Not living in Sydney

There are days when I'm very happy not to live in Sydney. You wouldn't think so looking at this wonderful picture of the harbor with the Queen Mary 2 steaming in, would you?

We're in election mode here in NSW and the two hot issues are water and transport - or the lack thereof in both cases.

When the QM2 came into the harbor it did so at the same time as the Queen Elizabeth 2. It's not often that two ginormous cruise ships are in harbor at the same time and apparently most of Sydney turned out to see them. Major infrastructure disaster. Traffic jams all over the place because people take their cars instead of use public transport. The city was gridlocked for hours. Red faces all around and worries about today, when a whole lot of city streets are being closed because of the US Vice President Dick Cheney's arrival.

It's terrible being in Sydney when it doesn't work. It's probably terrible being in any big city when it grinds to a halt, but Sydney in February, when it's hot and humid, is a shocker. I'm so glad I don't have to negotiate that anymore!