Balloon pioneers

Presenting at a conference from 10.00 till 3.00 (voice now croaky!) . Stopped work (finally!) to sail in the Royal Melbourne Yacht Club's Wednesday night race - and appropriately ("it's not like this here normally!") the weather dropped from 37° to just 17° with rain lashing down and more than half a gale blowing (Melbourne = 4 seasons in one day!). the boat, a Farr 38, surfed like a good 'um so we had fun. Then enjoyed a meal with old friends here (we're looking slightly like Mount Rushmore!) Judy, Martyn (who has been my indefatigable host here all week), Ken (one of my first - and best - university students), myself and Pete (who'd popped over with Judy from Tasmania).

Cue HUGE excitement (= much toasting!) because they had all wonderfully arranged to take me on a dawn Balloon flight over Melbourne today... but alas all this unexpected wind and cloud meant that at 3.30 a.m. as I was started to get ready (dawn remember!) i got a text saying "sorry, can't fly danger danger death argh" or similar. Which was sad. But the race, meal and great company made yesterday a perfect day.