swimming (free swim :)) 36:00 [3] 1.0 km (36:00 / km)
Guess what I did! I found the (50m outdoor) pool in Penrith. It closed at 5pm and I didn't get there till 4.15 because the most exciting thing my parents-in-law have done for quite a while is to be taken to Bunnings by me & George, so it took a while to extract them from there (and we fitted 4 people plus a 6-foot long sheet of corrugated plastic in our little hire car). Anyway, the guy on the gate wouldn't take my money because he said it was nearly closing time, and he helpfully informed me that they usually start putting the pool covers on from lane 8, so I swam in lane 2 (with hurried enthusiasm rather than any sort of style). When I finished my last lap I became aware that the pool cover had been stalking me down the pool because they had started putting the covers on from that side...
Actual reason for going to Sydney was a 30th for one of George's mates. It took place on a farm at Mulgoa, which is seriously MFN (middle of **** nowhere) and where it doesn't matter if you have a ginormous bonfire or illegally let off a whole bag of fireworks. There had been a lot of rain out that way this week so everything was soggy and the fire wouldn't light at first. The solution was:
Step 1: pour petrol on bonfire heap
Step 2: pour a line of petrol on the grass leading towards the heap
Step 3: throw a few matches on the grass to try to figure out where the line started.
Step 4: give up and throw a match into the heap
Step 5: reverse away hastily as line of grass, where everyone is now standing, back-lights up with a whoomp!
And then there were the fireworks...a couple fizzed, but most went up like they were supposed to and they were quite spectacular. Only one lot fell over upon lighting and so too, pretty quickly, into the mud, did the people who had just had a green rocket whizz past their ear(s). In the midst of all this stood the hostess saying "this is how we managed to start a fire in the paddock last summer!"