We entertained a small group on New Year’s Eve, and it was a lot of fun. We watched the local 9pm fireworks from our balcony, and then we had an hour or so playing Celebrity Heads – which ensured all us “seniors” stayed awake long enough to get to midnight, when we popped the champagne, kissed each other enthusiastically, and watched the Sydney midnight fireworks on the television.
The next day, I packed “party” Gwen away, and settled down to the second draft of my manuscript – a “task” that has been on my mind for months, until I eventually realised that thinking does not equate to words on a page.
Today I found myself wishing I wrote apocalyptic end-of-the-world thrillers.
Do I hear you ask why?
Two days ago, Sunday 7th January 2018, Sydney was reputedly the hottest place on earth. I don’t think that is true, as I spoke with a friend of mine in South Australia, and she was experiencing 47.7’c (118’f), but I’ll grant that 47.3’c runs a creditable second.
This afternoon, Tuesday 9th January 2018, as I was powering away on the manuscript, hopefully oblivious to my surroundings, a storm front moved in.
Now when I was a kid, we got summer storms. They might contain thunder and lightning. Thunderstorms were quite fun. The heat and humidity built up until the heavens exploded. It was something that happened in February typically. We had one on our wedding day. Italians have a saying that if it rains on a bride, that is a lucky sign for a marriage. Or perhaps I made that up, just to make me happier that it rained on my day . . . after it got so hot and humid that my matron-of-honour stopped the wedding service while she mopped down the sweating minister, groom and best-man with the handkerchief she had wisely thought to tuck in her bodice before we set off for the church.
We also got southerly busters, and actually, in the western suburbs of Sydney, they were very welcome, because they would blow away the built-up hot air and drop the temperature 10’c in 10 minutes. They weren’t so vital close to the coast, which can usually be relied on to have a sea breeze.
In fact, for the first three years we moved closer to the coast, I kept thinking the summers were unusually mild, until I realised that simply moving 30klm could make such a temperature difference.
But this – – – what happened this afternoon never happened when we were kids.
Here’s a video from our east-facing balcony as the storm clouds rolled in.
And here’s a video from our west-facing balcony taken a few minutes later as the wind was building up. The rain came in about ten minutes later, bringing with it a small amount of lightning and some reasonably loud thunder.
After some delay, I returned to writing, only to be interrupted by the cicadas that had come out to mate. One took up residence on our balcony. It’s a fuzzy photo, but here he is.
And if you’re not impressed with his appearance, perhaps his song will impress you more. WARNING – DO NOT HAVE THE VOLUME AT FULL BLAST !!!
Phew, time for bed . . . think I have a headache coming on. I hope no Huntsman Spiders have come in to the bedroom seeking shelter. Scary little buggers if you are not expecting them, but really quite benign. They can usually be encouraged outside with a well-placed broom. With any luck, if there is one there, on his way out, he’d eat the mosquito that was annoying me last night.
Sweet Dreams Everyone
The Reluctant Retiree 
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When doing a reading at Sam and Holly’s wedding at a Margaret River winery in 2007 I got a laugh in response to my wafting away the flies and commenting that that was the Australian salute, a phrase I’d learned the day before 🙂
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Great to hear you are such a quick learner. We are very proud of our vernacular.
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🙂
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I can see that you are very hard at work on that second draft, Gwen, as distractions take on some wild dimensions, the harder one works! 😉 Those storm clouds look distinctly apocalyptic, though.
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Haha, I see where you are going with that thought 🙂
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New Years Eve was GREAT!!! Thanks to our super hosts – Gwen & Bill. Loved the games! As for the weather – great spiel Gwen – you cannot change it so, Get On With It!
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I could move . . . 🙂 but actually I’d rather stay and mine a story out of the things that happen around me. Thanks for making our NYE a great event!
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And we had one of our cities – Winnipeg – as the coldest place on earth (including arctic and Antarctica) just a couple of weeks ago!! Yes, apocalyptic thrillers might be the way to go! Good luck with your writing.
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We’ve been seeing heaps of info from the States about freezing animals. Not so much Canadian news is coming through, but I can imagine how cold it has been. We’ll be there in June, so hopefully it’s all thawed by then. LOL. We did briefly consider touring both east and west coast and perhaps taking the train across, passing through Winnipeg on the way, but then decided we didn’t want to be away from home as long as we’d need for all that. So just the well-trodden west coast tourist path this time.
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You’ll love the West coast – gorgeous part of the world and June is a great month, just before the extreme heat and holiday crowds!
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It was difficult to decide when to come so good to hear your endorsement. Hopefully I will blog all the way. We are really looking forward to it.
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Then again you’ll be busy so you could also just enjoy the moments and blog when you return😊Either way I look forward to following along.
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We had it hot the day before you, but we didn’t get the same amount of rain or thunder.
I know cicadas are noisy but they are an impressive beast.
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I love them. Such an Australian sound. But I can’t remember them being here at the seaside before. And not taking up residence on our balcony. Poor thing, even if he/she sticks around, it will be lights out within the month.
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Some cicada only appear after many years underground as a grub. (Up to 17 years. So they might have been there before but you weren’t
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Could be. But why so many this season? . . . And we are five floors up. Why has this particular one chosen our balcony that has no vegetation? Maybe living 17 years as a grub addled its tiny brain.
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Because they all come out at the same time to make sure they survive. They overpower any predator by their numbers. Maybe you one is a bloke and he has had his wicked way with a damsel and will now die quietly with a smile on his cicadian face.
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I’ve been reading up too on account of our exchange. So he’s definitely a male. I’ll let you now his ultimate fate if I get to see his expression 🙂
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