It’s been a really busy week. Well, a really busy several weeks, which explains my lack of posting lately. I’m finding that I’m coming home most nights mentally and physically exhausted and collapsing on the couch. I’ve also been working on the weekends, and so my Saturday has been pretty much collapse on the couch also. But there’s light at the end of the tunnel, as many of the deadlines I’ve needed to meet have been met.

Sure, I’m working on Sunday for a few hours, and I’ll actually be “on the radio” tomorrow (on digital/streaming/Radio Australia) between 1 and 3, but I’m also actually heading out for lunch tomorrow for a few hours (don’t ask how it’s possible to be in two places at the same time, it just is). We haven’t decided on a venue yet. I’m guessing that will depend largely on the weather which has been fairly crappy most of the week.

After about four or five days of continuous rain now, like most of Sydney, I’m starting to get a little bit stir crazy. Sydney goes into shut-down mode whenever it rains. It doesn’t rain that much, but when it rains, it really bloody rains. Sydney also goes into a state of denial about the rain. The other day, for example, I saw someone jogging at about 6-am with an umbrella, as if the only option was to run in the rain, when it would have nice just to stay in bed. I was on my way to the bakery, but very quickly returned to bed and considered for a brief moment “a day working from home” :)

In my own case, I don’t have what you would call a “regular umbrella”. When it rains, I either buy a new one, or try to stick to covered areas. This week, I bought a new “rain jacket” which I thought was a bit of a bargain at $39, down from $129. I look fashionable, and I have some wet-weather protection. But to be frank, I’m sick to death of wearing the bloody thing. Four days in a row and I think it’s starting to look like I only have one set of clothes.

And then tonight I went to the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Drinks at Sydney Town Hall.

There was a wonderful contrast between Clover Moore’s speech when she spoke about Sydney as a “global city”, and people wanting late night shopping, restaurants, bars and so on, and the reality outside. I left the drinks at about 7.45 (they started at 6.00), and already Sydney was pretty much deserted.