Hotter than Hugh Jackman's Boxers

Yep, it's too hot . . . not as hot as those poor South Australians and Victorians who are suffering from deliberately lit bushfires. It happens every year, some wanker thinks it's a good idea to light a spark . .this one has resulted in 10 homes lost and massive fires in the Gippsland area and Latrobe Valley . . . that's a helicopter in the top right corner dumping water on this huge thing . . .


Then there are the 45 degree temperatures that are putting such a strain on the Melbourne power grid that it's gone into meltdown and 11,000 Melbournians/Victorians are without power. Spare a thought for our Southern cousins who are living by candlelight and who's trains aren't working because the railway lines have buckled near Jolimont, leaving thousands stranded at Flinders Street Station.


For goodness sakes, this is Australia . .it's a hot country. You'd think the railway lines would survive!

Adelaide is also undergoing a heat wave and has had four or five days of temps over 40. Exhausting, believe me. Kids are allowed to stay home from school and most are locking themselves indoors or visiting well air conditioned shopping centres and movie complexes.

I've spent the day vacillating between the pool and the house, dressed in a wet cossie and a sarong. Clean a little . .have a dip . . .wash a little . . have a dip . . . It's been about 38 out here in the north west of Sydney. I don't have aircon. I rarely miss it but there are the odd days and particularly nights where a fan just doesn't do the trick and this week's one of those weeks where I'd love a shot of cold air in the evening. So if you see me on Facebook or Skype at 3am, don't be surprised! Sleep eludes me in the heat. Ah well, at least I'm reducing my carbon footprint and my washing's dry in 15 minutes . .I kid you not! Even the outside critters are wondering in because it's cooler thanks to the great Aussie verandah!


I'll give him 2 days before Adam turns him into a nasty brown stain. Yep, it's a little hotter than usual and a string of over over 35 degree days is unusual, at least without a cooling storm in the evening. I'm not convinced that it's very unusual though. I remember temperatures like this as a youngster - weeks of hot weather although we usually get a thunderstorm or two to cool things down momentarily. It's not the hottest, despite the newsreaders claiming it to be. Not really, in Marble Bar, Western Australia from October 31, 1923 to April 07, 1924 the temperature broke the 37 mark setting the world heat wave record at a scorching 160 days. In 1988 Perth held the record for 10 consecutive days. In 2008 Adelaide scored 11 consecutive days over 35 . . .so far Sydney has had about 8 days over 35 and Sydney's West, where I have the honour of living is on it's 14th day of temps over 33. (Doesn't qualify as a 'heat wave' unless temperatures break 35).

We've had a spate of El Ninio and La Ninia years which have mucked up our weather patterns something fierce over the past decade and of course there's the climate change thing happening so we shouldn't be surprised. What is unusual is the long string of warm days without respite. My grass has died other than a tiny patch of 'sitting grass' outside the pool fence which receives 15 minutes of water each evening.

We were playing soccer on this at Christmas and it was GREEN. The trees are exhausted and dropping their leaves, the birds are palpably panting in the shade. The lizards are loving it. They're pinging all over the place, pooing on my carpet but the poor little Eastern Skink who lives on my router has had an accident and lost his tail!


I haven't found it in the house which suggests an outside predator has nabbed him and he's dropped the appendage to make a quick escape, so now renamed "Stumpy" until his lovely long tail grows back, we watch his clumsy progress as he cleans up the flies and Christmas beetles from the skirting board. Poor little mite, he's at sixes and sevens without his beautiful tail.

Right, the fan on my PC is going hell for leather, it's cooling down a little at 8:50pm (about 27 by my reckoning) and the sweat is trickling down the cleavage . . . time for a dip!