One week later.

This time last week I was boasting about our perfect weather. I should have known better! Yesterday (Monday) the temperature in Melbourne reached around 45 deg.Celsius in some suburbs - that's 113 deg. Fahrenheit. I spent most of the day indoors with the air con. running, as well as a fan in other rooms if I wasn't in the lounge room where the air con. is situated. I went up to check the aviaries about noon, and refilled the birds' water containers. An hour later, I went to the post office and the fruit shop in the local shop arcade. You could have fired a gun down Main Street - there was not a soul to be seen walking along the footpaths, and the shops were very quiet.
Topsy stayed inside all day, lying in one of her favourite spots behind the curtains in the lounge room. The sun comes in there in the afternoon, but Topsy doesn't seem to mind.

Ken poked his head around the door about 11 pm and said it is still 39 deg. outside. I don't know how people survive without some form of cooling. But we all survived before air conditioning was available on the domestic market. I think I find the heat harder to cope with as I get older. I'm just grateful I don't have to go out to work any more. I do worry about Ken; with his heart/lung condition. He is not supposed to be out and about in extreme weather conditions (very hot or very cold), but he heads off to work every day on his motorcycle, and drives around Melbourne all day delivering urgent blood and other unmentionable substances. He says it isn't so bad because his car is air conditioned. Well, that doesn't help when you are hopping in and out of the car! He comes home dripping with perspiration, and completely exhausted, but after an hour or so of lying on the couch under the ceiling fan, he recovers.

This must sound positively unreal to the people on the other side of the planet. We get daily reports on the Foxtel Weather Channel of the extreme cold in Europe and the USA. It would be great if we could do some kind of weather swap even just for a day - our sun to melt their ice, and their snow to cool us down!

Apart from the weather, there isn't much to write about. We celebrated our 31st Wedding anniversary last week by dining at our favourite Chinese restaurant, and visiting MIL afterwards. She was delighted to see us - she NEVER forgets to send us an anniversary card, and this year was no exception, although Ken's sister organised it for her, as MIL can't get out and buy cards herself.