another beautiful day in paradise

I've been feeling somewhat frumpy about Australia - or rather Australians - or rather Sydneysiders - or rather Sydneysiders inability to drive - of late. However, this morning was one of those magical mornings that make all the grumbles go away. It has been a cracker.

Up early and started the day with the lovely task of shoveling dog shit into a bucket for transportation to the end of the garden. The garden had a shitty smell yesterday that I thought was dog turds but I now think is fertiliser from next door's garden. Anyway, the job needed doing and is now done; though already there are two fresh turds in place.

Next action was to prepare the camera and pack the dive gear because I was going diving, despite the tightness in the guts suggesting that maybe I shouln't. Pah. I got to Keyhole at 08:50 and waited a few minutes for Vince and Justin to arrive. I'd had a brief chat to a diver returning from the water and he said visibility was ordinary at 3-4metres. That news triggered debate among the three of us; do we dive, do we head straight for breakfast? Luckily Vince remained strong and convinced us that we-are-going-for-a-fucking-dive. I am not not diving in this weather (typically gorgeous.) And right he was, and dive we did. Over to the divelog if you'd like to read about it.

Cracking dive complete we had a brief breakfast location discussion and then headed for North Bondi. Coffee and pancakes with good company and a view out over Ben Buckler. Marvelous. Clear skies, a bit of surf and beautiful people (just like us!) On the way back to the cars we passed Richard E. Grant eating outside of a cafe a few doors from the one we eaten in. Also saw a Bentley Continental GT cruising up and down looking for a parking space. Famous actors having to sit outside, flash motors with no parking spots, hah! Sunday in Bondi is a great leveller.

I took a couple of pics of old art deco units as I went back to the car. I like the architecture of Bondi. It retains a fair stock of older art deco units that are easy on the eye. I wonder how long they will last before the march of progress replaces them with glass and concrete boxes? No doubt these old places are falling apart, are drafty and therefore bad for the environment as they mean higher heating bills. But they have a character that is nice and marks the place out from other seaside towns that are already modernised and homogenised. But folks like me probably bemoaned the replacement of whatever came before with these art deco places, so maybe it ain't so bad.

Sports flash! On SBS this afternoon I watched.

FA Permier League Classic Matches. Classic Matches series one: Everton versus Wimbledon, 1993-1994.

OK, so the result was not what I wanted, but Wimbledon - the real one - on the tele in Aus! And memories of the season in which we finished 6th.

Right, I'm done for today. Fucking piss-poor internet access with speeds jumping all over the shop. Thanks Optus.