aka R’acquel

It has been raining just about every single day since my last weather report so within my own mind - the Australian drought has broken and the rains are coming.

I feel a little self concious that this post is in-between the current CRUISE hosted by Mrs.Lifecruiser (and i’m not sure which anchor such things should point to because this is quite different to the regular “meme” style of doing things and i don’t know the protocal for linking so i hope i haven’t made a terrible mistake!). As Australia will be one of the ports - it is a bit of a window into the kind of harsh climate that we can experience in this country. There’s a lot of art & other cultural references to the droughts & flooding rains - so i feel like indulging it a bit within my regular weather blogging. [The Crazy Hat Parade entry further down in the post!]

The video clip below is one iconic Australian song, “Beds Are Burning” by Midnight Oil which features a reference to the weather like this, especially with the steaming 45°C! How can we sleep while our beds are burning? Predominantly with air conditioners now, of course. This clip comes from the 80s and features some visuals of the Australian environment and graphical elements of Aboriginal culture.

Docking to the port in Australia will be too hard for me to generate a big single thing, so i hope it’s ok to simply provide small snippets like this as we cruise along! This band’s music had a big impact on me. Their pieces were very political and i felt strongly about the environment too. The lead singer, Peter Garret - is now a member of parliament.

Ok - back to attempting my usual weather blogging… just briefly.

The morning was so frigging hot today and i was also experiencing hot flushes from my recent injection of the Depo Provera contraceptive so it wasn’t a pleasant combination to experience after a poor night of sleep. I’m only 30yo!

Morning temperature rose to 29°C - a borderline ‘scorcher‘, which is an Australian colloquial term for “a very bloody hot one” (an extremely hot day). An actual scorcher (for me), rests at anything above 30°C - as my body doesn’t tolerate heat well (so that’s why i said ‘borderline sorcher’!)

It would maybe be around 35+°C for a weather reporter on the news to say, “we’ve had a real sorcher today!”. As for heat ranging around 35°C-45°C (95°F-113°F) - that’s definitely a scorcher. I can’t think of other words used at the moment, but i think there can be others. Blank mind atm.

The sun is very harsh in Australia - and it has gotten a lot worse in the last 20 years. The hole in the Ozone layer? It’s getting much easier to get sunburnt here. When i was a young child, i used to swim at the beaches on vacations for up to 6-8hours with only one application of sunscreen and sometimes none! I could swim for so long without getting sunburnt back in those days (but sure! i did have my peeling moments too!).

These days? My skin can get a very mild burn if i simply walk for 15-30minutes in direct sunlight with no shade during a very dry scorcher. If swimming - i’d need to reapply sunscreen every 2-3hours, depending on the strength of protection. Skin cancer has become an increasingly growing concern. Is it the same in other countries out there? Getting hotter where you live or is the weather getting more crazy out there for you?

It’s not that we all put sunscreen on our bodies everyday, but for some parents who take their young kids into childcare - they do indeed put some on their kids now if the play areas are not well shaded. Many schools in Australia now insist that all children have to wear hats outdoors now.

Here’s a picture of my son taking his first step out of the door on his first day of school - in his uniform

His school has a “no hat, no play” policy. Kids who forget their hats have to sit under the shade of trees. My son has a formal “eating lunch” period where the kids have to sit underneath the “shady shelter”.

While i think Melli’s hat is probably a lot more devine & stylish than my son’s school hat - here’s my official contribution to The Crazy Hat Parade!

It’s not that the hat is crazy, it’s the Australian sun! My son is pulling a very cheeky (but cute) face in this shot, so that would class it as a little bit nutty too?

It’s a very Australian style too - I’m shocked by how Aussie i look & feel when i wear it myself. As for why i end up wearing my son’s hat? He can’t be bothered to carry it, my hands are tied holding too many things - so where else but my own head to carry it? *lol*

The style is very close to the classic Akubra hat. Yeah mate - i think i’m sold. It looks hot with my long hair.

I never wear a hat - but i always have to wear my sunglasses during sunny days! Maybe we need to start up a Parade for Crazy Sunglasses too! My sunglasses are embarassingly 3.5 x MORE expensive than my own wedding ring! So …who wants to see what they look like? *lol*

…and back to my weather report - coz i’m a geography & weather junkie so that’s why i blog about the weather and enjoy chasing/tracking storms so that’s the end of my cruising business.

~

Towards 2pm - it started to rain, like a sunshower, shortly followed by a very heavy but breif & sporadic bucketing of rain. Another hour later, a huge mass of heavy fog flew into my backyard! It was awesome to watch it go whoooooosh!

I have seen the fog even thicker that this in the Blue Mountains before - so thick that you are completely blind and can’t see anything in front of you. Unable to walk! Though it was a quite few years ago. This is one of the thickest fogs I’ve seen in Leura since moving here although the photo doesn’t do the actual experience of walking through it any justice. Dramatic cooling to the end of the day which now rests at 13°C outdoors. Ironically appreciating how the heat of the day warmed the house up even though it wasn’t comfortable at the time.