Beckham comes to Sydney

There's been 'Beckham-mania' here for the past few days as David arrived on Sunday with his new LA Galaxy team to play an exhibition match against Sydney FC. There have been TV documentaries, interviews and various PR events (including the launch of his new aftershave in the city centre Myer store today), plus there has also been a 'Posh' lookalike who attracted lots of press coverage even though the real wife hasn't come as well!

The football match took place last night at the Telstra (Olympic) Stadium to a sell-out crowd of over 80,000 and it was televised live. Australian 'soccer' has yet to reach the high European standards and LA Galaxy were also pretty poor, with some abysmal passing and defending, but it created an eventful game that finished 5-3 to Sydney.

Despite injuring an ankle in the first half, Beckham battled on for the full game even though he was only contracted to play at least 55 minutes. He also displayed 2 trademarks - a superb goal from a free kick and a less spectacular 'return' tackle on a Sydney player which saw him get booked. He and his team now head off to New Zealand for a match in Wellington.

Possums

We've had a possum problem. In the last house they would just use the flat roof over our bedroom as a night-time route, but in the past few weeks here it's become obvious that one or more are using the space under the roof to nest during the day as they come clumping back across our bedroom ceiling as dawn begins to break!

This is a common problem here and possums can create a lot of damage - although they are protected animals - so we had 'the possum man' come around yesterday. He only took a few minutes to spot the access hole and so returned at 10.30pm to block it up, once they had left for the night! They'll probably be very frustrated on their return but will just have to find somewhere else to live!

Election Day

It's election day here today with nationwide voting for the Federal Government with John Howard expected to lose his leadership after holding the position of Prime Minister since 1996. If the Labour Party win, as expected, Kevin Rudd (who uses the election logo 'Kevin07'!) will become Prime Minister. This will also mean that all of Australia - including all the State Governments - will be under the control of Labour.

Voting is compulsory here, with the threat of a small fine if you don't vote, although of course we are excluded from the whole process as we aren't Australian citizens. Several polling stations that we passed this morning looked very busy and one had a long queue outside, despite the heavy drizzle.

Four of the five main terrestrial TV channels are filling their Saturday night schedule with election coverage after the polls shut at 6pm and it should be clear by midnight which way the results are going.

Sue's birthday

As it was Sue's birthday yesterday I took some time off work to have a bit of a 'day out', so after we had dropped the girls off at school, the two of us headed to Bondi where the annual Sculpture by the Sea event was due to finish this weekend.

We'd done this sculpture walk last year on a weekend and it had been packed with people, so with an early start on a midweek day, we found it much more pleasant this time around and could enjoy the sculptures more without hoardes of people on the path, although it was starting to get busier towards the end.

We took several hours to walk to Tamarama beach and then back to Bondi see all the sculptures, which were an interesting collection of varied works again! There's a selection of photos here.

The day was getting hot after a cloudy start and we decided to head back via Watson's Bay, on the south side of the harbour. We had been meaning to do the ferry trip here and have lunch at the famous Doyle's fish restaurant on the water's edge, but by the time we got there and were feeling hungry, we decided to eat there today and so had a lovely meal looking out across the harbour towards the city.

It was soon time to head back home to see the girls when they got back from school and then had the 'traditional' birthday evening with Sue's present opening, party tea and bubbly!

Blue skies return

After the week of rain, we had a better weekend with blue skies and warmer weather again. It was a social weekend for us, with an English couple (who we had met through the Brit-night gatherings over recent months) here for a meal on Saturday night, followed by Sunday afternoon at Carol & Paul's house, where Rebecca spent time in the pool with her friend.

This weekend also saw the launch of the University of Sydney's adult education brochure for the summer, which was inserted in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday and included my training course that I hope to run for them in February. Hopefully it will attract the interest and get the numbers signed up over the next few months so that it will go ahead and possibly become a regular inclusion in the schedule!

Where's Spring gone?

It was the Melbourne Cup horse race today at 3pm and the weather looked good in Melbourne, which is more than can be said for Sydney this week! Since the weekend we've had heavy squalls and the temperature has taken a drop since the warmer days last week. The 'winter' clothes have come out again and there was no chance of tennis tonight, so the exercise regime is taking a rest this week!

Sue & Justin Timberlake fly in

OK, not exactly at the same time! Sue arrived back from Belfast just after 9pm last night, so I drove to the airport to meet her with Caroline and Rebecca. She was tired, having had little sleep on the flight, but the leg from Hong Kong to Sydney both ways had been good, with a modern plane that wasn't too busy, in contrast to the London flights which had been packed.

Laura was back at the Acer Arena in the Olympic Park again for the second time in four days, this time to see Justin Timberlake perform, who has just arrived for 3 concerts in Sydney. We have yet to hear how it went as she stayed with her friend Nicola last night, but we expect she had a great time!