It was a relatively quiet weekend, which is unusual at the moment.  We went to the Bridge Mall market on Saturday morning and then just pottered for the rest of the day.  Lindsey, Jim and I went to a little autumn festival at the community gardens (allotments) in Ballarat on Sunday morning, then to the garden centre, a DIY store and the supermarket. Jim and I did useful things in Tani. Apart from that, we did nothing of note.

Our weather was warm, hot, sunny, windy, cloudy. It was very, very windy and hot in the east of the state and there have been some terrible bushfires. Some were quite close to Matthew and Belinda's place.  They spent the weekend, among other things, watching and waiting, cars packed in case they needed to leave.  Fortunately they didn't. No significant fires on our side of the state, though we also were watchful.

Jim and I are based at Hill House this week.  Yesterday we both went down to Melbourne, nice and early.  Jim had an appointment at the surgery to check his blood pressure, which had been a little high when he went for his immigration health assessment. He also had an appointment with a dermatologist to look at a lesion on his nose.  She doesn't seem to think there is much to worry about as far as his nose is concerned, and did a full skin check while he was there. She is investigating the odd rash he has on his back and buttocks.  He's had it for years and it has bamboozled health professionals on two continents.  She also doesn't know what it is, but thinks it should be possible to find out.  She biopsied that, as well as his nose.

We came back to Mount Helen after all that excitement. It is unusual for me to be here on a Tuesday night, and thus unusual for me to wake up here on Wednesday morning.  It has proved to be very difficult to be motivated to get up and get moving.  My head is convinced that it should be Thursday and therefore there should be no rush.  But I do need to be motivated.  And to get moving. I need to be at the surgery by 8:30 and it will probably take two hours to get there.  It will be peak hour when I get to the suburban freeways. Could be worse.  I'm down for some 7:30 starts in April - though I am hoping to be in Melbourne on those mornings and not in Mount Helen!

It's raining this morning.  And the forecast high for Ballarat is only 16d. This is a significant contrast to the last few days when it's been in the high 20s and 30s.  I must find my jumper!