06 February 2009

Extremes

Before I start, sorry about the promise of a post about HIDEOUS SHOES that you might have been waiting for. I knew that I'd mess up your Google Readers. My sister, whose Internet connection is dodgy at the best of times, wanted to see a pic I'd found of Lara Bingle's hideous shoes from the Allan Border Medal Ceremony. The easiest way I could quickly show her the pic was to flash it up quickly on my blog. Easier than emailing it anyway. I then took the post down because I didn't really want to be bagging Lara's shoes on my blog, but on second thoughts, they are JUST SO BAD that perhaps the world should be warned of their hideousness. They are described as Louis Vuitton Uber-Heels. My sister said that a similar thing happens to gumboots when you've been walking through thick mud:



These are truly horrible. If you don't agree with me, you're wrong.

Now, on to today's post.

My wonderful friend Heather from upstate New York did a post for me today. It's all about the weather. Because that's who we are when we start chatting online: a couple of old biddies who talk about the weather. But it's very interesting!

We Aussies find this very hard to believe, but right now, Heather and half the northern hemisphere are FREEZING. I guess that on a basic level, I completely understand why. Tilt the earth's axis, make it spin around a sun, yeah yeah, I get it.

I've listened in horror to Mrs Tantrum's stories of SNOWPOCALYPSE followed by RAINPOCALYPSE, two aspects of the WEATHERPOCALYPSE she is going through right now.

I've also ached for Jen who has to keep four young children mostly inside for months on end as the snow deepens and things freeze over.

And I was interested to see Tracy P's family making snow clouds and blowing bubbles that froze and then shattered in the sub-freezing temperatures.

But isn't it completely weird that I can be chatting to someone in real time who is experiencing weather like this, when we are experiencing the complete opposite?

Let me tell you what's going on here.

My poor fellow Aussies are either baking, roasting or swimming in flood waters. The weather here is perfect. I've got "Bad Weather Survivor Guilt."

Here are some pictures from the floods up north (#2 is a pic of wallabies crowding onto a small island, #4 is cattle trying to find dry land):
Here are some animals, trying to escape the heat:

But there are no pictures of those who I am most worried about: the elderly. There are sharp increases in deaths on hot days, and I really worry about them.

Another thing we all worry about when the temperatures soar is this:

For those of you who measure in Fahrenheit, I'll give you some idea of the temperatures 'down south' from here (a term usually synonymous with colder weather, not hotter weather):

The hot bits of Aus have been about 104F to 113F.
We're worried about tomorrow, when the west of New South Wales is expecting 117F.

Spare prayers can be directed to the people (and animals) in both the North East and South East of our crazy land!

24 comments:

Joy said...

Man that is some extreme weather. Flooding and fires have got to be the worst.

They should throw that woman's shoes in the closest fire. Those are very awful.


Joy

Hippomanic Jen said...

Maybe she needs the shoes to keep above the flood level up north?

They are pretty hideous. I have to say that "high fashion" (get it!) doesn't always end up with the classy, elegant lines that I prefer.

Hippomanic Jen said...

PS - You'd think she could have found someone to iron her dress, too!

Anonymous said...

I wondered what had happened to the shoes. They were ugly enough to inspire me to click over from my feed reader to say so. Then they were gone.
I've blown up the paddling pool in preparation for the eekend - in Sydney we've escaped most of the bad heat of late but this weekend is sounding like a scorcher (will be over 45C in my back yard. Thus the paddling pool).
Sounds like you've got the right spot - normal, in the middle there!
I too worry about how this weather is impacting old and young people. Scary stuff.

Long dark hair, blue eyes said...

Those shoes are hideous!

I think I vomited a little in my mouth on seeing them.

I missed the TV coverage and am so glad you made sure I didn't miss the highlight. :)

Femina said...

She lost a bet, that's for sure.

They're predicting 44 here tomorrow (111F) and upon reading your post I thought, "Phew - at least it won't be 47 (117F)." You know things are bad when 44 is cool, relatively speaking.

Givinya De Elba said...

Oh Femina, stay cool! I'll be thinking of you, and praying for a cool change. I know they're saying the wind is coming in from the NW, super-heated from the desert, but I'm praying for some of that stuff that blows in from Antarctica & that gives you goose bumps.

tinsenpup said...

Something's going on. I'm living in a city that ground to standstill last week because of a heat wave the likes of which has literally not been seen in my lifetime, while working for a company in the UK, answering questions about school closures and the shutdown of public transport for customers whose city has ground to a standstill because of the cold and snow. Surreal much?

Oh, and best that you warn people about those shoes, I'd certainly hate to have them sneak up on me.

Femina said...

Don't you worry, I'll be staying indoors with Julio (my cooler), the West Wing, iced water and a cold shower in the evening. I'll be fine... and if the forecast is right it's just for one day so I'll be able to open all the windows and cool the place down on Sunday when it's TWENTY-TWO degrees cooler. (Yep, that's insane.)

Don't feel Bad Weather Survivor Guilt. You don't want this weather when you're pregnant, nauseated, tired, stressed about moving and spending some days doing the single parent thing. WE'LL cope with the weather; YOU keep coping with the other stuff! :)

Heather said...

Yep, I'm with Femina - no Bad Weather Survivor Guilt, just be sure you keep your promise and get out and ENJOY the wonderful weather on behalf of those of us who may or may not have beached our minivans in the ginormous snowdrifts across our driveway, forcing our dressed-in-a-business-suit husband and the Kindly Carpet Cleaner Dude who was at the house giving us an estimate to tromp out into the cold and shove our (hideously covered in salt and grime to boot) stuck Siennas out of the snowbank.

May or may not have, mind you, I shall not claim responsibility or ownership of the above act. Nor shall I take photographs of the gigantic ruts my minivan made in the snowdrift blocking just my half of the driveway. Just my half, mind you - Hubby's half is perfectly driveable, without skis, snowmobiles or snowshoes required. Or a shove.

Anyhoo, those are RIDICULOUS shoes. Seriously. They kind of make me root for a lightly sprained ankle, because the wearer of such would be rather deserving dontcha think?

Debbie said...

Someone paid good money for those shoes? Those are the worst things I have ever seen.

GreenJello said...

I would die. Seriously. I don't do heat well. I would take the flooding over the heat.

Anonymous said...

I promise not to complain about the snow/ice/rain/cold here again! I cannot imagine that kind of heat! I'm glad you are in between all of the extremes!

The shoes...well...there are no words strong enough to describe the hideousness (is that a word?) of those shoes? Seriously! She's going to look back at that picture some day and think "What exactly was I smoking when I bought those things?"

Nana Tantrum

Sassy Britches said...

I can TOTALLY relate on the gum boots thought, BTW.

And ARRRRRGGGGH! I'm just going to say prayers for the ENTIRE WORLD about their weather! This is NUTS! (Well, except for you, living in Perfectweatherland).

Tracy P. said...

As we say here on the tundra, you can always put more clothes on, but you can't always take more clothes on. Good thing God understands prayers uttered through ch-ch-chatttteeerrrrrrriing tttteeeth.

Tracy P. said...

Off. That would be off. Brain freeze.

Jen said...

that is some terrible weather you have going on down there. But to be honest, I am glad that you are safe. And I didn't know it could actually get to be 117 degrees. Yikes!

CynthiaK said...

I think that's the temperature I like in my sauna! Wow, that's some seriously hot weather.

It's all messed up around the globe. Changing weather patterns?

Seems the climate changes are also affecting the style recognition portions of certain celebrity brains. Those are some ugly shoes, honey! Jakers!

Swift Jan said...

The shoes. I have nothing to say about them except what was she thinking?

As for the weather, we are so lucky to be in the inbetween of it all! Just think a month ago I was in the south East part of Australia & I was wearing a jumper. Crazy CRAZY weather...

Nauntie Lush said...

Stay inside and keep cool.

I am sending over an order to BAN those shoes and BURN them promptly.

Now, I am going to stop whining about the cold...you can always dress warmer in the winter but you can't get any nakeder in the heat.

Heather said...

Well, you can get nakeder, but then you can also get arrested. As I'm not absolutely sure how well air-conditioned the pokey (you know, the joint, the hoosegow, the brig, the slammer, the can, the clink) might be, I guess I should say you *can* get nakeder, but perhaps you *shouldn't* get nakeder.

:D

musingwoman said...

Those shoes make my feet hurt just looking at them!

Dee said...

I just did a post on the fires in Victoria, you are right - we are lucky here in SEQ, soooo lucky.

And those shoes are just stupid.

♥ Boomer ♥ said...

Hate those shoes but would settle for having her rear end instead of mine!!!

I remember how crazy it was getting used to the term "southerly buster" when I lived there -- because we called it a "northern"!!