We've been in Sydney for a few weeks, and I've had a chance to indulge in one of my favorite things: swimming. Here is a link to a dispatch about swimming my way across Sydney, as it appeared at TheAtlantic.com
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/03/swimming-in-sydney/254615/
...The North Sydney Pool is exactly three minutes by foot from our door. Scores of world records have been set there since it was opened in 1936, cheered by fans in the steep concrete grandstands. The pool décor is colorfully art deco, and the locker rooms are spookily dark. Luna Park, an amusement park from the same era, looms over the pool from right next door, its entrance a gigantic molded clown face, with an eerily nightmarish 30-foot-wide smile....