Rain

It's November and the water reserves in melbourne are at 34%.  We are on stage 3a water restrictions.  No washing your car, watering the garden, (if you need to) on Wednesday morning and one other morning, (is it Saturday?)  No using water for recreational purposes.  No sprinklers, no refilling the pool with the hose.  No new pools without using recycled water.  

Water can be used for hygiene.   But don't take long showers and don't leave it running while you brush your teeth.  34%.  They measure rain in millimeters here.  5mm is a good shower.  There are 10mm in a centimeter and 2.5 cm in an inch.  We have had the lowest spring rainfall on record.  When it does rain, there is a short period of humidity and damp, but once the sun comes out it is dry again.  Parch dry.  It's different in the winter, but that's mostly the cold.  

The rain runs off roofs, into the street.  It keeps my poor neglected garden alive.  Some people have water tanks.  Some people have rose gardens.  I have a bed of succulents that can survive long periods of dry.  I wish the skies would open up and fill the reservoirs and then people would stop arguing about the water.

Oh, how I miss the rain.

Tasty As......

My stepdaughter has a new phrase that comes up whenever she is asked her opinion on something.  "Audrey, did you like having olive oil on your bread?"  "Oh, yes.  It's tasty as....."

Or  "Audrey, what do you think of Nancy's new stained glass piece?"  "It's pretty as...."  She says this in a way which draws out the as in a singsong way so it goes up and down before she lets it trail off.......

As what?  I have no clue, and neither does she!  She is, in her 8 year old way, responding to peer pressure to be an 8 year old Ocker.  So, what is an ocker?  Well,  wikipedia defines ocker as:

 

a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in an uncultured manner, using a broad australian accent (or strine).

Now, Audrey goes to primary school in Surrey Hills, which is a fairly swanky eastern suburb.  She is not much for the outdoors, ("it's dirty") and is afraid of flies and ants to an almost abnormal degree.  Yet, she is beginning to speak in a way that makes her seem as if she is from the country, or, at the very least, running barefoot in the outer suburbs of Melbourne.

Here is the address for a link to the ABC's (Australian Broadcasting Corporation's) guide to strine:  http://www.abc.net.au/civics/globalcitizens/ozstrine.htm

Apparently, Audrey is learning this from her "ocker" friend Sarah, or so my husband says.

   Audrey has also decided that she would like to be a gymnast because she likes hanging upside down on the monkey bars. This from a  girl who, endearingly enough since I couldn't do one at her age, cannot do a proper cartwheel.  I could, however, do a split, which she cannot do either.  I told her that I would help her work on  those things but her attention wandered.  She is a pretty normal 8 year old in most ways and most things.  Solidly on her way to a degree in liberal arts.  We do hold out some hope that her skills in the pool will lead her to the olympics one day, which is the great Australian dream, but, we'll see how she goes.     Gosh, when did I get to be such a cynic?  I don't have much experience with 8 year olds changing their mind every month, and, to be fair, she is a talented artist.  I just wish she could hold focus on one thing for more than 10 minutes!  Difficult as..........