Just a day

It was on my list 'to do'. That is have the smoke alarms replaced. The one nearest the kitchen is set off at times by Phyllis cooking, and it only makes a soft cheeping noise. Not enough to wake anyone from a deep slumber. The other is partly hanging loose from the ceiling. I assume it still worked, although I haven't checked it since I last replaced the back up battery. They are hard wired to the electric, with a battery backup.

I called the electrician this Tuesday morning to replace the smoke detectors. It is pointless asking for a quote. I know they do go a good job and charge a fair price by the hour. I s'pose I'll wait a week or two for someone to do the job.

I caught the tram to Prahran for a pedicure. I decided to speak up about the pedicure. I always say to cut my toenails short, but they are cut like I am a young woman who shows off her feet. No one sees my bare feet, so I am not concerned about appearance, so I told the woman to cut my big toenails shorter and more square. She stuck a very sharp blade into a hand held device and stripped away any dead skin on my feet. My skin fell like confetti. That was followed by abrasion.  

As my feet were being attended to, the electrician sent me a message, would I be home between 1.30 and 3.00. I will be, and the sparky arrived around 2.00 and half an hour later, the job was done. In days of old, I would have done the replacement myself. 

It is a bit hard to get excited by smoke alarm replacements, but they do look very nice and clean, unlike the 28 year old units.

Phyllis and Kesav were out having fun while this was happening, and once home forgot about the smoke detectors being replaced. After a couple of hours and Phyllis plating up a meals on wheels for me to heat in the microwave, went out again.

Quite a satisfying day really.   

As predicted

As I type, the full extent of the destruction caused by bushfires in my state is not known. Many houses have been destroyed, including that of my neighbour HH's daughter. It is her second home, mostly used by her husband when teaching in the area, and not their principal residence now. 

Ironically, for her work during the 2009 fires that affected the same area, along with with her volunteer lifesaver work, the daughter was awarded an OAM (Order of Australia) , well deserved in her case, going far beyond her hospital job description; just napping in her office for two weeks straight without stopping her help to victims of the 2009 fires. Now her house in the same area has been burnt to cinders. 

The full extent of the destruction will become apparent in the days to come, but we already know many animals, pets, livestock and native animals were killed. There hasn't been any confirmation of lives lost, yet.

A man visited this morning to quote for new lounge room venetian blinds. I went across the road after he left for coffee and it was quite cool. Maybe 20/68 degrees. I then caught a 58 tram for two stops to the local Woolworths Metro supermarket. I bought a sandwich and a pastry. I forgot about the pastry, and it is still on the kitchen bench. By the time I reached home, the temperature had risen by over 10 degrees. 

The new aircon unit coped very well, and next to the external part of it, the hot air blasting out felt like it was burning my skin as the temperature reached 43/110. Inside, thermometers said 23/73.

Another blind man visited in the afternoon to give his quote. As he was here, the quote from the morning man arrived to my desktop email and he noticed it was from another company. What fun!

The hard sell from the second bloke began. Pay a 50% deposit today, and that will be $100 less. I did not as I await another quote. The two quotes I received are the same in dollars, but I know I can beat them down. 

Jass found it too hot outside on the balcony, but at carpet level, I think she found it cold.

When the new lounge chairs arrive in March, Jass will lose her refuge under the chairs and no longer will be able to show her pink bits.

Marysville 3.1

I meant to include a photo with today's post, but I forgot. 

As I've already shown, Steavenson Falls now. It's worth right clicking and opening the very large version.

The same falls after the 2009 fires.

The Marysville tragedy

Marysville began its life as a gold mining settlement and progressed on to be logging town but by the 1950s it had become a town to visit for a holiday, especially in autumn when the exotic trees turned into their red and golden colours.

This is exactly what my maternal grandparents did, alternating each year between Marysville, the similar town of Bright and seaside Rosebud. They would stay in guesthouses, which as far as I can remember had private rooms with a shared bathroom, and a communal kitchen along with an area to eat your meals and a lounge to sit and read or whatever.

I remember visiting Marysville with Ray and a couple of friends in the 80s, where we had high tea in the best known guest house in the town. I can't remember its name. It might come to me (Mary Lyn), which is where my grandparents stayed). In the 1990s we visited with my mother and stepfather.One year in the two thousand teen years, Ray and I visited the town, after the 2009 tragedy. I've just visited again and I cannot connect any of the visits together, and here is the main reason why.

During this visit, I looked around the town for houses with brick chimneys, of which there should be many in such a town. I did not see one. 

At the end of southern Australia's millennium drought on Friday the 6th of February 2009, our state premier appeared on tv to warn us that the next day would see terrible bushfires, with temperatures of 43/110 and people needed to evacuate to safe places at any sign of fire threat. He was derided for being melodramatic. The next day already burning fires fed by a hot, dry and strong north wind, with tinder dry forests turned into firestorms, the like that had not been seen for years, then with a southerly wind change, the fires became unpredictable.

There were 400 fires burning, 173 people died in Victoria, 45 of them in Marysville. Of four hundred buildings in the town, 14 survived. The town had quite simply been destroyed. Fire fighters switched from fighting fires to self preservation. So, there aren't brick chimneys in Marysville now.  

Sister, Bone Doctor and the two year old Little Jo were living in Bendigo, with Bone Doctor working at Bendigo Base Hospital, and on that day Sister and Little Jo were under threat from the fires and evacuated to the centre of town. I should look back at my old blog at what I wrote at the time.

The Marysville of the 80s that we visited was very different to the Marysville we visited in the two thousand teens, still quite bare after the fires, to a now gorgeous town full of new shops, places to eat, buildings and houses. By the number of cafes and restaurants and huge amounts of seating, it must be incredibly busy at times. 

  

A Blaze

Oh dear. The fire seemed closer and last night I wasn't able to find out what structure was alight. This morning it is being reported that a Buddhist temple in Springvale South has been destroyed by fire.