Linda's Walkabout: It's a Colorful Country - Funky Trunks, Politicians and Ferries

While it was my second Australia day - it was my first in Sydney as last year I was in Melbourne enjoying the Australia Open Tennis. Australia Day's always on Jan. 26 which this year meant it was on a Wednesday which made it feel like a really long week for some reason (probably because it felt like a quick, whiplash weekend and then we were back at work again).

The plan was to go to The Rocks later in the afternoon with my friends Sandy and Kate for a pub crawl interspersed with bands so I decided to pay the calories forward by doing a 2.5 swim in the Sydney Habour early that morning. A number of my fellow swimmers from Aussie Masters joined in the swim and we were all decked out in our club cossie (that's what they call swimsuits here - cossies - which is short for swim costumes).

As you'll see here - our club cossies are quite funky and quite bright and colorful. Which is typical of "Funky Trunks" which is the brand of the swim suit that we selected. You can check out the other designs here (they're chlorine resistant so ideal for swimmers).

Overall the swim was fine, but there was one pretty challenging section when I felt like I was swimming hard but not moving the current was so strong. As I was swimming the image of the Greek God Sisyphus came to mind as he was pushing a huge boulder up hill. I could see the bottom of the harbour and was very tempted to stand up and walk - but quickly thought against it as I'm sure there's some rule that disqualifies swimmer who stand and walk in a swimming competition.

Once I completed that exhausting section, I thought all I had to do was swim back to the Opera House - but all of a sudden there was a whoosh of swimmer passing right in front of me and heading the opposite direction. That's when I remember the "box in a box" as Christina called it. To make the distance 2.5 K, there's this circuitous added section to swim before heading for the final stretch back to the Opera House.

Check out the map below and you'll see what I mean (the orange line is the 2.5k swim).

But finally I reached the finish line and I'm happy with my time which was:

* 2.5k (1.55 miles) completed in 43:16. I almost forgot to mention that this was also my first time swimming in the 40-49 age category which supposedly means I have an "edge" this year
* Placed 304/399 overall the 2.5K swimmers
* Placed 100/140 of all the female 2.5 k swimmers
* Place 26/85 in my age category

In the age category above me (50-59) the Australian Federal Government's Opposition leader Tony Abbott (age 53) competed in the Great Sydney Swim. I checked his results and he did it in 55:11 - which means somewhere along the way I swam past him (his heat would have started 5 minutes before).

Since i wasn't in Sydney last Australia Day I wasn't aware that one of the traditions was a ferry race. All the ferry boats that commuters take to-from places like Manly to Cirqular Quay race around the Sydney Harbour ending up under the bridge (the finish line). Alvin, a friend from the swim club who's a Kiwi and while he's lived here for many years had never seen the ferry race either, and I decided to head to the base of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to stake out a spot to watch the ferry boats finish the race.

It took about 45 minutes for the ferries to complete the race but in the end the ferry with the inflated "whale tail" won the race. As you can see from these photos it was quite a hazy and overcast day. The only way we could tell the ferries were coming our way was due to the TV news helicopters hovering overhead.