No Kangaroos here!

Natalie and I have have just spent the long weekend in Vienna.

It is a nice place, but there are plenty of t-shirts sold in tourist shops to remind you that you wont find any kangaroos in Austria.

We saw some museums, went to a concert and had a bit of a look around over the two and a bit days we were there. Though people complain about Lond's weather sometimes consisting of four seasons in one day, the weather while we were tried to top that. It was frustrating at times as we had to change our plans but we did still see a bit while we were there and enjoyed the site seeing.

While our trip over was quick the trip back was slow due to delays caused by London (!) weather and other things. Things at the Vienna International Airport (the scene of so much joy for us last July when we flew home with Austrian Airlines) kept up its standard for being pretty poor. However, it does look like they are building a new terminal which may improve things. AT this stage they couldn't get much worse.

Now its back to work for the both of us.

Report on the London Marathon

The English colours shone through on the day of the marathon. While the balmy 10 degrees was very encouraging, it was accompanied by a constant drizzle of rain. Public transport was poor, and the queues for port-a-loos were about 50-deep at the start line. The start itself was not too bad, with entrants split between three starts, merging into one after 3 miles. The course was well attended by spectators – there was not one stretch without strangers yelling encouragement to me. Along with most of the runners, I ran for a charity (the National Autistic Society). They provided me with a running singlet with my name on it, so many people called out my name to encourage me on.

The run itself was quite good. The course was fairly flat, with a few undulations. With 35,000 runners, however, it was pretty congested, and weaving was the order of the day for most of my race. I started to feel the effect of the rain by the 20-mile mark, with heavy shoes and wet socks starting to rub. I was still on target, and attempting to reach my aim of 3½ hours. As the Tower Bridge came into sight at the 22-mile mark, the intensity of the crowds increased. Intimidation from the cheering crowds stopped me from walking at all during the last 4 miles (though my body was craving it!). Despite the crowds, though, aching legs, a cold body and sore feet saw my pace decrease markedly in those last 4 miles. Spending more than 14 minutes running the last 2km, I still made it through in 3:38. At least it gives me something to beat for next time! A cuddle from Peter at the end of the race cheered me, as did a well-earned shower and massage. I'm now aiming to run a half in July.

Buy or sell?: The New York Stock Exchange 

Macys: Sign says it all. 

New York Attitude: See the sign. See the response. 

Grand Central Station, NY: I managed to capture some of the movement of the travellers as they moved around the main hall. 

Sore point: This is the x-ray of my right hand (it is mirrored) taken at hospital. It clearly shows the dislocation of my little finger. 

A painful start

I am typing this one-handed.

My cricket season commenced on Saturday and things didn't go according to plan.

We batted first, and coming in at #5 I made a steady 14 before chasing a ball that skidded a bit more than I expected.

But it was the fielding where things went badly. In the fifth over of the opposition innings in this friendly, standing at square leg I went hard to my right for catch. The batsman had struck the ball hard and it would have raced to the boundary except that the top of my little finger on my right hand got in the way.

The result was a badly dislocated finger, the very top bone popping out of the joint, while the next bone down had torn a hole in the skin and was saying "hello" to the fresh air.

I am very lucky that there were no fractures or chips, so the procedure at the hospital for getting things back into place was relatively straight forward. I have a stitch or two in the tear in my finger and the finger is well bandaged.

I wont be playing cricket for six to eight weeks.

Cricket

My first cricket game here in England is this Saturday afternoon. It is a 'friendly'. I will let you know how I get on following the game.

The Panthers

So what's been going on?

My favourite team has been struggling of late after some reasonable early season.

Why?

Injuries have taken their toll. Penrith are led by people like Craig Gower, who has been nursing an injury for a few weeks and missed last week's game. Tony Puletua, the captain, has been sidelined for a few weeks with an injury. And two key attacking players on the wings have missed games.

When you have a third of your first choice players missing things tend to get a bit tough. Hopefully though, the run of injuries will end and the Panthers will have a fit side soon and start to play the kind of football which they played back in 2003 when they last won the comp.

The Big Apple

Last Thursday through to Monday, Natalie and I spent in New York. With great weather on our side we traversed Manhattan and a small part of Brooklyn. We saw lots of things and will be sure to publish photos soon. Here's some of the other things we saw:

• City Hall
• Staten Island
• World Trade Center site
• Times Square
• Central Park, including the Rambles
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Manhattan Bridge
• Empire State Building
• Grand Central Station
• Bryant Park
• Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (from the ferry - we'll visit them next time!)
• Tiffanys
• Macys
• Bloomingdales
  

Driver's Ed?

I saw a driving school car this afternoon which might explain some of the crazy driving seen here in London. The driving school name? IMPACT!

Hmmm. Would you want your children learning to drive 'impact style'?