Glad to hear that your carols event went well @Barnabas_Aus and that your fridge installation went well.
We've been hunkered down in the aircon the last couple of days waiting for the heatwave to pass. It was good to get a drop of rain overnight, but it's really steamy today.
Cheery daughter has gone to the cinema this afternoon and Cheery husband has been working on the watering system as he's worried about the grass getting stressed. Cats have been snoozing and lying under the aircon, I can't imagine what it must be like to wear a fur coat on such hot days. I think our hottest was 38 a couple of days ago (but I was honestly trying to not look at the numbers hoping it might help me stay cool).
Cheery husband has now finished work for the year and Cheery daughter only works 2 days next week, we will all enjoy having sleep ins to look forward to!
Oh, praise the Baby Jesus, have a Merry Christmas
I'm really gonna miss it, all the treasure and the trash
And later in the evening, I can just imagine
You'll put on Junior Murvin and push the tables back
A verse for 21 Dec from How To Make Gravy by Paul Kelly
Hot & sticky here; 32C and storm clouds gathering but no rain predicted. Listened in to Advent 4 mass @ St-Pat’s-in-the-west which was glorious with chant, Palestrina setting ( Missa de beata virgine) and anthem Morales ecce virgo concipiet) plus rousing rendition of Hail to the Lord’s Anointed ( Cruger) as a nice Lutheran foil to all the traddy stuff.
Now trying to get out the door to visit old mate in the nursing home before dinner out with # 1 daughter & partner who fly out on Xmas Eve.
Hope cats have found somewhere coolish to hide; they are nowhere in sight.
Oh joy! A wet weekend, so glad to see the rain and to fall asleep listening to it last night. Today is clear with lovely blue skies and the pond all topped up. It was beginning to look marshy around the edges and the legs of the tine jetty were half out of the water. Now looking much prettier with the sunlight sparkling on the water.
I've sprinted out this morning, whilst Cheery husband is out, to get a last minute thing for him for unwaged Cheery son to give to him on Christmas day and to begin getting some things in for lunch. I like to go to the small local-ish supermarket and look at the meat and make a selection rather than just order online.
We'll make a trip down to the old hometown before the big day to take flowers to our Mums at the cemetery as both were very keen gardeners. Gifts for the great niece and nephew are ready to go as well, just need to make contact with the Mum to hand those over. I hope they will like them. I love selecting presents for little kids and looking at all the new things that are available. I try not to choose something too gendered, so they are both getting age appropriate Lego and a book. Hopefully I can't go wrong with those.
This afternoon I need to wash the jars from the Swedish shop, so I can get the baked gifts ready to give and tomorrow I'll get the others to help me with last minute cleaning and I might even sneak in a bit of gardening if it's not too hot.
I'm glad to be reading about the plans and activities of everyone else on the board too!
Welcome rain overnight but sun is out and it’s hit 28. Just doing last minute tidy up, making sure enough cat food for 6 days and detailed instructions for good people on cat feeding duty. Sheets almost dry and will pack late tonight; have to be @ airport by 6 am
Terrific heat here, high winds and wildfires, but highways jammed with holiday-goers and shopping malls seething. I'm hoping the shopping (fruit, nuts, salad ingredients) I did on Friday will carry me through to just before New Year because I can't face crowds in festive overdrive.
Thanks Mary Louise and a peaceful and safe christmas to you. Busy last day getting ready with unscheduled visit to old friend in nursing home who wanted extra chocolate and raw sugar to put in his thickened drinks. Cats are looking suspiciously at me even though bag not yet packed!
Glad to know you've arrived @Sojourner. I hope your cats are not plotting anything untoward while you are away! Do they normally forgive you quickly after you've been away?
Glad to read that both @Sojourner and @LatchKeyKid are enjoying some cooler weather. It's not too bad here, thank goodness it's cooler than last week, currently 27 degrees at almost 5pm.
Like you @MaryLouise I don't like crowds at shops, so I'm hoping you have enough in the larder to see you through and festive overdrive is the perfect way to describe it! Seasons greetings.
Cheery daughter will soon have her dinner break and later this evening she'll finish her last shift for the year as her work shuts down for a few days. She is looking forward to a brief break before her proper holiday at the end of January.
I'm looking forward to unpacking the nativity set and putting away my Advent candles. Once the Nativity is out, it will really feel like Christmas!
Hi CG, pussycats are simple souls and don’t bear a grudge at my infrequent short absences. They’re getting fed and watered twice a day and will be sweetness & light when I return!
Final bit of food shopping done for tomorrpw ( spouse at work) so just having a breather
We've just come back from a trip to a place near Bourke where elder son does some steel hardening work each month. He lives in Adelaide so it's only a two day trip between Northern Rivers and Bourke, compared to four days (for us) to Adelaide.
I've never been so far into the outback. There were stretches of roads over 60km between some towns with barely a sign of civilisation apart from entrances to stations (not the railway kind). We'd been told to look out for goats on the road, but they knew to move away from the road, unlike kangaroos that often decide to hop in front of the car. We spied a couple of emus. Some farmers had cattle on the road, but had put up warning signs. There were quite a few dead pigs and piglets on the road, which could do serious damage to your vehicle if you hit them.
For most of the distance there was no mobile phone reception, so you would not want to have breakdown.
A couple of decades or so ago, I had a week's work in the nor-west and west of the State. It started at Bourke and then went nor-west to Tibooburra, doing a bit of work at a township on the way. From there south to Broken Hill. I flew home from there. Most of the roads were pretty good. The scenery was outstanding near-desert, with some long distance views from the tops of hills. Barely another vehicle to be seen. On another occasion, I was working at Wentworth, which is where the Darling flows into the Murray. There is an old court-house built to show that Wentworth is in fact NSW, not Victorian. The court-house was a prety standard design from the NSW Govt Architect's office of the late C19/early C20 and very attractive. Again, some great near-desert scenery but with the addition of the irrigation areas as you get near the Murray, and some eucalypt forests.
After a lively fruity Pimms and some honey-roasted almonds I realised to my relief that the humming-whirring noise bothering me was high-summer cicadas and not my ears playing up...
Glad to hear that you've had cicadas @MaryLouise, I haven't had any for ages and it's disconcerting and doesn't feel like summer. I hope you enjoyed your Pimms, I've heard of it, but have never tried it - do you recommend?
Having a very quiet day today, I might dip into some of my Christmas books. Cheery daughter gave me a lovely looking one about clothing during the time of Jane Austen and William McInnes new nostalgic book. I heard him on Conversations before Christmas and he had me both doubled over with laughter and also brought to tears as he spoke so lovingly about his family.
I have enjoyed this lovely cool Christmas! Warm enough to be pleasant, but not absolutely roasting.
At our elder son's fiance's parents' "Shack" (an understatement if there ever was one) we are this AM looking across the Murray to cliffs on the other side of the river, hearing the calls of numerous Correllas that never seem to rest.
Yesterday at elder son's place, we woke up to cold showers. Had we emptied the gas cylinders with Christmas day cooking and washing up? The change over to the alternate cylinder did not make a difference. I was not convinced it was empty and uncoupled the cylinder, and it turned out to be full. Reconnected it and we had hot water again. Glad to have fixed it, but frustrated not to know what had been wrong or how we had fixed it.
We had Pimm's as the guests arrived at our wedding reception, and we used to have one on our anniversary.
Pimms aka “debutante’s ruin”: haven’t seen it in many years. Tasted it at 16 ( would have preferred a middy-10 oz glass) of cold beer but was told by a starchy Country Party voting matron that young ladies did not drink beer however Pimms was kosher.
Ugh; didn’t finish it. Told my father later; he rolled his eyes and mentioned aforesaid deb’s ruin.
Pimm's is an odd sort of drink and I associate it with special occasions on a summer day in the garden when somebody hands you a tall glass brimming over with halved strawberries, chunks of cucumber, slices of orange, crushed mint leaves and a red fruity punch that is gin-based. A friend describes it as quirky-elitist-English and you might not want to drown your sorrows with too many cucumber-laden glassfuls, but for me (like @Piglet) it has a celebratory fun appeal, a bit romantic, a bit peculiar.
Very hot here and due to power cuts we had a filtration pump fail so showering in dirty gritty water, then adding water purification tablets to the kettle.
Glad to hear that you've had cicadas @MaryLouise, I haven't had any for ages and it's disconcerting and doesn't feel like summer. I hope you enjoyed your Pimms, I've heard of it, but have never tried it - do you recommend?
Having a very quiet day today, I might dip into some of my Christmas books. Cheery daughter gave me a lovely looking one about clothing during the time of Jane Austen and William McInnes new nostalgic book. I heard him on Conversations before Christmas and he had me both doubled over with laughter and also brought to tears as he spoke so lovingly about his family.
I have enjoyed this lovely cool Christmas! Warm enough to be pleasant, but not absolutely roasting.
I have the new McInnes, and was highly amused throughout. Back in 2012, I was involved in the organisation of the National Year of Reading, and he was our National Ambassador. After a meeting, some of the state reps were tasked to do short Facebook promotional videos with him. My turn came, and he had me in stitches, before we had to be all serious and do the promo. He struck me as a generous, community-minded individual.
Pimm's is an odd sort of drink and I associate it with special occasions on a summer day in the garden when somebody hands you a tall glass brimming over with halved strawberries, chunks of cucumber, slices of orange, crushed mint leaves and a red fruity punch that is gin-based. A friend describes it as quirky-elitist-English and you might not want to drown your sorrows with too many cucumber-laden glassfuls, but for me (like @Piglet) it has a celebratory fun appeal, a bit romantic, a bit peculiar.
That's how it should be drunk (I'd say minus the strawberries): plenty of ice, and well diluted with lemonade.
Back in Sydney very late last night; left Hobart just as it started to warm up (18 C). Airport rammed , came home by train and bus as would have been an hour wait for a cab. Washing done, house tidy and cats in velcro mode. #2 daughter arrives from UK tomorrow; need to get some food in.
I've been wondering about her too. I hope she is OK and its just an IT problem that means we haven't seen her for a while.
As for Pimms the best I ever had was made by an elderly lady on Eel Pie Island, which is on the Thames. We all sat round reminiscing about the sixties.
Yes hope that techno stuff can explain Huia’s absence and hope that she & Aroha are OK.
#2 daughter arrived safely from the UK this morning ( where she has lived since 2014); she had a few hours’ nap after a largely sleepless 10 hr flight from HK and managed to stay awake for few hours to eat dinner before crashing again. I think she’s meeting old school friends for NYE tomorrow.
Son & partner back from UK on 02 Jan, # 1 daughter & partner due back 05 Jan.
Missing amiable spouse in Hobart after 5 days there: he’ll be home for a week in another fortnight.
I know how Matthew Flinders and George Bass’ wives must have felt!
I hope if @Huia is able to read but not post, they know we are thinking of them here!
Glad to hear your daughter has arrived safely @Sojourner and I hope that NYE has gone off well for them.
Loved hearing about your contact with William McInnes @Barnabas_Aus, he strikes me that way as well.
Am enjoying a couple of cooler days here, which has meant I've been able to get out in the garden and plant a couple of punnets. That and enjoy looking at the pond which is nicely topped up.
I hope that people's Christmases and New Years have gone well. I have had a lovely text from a schoolfriend that I haven't heard from for a couple of years. I hope that I can catch up with her very soon.
Cheery husband goes back to work mid next week. Life will then slowly get back to normal, but I have enjoyed him being home.
Just enjoying the last day of coolish ( 23C max 26) before heat wave hits tomorrow. 37C in the city expected by Saturday; likely 40+ out west by then. Nothing special planned: cats fed, laundry doing its thing and relative peace.
Sounds ideal @Sojourner. Very shortly I'm off to start taking down Christmas decorations as I don't want to be doing anything other than perhaps reading and listening to the radio while the heatwave is on. I'll be out in the evening sloshing water around the garden to hopefully tide the plants over the next few days. I will enjoy the excuse to do even less than usual!!
I keep looking for a 2026 thread for those of us in the southern hemisphere: am I missing something? Happy to help make thread title suggestions once I 've had a another mug of coffee.
Oh, maybe I'm wrong and this is a just an ongoing thread...whoops
Very hot weather here: water restrictions so people trying to choose between having a shower or washing their car or watering pot plants. This season's crop of sweet hanepoot grapes has arrived in supermarkets and people are queuing up for that. Local airports and flights in chaos due to overseas delays, new security companies popping up to counter a spate of home invasions, banking scams and warnings about a new Covid outbreak. Our Silent Reading Book Club begins again next week, everyone talked-out after the festive season. Off swimming down at the coast this afternoon, diving into another year...
I spent the day as Mrs BA's plus one at the Jane McGrath High Tea during the pink cricket test. It turns out she is one of fewer than 100 donors across Australia who have supported consistently for the last ten years, hence the invite. I'm a very proud old man.
If you fancy a shiny new thread go for it. Just decide what you want it to be called and start it off and one of the mods will close this one.
I for one would not say no to a new thread: I lack the inclination or imagination to to suggest a new name.
We are missing a few esteemed posters to wit: Galloping Granny, Galilit ( NZ born if resudentvin Israel), McChicken, Huia, Climacus, Nunc Dimittis , Adam Pater, Dark Knight and Gawd knows who else.
Glad to hear you and Mrs BA had such a good day @Barnabas_Aus and well done her for being so committed to the cause!
Having a very slow day today. Went for new covid jabs yesterday and tried to get as many jobs done before the heat hit us. Still poking along with inside jobs but not at any great rate today!
29C here at 11 am and climbing: moderated here by a coastal breeze but 32 in Penrith 60 km west.
I’m coping OK but #2 daughter ( who lives in the UK & here for a visit) is finding it hard to take. She does agree that it beats the current vile weather in GB
About 10 years ago, along the banks of the Lane Cove River and around Brown's Waterhole. A sister of one of our parishioners lived in South Turramurra and was at real risk.
Thinking about it, it's probably 15 years, perhaps a bit more, since that fire. In the last few years, there have been fires in the general area of Cliff Oval, North Wahroonga, spteading around to Billy Hughes Park.
The one I recall was about 25 years ago near Bobbin Head; one of my great-aunts (aged 100) was living in Nazareth House ( as was) in North Turramurra when they all were evacuated because the fire was close by. Fortunately no damage & fire was contained. Scary!
There have been a few occasions when fires in that general area threatened nursing homes, and a glance at the map shows why - narrow ridges and steep cliffs being the main problem.
Yes indeed. Nazareth House ( now Southern Cross) was far up BobbinHead Rd near the Lady DavidsonHospital -formerly run by Vets’ affairs). Both my grandmothers lived at Nazareth between 1982-1990 ( & died within weeks of each other). I recall it well as I usedwear a track up there every weekend with the 3 kids to visit them ( as did my sister with her 2). They must have been the most visited inmates there!!
The problem that the South Turramurra presented was that it was at the foot of the hill down from Turramurra itself. The hill at that point was steady but not all that steep, so that a fire with a bit of a wind behind it could burn its way through the South Turramurra houses, then up Kissing Point Rd to the highway, perhaps taking what was once John Kerr's house on the way.
Comments
We've been hunkered down in the aircon the last couple of days waiting for the heatwave to pass. It was good to get a drop of rain overnight, but it's really steamy today.
Cheery daughter has gone to the cinema this afternoon and Cheery husband has been working on the watering system as he's worried about the grass getting stressed. Cats have been snoozing and lying under the aircon, I can't imagine what it must be like to wear a fur coat on such hot days. I think our hottest was 38 a couple of days ago (but I was honestly trying to not look at the numbers hoping it might help me stay cool).
Cheery husband has now finished work for the year and Cheery daughter only works 2 days next week, we will all enjoy having sleep ins to look forward to!
Now trying to get out the door to visit old mate in the nursing home before dinner out with # 1 daughter & partner who fly out on Xmas Eve.
Hope cats have found somewhere coolish to hide; they are nowhere in sight.
I've sprinted out this morning, whilst Cheery husband is out, to get a last minute thing for him for unwaged Cheery son to give to him on Christmas day and to begin getting some things in for lunch. I like to go to the small local-ish supermarket and look at the meat and make a selection rather than just order online.
We'll make a trip down to the old hometown before the big day to take flowers to our Mums at the cemetery as both were very keen gardeners. Gifts for the great niece and nephew are ready to go as well, just need to make contact with the Mum to hand those over. I hope they will like them. I love selecting presents for little kids and looking at all the new things that are available. I try not to choose something too gendered, so they are both getting age appropriate Lego and a book. Hopefully I can't go wrong with those.
This afternoon I need to wash the jars from the Swedish shop, so I can get the baked gifts ready to give and tomorrow I'll get the others to help me with last minute cleaning and I might even sneak in a bit of gardening if it's not too hot.
I'm glad to be reading about the plans and activities of everyone else on the board too!
Terrific heat here, high winds and wildfires, but highways jammed with holiday-goers and shopping malls seething. I'm hoping the shopping (fruit, nuts, salad ingredients) I did on Friday will carry me through to just before New Year because I can't face crowds in festive overdrive.
Glad to read that both @Sojourner and @LatchKeyKid are enjoying some cooler weather. It's not too bad here, thank goodness it's cooler than last week, currently 27 degrees at almost 5pm.
Like you @MaryLouise I don't like crowds at shops, so I'm hoping you have enough in the larder to see you through and festive overdrive is the perfect way to describe it! Seasons greetings.
Cheery daughter will soon have her dinner break and later this evening she'll finish her last shift for the year as her work shuts down for a few days. She is looking forward to a brief break before her proper holiday at the end of January.
I'm looking forward to unpacking the nativity set and putting away my Advent candles. Once the Nativity is out, it will really feel like Christmas!
Final bit of food shopping done for tomorrpw ( spouse at work) so just having a breather
A couple of decades or so ago, I had a week's work in the nor-west and west of the State. It started at Bourke and then went nor-west to Tibooburra, doing a bit of work at a township on the way. From there south to Broken Hill. I flew home from there. Most of the roads were pretty good. The scenery was outstanding near-desert, with some long distance views from the tops of hills. Barely another vehicle to be seen. On another occasion, I was working at Wentworth, which is where the Darling flows into the Murray. There is an old court-house built to show that Wentworth is in fact NSW, not Victorian. The court-house was a prety standard design from the NSW Govt Architect's office of the late C19/early C20 and very attractive. Again, some great near-desert scenery but with the addition of the irrigation areas as you get near the Murray, and some eucalypt forests.
Having a very quiet day today, I might dip into some of my Christmas books. Cheery daughter gave me a lovely looking one about clothing during the time of Jane Austen and William McInnes new nostalgic book. I heard him on Conversations before Christmas and he had me both doubled over with laughter and also brought to tears as he spoke so lovingly about his family.
I have enjoyed this lovely cool Christmas! Warm enough to be pleasant, but not absolutely roasting.
Yesterday at elder son's place, we woke up to cold showers. Had we emptied the gas cylinders with Christmas day cooking and washing up? The change over to the alternate cylinder did not make a difference. I was not convinced it was empty and uncoupled the cylinder, and it turned out to be full. Reconnected it and we had hot water again. Glad to have fixed it, but frustrated not to know what had been wrong or how we had fixed it.
Pimms aka “debutante’s ruin”: haven’t seen it in many years. Tasted it at 16 ( would have preferred a middy-10 oz glass) of cold beer but was told by a starchy Country Party voting matron that young ladies did not drink beer however Pimms was kosher.
Ugh; didn’t finish it. Told my father later; he rolled his eyes and mentioned aforesaid deb’s ruin.
Very hot here and due to power cuts we had a filtration pump fail so showering in dirty gritty water, then adding water purification tablets to the kettle.
I have the new McInnes, and was highly amused throughout. Back in 2012, I was involved in the organisation of the National Year of Reading, and he was our National Ambassador. After a meeting, some of the state reps were tasked to do short Facebook promotional videos with him. My turn came, and he had me in stitches, before we had to be all serious and do the promo. He struck me as a generous, community-minded individual.
That's how it should be drunk (I'd say minus the strawberries): plenty of ice, and well diluted with lemonade.
I've been wondering about her too. I hope she is OK and its just an IT problem that means we haven't seen her for a while.
As for Pimms the best I ever had was made by an elderly lady on Eel Pie Island, which is on the Thames. We all sat round reminiscing about the sixties.
Yes hope that techno stuff can explain Huia’s absence and hope that she & Aroha are OK.
#2 daughter arrived safely from the UK this morning ( where she has lived since 2014); she had a few hours’ nap after a largely sleepless 10 hr flight from HK and managed to stay awake for few hours to eat dinner before crashing again. I think she’s meeting old school friends for NYE tomorrow.
Son & partner back from UK on 02 Jan, # 1 daughter & partner due back 05 Jan.
Missing amiable spouse in Hobart after 5 days there: he’ll be home for a week in another fortnight.
I know how Matthew Flinders and George Bass’ wives must have felt!
Glad to hear your daughter has arrived safely @Sojourner and I hope that NYE has gone off well for them.
Loved hearing about your contact with William McInnes @Barnabas_Aus, he strikes me that way as well.
Am enjoying a couple of cooler days here, which has meant I've been able to get out in the garden and plant a couple of punnets. That and enjoy looking at the pond which is nicely topped up.
I hope that people's Christmases and New Years have gone well. I have had a lovely text from a schoolfriend that I haven't heard from for a couple of years. I hope that I can catch up with her very soon.
Cheery husband goes back to work mid next week. Life will then slowly get back to normal, but I have enjoyed him being home.
Very hot weather here: water restrictions so people trying to choose between having a shower or washing their car or watering pot plants. This season's crop of sweet hanepoot grapes has arrived in supermarkets and people are queuing up for that. Local airports and flights in chaos due to overseas delays, new security companies popping up to counter a spate of home invasions, banking scams and warnings about a new Covid outbreak. Our Silent Reading Book Club begins again next week, everyone talked-out after the festive season. Off swimming down at the coast this afternoon, diving into another year...
I for one would not say no to a new thread: I lack the inclination or imagination to to suggest a new name.
We are missing a few esteemed posters to wit: Galloping Granny, Galilit ( NZ born if resudentvin Israel), McChicken, Huia, Climacus, Nunc Dimittis , Adam Pater, Dark Knight and Gawd knows who else.
I wait in anticipation…
Very much missing them in more ways than one.
Glad to hear you and Mrs BA had such a good day @Barnabas_Aus and well done her for being so committed to the cause!
Having a very slow day today. Went for new covid jabs yesterday and tried to get as many jobs done before the heat hit us. Still poking along with inside jobs but not at any great rate today!
Peedie bit breezy, as they say in Orkney?
I’m coping OK but #2 daughter ( who lives in the UK & here for a visit) is finding it hard to take. She does agree that it beats the current vile weather in GB
Gee D, when was the last big fire in Ku-ring-gai?