college movies and early Britney Spears videos. Well, one video. We will be making good use of the leisure centre, especially as it is a 5min stroll from our front door. And treadmills mean running on a nice flat spongy surface, perfect when I'm feeling lazy.

I was fading fast at the end of the day and expended my last energy researching LCD TVs and PC systems, coming to no great conclusion other than we want one of each. I'm pretty sure I was aslep before my head hit the pillow.