My final exams start next week so it's all full-on study right now. My last classes were on Tuesday just gone, so I have a few days to just cram basically. Yesterday I got a heap of study done, and today was going really well too until about half an hour ago. Here's what's going on right now:

( I ) The neighbors directly behind us started playing basketball in their concrete 'backyard' - currently this only involves about four guys making a lot of noise, but you can guarantee within an hour that number will grow to about ten or twelve, if not more. This is a regular occurrence, but most often it's on the weekends. They will probably be there until sunset, unless we get another big electrical storm like we did last night. Did I mention they make a lot of noise?

( II ) The people who live next to them have a small pool for their young kids. The problem is that the father has a voice like a damn foghorn - very very loud and powerful, and he sure enjoys using it as loudly and as often as he can - in fact he's enjoying it right now.

( III ) If the above weren't enough to distract me, a team of gardeners just arrived at the property behind our building (which is where our apartment faces) - two gas-powered leaf blowers and a lawnmower all going at once. Joy.

I just looked out the window - seven guys there now. With temperatures in the high 20's (celcius) and humidity around 80%, closing the windows is really not an option - not that it would make much difference cutting the sound down anyway. Probably a good time to have a break from study - I've got through a fair bit over the last few days so maybe a break is in order.

Last night from about 9pm onwards we had one of the most intense lightning storms I've seen yet - the best part of an hour of non-stop thunder and multiple lightning flashes every few seconds. I spent most of that time hanging out the apartment window just watching the light show. There was still the occassional bolt of lightning two hours after the storm got here. Really impressive.