Greetings from Brisbane

It's a beautiful morning in Brisbane. My day started at 5.15am and a balmy 20 degrees - heading for a Bikram hot yoga session in a sweaty 38 degree room. What a great way to start the day!
And now, after a much needed shower and breakfast, I face the day at my computer, ready to take on my Uni tasks and watch the world go by my window in glorious sunshine!

Later today I'll be heading up the Sunshine Coast to Mooloolaba in preparation for the swim leg of the Mooloolaba triathlon on Sunday, although I've been calling my swim the "drowning leg", and I hope I'm only joking. Weather predictions are 34 degrees, and a huge ocean swell so contingency plans are in place to move the swim into the local canals. I'm hoping the sharks will prefer the swell and stay out of the canals.

This time of year is my favourite in Brisbane - the days are warm, but the humidity is lowering and the nights are somewhat cooler, but still no need for a doona. We have some rain, but it mainly consists of a few showers or thunderstorms which serve to clear the air and freshen things up a little. It's still easy to get up early to exercise with sunrise at about 5.45am. My swimming training which starts at 5.30am is starting to feel a little too early as the first few laps are swum in the dark - not sure how I'll cope swimming through winter as this is my first swim season.

Winters are awful! Relative to winter anywhere else in the world, Brisbane winters are mild. From my personal point of view, however,  I would happily live without winter! The days here are perfect with average temperatures around 24 degrees and beautiful sunshine. Because of the cloudless sky, night time temperatures can drop to around 6 degrees. Queensland houses are designed and constructed for heat and humidity, with the result that there is not much between us and the outdoors on cold days - a one inch floor board is often all there is! Getting up then to go for a run is very hard, but watching the sunrise over the horse paddocks and surrounding hills is just glorious and well worth the early morning pain.

Have a beautiful weekend!