This morning I ran 6 laps of Lake Monger equal to 21 km and my first ever half marathon distance. My 3.5 km (lap) splits were 18:42, 20:35, 20:10, 20:05, 19:22 and 18:43 for an overall time of 1:57:37. I’m very proud of my achievement and am now confident of finishing the upcoming Perth Half Marathon on 21 June.
Western Australian today held its fourth daylight saving referendum. On this occasion, like the previous three referendums, the NO vote won and Western Australia’s three year experiment with summer daylight saving has ended.
I voted as a Western Australian resident for the first time in the state electorate of Churchlands.
Australian citizen residents of Western Australia were asked to write down either a YES or NO in response to the following question:
Are you in favour of daylight saving being introduced in Western Australia by standard time in the State being advanced one hour from the last Sunday in October 2009 until the last Sunday in March 2010 and in similar fashion for each following year?
I voted YES because I enjoy the extra hour of light in summer evenings and the larger difference in times makes business more difficult to conduct with the rest of Australia. A majority of Churchlands voters agreed with me although we were outvoted by the remainder of the voting public.
In the great scheme of things, daylight saving is not a big deal, although the campaigning from both sides of the debate wanted you to think otherwise. Outside the polling booth were flyers promoting the YES vote. Is “What legacy do you want to leave to your kids?” a dramatic enough title?
* The past 3 weeks I’ve been very busy working at Brierty Ltd’s head office in Maddington, an industrial suburb south east of the airport. This is my first client placement and I’m learning fast. The folks at Brierty are great and their office is more relaxed and spacious than Turner & Townsend’s. Bjoern and I share a donga (portable office – basically a glorified shipping container) with Steve, Glen and Adi.
* Legendary actor Charles “Bud” Tingwell died. RIP. There was only ever one ‘Gramps’ in Charlie the Wonder dog:
* This week I bought return plane tickets to Bali with AirAsia for only $215!
* On Sunday, I ran the Mothers Day Classic, completing the 7 km run (2 laps of Lake Monger) in 34:04. Rob and Cheryl also had a run. I was lucky enough to win a spot prize: DKNY’s Red Delicious perfume.
* Tuesday evening I ran further than I’ve ever run before: 14 km (4 laps of Lake Monger). Today I repeated that feat. My current running aim is to finish the Perth Half Marathon on 21 June.
* Last weekend a trailer and helped Bjoern and Ola furnish their formerly sparsely-furnished home. Lifting tables and desks up stairs is fun…
Before the end of 2010 I aim to:
* Gain Project Management Professional (PMP) certification
* Buy a house/unit/apartment
* Enter the next level of consultancy
* Complete the 2010 Istanbul Marathon
Here are photos from Perth’s ANZAC Day Parade yesterday, 25 April 2009. These shots were taken from the St Georges Terrace and William Street intersection in the CBD where I watched the march with Bjoern and Ola.
Bagpipe, brass and drum bands were in full throttle with Waltzing Matilda being by far the most popular tune
Some of the elderly veterans were driven around in vehicles
Dad’s 7 RAR Battalion who fought in Vietnam. This year Dad marched in Adelaide where he had a reunion with old army mates.
The Sikh Community’s section was colourful
The Turkish also had a section. As well as fighting against the ANZACs in Gallipoli, the Turkish also fought on the same side as the Australians in Korea.
Later in the day, I caught up with several of Dad’s close friends and their associates at Rigby’s Bar & Bistro, including Bluey, Johnno, Drabs, Fritch, Batesy. Monty and Van.
I recently logged into my QANTAS Frequent Flyer account to update my details. They obviously hadn’t been updated for a while because my home telephone number still had 7 digits. Adelaide changed from 7 to 8-digit dialling codes in 1996(!) as this Wikipedia article details.
