My near death experience

Since arriving in Melbourne, I’ve been “semi–unemployed”….or as I like to put it – on sabbatical. Although I don’t usually thrive in unstructured situations, I have used the past week to have a look around the city, use public transportation, figure out where you can get free wireless internet, get reacquainted with driving, and find some good shopping spots.

Today was predicted to be hottest of the season, so I decided to add a few activities to my “Melbournization.”
Activity #1:
Most of the natives already look native, so I decided I better not waste any time and jump on the bronzing band wagon. Although I made a valiant effort, I got bored after about an hour and went back up to the condo.
Activity #2:
Generally Australians are pretty healthy and stay in good physical shape. Since we’ve been here, I’ve been super motivated to ‘get active’! There are always tons of people running, biking, rollerblading (yes, rollerblading), kite surfing – you name it. I decided that my next phase of “Melbournization” was to get some exercise. For the record, Americans really have an advantage when it comes to choosing to get in shape as their New Years Resolution. We typically have at least 3 or 4 months before even thinking about getting into a bathing suit. Australians have a week - MAX. Then again, I doubt that most Australians ate an entire pumpkin pie over the holidays like I did either. So far the only exercise that I’ve gotten is walking from one cafe with wireless internet to the patisserie with wireless internet. Since I don’t have a bike, I gave up rollerblading in ’95 after wiping out in my neighborhood cul-de-sac, and have no interest being on a surfboard in Great White territory….I decided to take a run by standard deduction. After lacing up my shoes and turning on my iPod, I hit the pavement in high spirits – but that didn’t last long. Along the beach road there is hardly any shade and I lasted a whopping fifteen minutes before I felt like my skin was going to melt off of my body and was certain that my body temperature had reached at least 110 degrees. I figured it would probably be a good idea to just walk home. I turned around and looked for an alternate route that provided more shade. As I was stumbling home and daydreaming about air-conditioned gyms I had a few close calls with some oncoming cars due to the heat exhaustion impairing my depth perception. When I finally arrived safely back at 9 Beach Street I did something that may have saved my life. I ate a bowl of ice cream immediately to bring my body temperature back to normal. Good news! It worked and I am now in ship shape. Agenda for tomorrow – gym membership.