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Work is awfully dull. Generally for me that is the case and specifically now because we are awaiting the start of a huge global project. A huge global project that, at inception, had us Sydnysiders penciled in as a Centre of Excellence where a fair bit of cool work would take place. It is becoming increasingly clear that pencilled in is leading to rubbed out and, as we approach the immovable delivery date. Each passing day sems to bring fresh rumour from our lords and masters in Blighty that they will in fat, be doing all the work and well get a disc and some instructions. C'est la vie; I shoud have guessed that would happen. London head office makes Sydney a long, long way away. So that's work done.

One good thing about going to work is that it provides a handy structure upon which I can base my exercise. The week past I walked, rode and ran to work and ran thee out of five lunch times. Stupidest was Thursday when, in the heat of the day, I decided to do some step work to strengthen my legs. Why run on the flat when you can climb and reclimb flights of steps betwen 50 an 108 strong. So I headed out into the 90% humidity high twenties clear blue sky afternoon and found a various steps and came as close as I have for a long while to puking. Still, it was good exercise. On Friday I had a day of rest.

On Friday I went back to see Doc Geoff the Ophthalmologist because me right eye felt, and still feels a bit odd. It was my right eye that gave me so much grief back in late 2006 and I have no desire for a repeat of that malarky so I went, he took a look and there is nothing wrong. Remove that weight from the mind. By the time I got back to work it was near enough mid day and, well, Friday, so n a lot of work actually got done. Rested, I was ready for Saturday's bush run.

An ex-colleague of Sal's had invited us to his place for a BBQ and dip in the pool. He lives in St. Ives, near the end of a bush trail I am familiar and is, via that trail, near as dammit 10 miles from us. Perfect. So after walking and swimming the dogs at Clive Park, my new favourite dog-spot, I filled a water bottle and headed off. Thinking the run could take a couple of hours, and the BBQ was an arrive around midday or so affair, I left at 10:45, by which time it was already rather warm.



The trail heads north from Roseville Bridge and is fairly flat as it follows watercourses. In places it is quite technical as the trail is narrow and, with the tide high, I had to go up and around in a few places where the straight ahead was under water. Running through valleys I got very little breeze, and as I sweated my arse out I consoled myself that this was a good conditioning run that would prepare me well for the upcoming Six Foot Marathon. It was very sticky. But it was very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it ad it took a little over 90minutes to complete the initial 6km road section and 10km bush track.

The most interesting aspect of the run was a large splash. Running a particularly narrow section of trail alongside a shallow (maybe 2ft deep) creek I heard a largish splash that suggested I'd disturbed something. The creek had a nice tree canopy and relatively dense undergrowth on the banks and neither before nor after the splash did I hear either being disturbed. So, I took that to mean that the thing making the splash started very close to or in the water and remained very close to or in the water afterwards. I stopped, peered at the water, scanned the banks and saw nothing. So, I am guessing that I disturbed either a large Eastern Water Dragon or a small bull shark. But hold on, as I googled bull shark roseville I found a chat forum in which a poster says that tiger sharks breed in the river. And there are bull sharks too. So, y'never know. Don't think I'll be taking a dip to cool off...although it is a long time since Marcia Hathaway died, the last person to die from a shark attack in middle Harbour. No evening swims for the boys between dec and feb, methinks...

As an aside...the bloke who was attacked by a shark at Bondi; bollocks, as it turned out. Glad I'm not the surf lifesaver quoted as saying his injuries were definitely shark-inflicted. Turns out Scott Wright (may as well name him) injured his arm when it went through a pane of glass. He's now in jail. Hint; if you've nicked a load of stuff you really should not attract too much attention to yourself. Dickhead.

Where I did take a dip was in Mike's pool. Very refreshing too. We ate, I drank gallons of water and we played with the kids (x2) when they were not busy terrorising Rumpole, who was allowed along. He was allowed in the pool too. The BBQ was all very domestic and nice and not a thing I'll blog much about. Back to the run news...I downed about a litre and half of water on the run, loads at the BBQ and still didn't pee for seven hours. Back to the Gatorade methinks...