Sunday...9 February 2014

Message received on my mobile phone this morning:

Bushfire Emergency Warning from CFA.

Maiden Gully and surrounding areas.

Seek shelter now.

Check local radio or www.cfa.vic.gov.au

That definitely got my attention!

Apparently we are in the ' surrounding ' area, hence our inclusion in the message delivery.

As I frantically told my half asleep brain to cancel all plans to take a nap, we turned on the local radio and were just in time to hear the announcer giving out the news that this particular fire was now under control and that we could stay put after all. Whew! Spent the rest of the day on high alert. 

All clear here but other parts of the state have fires burning and reports are coming in of stock and property losses. Wonder what the cold light of day will show tomorrow. 

Saturday...8 February 2014

Once again we are the right place to be part of history as Victoria has an unprecedented hot spell. Records are falling all over the place as wave after wave of 40+ hot weather hits the state. For the second time in less than four weeks we have the entire state on total fire ban and warnings of extreme fire conditions similar to Black Saturday (which was five years ago this week). Fingers crossed that nothing nasty happens.
Up north there are three possible cyclone systems that have taken a number and are waiting in line for their turn to play havoc with the mainland. Hopefully none of them will do more than dump badly needed rain to break the drought in Queensland.
Whilst bad things can happen at any time, there is this period every year where Australia seems to hold its collective breath waiting for the worst to be over and life to resume the care free lifestyle that we are so famous for.
We do what we can to keep cool and expend as little energy as possible as we wait for this part of summer to pass so that we can continue our journey.

Wednesday...5 February 2014

We are having a couple of days of nice cool weather which is a welcome relief from the very high temperatures of the last two weeks, however according to my chosen weather station, it is going to heat right back up again starting tomorrow. The cool change arrived in the form of strong gusty winds which have been making our van rock like crazy. I did not sleep much two nights ago as it felt like we were out on the ocean in high seas.
The brother is renovating and we have been doing a series of small jobs to help. Yesterday the glazier came and fitted glass bricks in the windows of the laundry and toilet. They need to return in a few days to finish the job but they do look nice.
We are quite close to a major road out of town and it has a high number of trucks on it. We are also on the same side of town, but not anyway near, the big livestock sale yards. As the trucks rumble past us I can often hear the animals inside and do you know, not all of them sound like they are enjoying the ride!

Saturday...1 February 2014

Today was a hot and lively sort of day.
I grabbed hold of a live electrical switch. Kicked like a mule all the way up my right arm to my teeth! Not in a hurry to repeat the experience. Been quite some time since I got booted. I think I held it just that little bit longer out of sheer surprise that this was happening. It took a couple of seconds to register that I should remove my fingers from the switch. The interesting part was that I somehow managed to do all this without tripping the recently installed required safety switches! The boys tell me I must have held my two fingers in a certain way across the wires to have got zapped and that leaves a lot to the imagination. Who would deliberately give a live electrical wire the two finger salute? Oh well, I live to tell the tale and if all I have to complain about is a bitch of a headache and two tingly sore fingers I guess it is a good outcome. Mind you I did need a good lie down afterwards.
Himself did comment that this will probably give my old mate Ross River a bit of a hiding for a while. For those who do not know, folklore has it that zapping oneself, by whatever means available, has a positive effect on the aches and pains of this insidiously nasty virus. It helps to put the reoccurring aches and pains on hold for a while. It is just that no normally sane person will willingly wander down the paddock to hang onto the electric fence for a bit, and while sticking ones finger in a power socket does not get my personal recommendation, I found treatment by a tens machine to be beneficial. Another one of those instances where the cure is sometimes as bad as the disease!
The hot weather continues, no doubt it will ease off in due course.

Friday...31 January 2014

Doing my best impression of an ice cube......melting!
The brother does not  have air conditioning or trees and the weather is once again extremely hot.  Still in a month or so we will begin bitching that it is cold. It is making us think about Tassie again!
We are also having a problem with our phones and think we may be in a black spot. We notice the blinking lights that tell us we have missed a call but the phones have never actually rung in the whole time we have been here! My brother has the same problem. My older phone seems more likely to ring than the flash new ones that the boys have. Perhaps the 4G network is not what the hype says it is. I am thinking it could be time for us to move again. Perhaps I could change the criteria I am using to find us a base and narrow it down to a place with reasonable phone reception!!

Sunday...26 January 2014

Australia Day.
We went to dinner with Himself's family at the local RSL club. It has had some renovations since we were there last. Looks very nice.
We ordered six dinners and got five. Himself and his brother both ordered the fisherman's basket but only one was brought to the table and Himself was given that. After a lengthy wait his brother asked when his would arrive only to be told that Himself had eaten his dinner and owing to an error on their part, Himself's dinner was never ordered! One hungry unhappy diner and one brother left feeling a bit guilty for eating the wrong meal. After paying more money we waited while we watched fisherman's basket orders being delivered to other tables and still the brother had no meal. He eventually gave up and asked for his money back and settled for a beer instead with a promise of a bowl of ice cream when he got home! Thank heavens the company was much better than the service!

Wednesday...22 January 2014

Big day. After nearly five weeks we left the daughters place in Horsham and travelled three hours across Victoria to my brothers place in Bendigo. As always it was sad leaving but we had a good visit and a lovely Christmas with them and the time does eventually come when we have to move onward.
I celebrated our arrival here by falling on the road in front of my brothers place. I did not allow my legs time to adjust after sitting for three hours and they paid me back by tripping me as I crossed the highway in front of oncoming traffic. As luck would have it I landed on the outer edge of the bitumen and was still thinking enough to roll to the side of the road. I think I probably scared the daylights out of the person driving towards me at 100 km/h! Damage bill seems to be cuts to both palms and strains to both shoulder muscles and bruising and cuts to my right knee and big toe, neither of which like me very much at the moment. I am fairly sure they are going to let me know all about it tomorrow when the real bruising begins to come out!! This is the second time I have fallen and hurt myself in this town. I wonder if it is rejecting me????