I’ve been in Australia for three days now and I’ve still not found any sort of sleeping pattern! It’ll come soon enough. Johnny Rea was on my flight over from Dubai to Melbourne so it was nice to have company on the long haul. We booked the same flights by chance then him and his mate Gaz were allocated the seats directly behind me and Pippa. They moved in beside us so it made the journey feel that bit shorter.Typically I’ve brought poor weather with me to the Gold Coast, there’s a storm kicking off right now. Last year I brought rain to every GP bar Qatar and Misano and one of those is in the desert. Then when I switched to World Supersport it rained for the most part of Donington and Vallelunga. Before then the supersport boys had only seen one session of rain the entire season! So don’t be surprised if you tune in to watch Phillip Island and it’s hammering it down, it’s because I’m in attendance. If I was to compete in AMA they’d never have a race!

I’m enjoying my stay on the Gold Coast, there are two outdoor Olympic-sized pools round the corner and nobody’s ever in so it’s great. Just four dollars in for any member of the public, the locals don’t realise what they’ve got. Today we went to Wet‘n’Wild which was good fun; I’d never been to a water theme park before so that’s another thing ticked off my list of things to do before I die. Just a few left including eating a five course meal backwards. I’ve still never managed to get round to that.

I’m gonna be here for another four days before I head down to Phillip Island. I’ve been keeping an eye on the Stiggy and Althea guys lap times at the test, the Ten Kate and Yamaha boys started testing today so I’ll tune in later to see who finishes on top. I do hope the rain stays away next weekend so as I get some dry track time to catch up on the others. What’ll be will be.

I’ll stop by again before round one.

Eugene