Settling In...

Life Down Under is hot, hot, hot. As I sit typing this in Brizzy (that's Brisbane to Poms), I am guzzling back the water and Ozzer keeps sniffing under his arms, worried that the humidity is winning the battle with his deodorant.

It's Wednesday morning here and we're at a friend's place in Brisbane, having spent last Thursday through to Tuesday in Sydney. It has taken about this long to rid ourselves of jetlag and settle into a 'normal' routine. Although the flight from Heathrow seemed to be far less painful than we anticipated (13 hours to Singapore, hop off the plane, buy dirt cheap Ipod, 7 hours to Sydney), its legacy has been crazy sleeping and eating patterns. I actually fell asleep in Sydney Aquarium on my feet mid-afternoon despite the fact a bloody great big Bull Shark was lurking in the gigantic tank in front of my nose... Nevertheless, being the dedicated tri geeks we are, we soon sought out the nearest places to swim, bike and run and on our second morning in Sydney went for a fantastic 45-min run around Circular Quay heading past the Opera House and that awesome Harbour Bridge into the city's Royal Botanic Gardens.

It was while on this run that we found the Andrew 'Boy' Charlton Olympic pool(pictured), which is known as Sydney's best pool and is earmarked "for serious swimmers only". Wanting to stuff it to the Aussies even during a training swim, we both got into the fast lane the next morning and it certainly wasn't like swimming at Marston Ferry. The standard wasn't as crazily brilliant as everyone made out it might be and it was just fantastic to be swimming outdoors in a 50m pool with the sun blazing down on us. Oh, and Ozzer loved the fact that the pool also turned out to be the city's ultimate gay pick-up point. I understood why he came out of the changing rooms still stinking of chlorine...He'd been too nervous to bend down and pick up the soap ;-)

Off to Noosa this afternoon - our new home from home for the next six weeks. Racing there on Sunday for what sounds like a blinding race. Can't wait!

More tales from Down Under soon...

Eek