The last day of a very soggy summer. Only two years ago, the grass cracked underfoot - it being so dry - and talk was all of the tinder box ahead. Bushfires are common in Australia and especially in bushy areas such as the Blue Mountains. There's no mistaking, if you live here, it is the risk you take. Buyer beware!

News from Europe continues to be bleak and the cloistered dictator is making noises about his nuclear arsenal. Bluff or not, it takes a particularly nasty kind of person to make such a threat, veiled or otherwise. Even the suggestion of extinguishing hundreds of millions of lives is totally despicable in any circumstance.

I hope that the Chinese begin to wonder seriously about their ally to the north and perhaps decide to have a quiet chat. Or a tap on the shoulder. They are, after all, the other superpower.