Actually, probably quite a bit earlier than that.

I'm not trying to rub any noses in the metaphorical "it" with this shot. Least of all, the noses of those in northern Europe who are enduring a sub-optimal, indeed one may say downright unsatisfactory, summer.

However it seems to me that there's an area of overlap between PADing and photojournalism, and in that capacity it's incumbent upon us to report "just the facts, ma'am". (Albeit with some occasionally verbose embellishment in the commentary.)

Make no mistake, Sydney's winters can, when they have a mind, be inclement. In the early part of July we had rain which set in for days. It rained, and it rained, and it rained with a tenacity bordering on vindictiveness.

However that cleared away a couple of weeks ago and since then, with only the rare exception, it's been largely bright and clear. The bare branches of this tree remind you that it's still winter; the sky does not. There are times in most winters here when a high pressure cell parks itself over the coast and is in no particular hurry to leave, leading to clear, blue skies and comfortable temperatures during the day. Indeed at lunchtime one of my colleagues said "It's getting hot out there!", although he had been running and I had been merely PADing and grabbing some bread rolls from the supermarket. The ambient temperature is in fact on the cool side for most of the day (the lack of clouds overnight allows a lot of the heat to escape and 5am walks to the station are still chilly), but spend any time in the sun and you'll soon warm up, as indeed does the day itself. On the way home I saw an outdoor thermometer registering 20 degrees C.

I have no idea what this building, a relic of "old Pyrmont", was. It may well have been a corner shop, back in the days when those were more common. Currently, though, it's the Madame Korner Beauty Training College. You certainly wouldn't have seen many of the wharfies, sugar mill workers and quarrymen from 1881 going to such a place, or even imagining that it would some day exist in their neighbourhood.

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