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
Tags: Australia, Creepy animals
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
Tags: Place to live, Weather
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.
Tags: Australia, Life, Melbourne, Place to live, Weather
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
Tags: Australia, Life, Melbourne, Place to live, Weather
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
