Hot and Windy

It was hot on Saturday. Very hot. Very, very hot. Although, at 38 or 39d in Mount Helen, perhaps not quite as hot as it was in Melbourne at 41 or 42d. And definitely not as hot as in Sydney on Sunday where in one suburb it reached 47d.  They can keep that!

39d is quite hot enough, thank you.

It was windy on Saturday. Very windy. Very, very windy.

Very, very hot and very, very windy.  Excellent conditions for bushfires.

It was the National Cycle Championships on Saturday. For mysterious reasons these are held in and around Buninyong.  This year they also took in part of the University campus.  It was so hot and windy that they moved the morning activities forward to early in the morning and cancelled the afternoon activities. Fortunately, the afternoon was not competitive. They do public events in the afternoon.  But it did mean that the roads were open in the afternoon should the need to evacuate arise.

Most fortunately no bushfires eventuated around us so there was no need to evacuate.  But I had my phone with me at all times. I have the state emergency app on my phone which would have alerted me had there been a problem.  You can't outrun a fire once it gets near to you, but we could get to the safe space at the University or even to either Buninyong or Mount Clear if paying attention to the alerts.

Lindsey, Jim and I got up early to water the fruit trees and the vegetables before the heat properly hit. We do the watering in the evening but thought that the plants might appreciate an extra drink under the circumstances. Then we went early-ish in the morning to the monthly Bridge Mall market. Alas, the spice lady wasn't there and we have run out of our favourite dukkah mixes.  We'll just have to hope that she was taking a summer break and will be back in February.  In the evening Ian and I tried an experiment, making pizza using his new outside pizza oven and also using the fan oven inside.  I have to say that the pizza oven won hands down.  I may have to save up very hard and buy one for myself.  Ian used it on Sunday to make focaccia and once again it was very successful.

Sunday was a much better day weather-wise.  Nothing like as hot and windy. Just as well. Lindsey and Ian had guests coming to lunch - an old school friend of Ant's and his wife and their two children. Their trip to Mount Helen was slightly complicated by the fact that the National Cycle Championships were back on schedule and the roads they had intended to use as they got here had been once again closed to traffic!

It was a lovely day. Ian cooked up a Spanish-style feast. It was very delicious. I may have to steal his recipe for the sauce he had with the slow cooked beef cheeks.

Apart from that, things are slowly settling back to normal after the Christmas and New Year holidays. I do have a few extra shifts on the reception desk but none planned until February. So I am more or less working my usual Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Except, of course, when other things intervene.  No interventions this week though.

Oh - except that I had an appointment with my hand therapist yesterday morning before work. I haven't seen her since the beginning of December.  Now, I am reasonably pleased with my hand at the moment.  I hadn't been. I was beginning to think that it would never improve, never bend, never work.  Then about a week ago I realised that I could use it well enough to hold vegetables properly when slicing them and to peg things out on the washing line.  I still can't hold a carving fork properly, but it is obviously beginning to get better.  But I can't do some of the things the therapist had asked me to work on so I thought she might be a bit grumpy.  But no. She too is quite pleased. I now have a new night splint, new exercises and some exercise putty to strengthen the hand so I will be able to hold a carving fork. Eventually. Now I just need to remember to do all the exercises :-D