Spring is in the air in Sydney.  The mood has lifted amongst the populace, as a hint of ambient warmth finally starts to accompany the bright sunlight and the clear blue skies that are a general feature of Winter.  Birds are making their presence felt - especially at 4am outside my fucking bedroom window - and all is right with the world.  

A general election has come and gone since my last post - normally a topic that would generate much output from me - but this time I kept myself distanced.  As time goes on I realise that many certainties or assumptions I took for granted over the years are changing, or indeed were never really there to begin with.  Friends I know and love dearly can hold wildly differing views on many topics that I had previously assumed to be in keeping with my own.  Passionate conversations about the state of politics in the nation - once a mainstay of my serious conversation topics - has been mostly avoided or more delicately handled.  I have shied away from unleashing the potential debates on more than one occasion, finding it easier to sit back and keep my views or opinions to myself (not like me at all at all).  Maybe I couldn't easily find a position to begin with - given the horrifically shite choices put in front of me for election, but I was never less than surprised when I heard the level of passion and anger in the voices of those around me.

I'm working harder these days than I think I ever have done in the past.  Not necessarily longer hours (although lunch hour is mostly a thing of the past) but in intensity.  My brain is being worked like never before on a daily basis, not to mention my composure control and self-perception demons.  It's good in many ways - I'm not complaining - but I do find that for the first time in a very long time I am indeed mentally exhausted at the end of the day and find it hard to enthuse about anything after walking out of the office door of an evening.  Maybe Spring will help me with this - if I can ever get a good night's sleep without that fucking bird outside the window :-)