A note on the weather

So, I´m hoping that by now Melbourne is covered in snow, with a savage 40kt southerly and a chance of hail. On this side of the world things are just starting to heat up a little. Today we rocketed into the 30´s, but in that nice, clear blue sky kinda way which makes you want to be here, not there. Not unlike Melbourne the heat here is avoidable. It is dry enought that a nice spot of shade will drop the felt temp to somewhere in the low 20´s, and if you couple that with a nice glass of chilled white you´re going to feel pretty darn special.

The heat does get a little much by early afternoon, but somewhere, someone thought of a great idea : how about we all just go home and sit in the shade for a few hours while the hottest part of the day goes by, then head back to doing whatever it was we were doing (in our case, precious little) as if nothing had happened. This strange and wonderful ritual is Siesta, and it is one of the wonders of the modern world that in a developed nation the entire workforce can knock off for 3 hours in the middle of the day EVERY day. I know, thats part of the problem with Europe (if such a thing still exists, eh?) but i LIKE it.