Logbook

Fun weather at the momment - forecast sumarised it as "showers", but what it actually is, is bands of heavy rain for about 2-5 min, followed by sun for a while, followed by cloud, followed by some more brief heavy rain with strong wind gusts throughout. 3 am thunderstorm last night, though fairly quiet one which Z slept through. Apparently wind gusts in the morning reached up to 100km/h (shock horror, quiet from those in Wellington giggling slightly) and there has been some minor damage.

It is actually (relatively) cold and nasty out - though still in double figures.

So, of course I needed to duck out to the shops for bread and eggs. 5 min walk max, so no worries. Picked a good gap for heading over - there was sun, but it quickly disappeared as the nice grey clouds rolled in from the ~NW. Got to the shops fine and wandered around the supermarket and listened to the nice loud rain on the roof. Got everything and headed to the back door. Still raining, though it appeared to be easing and you could see cloud detail in the right directions. Safe to depart. Nope - big fat raindrops, well spaced so you could see cloud easily between them but still packing plenty of wet. Still not as bad as the downpour a few minutes ago from the menacing dark grey cloud now behind. It picked up slightly once I got under the veranda, then stopped and the sun came out briefly.

Damp now and need to defrost my fingers.

Fun though :)

It is Thursday and all wet out. In NZ this wouldn't be suprising, but over here there is still a great deal of novelty in rain which has actually carried on continuously, only varying in density since about 5:30am*. I may grab an umbrella or rain coat when heading out for dinner and DVD hunting.

Maybe Z is a rain god - his field area hadn't seen rain in at least 15 year prior to him turning up and it looks like rain twice in the time he has been there. Good for the farmers from a "lets farm the land" point of view (though it could just be seen as raising false hopes), but bad from the "roads just wash away if you sprinkle water on them, let alone have sustained rainfall" point of view. Soggy lizards.

Looks like my parents should be entering the 21st century shortly**. Skype looks like a go, dunno about Firefox...

*Yes, unfortunately I do know it started round 5:30am as Z had to get up at that point to head into work and into the field. This combined wonderfully with a warm night of not sleeping well. Sensible sleeping patterns HA!

** Yes, my parents are fairly computer literate - they have been using computers as research tools since they were at Uni. And will use the WWW happily - found slothphil's photo pages years ago and may or may not check LJ... Just previously hampered by home dialup. Still trying to convert them away from heavy Microsloth reliance though.

So, apparently this (just) past February has been the hottest February for the past 100 years in Adelaide.
Oh joy. Just as well we skipped out on a week and a half of it.
But we are getting used to it. Such that complaints about Chch getting up to 30 degrees and being far too hot are greated with delight that it has finally gotten down to around 30 degrees round here. 34 tomorrow and 37 degrees on Fri before she settles in around 28 degress for the rest of the following week.
Glad we went for the air conditioning and room with a ceiling fan though. Sleep and hands not too sweaty to sew with are good.

As some of you may know from postings on Cocktail Party Physics etc, it is approximately the 10 year anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan - on of the more famous popular astronomers around. There are some good links given on that site, so I wont repeat them here.
Instead I will just reccommend that you get hold of a copy of his book "The Demon Haunted World" and read it. Even if you just manage a couple of the essays - but that isn't difficult cause he writes very well.

And for those of you putting up with miserable rain and wind and cold down south, I wont complain about it being 34+ degrees out. But from the radar we should get some lovely rain in the next few hours. Looking at the weather forecasts for Christmas, we get cooler and you get warmer so everybody wins..

Christchurch
Wellington
Canberra
Adelaide

Slight thermal shock...

So, before getting in a car with a near stranger, it seemed a good idea to sit in a stationary vehicle and remember which was the brake, accelerator and clutch and how to start the sucker. Didn't go anywhere - we have a steep driveway that would need to be reversed out and the back windscreen was frozen - visability when driving is your friend. But started the car, listened to noises wrt clutch engagement, turned her off and played with the gears a little. Then went inside cause it was COLD*.
But I think I remember the basics from when I last trundled over Festival site (March...)

Would have been a longer practice but Z has homework from his first aid course and is currently reviewing his first aid kid. They get to play hide the corpses rescue people out near the airport tommorrow.

Time to get some work done on the shirt. Side and hem to go.

*It was -4 degrees in town and -6 at our end this morning. Forecast is for -5 tonight, so may be -7 here... Yay wool coif and flockarti rug. Boo to actually having to get up.

Just as well the extra cloak I was finishing was left on the bed: it was only 12 degrees over night. She is forecast to go below 10 degrees at night for the next 7 days. Definitely need to make more cloaks/dig out more of the old ones. There are advantages to having a large woollen cloak collection. I am also looking forward to the fact that we will have the cloaks, flockarti rug, psuedo fur rug and woolen caps/hats for sleeping in/on at Festival.

And on the Festival progress front:
Tent 1 has the door/wall seams done and the base of the doors hemmed. Only door ties, trimming and side edge to go, but that does need a flat area and an extra person to put up and measure/mark. Also rope along base for pegging down walls.
Tent 2 has 3/10 eyelets done, but only needs 3 more and the guy ropes attached before it is put-up-able for the door positioning etc. Then it is waterproofing, doors to walls on the base and the same sequence as Tent 1.
Yellow linen tunic neckline repaired and wearable. Eowyn sideless surcoat de-looped so now more period. That was the only repairs I had, but Z tends to beat up his clothing more...
2nd cushion now finished, which means one for sleeping on and a spare for hitting people with. The embroidered one started in a fit of procrastination/curiousity at work can be ongoing.
2 green wool cloaks done - one for alpha_angel to use and any more finished will be retailed. I don't think I can make it through the full ~40+m left - Z has already sold the rest.
I wont start on the list of smaller things that are started and need finishing or need starting... satchel, hose, cloaks ...
That and pursuading the occasional workmate or two that they want to come out to the Festival Market day, so helping them with clothing etc...

Plenty to do.

Edit: And managed a 4 strand plait in hair. Bit messy and it definitely wont work in dutch or french mode, but still works. Would try 5 strand which should work dutch or french, but I don't think I have enough fingers...:)