An (un)electrifying day

I truly feel for my Southern borthers and sisters at the moment. Truly I do.

Part of the reason that I left Melbourne after a year is it really has no concept as to how to run a good weather show. And my memories of my two (separate) weeks in Adelaide was "don't get weather (and where is the moisturising cream)" and "still don't get weather (but love the music)".

I had to return to Queensland. I mean, sure it does howlers around August and can ramp the temperature up quite well come Summer (or even any other season) BUT it knows how to do it well.

And I really do feel for my Northern hemisphere cousins. I can only imagine how extreme cold must feel.

I made a decision 14 years ago that I don't do Winter and therefore I spent real money on a holiday to the snow because when you make such decisions, you have to do so with style.

I even strapped planks of wood to my feet and maintained a certain verticality while whistling down (gentle) slopes. In fact, with my "fake it until you make it" attitude I even got to the orange slopes, which was just as well as the only other way to return to the lodge was by t-bar, and that is one thing that I didn't manage.

So I was extremely glad I live in Paradise yesterday, because the balmy 28 degrees with a gentle breeze was required for the hours of no electricity while they put up new poles and rewired the corner.

We got notice on Tuesday that there would be no power from 8.30 until 1.30.

Okay, I thought, that is okay and made sure that I made no promises to clients for that time.

Okay, I thought, and immediately slated the housework for the month week into that 5 hour window of opportunity.

Okay, I thought, V's home, there are many projects a newly married couple can undertake without power.

We had to scratch the last thought, though - highset house + 4 loads of cherry-pickers out of the window = more effort for housework.

By 11, the office had been reorganised and cleaned of dust. Lots of dust, a few found items and WOW organised shelves!

By 12.30, the floors were glistening and the toilet smelt fresh.

By 1.30 - well, by 1.30 I must admit the rushed tidy up for the rest of the house had avoided the more serious bathroom and kitchen issues, but all in all I was pretty satisfied.

By 2, there were still 4 cherrypickers in the wires.

By 2.30 I was having serious internet withdrawals and leaving messages for the client.

By 3 I was trying on the above empathy for others to dissuade my inclination toward self-woe.

I went out to get 'Salina from the school bus and got to chat to a few workers during the wait.

Apparently Ergon have a habit of being "optimistic" - and their optimism isn't enough for the contracters to work faster. Something about doing it "right" rather than "fast". Fair enough.

Today, twice as much work as slated - still looking for salaries but heck, there is something in sending out invoices and hoping for payment that can make your own bills seem more manageable - and V got a hopeful call for a start some time in February.

Its funny - when things get big and ominous, the smallest reprieve can seem delightful.

I truly hope all of you get some reprieve today - be it weather, financial, health or a combination.

Surfing, selection criteria and moments of national significance

Still hot but not as wet here today.

We arose early (do we ever do it any other way?) and I had a batch of chocolate chip cookies done and dough rising for buns by 9 - and so by 9.05, we were heading off to the beach.

The tide was high, the water swell and the crowd yet to (swell - its a play on words).

With the recent weather, strands of seaweed are part of the whole ocean swimming experience - which is disconcerting at first, but you get used to it and start to chuckle at the newcomers shrieks upon the discovery.

The waves were beautiful - here, they will never imitate those of Hawaii, California or the Sunshine Coast (much to V's disenchantment) but they are fine for that great Aussie past-time, bodysurfing.

I recall going to the beach when I was a child. My father took forever to get to deeper water, because the slightest hint of decent wave would see him disappear back to the shore.

There are almost as many opinions as to the best way to bodysurf as there are variables to consider when chosing your wave.

However, there is nothing like launching yourself into the oceans power and feeling yourself ride the crest of the foam, the sudden cessation of support and the sensation of seaweed in your togs. Well, the last one can be done without, I suppose.

Since that moment, I have analysed the financial situation (eek), baked the buns (yum) and got up 'Salina's nose by not being as helpful with her book cover design for the pile of schoolbooks to cover.

V and 'Salina have gone for a repeat at the beach this afternoon while I address selection criteria, redesign my CV and scour for job opportunities. I know what I would prefer to be doing!

Happy Australia Day - sausages, burgers and chops on the barbie later for one last celebratory evening before that most auspicious of days - the start of Grade 5!

Steamy Saturday Afternoon Storytime

Oh yum - V just gave me a taste of his latest salsa - we have a bumper crop of chillies here (thai, cerrano, jalopeno, anaheim, banana and habernero) and we are constantly looking for ways to make the masses we harvest into edible, lastable impressions. This one is fantastic!!

Anyhow, thanks for all your very wonderful suggestions as to how frogs were not the most scary things to find in a bathroom - it brought to mind a trip to a school camp when I was younger, and as it is a very wet and steamy Saturday afternoon with only a few games of cards and zucchini to prepare for dinner ahead of me, I thought I might take you with me to visit the scariest toilet scene in my memory bank.

The year was 1985. The destination was the annual Year 11 camp at Blackdown Tableland, where we were to spend time learning all manner of things natural and beautiful - but the lasting impression that we came away with was that of the local fauna and their ability to mess with the minds of 16 year-old girls.

Imagine this - 160km on buses with 60 other girls and several long-suffering teachers. The campgrounds are primitive even now, with the dirt for your tent, the stone rings for your fire and the composting toilets. It was roughing it - and roughing it, on this scale, was not often afforded to 16 year old girls more used to the privations of boarding school.

Imagine this - food barbecued over open fires and the swoops of native birdlife attacking your sustenance on its travel from fire to plate.

Imagine this - bushwalks every day through pristine wilderness (complete with pristine spider webs and the potential of snakes at every corner), washing up in waterholes (with frogs and eels), complete lack of sanitation and privacy, mud, rain, tents - isn't it all so romantic?

And then there were the toilets. Composting toilets give the impression of all things organic - in all senses. Add 60 odd sixteen year old girls and the ablutions of a few days, heavy rain and mud surroundings and you might get part of an idea.

And then add the myth idea of the mad magpie living in the pit.

Oh yes, never were we so glad to see civilisation - and the throne of respectability available.

Good thing I wasn't into chillies so much then.

It hasn't (totally) ruined me for camping. But it has made my standards include showers and bird-free toilets. Its not too much to ask.

So come on - one-ups welcome!

Amphibian Ambivalence

Say hello to the most common threats to showering without stress when I was a child - the green tree Queensland bathroom frog.

I know there are many out there who know not of what I speak, but if you ever lived in or visited a home before 1983 in regional Queensland you will nod your head and say "ah yes" with a little flutter of repressed panic in your voice.

1983 is the year that bathroom renovation hit the regional register, I believe.

Oh, I am not saying we were all hicks, but prior to 1983 while bathtub may have moved into the main building there was always the shower for the workmen down on the cement block where the laundry was, where the plumbing was "adequate" (if adequate is expanded to include drains being hollowed grooves in the concrete or a pipe from the wall) - and where the walls/doors/windows did not offer full protection from the green tree Queensland bathroom frog.

Now, it is the case that the true fear of my childhood wasn't ever the frogs, it was the frogs jumping on me - or towards me, at least. I once had a few of these friends as my "pets" so it wasn't really about the frog - my fear was definitely restricted to the bathroom when I was vulnerable and naked.

There is one other vulnerable moment in a young girl's life that can also be affected by the green tree Queensland bathroom frog and that is on the throne. As they have a proclivity towards sneaking in to these furnishings, there is a look to Queensland loos that I haven't seen often elsewhere. Often there is a requirement to remove the lid of the tank - and there seems to be such an oftenness to this that it just darned well gets left off.

Fast forward a millenia thirty years and in the modern age, there are some improvements on the Queensland bathroom - and some very obvious traps for young players.

Take for example the ensuite to a bedroom infrequently used, and my adventures within on the evening before I write this epistle.

Now, to do this experiment at home, first you must have someone use the ensuite earlier in the day, ensuring that the light is left on to attract insects, and the door both into the ensuite and out to the garden surrounded balcony are left open.

When I first went in to put my things in for my shower, I had certain expectations. I mean, at the family bathroom, there were three very fat green tree Queensland bathroom frogs having a feast on the outside of the closed windows, so when I saw the light on I knew the odds were good to excellent of a few creatures in the room, so it was with a certain amount of relief that I counted one on the window sill and one on the floor in the ensuite. Two - I have two eyes, so I could keep one on each I figured.

The good news with the green tree Queensland bathroom frog is it will imitate a statue if you have your eye on it, see?

Having an urge to use the other facilities on offer, I moved towards the toilet - and three more heads popped up from the tank. That increased the degree of difficulty, I can tell you.

Then when I switched on the shower, they began to call to each other - to the one in the upper corner of the ceiling, the one behind the towel rail, the one on the side of the dirty clothes basket - but thankfully, none in the enclosed shower stall.

In I went, closed the doors and breathed a sigh of relief - at least I was safe from their jumps - until I noticed movement at the top of the gap the sliding door left when it was closed - and as much as I enjoy looking at the bottom end of a frog statue while showering, I am sure both the frog and I breathed again with relief when I abluted with full speed and escaped!

It could have been worse. Sometimes other things follow the frogs into dwellings... (please note how nice I am not finding an image of the green tree snake?)

What is the scariest bathroom experience (short of remembering The Shining) for you?

Wordless - heck, speechless!

Last time we drove home from Granite Glen, 'Salina asked me to look at a cloud as I was driving.

I explained that I couldn't do that, and maybe she could take a photo and I would see it later.

I finally looked.

Wow, hey?