In One Word... HOT!!!

And in another word, LOUD! Those two words best describe our Sunday afternoon. A week of unseasonably hot weather culminated on Sunday with temps breaking 40C without the smallest cloud or the faintest breeze to provide relief. The noise, well that was not generated by Mother Nature. The ear-piercing, stomach-wrenching "WHIZ"was caused by twenty Formula One cars racing in our backyard - literally. The F1 season kicked off in Albert Park last week. [For those not familiar, we live in Albert Park. Don't be confused if you thought we lived in Melbourne because we do. Melbourne is infact very close, but our official address is Albert Park. Very similar to the idea that we used to live in Washington, DC, but infact we lived in Arlington, a much better place ;-)] Since our arrival in the Albert Park neighborhood, we've been constantly warned about the autumn race. The traffic, the noise, the tourists, the noise, the city disruptions, the noise, etc. You get the idea, we should be prepared for the noise. I told Melissa to work from Sydney Thursday and Friday to escape the deafening sound of the F1 race cars, but she held her ground here. And as predicted, as I was leaving for work Thursday morning, I could here the faint "whiz" of what sounded like really large misquitoes flying close by. As if that wasn't enough, there were air shows on Saturday and Sunday involving the F-18s and helos from the Australian Air Force and a Qantas 747 flyover - they where very cool.

In reality, the noise from the cars was not really bad at all. [I may be exagerating slightly for affect - a wonderful trait i've picked up from my wonderful wife.] The noise did not bother Melissa during her work days - the heat is another story. You could hear the practice runs, but you really had to pay attention. It was nice, however, to watch on television some of the undercard races and be able to hear the real noise from our open back door.

As for Sunday, we got over to the park in the afternoon and found that no shady area was left - surprise. There was beer though. And ear plugs. You'll notice our picture. Every covering has a purpose. The hats and glasses to provide protection from the sun, the earplugs to save our ears. What you can't see is that we aren't wearing any pants in order to stay cool - jk!