Sydney [update]

I'm in my first few hours in Australia. A very happy Tin and brother-in-law Kevin picked me up at Sydney Airport.

Too tired to post much, but: I opened the car door at the home we'll be staying in Narrabeen, in the Northern Beaches district of Sydney, and immediately said, "What the hell is that?"



It sounded like we were caught in the middle of a gargantuan sprinkler system, one you might use to water a small desert. Mixed with several thousand tiny rattles all being shaken violently at once. Amplified through speakers attached to your skull.

Tin and Kevin looked at me like the 15 hour flight might have done some brain damage.

"What's that sound?" I asked, in shock that they're weren't both in the same state of shock I was.

"Oh, that's the cicadas."

Oh my god.

Update: Kevin just asked if I'd felt the cicadas urinating on me. I realized that, yes, I had.

And:

"These entomopathogenic fungi attack the terminal portion of their abdominal cavity and genitalia - a cicada venereal disease if you like," Dr Moulds said. "It is a fungus unique to cicadas and it usually makes their tail ends drop off."