The temperature gauge in the living room. It's where we turn on the central heating, so far it's only at night when the temperature dipped below 24 degrees. This was 36.5 degrees in the house on the 5th January 2008. 
The usual routine after the kids' shower is Moisturiser and Sunblock. They need their caps and their lip balm, everywhere they go.
That's Timothy with too much sunblock on his face... his hands were so slippery that he dropped the bottle and it broke!
Tricia has learnt to apply moisturiser on her own - for her, beauty comes first...What's your idea of summer? According to the Longman dictionary, summer is the time of the year when the sun is the hottest and the days are the longest. Here in Melbourne, the days are definitely longer with the sun setting at 9pm so it gets dark only at 9.30pm. I don't need the alarm and for the first few days, was awoken by the sun's rays peeping through the blinds, at 5am. This is my experience of summer here in Melbourne.
The temperature hit a record high of 41 degrees celsius here in Melbourne on New Year's eve. It was all over the news on New Years Day how the heat had kept party revellers away from the countdown at various places in Melbourne. Many were treated for heat exhaustion. For me, the countdown to 2008 was nothing worth remembering, except for Charlie's Angels, which was far better than the live telecast of the countdown at Sydney.
1st January 2008 started with a heatwave for my family here. Ya! You're right, it's SUMMER. We spent the day at Aunty Mae's house, where there was airconditioning. And airconditioning here is a treat since not many homes have one. For one, summer heat like this is rare, about 4 to 5 days when it will hit above 40 degrees. And there's always the wind change, which can be rather chilly winds and temperature can quickly dip to a low of 20 degrees.
The temperature rose, for the 2nd time this year, to 40 degrees, on the 5th Jan. To beat the heat, we set off to the mall, way before the heat creeps into our house around 1pm. We stay out as late as possible and return home, hopefully after the sun sets, so we won't be baked in the house. We're lucky if that day is a Thursday or Friday as the malls are opened till 9pm. And that's what we did yesterday (the 3rd heatwave), shopping in the malls and catching the movie The Waterhorse. We got back when the temperture has dipped to 30 degrees and that's bearable. This is what you call 'being climatised'.
So the weather forecast here is very important to the people, it's the topic of conversation and it's the one thing that determines how you spend your day.
The forecast for today was to be another hot day, we had planned to escape somewhere but the cool change came earlier than expected. It rained for a while and the temprature dipped to 25 degrees so we had a delightful afternoon at home. The weekend should be fine, average of 24 degrees. This is the kind of weather for a picnic at the park. You can warm yourself in the sun, gets really too hot for me actually. I prefer the shade, with the cool breeze. And I can't do without my sunglasses!
It was said that in Melbourne, if you don't like the weather today, just wait for a few more days, it'll change. That's true. And I now live to experience what people always say ' that there can be 4 seasons in one day in Melbourne'. Just be prepared!
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