Alarm!

We had a productive day yesterday.

Jim spent several hours up at Hill House helping Ian with some of his outside projects.

I cleaned most of the kitchen at Tani #1. I have the floor and the dishwasher still to do in the kitchen, plus the bathroom, toilet and laundry. Will try and knock that over tomorrow, leaving the carpet cleaning for Monday.  (Must get motivated!!!!!!!)

Then I went into town.  Lindsey had given me her coin collecting tin, plus a small collection of coins from her surgery and an ENORMOUSLY heavy coin collecting elephant for which she had lost the key. Jim smashed open the elephant.  I opened the tin. The assembled coins were almost too heavy for me to carry.  So I put them into two cotton bags and trundled into town in the car.  I had thought that my total of $360 was pretty  good.  Lindsey's combined total was very nearly $1000.

That should pay for Christmas dinner!!!

When I was in Lincraft a few days ago, I asked if they sold plate stands. They didn't.  But another customer said that they sold them at Cheap as Chips. There's a Cheap as Chips near the supermarkets in the city centre so, while I was in town, I went in for a look.  It's like an Aussie version of Daiso.  Lots of fun!  After I picked Jim up I took him into town for a look too - plus I wanted a couple of extra things.

On the way back I noticed what looked like a haze of smoke over beyond Buninyong. It looked as though it was at a safe distance from us, so I didn't pay much attention. It certainly wasn't within a 5km distance or my emergency app would have told me about it.

About 30 minutes later I had just had a first mouthful of my (well deserved) gin and tonic when my phone made an odd noise.  I looked at it.  And there was an Emergency Text from the government.

Take shelter immediately.  It is too late to leave. Put on long trousers, long sleeved shirt and shelter in a room with two exits. Close all windows and doors. Turn off air conditioners. Take shelter immediately.

!!!!!!!

I looked outside.  No smoke. No fire. No neighbours running away. Nothing out of the ordinary.  I looked at the alert more carefully and realised that it was for some specific roads out beyond Buninyong. I had another mouthful of gin and tonic while I pondered why I hadn't had any earlier texts. Ian, up at Hill House hadn't had any at all. Then I realised that I would have been in the Ballarat city centre when the earlier warnings had come out, so out of range of the government alerts for Buninyong.

The government alert service is different to my emergency app. This was the first time I have had a government alert.  I get lots of alerts from my emergency app - most of which I ignore :-D  But I have  now extended the range on my emergency app from a 5 km range (which I have over the winter) to 10 km. I usually do have it at 10 km over the summer; I just hadn't got around to changing it yet.  It's only early December!

The fire on the other side of Buninyong was moving south, so well away from us.  The CFA had it under control by the time I went to bed.

But two fiery alarums in a month is more than enough, thank you very much.  I don't feel the need for any more this summer.

It's my birthday today.  And I am about to head off to work.  Most unusually I slept later this morning. I had better get a wriggle on :-D