Here’s a challenge for our American friends: How many of the Australian states can you name? This morning Jo mentioned that Australia’s states had such boring names, while American ones were at least interesting. As a result of that we started naming them — eventually managing to remember 49 of the 50… I think we forgot Delaware.

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District Of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

I’m not sure what it shows, maybe just the pervasiveness of Americanism. Maybe the breadth of Australian education…

Winter is here though, a cold biting wind howling along Bridge road, the warmth of the coffee shop after the markets this morning very welcome.

An afternoon bike ride — warmly dressed! Out along Gardiners creek to Carnegie, a visit to Fitzroy Cycles for Jo to trial a few more bike seats, finally selecting one, after months of searching… Now there’s no more excuses, we will be riding enough to go on the Geneva to Verona tour in September!