The Mezzanine

The smoke in Melbourne is now bad enough that I've ordered reusable facemasks for the entire family. FUN.

Keeping the kids inside today, away from smoke and exercise. This involves lots of television. (The alternative would be the entire house getting torn apart by kidlets with too much energy.) A shame, but there it is.

Also, the sun is now at the point where you can look at it, eclipse-style. I've been closing curtains so that the kidlets don't stare and accidentally blind themselves...

Today I'm getting to witness Germans at their most wimpy.

It is, you see, a terribly hot day, and they're all worried about surviving the awful heat.

...of 30 degrees. *faints dramatically at such dreadfully warm weather*

(Americans: this is 86 Fahrenheit)


I'm just going to sit here in my non-air-conditioned house, happily lettting the wonderfully cool breeze waft fresh summer air through every room. Later, I might go for a walk.

(Note my lack of blocking up every door and window, blasting air-conditioned coolness into every corner, stocking up on icecubes, realising some rooms are a lost cause and blocking them off so the air-con can cope with a smaller space, wishing I could remove several layers of skin, sleeping naked on the floor of the living room, and cowering from the horrible skin-searing sun. Because this is not Australia.)


Remember the knife scene from Crocodile Dundee? Right now, I feel kinda like that. "You call that summer? THIS is summer."

1) I have a cold, which is making me sneezy and disinclined to blog. Hence the lack of updates.

2) My work tends to be either non-existent, or boundless and overflowing. Right now, it's just gone from almost nothing to do, to suddenly having eight really massive and interesting things to get done. Which would be great... if it wasn't right at the end of the week, so I somehow have to cram huge amounts into the next few hours and then hope I still remember everything next Wednesday.

3) Going out to a Croatian restaurant this evening, with some uni friends. Ages since we've been able to catch up, so it'll be nice to see everyone.

4) Alex is about to turn 6. I have been enlisted for his superhero party tomorrow, to take green-screen photos of boys flying through the sky...

5) dr_carrot has now been away for over three weeks, and her cat is missing her dreadfully. He keeps trying to come and snuggle up to me - usually when I'm having a shower, trying to cook something, or on the loo. MOST inconvenient.

6) Scarf number two is finished (except for the tassles) and I'm now trying to crochet a cushion. My life is turning into Nothing But Crochet! right now, but I really have to put in lots of time while I'm still enthusiastic, so that when that dies down I'm skilled enough to still find it all interesting.

7) Winter has taken over (even though it technically isn't here yet), and I am rugging up enormously every morning. It's too cold for me to go outside with wet hair! What on earth is that about?!

1) Spring is here! Along with lovely spring weather.

2) The boyfriend brought me flowers. Because he's great.

3) Funky country music on my phone. (Yes, that's a GOOD thing.)

4) My hair is getting long!

5) Elf purred at me this morning, and looked happy.

6) Spring! Hurrah for spring!

The boyfriend has now had conversations with Dad about house renovating, obscure engineering concepts, and ancient history. If he ever decides to take up archery, none of us will get a word in edgewise with Dad ever again...


Fun day, but HOT. Spent quite a bit of it in a swimming pool, wishing I could live there. Came home to my house to discover that my air-conditioning had blown a fuse and not been cooling my house. HOT HOUSE. *whinges*

Josh is now two years old, and enjoyed his party a lot. :)

The weather has apparently decided to make up for seven years of drought in a single month. It's rainy, and windy, and thundery, and actually cold enough to have the heater on. In December! Aren't we supposed to be switching to shorts and beach trips and ice-cream?


On Saturday we went to a wedding, up in Healesville, at the RACV Country Club. A place with lots of leather seats, good wine, and polite conversation. If that's what rich people do with their free time, it seems elegant and luxurious, but boring.

The wedding was fun - although the reception music was rather loud. For some reason, sound guys don't ever think the volume is high enough unless it's near-impossible to talk over.


Yesterday evening, my family had a barbecue. (Eaten inside, because of the weather being so bizarrely unseasonal.)

Josh is figuring out how talking works, but still can't pronounce things very well. His "Nan", "Nathan", and "noise" sound almost exactly the same - which leads to difficulties when you think he's talking to Nan about Nathan, but actually is getting excited about the huge noise Nan's blender is making.

He's started saying "WOW!" in a very enthusiastic way. It's cute.


Caleb interrupted me mid-conversation to tell me all about... something exciting. I'm not entirely sure what, because I had to stop him and point out that I was in the middle of talking to someone and could he please wait? I'd be with him in a moment.

Very frustrating, actually, because he does need to learn manners, but I love him spontaneously telling me about his life, and by the time I could conclude the other conversation and listen to him, he'd forgotten all about what he'd been saying...

(Because summer is making an appearance, and I'm all thinky.)


Most people who don't live here seem to think that Aussie weather is:
1) hot
2) really, really hot
3) like, way too hot to move
4) HOT

It's a little more complicated than that.

( a few points to bear in mind )

The weather forecast for the next week has thunderstorms.

And just thunderstorms. Every single day.


Any bets on how many times we have a power failure?

Warm weather! Finally!


*is wearing a summery skirt*
*is thrilled about the skirt*
*is also thrilled about the nice weather in general*

It's supposed to reach 28 degrees (82F) today, for the first time in a long time.

Tomorrow it's going to be cold again... but still! Warmth and sunshine! Briefly! Hurrah!