More rain, more water

Oh God, will it ever stop raining? I'm British, it's my duty to moan about the weather.

As there's no sunshine, our tour of Sydney's aquatics centres continues unabated. Olympic Park was the only one open yesterday but today we had our pick. We chose the Sutherland leisure centre, 25km south of the city centre (and requiring a trip under the runway). Ella was a bit wary of the mushrooms at first but within ten minutes was climbing underneath them and hurling herself into the water. She refuses to wear her armbands so gets quite a dunking, but doesn't seem to mind.

Oddly, a large gnome stands on the edge of the water, supposedly holding a hosepipe. "Looks like Grandad" said Ella. He'll love being compared to a gnome, though admittedly I could see the resemblance.

Afterwards we drove to Cronulla. There's a long sandy beach here, a few cafes and a cameo role for the Botany Bay oil refinery. According to our 2004 "Best of Sydney", Cronulla is a dingy littly place with a "ragged sense of impending something". They were only two years out - Cronulla saw some of the worst race riots ever witnessed in Australia last year, largely anti-muslim protests. It's not a pretty place. The rain didn't help.