The joys of living in Australia

[Little Jo]

Hi Keith

What an unpleasant surprise. Funny it's something I always seem to think about when I go outside at night in my thongs. You are a lucky man, an 18 inch snake bite is just as bad as the full grown. Just one of the joys we have living in the country.

We had 42.1 C yesterday here in SA and 43C predicted for today, Wednesday and Thursday but a lovely cool 40C on Friday. So stay cool old chap as we are sending it all down to you in Vic.

Cheers

Tony

[Keith Webb]

Yes, thanks for the heatwave Tony! It will be Saturday before we have any relief too.
And you can keep your snakes too, we have more than enough here!

Pity we can't export some to our Canadian friends, I'm sure they would enjoy the experience.

[Gordon Yeo]

The prospect of venomous snakes in the house isn't some thing I would want to live with. I'll take four cold snowy months of winter, in the lee of Lake Huron, and be glad. We get four seasons here in Canada, winter is the one that cuts out the venomous snake and venomous insect population. Makes winter seem less of a burden in that context.

Gord

[David Dunlop]

Are they still draining polder in Holland, or has that project ended now? Seems for a while a few years back, the Dutch Military were constantly being called out to deal with uncovered aircraft and vehicles lost during the wartime floodings.

David

[Marc Montgomery]

Hard to think which is a bit harder to take...40 degrees, or =30

With 40 there are possible options of moving slowly to keep from heat stroke etc, staying in shade, jumping in a pool, and of course old reliable -cold beer. ( or G&T)
And then there's the fact you dont wear much..not bad if there are shapely women in the area...

with -30, you have to shovel out the driveway when the snowplough passes and piles up mounds of snow at the end of the drive after you/ve just spend an hour or more shovelling, even with a snow blower..

Then if theres been lots of snow, you might have worry about shovelling off the roof.
Then you hope the car starts, coz at that cold an old battery gets pretty weak.
And of course for clothes you need thick everything, boots gloves, scarf, mits, hats etc.. of course once in awhile there's an ice storm that knocks out power for a few days....which makes things very uncomfortable with no heat in the house..

BUT at no time are we really in danger of crocodiles, freshwater biting fish, very limited risk of sharks, almost no chance of poison spiders, snakes. and no chance of cane toads..

[rob love]

I just got back from a week in Cuba. Kind of the best of both worlds there. Nice temps (daytime highs of 28, night time lows of 21) and they have long since killed any natural living creatures on the Island...either poisonous or edible.

Only downside is the food.....bland bland bland.

Just so nobody gets jealous of my vacation, I'll let you know I did manage to sunburn my ankles.

[Little Jo]

Hi Guys

The 40'sC temperature is bearable if you are doing nothing, having a cool beer in a nice air conditioned room watching a good old WW2 movie on TV. However I am constantly looking out the window for smoke on these hot days with strong northerly wind. I asked my dad once after we immigrated from Holland if he missed the snow, his answer was, nice to look at, but he said he will never miss it. The downside is I am in the process of replacing the head gasket on my 1942 MB Jeep and it is so hot in the garage I had to give it up and stay indoors with the air conditioner set at a nice cool 20C.

Sorry Keith, no respite until next Saturday. Like your snake, hibernate with a nice coldie and hope those firebugs stay indoors

Cheers

Tony

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Are they still draining polder in Holland, or has that project ended now? Seems for a while a few years back, the Dutch Military were constantly being called out to deal with uncovered aircraft and vehicles lost during the wartime floodings.

Seeing Tony's Threadjacker 2000 is up and running again these days , I migh as well take this off topic:

David, I assume you are referring to the Flevoploder which was made in the IJsselmeer (formerly Zuiderzee)? This project lasted from the 1950s through the 1960s, and when draining those polders many aircraft wrecks came to light. This was because during WW2 every day & night our skies were filled with bombers flying over to Germany on their bombing missions. Many were shot down over Dutch waters, only to be found when the Dutch started making polders after WW2 and water turned into land.

It has been decades since the bulk of these aircraft were recovered, often they had to wait until the former sea floor had dried up enough to trod on. The purpose of these recoveries have always been to recover the remains of the aircraft crews. The side catch of these recoveries was that parts of the aircraft were saved for mementoes in museums; but it must be said not everything could be saved from the scrapman.

In rivers, lakes and at sea off the coast, every now and then fishermen still drag something to the surface. I'm sure there are still many airmen waiting to be found in their watery graves....

Here are some useful links:
http://home.scarlet.be/ed.ragas/awsrecoveryhistory.html
http://www.arg1940-1945.nl/engels/indexgb.htm
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showt...682#post466682

HTH,
Hanno