England!
As soon as I confirmed my Sydney flight booking this week it occurred to me that England's World Cup knockout game would inevitably drift on towards stoppage time drama, and then extra time, and then penalties.
And it did all of the above, of course, leaving me to watch the agonising penalty shootout in the salubrious surrounds of Brisbane Domestic.
But past results are no guarantee of future performance, and against all expectations, the Three Lions actually survived!
Get that man a Milton mango!
Not a great performance, but we live to fight another day, and are now into the final 8.
Onwards to face Sweden in the quarter finals at the weekend.
Onwards to face Sweden in the quarter finals at the weekend.
Thin ice
It was positively Baltic when I finally made it down to Sydney yesterday (well, 22 anyway).
But the local economy has been running pretty hot for some time, with Sydney employment soaring from 2½ million to 2¾ million since 2015.
We're now entering a really interesting period for Sydney, with little consensus around what happens next.
The unemployment rate in Sydney is down to just 4.2 per cent.
So that's very good.
So that's very good.
And the services sector is catching fire - the latest available figures to the end of May 2018 revealed an extremely high number of jobs vacancies in New South Wales, at 77,300.
That compares to only about 202,400 persons across the state - a now healthy ratio implying that the unemployment rate could soon even be sporting a tremendously appealing 3-handle.
Construction is still booming, but this sector could be the complicating factor.
At the end of 2017 there were more than 68,000 attached dwellings under construction across the state, a record high.
How the housing market and developers cope with the absorption of all that supply over the next six months, I'm not sure, but some temporary indigestion seems likely.
As far as I can tell a lot of those completions have now come online or are in the process of doing so, but there also seemed to be plenty under construction on the lower north shore still.
One thing I am fairly certain of is that in time housing market renters will begin to congregate more around transport hubs.
With the CBD & SE light rail completion date still seemingly an age away, Anzac Parade and George Street remain partly out of action for road traffic, which is causing no end of headaches for drivers and commuters.
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For vegan readers that enjoy a sort of faux meat yum cha/Pan-Asian cuisine: highly recommend Bodhi at the Domain as a fine way to warm the old cockles!
Also can recommend sitting indoors, but.
Back to the Queensland warmth now, thankfully!
