This morning I went down to the water to check out the video on my new backup camera. (Second hand, Mairéad, just like yours, in fact as you may have noted, EXACTLY like yours; long story, I'll tell you later.) However as I rocked up into the car park I saw the sun rising and a guy doing yoga in the park (though I prefer strawberry yoga myself).

I could not resist the temptation to get a still shot of this scene. Ah, a glorious sunrise over a tranquil sea, liife-affirming, healthy exercise; could anything be more perfect?

YES IT BLOODY WELL COULD!!! That goddamned oversized fireball that you see here dripping, not coincidentally, with its blood red colour is going to raise temperatures near or into the 40s YET AGAIN today, complete with humidity of about 99.97% and a bushfire threat level that... what's the next level after "extreme"? Oh yeah, "Spontaneous combustion like inside a nuclear reactor". The poor sods on the south coast are on high alert yet again. Oh, and speaking of "extreme", the UV forecast is 13. As in, it would be healthier to spend the day inside a microwave oven WHILE IT IS TURNED ON than it would be to venture outside anywhere that the sun may strike your body.

What was it that Hendley said in "The Great Escape"? "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning." Not just sailors, Flight Lieutenant.

It's 11 beautiful, chilly degrees back home in Roma. Oh to be there, savouring a delicious pasta ragu for dinner at the Osteria da Fortunata, looking at the frost forming on the buildings of the Campo dei Fiori. Sigh.