Finally a hot day on a weekend. The forecast was +40 and it came close to. This was my first day spent at the beach and it and I enjoyed it very much. You can see at the chart how the temperature was rising steadily since 6am. Didn't feel that hot inside the house.
The cold wind in the afternoon sent most people home from the beach. You can see how quickly the temperature dropped back to twenties.
Here is an interesting comparison of vacation and holiday times, as mandated by the OECD countries:
It only emphasizes that pure comparison of salaries in different countries are very far from displaying the full picture. For example, a higher salary in the US matters way less when you compare it to 30 days of paid annual leave in France. In some other countries, as well, what you get back for your tax money counts a lot. Issues like infrastructure, human rights (in Finland, people have a right to Internet access of 1Mbps) and so on can make a significant difference in the quality of life.
Also, have a look at this research into the topic, from Mercer.
I just received this link to a nice promotion of European beers. The site looks interesting as there might be similar deals in the future so I'm posting here for reference
Here are some statistical maps of Europe, mostly from years 2005 and 2006. Nonetheless, it is interesting to seem the distributions of population, GDP, and different other stats.
http://www.eupedia.com/europe/maps_of_europe.shtml
Some more info on European demographics, with maps - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Europe.
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This year there is surprisingly lot of rain. Apparently it is El Nino year and in Australia it manifests itself by having huge amounts of rain. Which is quite contrary to what I expected, having been used to El Nino meaning dry years. So it seems at the Northern Hemisphere, at least.
Anyway... Having lots of rain finally makes this place resemble home. And, at the same time, it brings those memories of the reasons I left, after all. :) Getting wet on the way to work. Not being able to go out for a walk whenever one feels like (without getting wet). Swamps, streams, and water deposits everywhere. Awesome. The dams will probably fill to 120% this year...
