Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

A fairly standard Tuesday run - no sign of any injury trouble, although rather sluggish until the last couple of kilometres. Based around the Yarra and Merri Creek but a few more short sharp climbs than such routes sometimes have.

It was the first proper cold morning of the year, with some frost in the lower parts (and some frosted windscreens, although I didn't see anyone trying to deal with them). Didn't quite manage to hold out until the end of autumn before turning any heating on.

Off to New Zealand in the morning - spending a couple of days in the northern end of the South Island before moving on to the weekend's events.

C • Our windscreen was frozen, ... 1

A long day which, perhaps inevitably, became longer - I was planning to be up at 5 for a 6.30 flight out of Launceston but in fact woke up sometime before 4 (cross-matching with yesterday's entry will indicate that this means not very much sleep). Expected to feel awful later in the day but didn't.

Had time in the evening for a swim or a run but not both. I'd expected to be flattened by a long race yesterday, which wasn't quite to be, but still settled for a swim (also felt a bit uncomfortable walking after taking a knock on the shin yesterday, although I expect it's bruising which would have been fine running). Went to Northcote, the first time I've been there in the evening - which was a big mistake because almost all of Northcote's indoor and outdoor space is devoted to other activities on a Monday night (be it squads, lessons or water polo), and after getting kicked out of two other lanes, I then attracted the ire of someone who considered me too slow for a medium lane (quite accurately, but as the only remaining public lane I had nowhere else to go). I think I'll head elsewhere the next time I'm doing something after work.

I had not previously been aware until the activities of this charmer that using a carriage service to create offence is actually a crime (at least in NSW). I've got off surprisingly lightly in the online-abuse department but many of my scientific colleagues have not been so fortunate.

NOL Long. Went in thinking this might not be too extreme by long distance standards, given that the course stats were basically those of the World Cup course for which Jules did 89 and Simon 93. Apparent early on that it was quite junky, though, with masses of fallen timber (extra challenging given that it was still wet after the heavy rain a couple of days earlier), and even though the first few controls were mostly contouring or downhill it was tough going. Got the first three OK (not without a certain lack of confidence on 1), but lost significant time on 4, seeing a large boulder and not registering that it might be my control after going into the circle somewhat unsure - dropped 2-3 minutes there. The bad news was still to come, though - on the climb of only a couple of contours into 6 my back threw one of its occasional wobblies. Knew the next few controls were relatively flat and hoped that it would settle down, but it didn't (and in the meantime I'd dropped another minute at 9), and when the two contours into 10 were a struggle, and knowing that (a) 11 was a point of no return (b) nearly all the climb was still to come and (c) a likely finishing time was somewhere north of 2 1/2 hours, I decided that was my day done. Picked up a couple of controls on the way home.

On days like this, I'm reminded that I have made noises at various times in the last couple of years about retiring from elite long distances and maybe it's time to do it properly (although the way things went today I probably wouldn't have found an M45 long distance much easier) - not just yet, though, because I'm entered for one in NZ next weekend (it was advertised as a middle when I first entered it but I'm going to give it a go). I'm staggering towards 300 NOL appearances (currently 289), but my tally at the end of this year looks like being one lower than it might have been because I'll probably be replacing Eric as IOF event adviser for the Australian Sprint Championships. (There are worse fates than a controlling trip to Queensland in winter...).

Surprised the winning time blew out that much (Craney won in 108) - shows how much difference course design makes in an area like this. One key difference is that the really rough stuff (around 12-15) was an area which the World Cup courses traversed downhill on a (very) long leg.

No rest for the wicked: IOF teleconference from 5-11.15 (at least it didn't go to the scheduled midnight).

C • Winning time 6

Event: NOL Round 4, Race 11, / 12 (WRE), St Helens, Tasmania
 

NOL Middle on the north end of Golden Fleece - mostly pretty thick and low-visibility (and the mapped vegetation was somewhat outdated, so what was light green and white on the map wasn't a very good indication of what was what on the ground). A challenging middle distance; found it hard to run in the areas with lots of fallen timber and scrub, but technically mostly reasonable - dropped a minute at 14 in the circle, and some not-great lines. Bit disappointed that Matt Patten (who I'd got away from at 10) and Simon Rouse got through me at 14 (and Matt ended up getting the two minutes back), but did show some craftiness on the second-last by dropping low and stealing a (slight) march on the Simon/Craney train. Probably about a par result in the end, but a lot more points than par results normally get me because the field's pretty thin.

At Northcote - had to do some guesswork as to the time because there is no external clock (apart from a 60-second one). Not too bad as a session once I was in - getting used to the water temperature was OK (at 25, it's lower than normal for a public pool), and I also picked up some nasty chafing walking around in the humidity on Wednesday which was painful on first contact with water but settled down quickly.

Lunchtime run on the Tan in the middle of a day of work in which I didn't seem to get much done other than clear out and respond to a week's worth of accumulated e-mails. Reasonable run in conditions considerably less humid than what I've been used to this week. Lots of people in very old-fashioned white gowns on Southbank near the Arts Centre in what I'm assuming was some performance art of some description.

Headed down to Tasmania tonight.

Full travel day today - left the hotel in Guangzhou at 6am and was in the door at home around 10pm. Long day but everything went smoothly (apart from the roadworks coming out of the airport at the Melbourne end), and the plane was fairly empty (also seemed to be an unusually large amount of legroom so I'm wondering if I scored an upgrade of sorts). Winter has definitely arrived in my absence.

I'm around for about as long as it takes to swap one lot of gear for another (there's not an awful lot of overlap between my gear for Guangzhou and my gear for Tasmania), although I have found enough time to wash the stuff that's come home from Guangzhou - it probably wouldn't smell great by Monday otherwise.

Oddly enough, the text that Bruce sent me on Sunday with the football scores only came through when I landed back in Melbourne. Maybe the Chinese censors were upset about Lin Jong getting reported.

Significantly more humid today (the difference between a dewpoint of 21 and one of 24 is very noticeable), and I thought my original aim of 90 minutes might be a struggle, so decided to commit myself to something like 65-70 and see how I felt. Headed north and then north-west, initially through the city (under a few elevated roadways - the anti-Skyrail people wouldn't cope too well with Guangzhou, although I suspect most of them don't cope too well in general with years which start with a 2) but ending up in a nice park surrounding a lake, meaning an essentially traffic-free middle 20 minutes or so.

Coming back, I was to remind myself that a good way to see a foreign city is to get lost. On this occasion, my navigational misadventure was to hit a road running SW-NE rather than the one that I thought I was hitting, running W-E; I then couldn't make things fit the map (although as it turned out I was running on the other side of the same road I'd been on on Monday), and ended up using a Metro station to relocate. (Another few hundred metres and I'd have reached the zoo, which I certainly would have recognised). That wasn't quite the end of my route choice misadventures, as what looked like a short cut on the way back ended at a boomgate and a sign 'Military Administrative Area'; I beat a hasty retreat. Ended up getting close to the 90 minutes anyway.

Don't think I was quite getting full value for my kilometres from the Garmin in the concrete jungle (or perhaps the green jungle for that matter), but this wasn't a fast run. Held up OK though given the conditions. The extension placed me firmly in the middle of peak hour, with some interesting traffic conditions. Also spotted two people handing out flyers outside a station; if I was at home I'd have a fair idea what they were doing, but I suspect handling out those sorts of leaflets outside a station in this part of the world would quickly result in an invitation to have a deep and meaningful conversation with the Public Security Bureau.

The meeting finished at lunchtime which allowed some time to explore a few neigbourhoods, both in the older part of town (where we stayed in 2004) and the rising centre to the east, none of which existed in 2004 but now plays host to three buildings in the 400+ metre range (one elegant, one reasonably graceful and one spectacularly ugly monolith) - in this part of the world, if it's decided that the CBD is going to move 8km or so to the east, that's what happens. Made some good use of the Metro too, including exercising a certain amount of brute force to get myself off a peak-hour train (when in Rome do as the Romans do....) - having successfully negotiated the Sao Paulo metro with a pack at peak hour this was pretty tame.

Whilst getting into the park yesterday morning wasn't an option, I noticed there was a large open forecourt which would provide enough space for an intervals session. (This isn't a bad sort of session for this type of environment - doesn't need a lot of space and fairly short and sharp when there's humidity to be dealt with). There were a few people to dodge who were doing tai chi - there always will be early morning in any open space in China (the only thing that's changed in a century is that there days the backing soundtrack comes from a strategically placed smartphone) - but not too many. Felt pretty reasonable, and some liveliness on the later reps.

Warm-up and down. A bit of a struggle for the first kilometre but worked out OK in the end. Went out a bit earlier this morning, but still quite busy around the place by the end.

Arrived in Guangzhou without any undue difficulties late yesterday afternoon, and did enough walking in the evening to get some basic neighbourhood orientation. My previous visit was in 2004 (one night each way en route to/from Kazakhstan), and one immediate surprise is that the air was cleaner than I remember from then (i.e. it is actually possible to see the surrounding hills and cloud-free portions of the sky are a visible shade of blue) - this may be because it rained heavily on Friday night and pollution hasn't yet had a chance to reaccumulate, but it's at least vaguely promising.

Headed out in the morning to do some exploration. Like Beijing, Guangzhou has relatively large "main" blocks - not huge amounts of traffic on the minor roads within blocks, but getting across the main roads between blocks is a challenge - there was one where the only option I could see was to go through the metro station (so I did). Starting to learn where the overpasses are. Headed on the map towards a green area - this turned out to be part zoo, part enclosed park, and all closed until 8am, but there was a nearby bike/pedestrian path next to a freeway which worked OK for a while. Relatively quiet when I set out at about 7, but much busier by 7.30 (both vehicles and pedestrians - seemed to be school drop-off time), so I might head out a bit earlier tomorrow. Not as humid as I was expecting, with dewpoints around 20 and not in the mid-20s.

I came off the plane with quite a bit of soreness on the side of my right knee; there's still a bit there, but it was a non-issue running. The run itself was nothing to get too excited about but good to see something of the neighbourhood.

I was wondering what goes on at the Beauty Exchange Center. (On the other hand, had I previously known of its existence I might have been tempted to stay at the Guangdong Geological Landscape Hotel).

By the way, orienteering.asn.au (including eventor.orienteering.asn.au) appears to be blocked in China. I suspect this is because it runs off a Wordpress platform and not because anything particularly subversive has been published on its pages. (I was wondering if my log would be blocked because I once made a reference to seeing a protest by a certain religious sect, but it isn't).

Ran the Eaglemont Flats course first thing in the morning (I had to leave too early to run in the actual event) - no controls out but blue tapes at some of the locations (probably all of them but it was a few controls before I started looking). Not terribly fast after yesterday but felt OK. The usual mixture here of track/path runs and tricky controls in lowish-vis bush near the river, on a very convoluted course (which did mean it didn't go into the suburbs like it sometimes can here). Overshot 19 a bit, not realising just how small mapped knolls can be here, and a bit hesitant early on because the light wasn't really good enough for detailed map reading for the first 5-10 minutes. Should be a fun event for the punters (of which there will hopefully be plenty).

Now at the airport waiting to go to Guangzhou - a bit of a flying visit for a meeting (back on Thursday night). Don't think it will be the most pleasant of running environments, although at least it's said to be the least polluted big city in China (I suspect this is not saying very much), and I'm staying not too far from a couple of promisingly-sized parks. It can also be very humid at this time of year, and despite the warm autumn we've had, dewpoints in the 20s (perhaps well into the 20s) will still be a shock to the system.

A Saturday long run because I'll be spending most of tomorrow on a plane. Nothing especially special, and felt a bit tired at various stages in the second half, but hamstring held up OK. Longest I've done in a month, exploring various bits of the old home ground after heading north as far as La Trobe Uni. Handled the Eaglemont hill OK at around 17-18k.

Looking at the latest forecast, I don't think I'm quite going to make it to the end of May before turning any heating on, but it won't be too far away.

At Fitzroy (possibly my last session there for a while given forthcoming travels). A little earlier than usual which meant a little less overlap with the rest of the normal crowd than usual. Was going along smoothly enough until getting a cramp about 10 minutes from the end, but that disappeared quickly enough.

Lunchtime run, letting off a bit of steam after a slightly frustrating morning (thanks to system failures which some of you may have noticed). Didn't feel too spectacular but the fastest I've done this circuit for a while (with some help from the traffic), which was a bit of a surprise. Came up with my last few questions for the quiz night tonight.

Wouldn't say this was great, but definitely an improvement on yesterday, if not at a level where I would have wanted to take it much further for now.

It's hard rubbish season in the City of Darebin, but the piles are gradually diminishing as the week goes on. (Banyule didn't have these).

And participants in the Tasmanian NOL events should be thankful that forecasts 10 days out are not very reliable - today's European model run had a 980-hectopascal low centred just off St. Helens on Saturday 28 May, with 50 to 100 millimetres of rain.

C • What about 2 days out? 6

It's very important to be able to tell the difference between the different flavours of racists and bigots who will be competing for last place on our Senate ballot papers, so the quiz question of the day is - which party's logo is a map of Australia with the word 'FULL' on it? Is it the Australia First Party, Australians Against Further Immigration, the Australian Liberty Alliance, the Australia - Love It Or Leave Party, or One Nation?

C • Answer 5

Headed out from a new starting point - Merri Park near Northcote High - in the name of evening logistics, but it was quickly apparent that my back was having an off day. Seems not too bad now so hopefully I'll be able to resume tomorrow, at least to some extent.

Turned out I'd mixed up the days for said evening engagement (a campaign session). Wasn't too upset about this - today probably wouldn't have been the best of days to be hitting the phones on behalf of David Feeney.

Back to All Nations intervals for the first time since before the last NOL round, and without the same consequences as last time (i.e the hamstring was OK). Not terribly fast but got better as it went on.

Warm-up and down. Strangely, more traffic on the way there than the way back.

In the warm bath at Northcote - somewhat crowded because the squads had moved inside (must have been shocked by actually having a morning with near-normal May temperatures) leaving only two 25m lanes for everyone else. This meant I had people blasting past me at regular intervals, who must have dragged me along a bit early, but slowed down to a fairly usual pace in the second half.

C • The boiler is now fixed 2

MFR Monday night from Bruce and Anne's - an exercise in Johnson Park which involved going back and forth around the edge of the park and remembering the sum of the control numbers. Good for training concentration, which is definitely a useful thing to do as an orienteer (something I learned early on - used to take study notes out with me on training runs in my later years of school, and eventually reached the point where I could concentrate more intensely on the run than I could sitting at a desk). Not exactly a long workout, but felt nice enough once loosened up. Reasonable turnout including a fair few of the next generation.

Hard work on the ride there, with some fairly stiff winds (more cross than head but still heavy going).

The jobs were being allocated later on for this Sunday's Eaglemont event, which I'll miss by virtue of being on the slow boat fast plane to China (I may try to get out at sunrise to run the course before going to the airport). The forecast is good so hopefully we'll crack 200 participants.

Victorian Middle at Borhoney Ghurk, starting from the east side of the map rather than the west (as at the Australian Relays) but spending a fair bit of time in the same area of mining. A good course with plenty of technical controls - the low visibility in places adds to the challenge.

A reasonable run technically - a few wobbles (too low in vague contours on 8, 11 and 17, and went wider than I needed to on 14), but none bigger than 20 seconds or so. Not aggressive enough in the terrain, though, and well off the pace on a day when the five fastest times on course 1 were done by an M16, an M18, an M55, an M40 and an M35.

Very stiff on arriving after sitting in the car on the way up - maybe getting out of the car for 'tourist runs' isn't going to work so well on various forthcoming travels. Hamstring held up OK on its first workout in the terrain.

C • What's the rule on going to... 27

Was expecting to be doing this first thing in preparation for a morning on the hustings, but got word late yesterday that the planned stall was cancelled so headed out at a more typical Saturday time on a somewhat atypical mid-May morning. Achilles tightest for a while early on but got going within 10 minutes or so. The run then settled down well but didn't end up quite living up to the potential of its first half.

Spent more time on the Studley Park singletrack than I have for a while, which generally went OK.

An anniversary which I let slip last week was that of 10 years on AP (or at least posting training on it). Hope I've provided a reasonable amount of interesting reading during that time.

C • Happy Anniversary! 14

Taking to the water on another warm May morning. Nothing too unusual about this, but seemed to be working reasonably well. Perhaps my mood would have been less positive had I seen the front of the "Herald-Sun" - as someone who's had experience of being singed by the News Limited blowtorch, to see it turned full blast on an ordinary person whose sin was to ask a Liberal an awkward question was nauseating.

Started out this run with a sinking feeling after a morning of (round-ball) football watching - Norwich won but so did Sunderland, which confirmed the relegation of the former (as well as Newcastle). Went out with something around 1.45-1.50 in mind, but hamstring felt a bit iffy after coming down the steep hill off Eaglemont so thought it best not to push things too hard (the iffyness stayed but didn't get any worse). Didn't feel that brilliant on the run in any case - have been a bit sneezy the last couple of days which may tell you something.

Election campaigning 101: if a party leader does a campaign event in a not-obviously-marginal seat (other than his or her own), it's normally a fairly good indication that their internal polling is telling them that said seat is up for grabs. The fact that Bill Shorten launched an education policy yesterday in Mackay, in the seat of Dawson (sitting member George Christensen, margin 7.8%) should be read in this context. Certainly, if it comes to pass, it would be fair to say that there will be a lot of people who definitely won't miss George.

MFR's contribution to World Orienteering Day - a club run using a course which Carl had set using OpenStreetMap. Fairly straightforward course (with just a bit of minor route choice) but still fun, and good to be part of the festivities. Made the mistake of trying to go from the gun without a proper warm-up (having had a bit of trouble getting my newly-acquired headlamp to shine white instead of red), but eventually loosened up and was going at street-O pace in the second half without any obvious ill-effects.

As I've noted elsewhere, the clash with Naplan testing meant we couldn't really have a serious go at doing anything major in schools today, but next year is late May rather than early May so that shouldn't be an issue. I'm also pondering the question of whether it might be logistically possible to do events in four states on one day (start in Brisbane or Adelaide, fly to Canberra, do events on both sides of the ACT/NSW border, then fly on to Melbourne for an evening event there), and if it is whether I'm crazy enough to try doing it next year.

C • *openorienteeringmap - tool... 1

A solid morning's work; any hint of the hamstring issues now seems to be behind me. Dodged a few remnant bits of floodwater on the Merri Creek track and got a few showers from above. Not quite sure what the Dalheims have planned for the MFR World Orienteering Day tomorrow night but I guess I'll find out soon enough.

The Philippines seem to be doing their bit to prove that even if he's elected, Donald Trump will not be the world's craziest President. Apart from promising to kill 100,000 "criminals" in his first six months in office, the winning candidate also committed to riding a jet ski across to some disputed South China Sea islands to claim them in person. Part of me thinks that the interests of regional peace might be best served if he actually tries to use such a vessel for such a purpose (especially if there is a typhoon in the vicinity at the time).

Not sure I appreciate this headline.

C • You would have loved the UK... 2

Swim at Northcote, my morning logistics being slightly rearranged because I wanted to catch the local bakery's 8am opening time (having forgotten to buy a week's supply of rolls on the weekend). Shoulder a bit sore to start with but not a bad swim thereafter, and I don't think the water was quite as hot as the sign (31.5) suggested.

Heard Malcolm Turnbull's name mentioned as I was going past the spa on the way out. The accompanying words weren't especially complimentary, which is not altogether surprising given that this is a part of town where the Liberal vote percentage will probably start with a 1.

Headed out on the Tan after work - had been sort of thinking of doing this anyway but the heavy rain around lunchtime (and its expected clearance) provided more encouragement. A rather slow run although traffic had a bit to do with that; felt reasonable, though, and no sign of hamstring issues.

While the storm surge flooding was nothing like Adelaide's, the debris marks suggested that the path under the (soon-to-be-expanded) Swan Street bridge had gone under at some stage in the preceding hours.

I wonder just how much energy is wasted in Crown's hourly fire-jet display?

A wet morning (as anticipated), although had eased to a few spots by the time I headed out - still good to feel the freshness. Headed up initially past my old place in the name of checking out whether it's possible to build a rail tunnel underneath it without flattening it (verdict: probably yes, but wouldn't be a lot of fun living there while the construction was happening), then down to the Yarra Flats and back along the river. Not as good a run as yesterday, either on the performance or the injury front, but not too bad and a significant extension of the amount that I've been able to handle, so I'm happy.

If I were in South Australia I would presumably currently be engaged in the scramble to snaffle as many bits of good power-pole real estate for posters as possible, but I'm not so I'm not. (This form of campaigning seems specific to South Australia - in theory they're not supposed to do it before 6pm on the day the election is called, but I gather there has been a certain amount of gun-jumping).

Headed out a little later this morning, partly because I'd decided I wanted to take in a route which took in the Studley suspension bridge and didn't want to be competing with the parkrun crowds (must be quite interesting to be on it at the same time as numerous other runners). Ended up as my best run for a while - felt pretty good, handled a couple of sharp climbs fine, and only a very slight twinge from the hamstring. Thinking that I've probably just about put this injury behind me, although I'll want to do something in terrain to be sure.

This was also a warm-weather run, the last one for a while, although 'a while' for me won't be as long as it might be for some - I'll have some heat, and some serious humidity, to deal with when I head to Guangzhou for a few days in a couple of weeks.

A bit on the slow side but probably the best run since returning in terms of how the hamstring felt - more like 90% than 80% today, and didn't feel impeded at all, even with more climbing today (mostly the Waterdale Road hill). Not sure I'm prepared to call myself absolutely right until I get through something longer, something faster and something in terrain (not necessarily at the same time), but some decent progress.

I'm indebted to the member for Gellibrand for advising us that, thanks to a $12,000 community development grant, the Altona Miniature Railway has received more funds from the Federal Government than any actual urban passenger railway has in the last three years.

And, while on the subject of politics (which you'll be hearing a lot of in the next few weeks), just to prove that some in the game have a sense of humour, on seeing an early draft of a proposed update to the state ALP environment policy, someone had slipped a reference to "factional hacks" into the section of the policy dealing with pests and weeds. As far as I know the State Government has no plans for an eradication program.

Longest run of the week so far. Felt only about 80% right again, but didn't get any worse as the run went on which is a good sign. Also ventured onto some small hills (don't get too excited - we're talking the climb onto and along the Studley Park Road bridge) for the first time this week, without too many dramas. Still feel as if I'll need to play things cautiously, but feeling reasonably positive.

Had been planning to take to the water this morning but in any case felt a little tight when I got up, so maybe a day away from running wasn't such a bad thing - will be back tomorrow (I hope). All fairly smooth once in the water.

Spent last night with the local comrades playing Budget bingo - I had no chance because "jobs and growth" wasn't on my card (and "climate change" was).

Whilst on the subject of the Budget, there don't seem to have been any radical changes in sports funding - it was reported in some quarters that Sporting Schools was being axed, but in fact what's happening is that it's currently not funded beyond 30 June next year, but it's anticipated that an expanded program will be announced sometime between now and then. On the high performance side, I was never expecting any radical changes until after Rio (and whether there are radical changes will probably depend on whether the strategy of putting most of the high performance eggs in a few baskets is seen to have worked or not).

C • Tipping rules 1

Taking things carefully, stretching the distance out a bit further, and feeling much as I did last night 10 minutes further along - which suggests that a strategy of incrementing distance slowly is working OK (so far). Not too wild outside - and, as is sometimes the case on days like this, we northerners were the envy of those trying to ride in from the south because we had tailwinds (of sorts) both to and from work.

In what seems a slightly odd exercise, the CIA yesterday "live" tweeted the Osama bin Laden raid to mark its 5th anniversary. As some pointed out, we now look forward to similar recognition of some of the CIA's less glorious efforts, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1973 Chilean coup or the various exotic assassination plots against Fidel Castro (especially the exploding cigar).

C • Not too wild 2

C • Fort MAC 5

First swim for a bit. Felt reasonably energetic this morning but it didn't really flow through into my time in the water, except for finishing it off pretty well - for once I wasn't feeling as if I wanted to get a swim over and done with.

Most amusing part of the morning's police reports was the account of the person who nicked a ute from a roadworks site at the corner of Spencer and Bourke Streets. Clearly remaining inconspicuous was not a high priority for this particular thief because the ute in question had a big flashing arrow on top of it.

After doing the first of the revived MFR Monday night runs a couple of weeks ago, today was my first go at hosting the revived one, with a small crowd which included a couple of members of the next generation in the form of Mason (preparing for an upcoming school cross-country) and Torren. Pretty short although the others went even shorter. Hamstring again fatiguing a bit in the later stages without pain; clearly still not quite right so will follow a more cautious trajectory this week than I had previously thought possible.

Busy media day today, partly because it was a public holiday in Queensland and a lot was happening in Queensland (averaged over the state, yesterday was the hottest May day on record by 1.3 degrees). The ABC asked me if there would be more cyclones in Queensland next summer. I responded that that wouldn't be hard. (There have been only three cyclones in the Australian region this season - a record low assuming nothing happens at the last minute - and only one of them has got anywhere near the coast, Stan in WA in late January).

Spotted some strange logic in an Andrew Bolt article today. He's very upset that the French and not the Japanese are building the submarines (I think one can reasonably assume that he is acting as a mouthpiece for a certain former Prime Minister in this respect), on the grounds that the Japanese are supposedly more reliable allies than the French. He appears to base this position on the fact that the French wouldn't supply spares for Mirage fighters which might otherwise have been used in the Vietnam War 50 years ago. If he's going to go back 50 years, then I seem to recall that if you go back another couple of decades Japan may have acted in ways not entirely consistent with Australian national defence priorities.

First go at trying things out running, on a short and flat route out to Darebin Parklands, seeing the evidence of the overnight storms. No pain but didn't feel quite right, so will need to take things carefully in building back into things.

I knew there would be some ugly days watching Essendon this year; today was definitely one, although at least it was close because the opposition were almost as bad. The stretch from late in the first quarter to late in the third (during which neither side scored a goal) was surely the worst hour of football I've seen. Not sure whether the lowlight of the third quarter was Carlton putting four successive shots for goal out of bounds on the full, Matthew Leuenberger having two air swings in rapid succession (one by hand, one by foot), or the passage of play which featured six clangers (three from each side) in the space of about 15 seconds.