Over the last couple of days I’ve watched about an hour and a half of video footage of my Perth to Hobart Bike for Bibles bike ride but there’s lots more to come.

(That’s me on the right with Errol Werner, one of the other 30 or so riders, on the left.)

I’ve just received 7 hours of highlights on DVD of our Nullarbor crossing and am looking forward to watching it all. We have released a limited edition collection to help raise the money we need to finish editing the one hour documentary that will be shown on Channel 7 later this year.

We have a back yard lemon tree. It is now at the stage that it is producing heaps of lemons. We don’t use a lot of lemons but I’m still thrilled when I see it producing fruit.

There’s something special about being part of the process. I’m a hopeless gardener but I do water the tree and throw it some fertiliser. Pauline prunes it now and then. The kids enjoy collecting the lemons.

What is it about seeing ‘useless’ fruit develop that pushes my buttons?

It’s been a few years since we took the family right into the city to watch the Australia Day fireworks. We braved it this year.

The fireworks were wonderful with lots of pre-show entertainment. Unfortunately it got out of hand with a small percentage of the crowd and police had their hands full with a few full on brawls.

For the most part, and certainly where we were situated, it was a good family type atmosphere.

What stunned me was the level of patriotism. Aussies are usually very laid back and in the past I’ve seen most of the crowd sit or begrudgingly stand for the national anthem. This time it was different. Everyone got up on their feet and sang. There was a massive cheer when a huge Australian flag came past being towed by a helicopter. Throughout the evening people would spontaneously start chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie – Oy Oy Oy …….” There were Australian flags everywhere in the crowd.

Could it be that Australians are finally realising what a great country we have?