check out this photo on the front page of The Australian this morning;

According to the article, about 10 minutes after this photo was taken, this dust storm had enveloped the south east Queensland town of Birdsville

Had ground tickets for the tennis today and yesterday. Saw only 2 hours of tennis. Unlike Wimbledon, where play is often held up due to rain, here we’ve had 2 days where the Australian Open extreme heat policy has kicked in. Play was suspended from 1pm until 6pm yesterday, and today play was suspended before it was even due to begin. At about 8:30pm the temperatue finally dropped low enough for play to start - by which time I was home. I think we hit about 45 today. Much more humid than Madrid, and therefore much more unbearable. They’re predicting a cool change from tomorrow though… Not too cool I hope!

Met up with Amanda and a friend of hers after they both finished work yeterday. Sat on the terrace of  bar on Chapel St. He proceeded to tell the story of how one of his colleagues put a huntsman spider in a drawer of their boss’ desk. Not sure you want to be ambitious in this country and end up somebody’s manager…

The tennis starts on Monday and I’m looking forward to it. Should be a good 2 weeks.

Celebrated arriving in Oz by meeting up with Amanda, Mandy and Michael last night in the Belgian Beer Garden in St Kila Rd. Was also a belated birthday party.

Overheard the following conversation between 2 youngish women in the bank today, which made me chuckle;

“What did you do for New Years?”

“I stayed in this year. It was too hot to go out.”

Spent the afternoon exploring this city. I’d heard a lot about St Kilda, so decided o check it out. It wasn’t how I expected. I guess it’s the Melbourne equivalent of Bondi, but without the violence. Walked along the pier and took this photo of the Melbourne skyline. Was pretty hot today, but nothing compared with New Years Eve!!!