Just writing something so it doesn't look abandoned.

Obama, thank god, won - and I, thank god, was completely wrong. On my account, I believe there were some extenuating circumstances - McCain's inexplicable choice of Sarah Palin and the deepening of the GFC that he clearly wasn't competent to manage - but perhaps I just lacked faith.

Have been back in Australia since Dec 2008. Been quite tough but then international relocations always are, even if it's back to your home country. Lot's of loose ends to tie off. The weather's nice, salaries are high (even if prices are equally high), and I'm no longer scared of being shot/mugged/arrested/deported.

There is a sense of travelling back in time for a few years. Also have come to realise that Australians are individually quite talented, but organisationally quite incompetent. It's a bit depressing that our wealth basically comes from digging up bits of our country and selling it off (think Saudi Arabia) - we basically don't seem to make anything - and it's hardly a long-term sustainable model, but it is what it is. Think the anecdote of Australia's war time record continues to speak volumes. We had (perhaps still have) the best infantry in the world. We helped break the back of the German 1918 Spring Offensive, we held Tobruk against Rommel, we pushed back the Japanese along Kokoda track and we held off against overwhelming odds at Long Tan. In short in basically every infantry engagement we are victorious. We are perfectly psychologically equipped for small units working beautifully together. However, get more than a small number of Aussies together ie the crew of a warship and we're quite useless. The light cruiser HMAS Sydney is sunk by a German freighter with a gun bolted to the deck and the air craft carrier HMAS Melbourne accidentally shears off the bow of the destroyer HMAS Voyager. Talented Australians turn up all over the world - Rupert Modoch; David Kilcullen; half of Hollywood seems to be Australian. But I struggle to name a single internationally competitive Australian organisation. In my own field, basically every water engineering consultancy reports to either a British, American or French head office. Aside from some ductile iron pipe, a high volume low value product, everything is imported. This isn't just high end pumps - Hell we buy cable ladders from Norway.

Anyway it is what it is