I wasn’t affected by the heatwave power outages the other week, though I know people who were, and at one stage I got off the train heading for home to find a lot of the shops had lost power, with many shopkeepers having left early for the day, and the supermarket throwing out all of ... [More]
Just a few more thoughts on the fires. Blood: I was going to wait a little while before donating blood, as I wondered if this might happen: the Blood Bank has been overwhelmed by donors and is asking people to stagger them, as people can only donate every three months, and blood products have a ... [More]
One night in 1983, we sat on our upstairs porch at 23 Pine Avenue in Elwood, watching the red of the Ash Wednesday bushfires on the horizon. Overseas relatives were concerned it was close to us… which I suppose it was, but of course suburban Melbourne wasn’t directly affected. All the same, it was an ... [More]
I know the cynics will continue to argue there’s no conclusive proof of climate change. But given much of Europe is freezing while we in Melbourne recorded the hottest day ever on record — 46.4 C according to the Bureau of Meteorology (that’s 115.5 F) — which follows on from the longest hot spell in ... [More]
Becoming a redneck: I was standing in the midday sun for a bit too long on Tuesday at the rally. Foolishly I didn’t have a hat, and didn’t put sun screen on. The next morning, for the first time in years, I could feel I’d got sunburnt. Not really badly, but enough to cause some ... [More]
I’m revamping the blog template with a shiny new one. Please excuse any mess. If you want your picture to show up on the comments, go get a Gravatar. PS. I’ll continue tweaking things for a bit.
I’ve been thinking about cancelling the newspaper subscription. I’m trying to watch my expenditure at the moment, and am wondering if it’s really worth the money, given a lot of the news I read is online. The pros of the subscription Cheaper than buying it every day. I definitely love having the Saturday paper delivered ... [More]
Mobile phones aren’t perfect, no matter which network you’re on. There are dropouts. What’s even more annoying than a dropout is when both parties try to re-establish the call simultaneously, and so both get busy signals or voicemail. And they keep trying. In my book, unless someone’s said beforehand that they’re the one who will ... [More]
Free at lunchtime and not too far from Parliament House? Join the protest WHAT: Stop the Brumby Government riding roughshod over our rights. WHEN: Tuesday 3rd February Arriving at 11.30 am. Speakers begin at Midday. WHERE: Parliament House, Bourke + Spring Sts, Melbourne. WHY: Bring back democracy. A joint protest on water, climate change and ... [More]
I wouldn’t pretend to know a great deal about house design. But obviously it’s more energy efficient to design a building so that as far as possible, in summer it is kept cool by shade (rather than by air-conditioning) and in winter kept warm by the sun (rather than by heating). Apparently this is called ... [More]