Australia.....

"Canuck" wrote in message


Oh shut up! (In case you didn't get that, I was kidding). It was so
cold
my lens froze and the battery in the camera gave out after only a few
minutes. January and February here are pretty miserable. I tried using the
camera with my gloves on but couldn't manage so I took them off. The
windchill was just too strong and I had to scoot back into my car to thaw
my
hands.



Hey Nick, the thought of temperatures like that are just something that we
can't even comprehend. I was talking once to Gordon in San Diego
and asked him something about winter in California. I could hear the
blank stare in his voice as he said "W i n t e r ? Hmmmm, I've heard of
that once..."

Cold for us - at least where I am, is where it'll get to a point or two
overnight or maybe as low as 10C during the day. I've been living in
this current house for 23 years and I've seen snow once, FIVE flakes over a
20 minute period one morning. Every family in the street took their
kids outside to show them what it looked like. Some of us older
folks are still talking about the blizzard of '91.

We have recreational ski fields that appear in the east for a short time,
like Brigadoon, but just like the other 'snow' it's hideously expensive and
just as addictive.


Up until now, I'd always believed that it's easier to keep warm than it is
to get cool, you just need to wear more clothes. If inanimate objects
break or important fluids freeze up, then maybe warmer is better.


For some days, I get to work on building rooftops - luckily, I get to
politely decline the high work on hot days, galvanised iron sheeting will
easily remove skin at 40+, not to mention, sunburn, heat stress and
de-hydration.






Feel free to send some of that warmth up here and if you run into Clark
(Swamp creator / guru) say hi for me! I absolutely love his comic and have
recommended it to our newspaper here. I think it would be fantastic if
they
started carrying it. I ordered a ton of stuff from the website and all the
books as well.

Are you watching the tennis? I'm a tennis nut and former player. I almost
turned pro at one point. I couldn't believe the oncourt temperature was
almost 60 C the other day!!! How the heck do you play in that???? The
hottest match I ever played it hit somewhere around 45 C which was brain
melting and draining. The other guy cramped first and I won .... and then
collapsed in the shower.



The tennis ? No, at one point we had two networks solidly broadcasting
their own coverage for most of each day - different games too.


Luckily, I was watching a third network, which was all cricket - now there's
a man's game, no overpaid Frenchmen or Spaniards there. In case you're
wondering, Australia - after being the world's number one cricketing nation
for the last 15 years, humiliating all in our path - we're now getting our
hats handed to us firstly by India and currently by South Africa.
Had to happen of course, its not healthy for any country to dominate a sport
by so much for that long.

However, betwixt you 'n me, given a choice of winning everything and
getting your noses rubbed into it, I think I prefer winning.





Take care,

Nick (still defrosting).


While you thaw, here's another of my father's slides from Woomera.
This was shortly after the RAAF received the first of its C-130s, which
they've flown ever since. The last I heard, they'd celebrated over
600,000 hours on the type without a major incident, injury or significant
damage.

You might say they're not trying hard enough - but spending most of the time
away from mountains and snow has got to help.






--

Cheers

Dave Kearton