What I did on my Holiday - by Ondine, aged five.
I survived the hottest Xmoose and Boxing days on local record, go me. Around 45 degrees Celsius, or thereabouts, I believe. Or about 113 Fahrenheit.
I worked both those days, albeit only a few hours each day, to return at the hottest part of the day - about two or three pm.
On Xmoose I was invited to a family holiday lunch by PJ, the Grand Old Man of the department - he's been there for thirty years and is universally loved and looked up to for his prodigious knowledge. He does this every year for whoever winds up working those holidays. The lunch was enormous in scope, though I didn't eat anywhere near what everyone else did; I've never seen a multilayered pavlova before. I helped with clearing the table and drying the dishes, and played with their adolescent lorikeet. Now my right hand is covered with little beaky nibble dents.:P After lunch was time for presents, so everyone sat on the couches and ripped ribbons and paper. To my surprise PJ brought in an additional enormous swag bag full of small gifts and started tossing them out at random. Among the various things hurled through the air were such presents as organisers, KitKats, boxes of paperclips, diaries, pocket radios, a 2Gb USB key and a potato. I went home with things like a book on 'How to be a Genius', Ferrero Rocher and a bubble blowing 'fun set'. Apparently this is a regular annual thing. I loved it all. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to be included in a day with a family that is tightly knit and banter, and the whole thing made me tear up a few times.
My plants didn't like the heat and went all flat. I revived them with a new garden hose. I recently got a stump grinding person in to remove a young cabbage palm and an old marri stump left over from the previous owners and now I have a lot of mulch. I'm trying to sprout some seeds of watermelon, columbine and artichoke. Perhaps if the artichoke does well I may plant it down the side of the garage where the palm had been, to help 'keep those damned kids outta mah yard' (*shakes fist like cliched old codger*).
I've put a bowl of water in the garage on a milk crate for the bird. No idea whether it's drunk or bathed in it yet. I think I'll keep doing that all summer.
I got to spend a lot of lovely time with my TigerEyes, even though I was on call - and still am till Friday morning - and it was wonderful bar the heat. Hope that NYD - which I'm not working - will be cooler, but I'm not holding my breath. The BOM says that it's going to be 39C/102F on Wednesday.
I worked both those days, albeit only a few hours each day, to return at the hottest part of the day - about two or three pm.
On Xmoose I was invited to a family holiday lunch by PJ, the Grand Old Man of the department - he's been there for thirty years and is universally loved and looked up to for his prodigious knowledge. He does this every year for whoever winds up working those holidays. The lunch was enormous in scope, though I didn't eat anywhere near what everyone else did; I've never seen a multilayered pavlova before. I helped with clearing the table and drying the dishes, and played with their adolescent lorikeet. Now my right hand is covered with little beaky nibble dents.:P After lunch was time for presents, so everyone sat on the couches and ripped ribbons and paper. To my surprise PJ brought in an additional enormous swag bag full of small gifts and started tossing them out at random. Among the various things hurled through the air were such presents as organisers, KitKats, boxes of paperclips, diaries, pocket radios, a 2Gb USB key and a potato. I went home with things like a book on 'How to be a Genius', Ferrero Rocher and a bubble blowing 'fun set'. Apparently this is a regular annual thing. I loved it all. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to be included in a day with a family that is tightly knit and banter, and the whole thing made me tear up a few times.
My plants didn't like the heat and went all flat. I revived them with a new garden hose. I recently got a stump grinding person in to remove a young cabbage palm and an old marri stump left over from the previous owners and now I have a lot of mulch. I'm trying to sprout some seeds of watermelon, columbine and artichoke. Perhaps if the artichoke does well I may plant it down the side of the garage where the palm had been, to help 'keep those damned kids outta mah yard' (*shakes fist like cliched old codger*).
I've put a bowl of water in the garage on a milk crate for the bird. No idea whether it's drunk or bathed in it yet. I think I'll keep doing that all summer.
I got to spend a lot of lovely time with my TigerEyes, even though I was on call - and still am till Friday morning - and it was wonderful bar the heat. Hope that NYD - which I'm not working - will be cooler, but I'm not holding my breath. The BOM says that it's going to be 39C/102F on Wednesday.