Heat Wave And Sunburn
Without Prejudice
We're having a Heat Wave, a tropical heat wave. Melbourne is a city of extremes. One day boiling hot next day cold. Every Melbournian has a vast wardrobe of clothes. I was a child that liked to change outfits four times a day, so it suits me right down to the ground. But my favourite outfit in the heat is a " cossie" ( bathers), a pair of Havianas, and sunscreen.
The only bother is having to strip them off to visit the loo but otherwise they are so practical. I have a
flat roof and according to the very Happy Chubby Chappy at the air conditioning place, a flat roof is
a huge conducter of heat. I now try to think of ways to cool the roof off as tomorrow promises to be a
scorcher. 42 C. Over the ton in the old vernacular of Fahrenheit. I look it up on Google. There is a white polymer paint. I shudder as even getting on a tiny step ladder terrifies me, but the roof ?
I do have a bigger than I need air conditioner, I did the research which put my rusty math skills to the test and gave me a headache of BTU's, Wattage, extra power? Not many stockists of portable air conditioners in the local area and when I do find one it's $800. So back on line and trawling through EBay for a good quality second hand one. Bingo! I pick one up for just $250. The Indian young father seller has been using it in his garage. It comes with a remote, outlet hose and wheels, thank you God, as its a hefty weight.
42 degrees Celsius tomorrow and high wind. That means bush fires. I just know it. All Aussies do. We sniff the air when we go outside to peg the washing out, senses alert like a dog sensing danger on the wind. The next day up early to water and cover the plants with shade cloth. I love shade cloth and have metres of it to play with. I should cover the flat roof with it.
I also love hosing with what they promised to be a " kink less" hose. Yeah, right. Everything is so fresh and new and cold water on bare feet so refreshing that I want to water for ages but I pay the water bill at this joint property so regretfully turn the hose off. The plants look shiny and new and I take some inside as on such a hot day as this they can be annihilated within minutes, looking like they have been razed by Napalm. There is no coming back from that.
I once had some cool sweet mint seedlings, their soft tendrils moist and healthy. After leaving them out on a scorching hot day they resembled two wizened up burnt sticks. The roots had curled into foetal like positions or stuck up in the air as if reaching out for water. I felt sadly guilty.
But there is mint under the tap, a great place for it, violets too with their cool green stems, pretty
perfume and nodding purple flowers that smell of floral cachous that were sold in tiny glass bottles
and you could crunch in your mouth, exploding out their Violet taste and smell. Beautiful. Wriggling worms tumble in the hose stream as I pull up wet garden mats, the earth beneath as dark and rich as chocolate.
The boys pool is full and rippling but there will be no boys whooping and yelling in the pool today. In their excitement on the first day we set it up they jumped, swam, screamed and pelted each other with water for six straight hours. They were "weeing" in the pool, they told us later which we already knew as the pool turned a murky green over night and had a pungent " I just ate asparagus" odour to it. We knew they didn't eat asparagus at 4, 6 and 10.
My daughter had no sunscreen, neither did I. She said they would get out when they felt themselves burning. The little tough nuts ran off at the suggestion of tee shirts and hats despite our entreaties. Splashed us away and acted like demented whirling dervishes for six solid hours. We tried tempting them with sandwiches, drinks but they were laughing at us, knowing it was a ploy to get them out of the cool blue water. Sunburn is a rotten karma and the high pitched screams they emitted as we applied damage repair with Aloe Vera misting spray had to be heard to be believed.
Five days in bed wasn't great either, nor Mum and Nanny wanting to remove " peeling " skin. The pool no longer looked so attractive since that day, much to the relief of the always fighting next door neighbours who politely had stated, " We see the kids got a pool, for Christmas " . It wasn't so much what they said but the way they said it that we knew they were annoyed. Ah, well, beats listening to them calling each other names all day.
She is 53, ( she tells me this over and over, God knows why) and a sweet, loveable ditzy blonde. He is not very attractive and makes it worse by not wearing his dental plate and making a lot of noise. From 6 am in the morning he is in the go. He has Bi Polar apparently but dropped his medication.
She tells me moving in with him after six weeks was the worst mistake she ever made. They met on
the Internet.
He has no idea that I know how she really feels about him so he plays " happy families" while ever we are out in the side or back yard. Then he drinks, calls her stupid, dumb and is spoiling for a fight all the time. She used to fight back but now stays quiet. The house is gorgeous and I think she fell in love with it. And I wonder why at 53 and working she doesn't have a place to go to. She's been married, had kids. Her son lost half his leg this year. But she doesn't see them.
I finish my hosing and perusing and think " none of my business " . People can sort themselves out,my daughter can sort out the eight children she decided to have. I am putting on my bathers and retiring to my air conditioned unit.
We're having a Heat Wave, a tropical heat wave. Melbourne is a city of extremes. One day boiling hot next day cold. Every Melbournian has a vast wardrobe of clothes. I was a child that liked to change outfits four times a day, so it suits me right down to the ground. But my favourite outfit in the heat is a " cossie" ( bathers), a pair of Havianas, and sunscreen.
The only bother is having to strip them off to visit the loo but otherwise they are so practical. I have a
flat roof and according to the very Happy Chubby Chappy at the air conditioning place, a flat roof is
a huge conducter of heat. I now try to think of ways to cool the roof off as tomorrow promises to be a
scorcher. 42 C. Over the ton in the old vernacular of Fahrenheit. I look it up on Google. There is a white polymer paint. I shudder as even getting on a tiny step ladder terrifies me, but the roof ?
I do have a bigger than I need air conditioner, I did the research which put my rusty math skills to the test and gave me a headache of BTU's, Wattage, extra power? Not many stockists of portable air conditioners in the local area and when I do find one it's $800. So back on line and trawling through EBay for a good quality second hand one. Bingo! I pick one up for just $250. The Indian young father seller has been using it in his garage. It comes with a remote, outlet hose and wheels, thank you God, as its a hefty weight.
42 degrees Celsius tomorrow and high wind. That means bush fires. I just know it. All Aussies do. We sniff the air when we go outside to peg the washing out, senses alert like a dog sensing danger on the wind. The next day up early to water and cover the plants with shade cloth. I love shade cloth and have metres of it to play with. I should cover the flat roof with it.
I also love hosing with what they promised to be a " kink less" hose. Yeah, right. Everything is so fresh and new and cold water on bare feet so refreshing that I want to water for ages but I pay the water bill at this joint property so regretfully turn the hose off. The plants look shiny and new and I take some inside as on such a hot day as this they can be annihilated within minutes, looking like they have been razed by Napalm. There is no coming back from that.
I once had some cool sweet mint seedlings, their soft tendrils moist and healthy. After leaving them out on a scorching hot day they resembled two wizened up burnt sticks. The roots had curled into foetal like positions or stuck up in the air as if reaching out for water. I felt sadly guilty.
But there is mint under the tap, a great place for it, violets too with their cool green stems, pretty
perfume and nodding purple flowers that smell of floral cachous that were sold in tiny glass bottles
and you could crunch in your mouth, exploding out their Violet taste and smell. Beautiful. Wriggling worms tumble in the hose stream as I pull up wet garden mats, the earth beneath as dark and rich as chocolate.
The boys pool is full and rippling but there will be no boys whooping and yelling in the pool today. In their excitement on the first day we set it up they jumped, swam, screamed and pelted each other with water for six straight hours. They were "weeing" in the pool, they told us later which we already knew as the pool turned a murky green over night and had a pungent " I just ate asparagus" odour to it. We knew they didn't eat asparagus at 4, 6 and 10.
My daughter had no sunscreen, neither did I. She said they would get out when they felt themselves burning. The little tough nuts ran off at the suggestion of tee shirts and hats despite our entreaties. Splashed us away and acted like demented whirling dervishes for six solid hours. We tried tempting them with sandwiches, drinks but they were laughing at us, knowing it was a ploy to get them out of the cool blue water. Sunburn is a rotten karma and the high pitched screams they emitted as we applied damage repair with Aloe Vera misting spray had to be heard to be believed.
Five days in bed wasn't great either, nor Mum and Nanny wanting to remove " peeling " skin. The pool no longer looked so attractive since that day, much to the relief of the always fighting next door neighbours who politely had stated, " We see the kids got a pool, for Christmas " . It wasn't so much what they said but the way they said it that we knew they were annoyed. Ah, well, beats listening to them calling each other names all day.
She is 53, ( she tells me this over and over, God knows why) and a sweet, loveable ditzy blonde. He is not very attractive and makes it worse by not wearing his dental plate and making a lot of noise. From 6 am in the morning he is in the go. He has Bi Polar apparently but dropped his medication.
She tells me moving in with him after six weeks was the worst mistake she ever made. They met on
the Internet.
He has no idea that I know how she really feels about him so he plays " happy families" while ever we are out in the side or back yard. Then he drinks, calls her stupid, dumb and is spoiling for a fight all the time. She used to fight back but now stays quiet. The house is gorgeous and I think she fell in love with it. And I wonder why at 53 and working she doesn't have a place to go to. She's been married, had kids. Her son lost half his leg this year. But she doesn't see them.
I finish my hosing and perusing and think " none of my business " . People can sort themselves out,my daughter can sort out the eight children she decided to have. I am putting on my bathers and retiring to my air conditioned unit.
