ROGER'S BACK! ROGER'S BACK!...

[Diane CBPFC]

It was lovely Joan but the inlaws didn't come. Now you can feel winter in the air. They had a big dump of snow in Saskatchewan so it is sure to show up here soon. I have a bag of pink tulips I have to get in the flower bed quick.

I couldn't stand the heat of Australia - I would rather be too cold than too hot. When I get too hot I don't like to do much, but then come to think of it I don't like to do too much when it gets too cold either.

I suppose you guys are well prepared for bushfires in the same way we are prepared for 12 inches of snow overnight.

[The Peepmaster]

I've just had the roof fixed in preparation for Winter on Bute. Although it only rains once, it starts in September and finishes in March.

[Joan]

I don't like the heat much, either, Diane, especially the humidity, but I'm prepared to put up with two or three months of it in Sydney - the rest of the year makes up for it.  Spring and Autumn are the best seasons.  I'm sitting here looking out at clear blue skies.  There's a slight cool breeze ruffling the leaves on the trees and the temperature's going to rise to about 21 degrees.  I do agree with you about not wanting or being able to do things in the heat.  It's also much easier to get warm than to get cool.

We're pretty well prepared for bushfires, but there's only so much you can do and it can get pretty scary when they get close - all hanging on a change of wind direction.  A few years ago I had the car all packed with photos, etc ready to go.  The flames were only 5km away as the crow flies and if the wind had changed, we would have been seriously threatened.  Luckily, it didn't and the fire spread east to the water and the firefighters managed to control it.  That's the risk you take, though, when you choose to live on the edge of the bush.  As for the firefighters, I just can't say enough good things about those men and women who go out and try to control these unpredictable fires in the fierce heat and smoke.  Most of them are volunteers as well.

[Malc]

Joan, I emigrated to Jannali just over a year after the bushfires which made headline news around the world, so they were fresh in the minds of the locals.

One guy described how he and his neighbours saw the fires appear from over the back of a hill on the other side of the water. They burned the whole crest in a line a kilometre long, then descended "like a curtain falling". They thought the water would act as a barrier, but the fires, blown by gale force winds "jumped" the small inlet and carried on, burning all the homes in his street except his!

Just to paint a little historical perspective - Jannali and its surrounds are actually on Botany Bay, where Captain Cook landed, something I didn't realise until months after I started living there.

[Joan]

I take it those were the 1994 fires, Malc.  At that time, I was standing in a queue in Disneyland (I think it was for the Dumbo ride) and got chatting (as is my wont) to the American man next to me.  When I said I was from Sydney, he of course said there were terrible bushfires there, and that it was all over the news.  Being used to these things being exaggerated, I just said something to the effect of oh yeah, we get them all the time.  When we got back to the motel, though, there was an Australian couple there who told us just how bad it was.  We still weren't that concerned, as we lived in a different location at that time and felt that we were far enough out of danger.

When we got into the taxi to drive home from the airport, the first thing the driver said was "This is the first day we've been able to see 20 metres in front of the car."  The temperatures had been in the 40's for a week, with galeforce winds, as Malc said.  We got back to the house and the friend who had been looking after things for us had left all the newspaper cuttings on our bench plus a note apologising for not being able to keep my potplants outside alive because of the water restrictions!  She, I may say, does live right on the bush and was all packed ready to leave at a moment's notice and she was worried about my potplants!  We also discovered that we hadn't been as safe as we thought, as the fires had come very close to the main road just up the road from us, and our neighbours two doors up had been down hosing down our roof (to try to stop flying embers getting hold).

Two minutes after we walked in, the phone rang.  It was my mother phoning from Scotland to see if we were all right.  Apparently, every time she walked down the street in Castle Douglas, someone stopped her to ask if Joan was okay, or had our house had been burned down.  This was in the days before mobile phones, of course.

So we were quite shocked at how bad it had been - and thankful that the house was safe and we'd missed it all.  It's amazing how the fires can burn down all the houses in a street except for one or two - happens quite often.  You just hope it's yours.  There was a lot of damage to the National Parks especially the Royal National Park down south, near where Malc was.  Our one here up North (Ku-ring-ai) was badly damaged as well, though, and it was very noticeable for years afterwards.

Oops, I've rambled on again - have to go, daughter Kate and I are doing a charity fun walk in the city tonight, supporting the breast cancer foundation.  It's round the harbour foreshores - the weather's looking good, so should be fun.  Just going out to see if we can find some pink stuff for decoration.

[Diane CBPFC]

My mother died of breast cancer and my daughter's name is Kate too - I will be rooting for you Joan and Kate!

[Joan]

Thanks, Diane.  We did well, and it was good fun, too. Will post some pictures in a new thread.

Breast cancer has unfortunately been fairly prominent in my life recently. My sister was diagnosed last year.  She's been through the treatment and is doing well now.  My cousin died a few years ago from breast cancer after not having had it diagnosed early enough - she lived in Crete and it was apparently missed until it was too late.  My mother always believed that her mother died from breast cancer in about 1925, although the cause of death on the death certificate was "shingles"!  Mum was a doctor and she said that the symptoms her mother had sounded very much like breast cancer.  You don't die from shingles, but apparently "cancer" was just not spoken of back then.  I also lost a good friend five years ago from secondaries to breast cancer.  She had eight years in between and left a young family - very sad.

I don't think there are many people who haven't been touched by someone who has had the disease - even if it's a celebrity like Olivia Newton John or Kylie Minogue.  Two of my neighbours have had it as well.