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Been a funny day today.
I woke up with the intention of doing four pages for Tales of the Galli but did four for Return to Second Life instead. The difference was that I couldn't sweat all over the artwork on the second, as it's mostly made from screen shots of Second Life. If I'd started drawing on paper I would have dribbled all over it, plus I had a headache for most of the day.
Spent a lot of time in front of the PC today, partly I think because the study's the coolest room in the house and I didn't have to move much. But, considering that my sinuses are making noises that sound like bad shortwave reception, I think it's time to turn the PC off, have a late dinner and fall asleep in front of a TV.
I left my travel clock outside on top of the rubbish bin for 10 minutes. It has a built in thermometer but normally it only gets to measure the temperature in my purse or backpack. When I checked it just now, it showed 44 °C (and only 34° inside).
Glad I'm inside. Also glad that when I went out yesterday I left the dogs in the house, where it was cooler.
Hot Weather again
Feb. 7th, 2009 12:20 pmThe current temperature at Barnsley is 37° with a 2km/h wind and 22% humidity. Oddly enough that's bearable if I stay inside with the fans on (I swapped the pedestal with the floor fan and the study is cooler now). But I won't be going out side much. No shopping today!
The one week forecast is (taken from OzForecast)...
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The heatwave that dominated most of last week is still a threat, as listed at this Google News page. Things that struck me:
Ambulance crews in Victoria will today be on high alert, trains in NSW will slow down in case the heat causes tracks to buckle, and police in South Australia will be monitoring known fire bugs.
Fire-fighters across the three states, and in the ACT, are bracing for a devastating weekend as record high temperatures, gusty winds and parched earth combine to produce an unprecedented fire danger.
Sydney is today blanketed in smoke carried from a bushfire on the NSW central coast.
In Victoria, a fire in the Bunyip State Forest east of Melbourne breached containment lines overnight, much sooner than expected.
meanwhile...
The Queensland State Emergency Service is still rescuing sick and elderly residents from homes in Ingham as flood waters slowly subside.
Sixty per cent of the state is now disaster declared and while rains have eased in some areas, a large low pressure system off the coast is expected to generate more heavy falls in coming days.
The Herbert River in Ingham is dropping slowly with the latest forecast predicting the flood level will decrease a metre by midnight. More heavy rain is forecast between Townsville and Mackay, but the threat of another cyclone off Cairns has eased.
The Australian Army has begun flying fuel into Ingham, as the north Queensland town faces its fourth day cut-off by flood waters. The Bruce Highway is still cut to the north and south of Ingham.
I did see news items on the TV about Crocodiles and snakes being spotted in the flooded areas. Good fun!
Here's yesterday's Maximum temperature map:
Don't'ya just love Australia's climate?
Now that was silly...
Feb. 4th, 2009 07:27 pm...as it seems my appointment at the employment agency was a mistake.
I got all the way into town when I got a "missed call" on my mobile. I was just going to the library before going there. It turned out that the SMS I got yesterday was incorrectly sent and was actually a reminder for my key worker to phone me. I called back and talked with her and she drove me home in her air conditioned car.
Duh! Well at least I returned a book and borrowed some stuff while waiting for her.
Today's Heat Outrages
Jan. 30th, 2009 11:45 pmMore stuff:
- No relief from heatwave chaos (ABC)
About 16,000 customers of Jemena, Alinta and United Energy, which cover south-eastern metropolitan areas and the north-west of Melbourne were still without power at 1:00pm AEDT.
Victorian fire authorities have revised the area burnt by the two fires burning in the Strzelecki Ranges south of the Latrobe Valley since yesterday.The latest aerial scans of the two fires show they have now burnt through more than 2,000 hectares of grassland, bush and forest, a figure far greater than that released in alerts this morning.
Heatwave brings havoc to southern Australia as temperatures hit 45C (Times Online)
In Adelaide 19, mainly elderly, people are reported to have died during the heatwave, a higher than average daily figure of sudden deaths. Only two sudden deaths were recorded last Friday.
The heatwave has also affected Tasmania, traditionally Australia’s coolest state, which reached 42.2C at Scamander – an all-time record for the island.Australian heatwave again cuts trains, power (Reuters)
Ambulance Victoria said paramedics were stretched to the limit with a surge in calls for help in the heat, with more than 1,300 cases on Thursday, a jump of 52 percent on the daily rate.
Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has said the heatwave was a sign of climate change.
Australia, one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change due to its hot, dry climate, is in the grip of drought and fire bans have been declared in southern Australia to prevent major bushfires.
This Summer sucks. It was only 31°C here today (currently at 23°) though it was awfully exhausting to run around in. Tomorrow's forecast is 20 - 30°. Should I go out at all? I think I'll have to see what my ankle is like tomorrow.
Odd stuff in the news today.
I was surprised to hear on the Today show this morning that a Massive fire forces evacuations in Nairobi. What surprised me was the plain unembellished statement that "Police used whips to beat back crowds trying to get a closer look at the blaze." Uh, OK, that seems unusual. I had visions of an Indiana Jones type scenario where a lone police officer holds back a dozen people until some goon turns up with a sword. The reality was probably much less exciting and at least they didn't use guns.
Did a little more digging just now and found
Kenya Police Club Protesters at Anti-Government Rally, in which "Police beat protesters with clubs and short whips." (1997); Kenyan sect strips and whips women over 'un-African' clothing where "Followers of the Mungiki sect were shown on national television stripping naked and whipping six women in a Nairobi slum for "unAfrican" behaviour." (2000); and Kenyan police battle slum-dwellers, head found (2007) which said "Kenyan police used whips and tear-gas to battle slum-dwellers on Wednesday in a crackdown on the Mungiki criminal gang blamed for the latest macabre discovery of a severed and skinned head...".
Kenya sounds like a fun place doesn't it? 
Mind you, I have some concerns about Police using tasers here in Australia. I wonder what the public responce would be if they used whips instead? 
In other news, both South Australia and Victoria continue to suffer under the current heatwave. Things aren't so bad here in Barnsley today but even so I'm glad I'm not going out. What surprises me is that fact that Heatwave forces 60 rail service cancellations in Melbourne, and Adelaide had a record overnight temperature of 33°C. This is all because SA is suffering six consecutive days of 40-plus temps.
Coming from Perth, I have to wonder about how unprepared people seem to be. Cold water in the fridge, stay home and out of the sun are simple things if you can do them. Some tips (from the Brimbank City Council page) to prevent heat stress include:
- Keep up your fluids – you need to drink more during hot weather, regardless of how active you are. Do not wait until you are thirsty to drink. Drink plenty of water or other cool, non-alcoholic fluids. Check with your doctor if you are on limited fluids or fluid pills. Avoid alcohol or drinks that contain lots of sugar. Don’t have extremely cold liquids, as they may cause stomach cramps.
- Avoid exposure to heat – stay out of the sun as much as you can,
- Protect yourself outside – if you must be outdoors, remember to protect yourself from the sun – ‘slip, slop, slap’ by covering exposed skin with lightweight clothes, using sunscreen and wearing a hat.
- Limit physical activity – too much physical activity on a hot day can lead to heat stress. If you can, restrict activity to cooler parts of the day.
- Don’t leave children or pets in cars – even on cool days, cars can heat up to dangerous temperatures very quickly. Children or pets that are left unattended in parked cars for even a few minutes are at risk of serious heat-related illnesses and possibly death. Never leave children or pets in a parked car, even if the windows are left open a fraction.
- Take it easy – rest often and, whenever possible, stay indoors or in the shade.
- Stay cool – and keep air circulating around you. Use air-conditioning if possible. If you don’t have air-conditioning, consider visiting an air-conditioned shopping centre or public library. Take a cool shower, bath or sponge bath.
- Keep up your energy levels – eat regular, light meals.
- Watch out for others – check on older, sick or frail people who may need help coping with the heat (at least twice a day).
Heatwaves in Australia
Jan. 28th, 2009 11:17 am
It seems that Victoria and South Australia are in for extended heatwaves this week. Also the ACT has a bushfire warning current. Seems like more of the same to me - this Summer has been hot and sticky more times than not.
At least the Australian Government has good advice on heatwaves. The risk of bushfires is more of a worry. Back in 2000 everything between Barnsley and Holmesville went up, and it took well over a year for it to recover. Back then there were horses in the horse paddocks behind Charlton St, and because of overgrazing there was little to burn. But there haven't been horses there for over 5 years, and it wouldn't take much for a fire to rip through it.
Just part of living in Australia.
Today's Weather
Jan. 27th, 2009 10:01 amThe last 5 days...
Jan. 24th, 2009 11:28 am...I feel like I've been melting in the heat.
Out of those five days I've been out and about for four of them. Twice I've been down to Sydney and on those trips suffered from dehydration and diarrhoea at the most awkward of times.
Monday I visited Jenny at the nursing home and afterwards it was all I could do to stay awake. I had that all night, feeling sleepy and dizzy.
Tuesday I went down to Newtown (and was constantly dizzy and sleepy on the train) to pick up artwork from the 24 Hour Comic Day event and pass on a comic I'd borrowed. Anyway I won a $50 voucher at Arial's. They had two shops - one at The Rocks and another at Paddington. I went to the latter one and didn't get home until after 8pm. I mean, it was sort of a nice day out, but I also felt a bit like Arthur Stace, tramping around town in the wrong shoes but with not enough energy to write anything in chalk. Cramps and diarrhoea were endemic in the heat involving long sessions in the toilet on the train, and a stop-over at Edgeworth between buses home (where I drank a 2 litre container of orange juice).
Wednesday I stayed home until ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
chaosmanor (Elaine) turned up for a visit. She was touring the East Coast on a research project for one of her books. We went to Warner's Bay for some Thai food. It was good to chat with her again. On the Thursday I went with Elaine down the freeway to Sydney, acting as her navigator while she returned the Wicked hire van she'd been renting.
That part of the trip was fun. Later I trudged off to the rocks to check out the other Arial store but they still didn't have anything i wanted to blow the $50 voucher on. It might have been a mistake to walk all the way down George St to the Rocks. I had to stop numerous times for toilet breaks, despite hovering around in air conditioned comfort inside Dymocks.
For a while I just hovered around at the Museum of Contemporary Art. where they had an interesting exhibition of Yinka Shonibare's stuff. I just loved the fibre-art adaptation of Enlightenment themes in his work. But somehow when I came out it was an hour later than I thought, and I missed the last train-bus connection back home. Rather than panic, I went to Bondi Junction and had dinner there and browse at Borders (also air conditioned). Almosty saw a film but caught the train to Cardiff instead. As it was I didn't get there until 10:30pm and got a taxi home.
Yesterday was blah. Despite efforts all week (well ok, Wednesday and Friday) I've made extremely little progress on my web comics. Every time I get some enthusiasm I sweat all over the artwork. Bleaugh. the highlight of yesterday was doing some washing up at 11pm, while it was cool.
Today, I'm still hot and fucking sweaty and though I still want to do those web comics, so far all I've done is round two of the washing up. Bleagh. I am sick of this weather.
Here's the current forecast for Barnsley (and here's the details at OzForecastdoCom):
Not good for today. It's the "north at 0 km/h" for the wind that's the killer. I have the fan on in my study, and the dogs are in here with me, and it's just so damn hot. I suppose I should be thankful that I haven't go out anywhere (other than walking Bobby this morning) in conditions like this - I'd drop.
I don't have air-conditioning and both of my PCs are playing up. The media PC's been stuffed for days (can't get it to put a picture on the TV) and the attempted Windows install is a disaster, because in both cases the drives aren't working well. Outside of operating parameters I suppose.
When Pegasus was still alive and much younger he coped with heat like this by either finding a spot under the house or digging one in the shade. Once I found him and Maxine underneath the house at the same spot. The only thing that would get them out was food and only very late in the day. Both Bobby and Hallie are continually panting of course. Recently Bobby has disappeared for hours on end. At first I thought he might have escaped but it's clear that he's found a cool spot for the Summer. Better to leave him to it, though today he's inside so I guess it's just not cool enough there. Somehow, I don't think that Pegasus would have got through this weather if he was alive right now - it would have finished him off. Poor baby - I still miss the ol' Poogle.
I have to go out tomorrow, but the forecast is only around the 30s, so maybe it'll be bearable (especially if I leave early). 
