2016

I've kept this blog, on and off, since 2006. In 2015 I used it to chart daily encounters, images, thoughts and feelings about volcanic basalt/bluestone in Melbourne and Victoria, especially in the first part of the year. I plan to write a book provisionally titled Bluestone: An Emotional History, about human uses of and feelings for bluestone. But I am also working on quite a few other projects and a big grant application, especially now I am on research leave. I'm working mostly from home, then, for six months, and will need online sociability for company!


Friday, January 30, 2009

You Know You're in the Middle of a Heat Wave When...

  • you welcome the little breath of cool air that comes out from the air-conditioned bank when you withdraw cash from the ATM
  • the hot air coming out of the bottom of the fridge is heating up your kitchen so much that you think someone left the oven on
  • you are too scared to turn the fans or the little air-conditioner in the bedroom up too high in case it triggers a black-out in your suburb
  • and when you think it's better to be riding your bike home at 7.00 at night, when the temperature is still 43, than being stuck on a crowded train platform because the train tracks have buckled in the heat.
  • and when you know that however bad it is in Melbourne, it's worse in Adelaide
[Update: later that same day: still 43C]

  • when your sunglasses get almost too hot to wear on your face
  • when the pavement burns your feet through your sandals
  • when the thermostat inside the car registers 50C
  • when the bitumen is breaking up on the roads
  • and when there are fires on Hoddle St and a bookshop in Carlton, because the air conditioner exploded. Watch this space.
Really looking forward to that cool change they are promising: just 35 tomorrow!

5 comments:

Mark Lawrence said...

Yes, yes. Except that I I've been too chicken to ride in the heat the last couple of days. I've been taking the oven-hot trams instead. At least the tracks haven't buckled.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

It really is like the end of the world, isn't it.

This old world is a new world said...

Yeah, and the scary thing is: it's a taste of the world to come...

Hannah Kilpatrick said...

- when 37 seems like a cool change.
- when the household uniform becomes a skirt and a bra, despite the fact that you've had a new housemate move in just that week - and she adopts the uniform too.
- when a beagle does not want to go for a walk, and doesn't even object to a bath.
- when your capsicums and tomatoes roast on the bush.
- when every non-native leaf in the neighbourhood burns brown right through (does this mean, ironically, that those plants are now going to starve?)
- when even those shops that still have electricity are giving away all their icecream free, because it's melting so fast.
- when you don't read anyone's blog entries until the next week because you didn't dare turn on your computer!

This old world is a new world said...

Yep! all good!