It's HOT in Brisbane Too!

This week we have been watching the news from Ballarat and hoping that all our friends and family have been keeping safe from the heat and fires. It's really sad to see homes lost in Chepstowe and Snake Valley, the CFA and volunteers are as usual amazing. My thoughts were with Craig McInnes, a mate I used to work with who is Snake Valley CFA Captain, who has more than 30 years service with the Snake Valley CFA. Knowing Narra I am sure that every effort would have been made to save lives, homes and belongings.

The weather in Brisbane has been quite warm but not ridiculous, and a 35 degree day in Brisbane seems a lot more bearable than in Ballarat, maybe it's wishful thinking or maybe there is something that is making actually making a difference, not sure will let you know... that being said today was a shocker!

Karren has been busy with curtain makers getting quotes for new curtains and shutters, the prices of these things rival precious metals. Some of the quotes have me wondering exactly how much gold is used in the manufacture of said window furnishings! We have a couple of quotes to go, hopefully we can find a supplier who isn't aiming to source all of their retirement savings from this one job.

I had to clear the lower part of our back yard so that the hidden fence could be installed to stop our roaming hunter from making his jaunts off into the bush and adjoining houses looking for prey, of which there is ample sufficiency. Fences on the other hand are as rare as rocking horse poo around here. I started with the whipper snipper and after a couple of hours I had to give it a rest or face melting into the ground, I was soaked from head to toe with perspiration, I have had saunas where I have not perspired as much. I came back inside to escape the heat, we had to fire up the A/C to cool down a little. After running the A/C for four and a half hours the temp inside had dropped from 35 degrees C to a quite acceptable 29 degrees.

The block is now pretty much ready for the hidden fence to go in. A hidden fence uses a buried wire that sends a signal to a receiver collar worn by the dog, when mutley tries to cross the boundary he gets an audible signal to stop, if he proceeds further towards the boundary he gets a small electrical zap (I actually had the unit zap me to see how powerful it was, it was less than a static electricity shock). This is supposed to stop him leaving our block, given how stubborn he is, only time will tell if it is successful. The hidden fence installer is 100% confident, he has not had one failure! We will also use his remote control training collar to stop him trying to eat cane toads. Once he is trained with his collar and the hidden fence we will fit a dog door to the laundry so he can come and go as he pleases.

Not many photos of Charlie without his tongue out!

This morning Karren let Charlie out for his normal dawn ablutions, fortunately he was mid function when a rather large Kangaroo headed down the side of the house towards the creek. Startled but too busy to chase, the look on Charlie's face was priceless, he so wanted to finish what he had started so he could head off after the bemused Kangaroo.

I have applied for a couple of jobs, albeit without any success as of yet. I have had a couple of goes at getting work as a Postie, one as a courier driver and another with a driver for a document storage facility. It is common practice not to inform unsuccessful candidates, which I think is pretty poor given the vast majority of applications are done online! Surely there is a simple system that could email or text the poor buggers who keep getting passed over. I must admit I am finding it a little amusing with all the jobs advertising for truck drivers, everyone without exception is asking for applicants with a minimum of one or two years experience. If no one is prepared to give guys experience where will the drivers come from? Believe it or not drivers aren't born with two years experience! I might just apply to a few of these regardless of the need for experience, maybe I might find an employer who will give an old bloke down on his luck a job? Given the heat today I definitely won't be looking for any outdoor labouring type jobs.