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The First Fortnight
So the first two weeks of the new year are over. So far so good. There was a pickly sizzling weekend from hell where the mercury hovered around 41-44 celsius. It simply meant melting and lurking around the Lair instead of the usual cafe crawls and culture vulture adventures
Other folks were not so lucky. A combination of hellish heat, winds and a few fallen wooden power poles meant a flaming inferno in the hills and 50 or so houses were burnt to cinders. The creepiest case of all was the picture in the paper of a real estate agent’s sign on the street outside a house in the hills. The sign proclaimed the virtues of this very desirable property along with a ‘sold’ sticker stuck on top. But after the week end the pictures of the house portrayed on the sign were all that remained. It was burned to a cinder while the sign itself was miraculously untouched
Not sure what the legal situation may be in such a case only that the buyers have already sold their own home so like the original owners now have no home to go to
So many people have lost everything they owned in the fires. It must be especially difficult for those who work up in the mines and see the stories about the bushfires on the news and can do nothing of course because they are thousands of miles away
The zombie jobs keep the Izzie out of mischief for two days a week. They are also a source of inspiration for stories.
But most importantly of all they provide a sense of meaning and structure and a new social network. It makes it that much easier for the goblin job to be relegated to the dustbin of ancient history
Even the grand project of reclaiming the Lair is making slow and steady progress.
So far so good. Another wicked stinking hot as hell weekend is on the way. So it’s a struggle keeping the weeds alive. But those bushfires have a way of putting a serpent’s petty problems in perspective
Other folks were not so lucky. A combination of hellish heat, winds and a few fallen wooden power poles meant a flaming inferno in the hills and 50 or so houses were burnt to cinders. The creepiest case of all was the picture in the paper of a real estate agent’s sign on the street outside a house in the hills. The sign proclaimed the virtues of this very desirable property along with a ‘sold’ sticker stuck on top. But after the week end the pictures of the house portrayed on the sign were all that remained. It was burned to a cinder while the sign itself was miraculously untouched
Not sure what the legal situation may be in such a case only that the buyers have already sold their own home so like the original owners now have no home to go to
So many people have lost everything they owned in the fires. It must be especially difficult for those who work up in the mines and see the stories about the bushfires on the news and can do nothing of course because they are thousands of miles away
The zombie jobs keep the Izzie out of mischief for two days a week. They are also a source of inspiration for stories.
But most importantly of all they provide a sense of meaning and structure and a new social network. It makes it that much easier for the goblin job to be relegated to the dustbin of ancient history
Even the grand project of reclaiming the Lair is making slow and steady progress.
So far so good. Another wicked stinking hot as hell weekend is on the way. So it’s a struggle keeping the weeds alive. But those bushfires have a way of putting a serpent’s petty problems in perspective
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Good to hear the zombie jobs are keeping you busy! And take it slowly on reclaiming the lair, in this heat. Yikes, you poor things.
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Meanwhile Old King Col is out shark fishing while Perth burns. We should toss a couple of the critters into that big fat hole where the Esplanade used to be
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Crazy stuff. I really wonder how long it will take for action to start on this? I keep hoping for a tipping point but it's taking a long time to tip.
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Albany used to be lots wetter and colder than up here. Here's guessing the latter still applies. Never yet heard of houses there being burnt to a cinder in bush fires although it is quite common in Bridgetown
Today's zombie adventure led to Coventry Markets in Morley. Had heard rumours about the Rinesaurus and here was a chance to see if they were true
Yessss. There was a big lump of iron ore inscribed with an appalling poem that is just begging to be immortalized in some sordid serpent tale of the city (or added during editing for last November's adventure)
Got to wishing the Izzie had pen and paper on hand to record the poetic elegance and then remembered of course that there's always the Oracle of Google
I swear - you cannot make this shit (http://theworstofperth.com/2012/02/13/la-gina/) up
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Haha, I follow The Worst of Perth on Wordpress :) The poems in the comments were amusing, too. Honestly. That woman should just stick to criticising the working population of Australia for not wanting to work for $2 per hour, and leave the poetry to... oh, I don't know. People who can actually write poetry?!
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We have missed the heat, it stayed down south and the sea breeze effect ensured we only got up to 30 Deg C but the humidity is awful.
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Back in 2007 the then state Labour government had drafted legislation requiring all new housing to be designed so that rainwater tanks or grey water recycling systems could be easily retrofitted. Something like the internal piping had to be set up during the building process and all houses with 3 or more bathrooms or a swimming pool had to actually instal the water tanks or recycling system. This was due to come into effect by 2009. And guess who scrapped the whole lot of these excellent rules when they got elected in 2008?
It is more than likely that the same fate would have awaited any attempt to change the building standards to make houses more fire proof when in such high fire risk areas. But it would have added $20,000 plus to the price of a new house. Here's guessing that $20,000 is looking like a good investment now. Of course there are no guarantees when there's lots of highly flammable trees, winds and a sizzling summer day. Hilly areas are especially vulnerable even in places that get nowhere near as hot as Perth
So now even if people can rebuild to a safer standard, there's still the fear of the next fire always lurking, the worry that the supply of potential buyers will dry up but worst of all the probability that insurance premiums will increase enormously and be unaffordable but essential like flood cover in Queensland
Heard the tennis players saying the other day that playing at 40 something in Melbourne is much preferable to 30 something in Brisbane thanks to that awful humidity. Izzie can so so relate to that
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