This Is The Story » Australia

Dwarvish maps

StooJ — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:36:26 +0000

Dear Australia Post

I’m sorry no one was in receive our parcel last week. You thoughtfully left a card with information on how to pick it up from your parcel depot, complete with a little map.

Small map to find the local AU parcel depot

Which caused me no little confusion. In Melbourne, there are several streets with the same name. So when I see a map with a Chapel street running left to right, I think it runs from East to West.
Melbourne is not Middle Earth.
I am not a dwarf.

May I request a future redesign of your cards with standard mapping practices in mind (north goes at the top) for us poor people who haven’t lived here long and think there might be two Chapel Streets.

Cheers.

Stoo

Crazy weather

StooJ — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:02:51 +0000

One thing I’ve loved since Ubuntu 7.10 is the gnome weather applet built into the clock. Not only do you get a quick idea of the weather at your home location, but I also have the times and weathers of a couple of other places of interest (Aberdeen in Scotland and Alice Springs)

Today the weather icon showed something I was used to seeing in Aberdeen all the time: the mist icon. Doesn’t get misty here though, so I hovered the mouse over it to find:

Australian mist = smoke

Bushfires

StooJ — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:10:47 +0000

Smoke billows from the Churchill bushfire in the Gippsland region of Victoria. (User submitted via ABC Contribute: whatthe41)

It’s difficult for a scottish lad to comprehend the scale of destruction here. 450,000 hectares of land burned. Death toll hits 180. And there is more to come.

Evan Davie has put together a map to track the fires.

Living fairly close to the centre of Melbourne, we’ve been well out of the calamity that has struck the surrounding countryside. Looking at that map above, I can see the ring of red dots that circle the north and east of the city, But here on Saturday the fires were only noticeable in the red skyline on all sides, the smoke in the distance and the feeling of Armageddon. This was maybe also due to the heat, which was extreme, but when you stepped outside into it, the world seemed to be coming to an end.

Photo taken in Mc Donald Street Morwell at 4:20pm 07-02-2009 (curtesy of ABC, taken by topcats)

A place to stay

StooJ — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:42:30 +0000

Our application got accepted! We move into the new place this weekend, and I’ll try and take some photos. It’s not going to look like much, but it’s our own place which is the main thing.

Australia’s creepy animal #1

StooJ — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:43:01 +0000

One slight disappointment with Australia so far is that I haven’t really seen too many “Australian animals” yet. By “Australian”, I mean ridiculously deadly and absolutely terrifying. In fairness, I have come across a kangaroo standing in the middle of the Hume Highway while we came blearily along it on our way from Canberra to Melbourne at 3am. I accept that said kangaroo might have been deadly had we not noticed it in time. Further along the road a car full of young boys had had an argument with a wombat and the car had lost. A wombat is kinda like a dog that has been crossed with a bear, or possibly a tank. Small, but built like a Volkswagen.
But no creatures have filled me with horror yet. No snakes, very few spiders so far, not a single croc and no jellyfish. Wow – ten minute of reading on wikipedia has filled me with enough terror to last a while though. Never tangle with Box Jellyfish.

But, over Christmas I did come across a tiny creature whose very nature is abhorrent to me.

The Silverfish

(Taken from wikipedia)

It eats books. That’s what it does. Presumably it used to eat something else, but these days it eats books. I met these monsters while going through a collection of books and they had destroyed at least a dozen. Eating parts of the pages one at a time, in quite a nice pattern. But… books! That’s what the baddies in films do! Well, they burn them, but it amounts to the same thing.

*shudders*

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Distance swam today: 1km

Fingers crossed for a new flat

StooJ — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:39:41 +0000

More flat-hunting today, and another application submitted. Gin is doubtful, but I really hope this one goes through. Great location in the south-side, fairly near to the markets and handy for trams. There’s a great pool nearby too and the beach isn’t too far away. It’ll be great to get a place of our own finally.

The world has cooled down too!

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Distance swam today: 1.5km

Still more HEAT

StooJ — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:07:33 +0000

Melbourne still struggles under an oppressive heat, although it cooled of a little this evening. With all the air-conditioners and fans being abused throughout the state, the power grid has started a programme of rolling blackouts. Areas of the city get their electricity cut off for around an hour at a time to reduce overall demand.
I spent most of the day stuck in horrible traffic jams under an unrelenting sun. The car’s thermometer recorded 50°C, right about the time I ran out of water and had to find a towel to mop up the pool of sweat collecting on the steering wheel. Since the temperature hasn’t really dropped below 40°C in three days (and nights) the city feels like it’s going into meltdown. It is incredibly difficult to sleep in the heat, and tempers are fraying everywhere. Melbourne drivers, anxious at the best of times (although not as bad as Sydney drivers I’m told) are becoming positively belligerent while Melbourne’s seemingly random traffic restrictions (no right-turns in places I could right-turn into last week, with accompanying unsigned and round-about diversions), all at a snails pace in searing heat did little to improve my mood.

The search for a place to stay didn’t progress very far either. After reaching the other side of the city, I discovered the keys for a flat hadn’t been returned yet by previous hopefuls, and after an hour and a half of waiting I gave up and came home. We’ll head out tomorrow and try again.

With no electricity this evening Gin & I had a blissful few hours outside in the cool change (29°!) without worrying that we should be glued to computers researching places to stay and programming to do. We’ll get back to real life tomorrow, but for now it’s cold shower time.

Looking for a place to stay

StooJ — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:35:52 +0000

Although Gin & I are staying in a pretty nice place just now, we’ve realised that we both want to have somewhere to ourselves. So, I’m house-huntin’.

Having never lived in a big city before, I’m not sure how Melbourne compares to other places so this may be the norm: 15 minute viewing windows.

We find a place we like and there will be only one opportunity to view the property, usually between 17:00 & 17:15 on a single day. Now, this isn’t just a booking for us. This is for anyone who wants to view the place. Can demand be so high? It took a month and a half before I rented my flat in Scotland out!

Also, filling in forms and trying to keep them sweat-free in 46°C heat is not a lot of fun. The heat continues.

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Distance swam today: 1km

HEAT

StooJ — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:35:58 +0000

It is probably appropriate that the inaugural Australian post will be about the HEAT.
Anyone in Scotland will undoubtedly be aware of the temperatures here this week; since they have all been following the tennis rather closely.
When I talked about Australian temperatures in Scotland, I was often treated to a disbelieving look of “nowhere gets that hot!” Today I feel vindicated! 48.2°C in Victoria today, while Melbourne hit a mere 45. That is 113°F.
I’m pretty sure that after a few days of unrelenting heat (it’s still 32°C/89.5°F and past midnight) will wear off the sweaty shine, but the novelty still makes wandering around outside frankly hilarious. Who knew that your ears could sweat?

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Distance swam today: 1km