Drizzly rain all day, and of course I left my rain jacket at home — somewhere my subconscious doesn’t think I should need it in the summer.

I left work in light rain, wondering about all the motorists with their headlights on. Got to Hawthorn to discover that the bike path where I’d crashed was now covered in mud, water, wood chips and miscellaneous garbage from overflowing bins. Council workers were wading around clearing up the larger pieces, and sirens could be heard all around. A little bit further along and I realised that the white drifts all along the path weren’t polystyrene foam or plastic, it was great mounds of hail! Then I came around the corner to discover the velodrome under water as well as a completely flooded street, and sports oval knee-deep in water and covered in floating toys and other miscellania, washed out of the houses up the street. Somewhere under it all was the bike track, so I followed the trail that others had used, picking my way on foot through the trees where the ground rose to the wall of the freeway.

Interesting fact of the day. While browsing around on plink I found that it is less than 700km from Melbourne to Sydney in a straight line — I’d thought it nearer a thousand!