A strangely reflective, even melancholy day. Is that because, unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere, Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn?

As summer in the northern hemisphere progresses, you see lightning moving farther north. You see a similar pattern in the southern hemisphere, but not so pronounced because there isn't as much land outside the tropics.

Autumn is as joyful and sweet as an untimely end.

On average, Australians watch more than three hours of television a day, compared with 12 minutes a day spent by the average couple talking to each other.

I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.

It's Australian to do such things because, however uncivilised they may seem, it's human to do them.