The Thomas Keneally lecture last night was excellent, and over all too quickly. Ranging over topics largely related to the detention of Asylum seekers in Australia, with a good smattering of 'dissident' writings from Iranian, Iraqi and Afghani writers as well as some words from Mary Robinson on human rights which were chilling in their saction of what the world (or the members of the 'Coalition of the Willing') is now doing.

Yesterday Bob and I exchanged early birthday gifts: He shall be in Vietnam from 10 June to 6 July, with both of our birthdays in that period. He was delighted with the Sennheiser Noise Cancelling Headphones, and had spent much of the day testing them out. With us both at home much of the time, he is in the mood for whatever is on ABC Classic FM most of the time, whereas I tend to gravitate towards news and 'learning talk' radio (Radio National, NewsRadio, JJJ), or more upbeat bluesy or contemporary music. Joan Sutherland can really grate on me when I'm not in the mood (I'm rarely in the mood for Joan).

His present to me was an Ortlieb handlebar bag (in blue), for our future cycle touring adventures. He ordered one a few weeks ago and tested it on his South Coast Cycling trip. Fitting it to the bike is however not as easy as it could be, and is an exercise in frustration of getting the screw to tap into the nut on the mounting bracket. He managed one side this morning (after many dummy spits), and I managed to do the other (utilising the zenning it philosophy of Plu and Tim) when he left for his run this morning.

I'm anxious to run, however the lateral side of my right lower hip/ upper thigh is tight. I was very aware of it during the Mt Taylor ramble yesterday, and it bothered me during the night. It seems a bit looser now, which seems that it is worse in the cold. I've never been good at being sensible, and I'm not sure what is the 'right' thing to do.