There was a moment in my run through Royal National Park, south of Sydney, when I realised this wasn't actually normal life.

It was probably when the car in front me accelerated to get around some bicycle riders and I accelerated to catch up, and suddenly found I had to chop down for a dipping bridge and then a hard right-hander up a hill. My sports car didn't just handle the chop to second and the sudden right turn, but bolted out of the corner, surged up the hill and didn't ask for a gear-change until I hit 6000 rpm.