S...w...e...l...t...e...r...i...n...g

Well, what a week that was! Speaking in degrees, it went something like this: Monday - 38, Tuesday - 39, Wednesday - 42, Thursday - 43, Friday - 44.8 at the peak. Far out. Previous to this week, the highest temperature I had been in was 42 (in Japan). This week alone saw that record beaten twice. Speaking of records, those temperatures were record breaking for Melbourne, it is the first time since records began - in 1895 - that there have been three consecutive days over 40 degrees. And don't forget that the official temperatures are taken in the SHADE.

Spare a thought for those in South Australia though as they have been between 40 and 45 degrees for the whole week. The temperatures there and here have resulted in some terrible bush fires too. So far in Victoria there have been 15 homes destroyed and many more damaged. Also, in one of the areas where the fires are - a massive one covering 6000 hectares - two out of the three major power transmission lines for Victoria got caught up in the flames. This combined with the extra power drain from everyone cranking their airconditioning resulted in blackouts for many of the suburbs. We were fortunate to miss most of them, but our power went down last night for about four hours. We ended up at the Reynolds having ox tongue sandwiches - yum!

A funny thing happened while driving home from work on Thursday. I was on the phone to mum (hands free, don't worry) when something caught my eye down the road there was a truck pulled over on the side of the road with smoke coming out of it. Now, I must explain that it is not uncommon to see vehicles pulled over on the side of the road and highway here when you are out and about. But something seemed different as I got closer and noticed that it was on fire!

It must have only just started as the driver and a few other

people were standing around dumbfounded with cellphones plastered to their ears calling the fire brigade. Not sure what happened to set it off, but the main part of the fire was directly above the cab. Maybe it was the airconditioner for the back that caught on fire? Not sure, but it made for interesting viewing nonetheless.

We had a fun day today. After FS this morning, we decided to go to Ocean grove, a little beach spot about an hour and a half to the south of Truganina.We where thinking about

going there on Australia Day last Monday, but that was the day that we went on The Big Drive with the Veltri's.

Ocean Grove reminded us a lot of Whangamata. The town centre is smaller than Whangamata but the residential area is larger. We went down to one of the many beach access points and sat in the car for a while having lunch, reading our books and chilling out. The view from where we were was beautiful, just a light breeze blowing in to cool things down.

We went for walk down the beach and found it well populated. Everyone was enjoying the cool change in the weather and the nice warm ocean. From there we checked out the town centre and shafted with a couple of milkshakes. What do I mean by shafted? We got two 'smoothies' which were only milk, banana and malt and they cost $6.50 each! Oh well, at least the view was nice in Ocean Grove.