Thunder and rainbows and faux Mondays

A little rainbow this afternoon

Cold weather has finally arrived in Melbourne. I'm not thrilled about the cold, but I was a little thrilled by the thunder clap that greeted me when I left for work this morning (thrilled and a tiny bit scared). I quickly decided to take the bus to the tram stop (which was probably a good idea anyway because my ankle was sore from too much walking yesterday). 

I was also thrilled by this rainbow and another bigger one that appeared not long after.  

I kept thinking today was Monday because of the public holiday yesterday, but it's not! Wooh! Tomorrow is the last day of my working week already. 

Glowing

Tonight when I got off the tram the sun was setting in a stormy sky. Very purdy. I wish I'd been walking past the Bubble Dome five minutes earlier - as I walked towards it along Swan Street, I could see the whole sky behind it lit with an orange glow.  

It started to rain before I got home. I left my umbrella at work, but I wasn't worried because it was refreshing walking in the rain on a warm evening. The storm hit after I was home on the couch. There was one awesome thunder clap that made me jump. It's passed now and there's a nice fresh breeze blowing in the window.

Tomorrow is my last day in my job. It's been a hard week, so I'm really looking forward to my three week break. Lots of people have said they're sad to see me go (one solicitor even claimed to be devastated!), which has given me a warm inner glow. One co-worker gave me a lovely bunch of flowers. I just might have a tear in my eye tomorrow when I say my goodbyes. I won't miss the job, but I will miss the people.  Of course I'll stay in touch with the ones I'm closest to. 

Although this job hasn't worked out as I'd hoped, I've learnt a lot and made many new friends so I call that a win. 

An amusingly crap day

What a day! I had one of those 'what can go wrong will go wrong' sort of afternoons, which doesn't sound like the sort of thing I should be writing about here, but I saw the funny side of it and now you can too.

I was planning to drop into the Boroondara Cemetery to take some photos on my way back from an appointment in Kew but mid-way through my appointment, a wild storm hit Melbourne, with torrential rain and hail. (Not very conducive to hypnosis, I can tell you, but my hypnotherapist worked it into his routine.)

When I left the appointment, the rain was only light so I thought I'd go ahead with the cemetery visit, even though I didn't have an umbrella. While I was on the bus, the rain started to pelt down again. But instead of continuing home, I thought, "Oh, it'll pass. She'll be right, mate". 

I jumped off the bus at Kew Junction and when the light changed to green I started to dart across the road in the pouring rain but my thong (aka flip flop), which was slippery with rain, flew off my foot and landed a metre ahead of me on the road. I started to bend down to pick it up but then realised the siren I was only vaguely aware of belonged to the fire truck that would have mowed me down had it not slowed down to avoid me. I backed up and stood there laughing to myself until the truck passed. Kinda not funny, but it was.

Then when I got to the shelter I went to put my thong on, only to realise that it was broken. Dagnammit! So I took my other thong off too and walked barefoot up the street, soaking wet, water dripping off my nose, towards the cemetery. Be damned if I was going to give up on the plan now!

I put my good thong on when I got to the cemetery and tucked the other one under my arm as I started to take photos. It soon began to rain quite heavily again so I had to find somewhere to shelter...but the stone structure I thought would do the job turned out to be some sort of grave/memorial thing with a low fence around it. I resisted the urge to step over the fence and instead stood huddled in a space about 20 cms wide that seemed to be out of the rain.

And then I realised I was busting to pee. Why didn't I go to the toilet I passed on the way in, dammit? I couldn't face walking all the way back there in the rain with only one shoe on (the bitumen was hurty!), especially because my phone battery had died and I didn't know what time it was. I knew the gates shut at 5.00 and it was about 4.15 when I arrived so I didn't want to muck around with backtracking. And I couldn't hold on so I...um...well I found some bushes, surveyed the graveyard to make sure there were no other loonies around, and did what I had to do.

Out! Get out of my cemetery, you vile creature, before I run you through with my sword!

The rain eased so, mindful of having no phone to call for help if I got locked in the cemetery, I set off to take more photos, ignoring the rumbling of thunder and occasional flashes of lightning. Somehow a storm seemed more appropriate for a cemetery visit than bright sunshine anyway.

Bloody hell, it's hard taking photos when your hands are wet and the light isn't great. I couldn't get a grip on the zoom and it was hard holding the camera steady for long enough to take a shot  (I didn't bring a tripod). I wasn't too keen on using headstones to brace my camera against....though that seems pretty mild in comparison to relieving yourself nearby, I suppose. I also had to try to keep the lens clear of rain drops. After using my only tissue as toilet paper and my lense cloth to wipe my glasses, I was rapidly running out of dry material to use. Thankfully my boobs provided a handy little shelter that kept a portion of my singlet top dry. (Yay for boobs!)

Despite all of this adversity, I was still able to appreciate the awesomeness of the cemetery, albeit quickly. I could have spent hours there. A large portion of it is very old, with graves that are starting to subside and crack. There's loads of elaborate headstones and statuary, some snaked with vines and blotchy with lichen.  I love faded glory.

Not-so-faded doggy glory

As I was wandering around, my other stupid thong broke, so I was completely barefoot. And then I slipped in mud. And then the low battery light on my camera started flashing. And then I couldn't find the exit. And then eventually I found my way back to the front gate and caught a tram home, soaking wet, cold, goosebumpy and footsore. I even had pruny fingers from the rain! 

When I got back to my neighbourhood, it was obvious the storm had been far more violent than in Kew. There were leaves and small branches everywhere, and still a few deposits of hailstones.

It was great to get home and change into dry clothes. 

The photos didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but they're not too bad considering. You can see them here.   

Thunder and laughing

After close to a week of hot humid weather, we had a big storm today and what a relief it was. It had passed by the time I left work so I walked home in the rain. I didn't mind that my purple suede flats got squelchy and the bottom of my pants was soaking wet and flapping about my ankles.

I met another Twitter friend last night. Dom was down from Sydney and took me with him to a comedy showcase, which was great - great to meet him since we've struck up quite the online friendship based on some common interests, but also a great night of laughs. I realised recently in response to a question on Formspring that I don't laugh enough. That's just not right!  Last night helped to redress that a tiny bit.  If only someone could appear in front of me every day and sing humourous songs about the Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. I want roving comedians at work, dammit.

Dom introduced me to some of the comics performing and others who were in the audience (I think he knew everyone in the room) and of course I was all, "Oh, I meet people off the telly every day," at the time, but now I'm telling you about it because secretly I thought it was very cool.

Oh, and Dom gave me a copy of Wacky Wednesday by Dr Seuss, which I read while waiting for my tram home. Sweet!

Post card from Port Macquarie

The view from my mum's place

Hello from Port Macquarie! It's my second full day here and it's great to see my mum and her little dog Sam again.

I've been doing some serious relaxing and sleeping and have already knocked over one of the books I brought with me - the one about the Amish, which was fascinating, especially their dating rituals. On their first date they spend the night together in bed, side by side and fully clothed!

Yesterday we had a sensational thunderstorm, with huge thunderclaps and fork lightning and near-torrential rain that blew in sideways. As you can see from the picture above, my mum's house is a great vantage point for storm watching. It was awesome! We rarely get decent thunderstorms down south.

Now that's a giant freckle! Mmmmmmmmmm

Warm woollen mittens, thunder and frockage

The cold weather hasn't relinquished its hold on Melbourne just yet, but it's OK. It means I get a little more wear out of the purple mittens my mum knitted for me a few years back. They're quite impractical, but I think of her when I wear them. (She lives interstate, I only see her once or twice a year).


Stormy

The city was dark and gloomy beneath menacing storm clouds (cumulonimbus clouds!) when I left work tonight. I love that palpable sense of expectation that precedes a thunderstorm - well, actually, I love the storms too (bearing in mind that big storms are few and far between here and don't usually cause much damage). I can hear a few distant burbles of thunder as I type, but no storm so far.


Guilty pleasures

1. Watching Australian Idol, although mostly I forget it's on.


2. Checking out the frockery at awards ceremonies, like the Emmy's and tonight's Brownlow Medal (the best and fairest award in the Australian Football League) and...OK, I admit that I get more of a kick out of scoffing at the shock frocks (that's why Go Fug Yourself is one of my fave blogs!)

Got any garments with sentimental value? Do you have good storms where you live? Anyone willing to reveal their guilty pleasures?