in sunny Hobart

No joke: Hobart really is sunny today. Very sunny. Postcard picture sunny, I kid you not.

It’s deceiving though. Get yourself caught in the wind or, worse, in the shade and the world starts to feel rather arctic, or rather antarctic.

I’ve been here a few days for a work conference. The conference itself has been pleasurable in a wierd sort of way. It’s about the only place I can talk happily in work/technical jargon without being seen as some sort of leper. In normal life, grown men and women back away slowly when I start to talk about this stuff, and small children have been known to burst into tears. Even my own.

Apart from the conference, there have been some pissups work functions and a few runs. I woke up super early on Monday morning and ran from the city, up through the botanic gardens, over the big bridge and back. It was quite a nice run, if a touch on the invigorating side.

The bridge has footpaths on either side, but they’re a bit alarming. If you run like I do – with a clodding, thumping, heavy stride – the whole footpath seems to shake and shudder and it becomes apparent that it’s only bolted on to the side of the bridge as an afterthought. If a bicycle comes the other way, it gets a bit close too.

Still, I like Hobart, despite the fact that there’s NOWHERE open on a Sunday night (or any night, it seems). I could quite happily live here if I could find a job.