I start my new job in the city tomorrow so today was last day of leisure. I have just come back from a walk along the beach and it is really hot outside. It was 33 degrees C and it is not even summer yet.

A good thing about the weather here is that once it does get hot it usually triggers the wind to change direction and cool things down. Tomorrow is only forecast to 19 degrees max which will make it more comfortable in my suit and tie.

I planned to do lots of personal projects during my break but have done bugger all really. Get up late, a leisurely breakfast, surf the Internet to catch up on news, light lunch followed by a couple of hours on the beach, back for a shower, do the shopping and then Mandy is back and time for dinner. Not sure how I will fit the new job in.

Mandy has this theory that as you get older you tune into radio stations with lower FM frequencies. i.e. all the trendy young things tune to stations over 100 and the old gits listen to those below 90.

We listen to Vega which is on 95.3 which makes us firmly middle aged. Strangely the station we listened to in the UK broadcast on the same frequency .

Anyway, Vega keeps playing a Ballroom Blitz from The Sweet. It is never explained but this song seems to be played at least twice a day. For those who have forgotten this gem play the link below.

Last night w went to see “Don’s Party” at the studio theatre in the Opera House. The play was written by David Williamson who is one of Australia’s bestl known playwrights. It is a comedy of manners based around a middle class party on the night of of the 1969 general elections. It reminded very much of the Mike Leigh Play “Abigail’s Party” but with a very Australian flavor. The English stuffiness is replaced with Australian directness but both are a wonderful and hilarious satire of the people and cultures in which they are set

Today I went for lunch with Mandy and her parents at the Level 41 restaurant in the city. This restaurant has excellent food and claims the best views of any restaurant in Sydney. It was a lovely sunny day and views and food were both beautiful. A surprise bonus was the fantastic views also provided from the urinals in the gent’s toilet.

The broadcast TV in Australia is really dreadful. The non commercial ABC network is OK for watching old British series but the commercial stations are just full of American drivel and local versions of trashy game shows and reality TV formula shows. To make it worse there are at least twice as many ads as in the UK which makes anything unwatchable anyway. They even kept playing ads DURING the England vs Australia Rugby match last weekend.

To overcome this we download most of our viewing from the Internet. It has now reached the stage where I can easily watch the same TV as I would have seen if I still lived in the UK. We download overnight and the programs are there the next day just as we watched most TV from the SKY+/PVR anyway.

I have a Mac mini sitting next to the TV and connected to the Internet so downloading and watching is just like using the TV to do it all. I can also use it to watch DVDs, view our pictures, play music and even video conference via Skype. This whole set up works really well.

I pretty much gave up my Blog once I had got a job. The long journey to work and working hours meant I had much less spare time and did not want to spend it sitting in front of a computer. I had enough of that at work.

Apart from a guest appearance from my Dad nothing much has been posted for about a year.

I now have now left my old job and have had my notice paid up and have a new job which I do not start until 17 October so have some spare time to post a few updates. Hopefully the travel and hours for the new job will mean I will keep up the posting after I start work again.

To catch up, I have retrospectively posted a few entries as this blogging thing works best when thing are posted in diary style.