The hottest place on earth??

Well, according to the papers, Sydney was the hottest place on earth today? I think the townships in Central/Northern Australia might think Sydney is being a bit wimpy - but what good is the media without the hype. I would have to agree with them however as we were in Sydney on Saturday for the monthly Pyrmont Markets. Luckily our stall is on the Wharf walkway so we get the breeze from the water, however the temperature was around 42 - 44 degrees depending on where in Sydney you were. This soon became apparent as we attempted the drive home. The hour and a half stuck in city traffic was trying enough, but the ute seems to have the same trouble multi-tasking as James. Towing a large trailer, sitting in traffic and keeping the air conditioning going was too much...the air conditioning had to go. We thought we would seriously get heat stroke. Once the traffic got going it was a long drive into the mountains. We put ice on the floor of the ute, we threw a lot of water over each other. We were grumpy and silent. Once over the mountains the temperature dropped and the engine decided that maybe it was not going to blow up. The air conditioning started again. We decided that we might live afterall.

The animals seem similarly unimpressed. The pigs are fairing pretty well - the have huge wallows and lots of shade. Like us they don't do much during the day but are very active at dusk and dawn. Ammos and Coco are not impressed - being born and bred in the UK they think they are bieng tortured...in the photo above Ammos is actually alive - he spends most of his day like this. Coco is enjoying the mouse plague that the heat seems to have brought on, but getting her out of the house is an effort in itself - she has found the fan in the office and spends her days lying under it looking miserable (see photo). We are promised cooler weather this week - otherwise I've promised Coco we will shave all her hair off again.

Teeth and Beef

The fact that the very act of typing this blog causes me to break out in a sweat and stick to the chair within seconds (it is really bloody hot here) has put me off entirely this week. I once again find myself squeezing a full week of news into a couple of short entries. There was great excitement last weekend when Felix finally wobbled his tooth so much that it came out. I almost dread typing this as if he ever reads it as an adult I'm sure it will be held against me forever, however he went to sleep greatly excited by his forthcoming wealth. After Bathurst markets we all consumed too much wine in the post market discussions and fell asleep without giving anything much thought at all. Someone was looking down on us however as James woke up at 4am saying THE TOOTH. Even at this point I told him to shut up and go back to sleep, thinking he was having a strange dream until the realisation dawned on me and after putting $2 (my god, can you believe that is what a tooth is now worth) to replace the little tooth, I then tossed and turned and felt like a truly awful mother. imagine Felix's great excitement when he awoke the next morning and found that the tooth fairy had forgotten him. He was extremely happy and insisted on paying for his own lemonade at the pool, despite my best intentions of getting him to save it (I'm so glad he takes after me in some ways).

To add to the general growing up story, he of course started school on Thursday, joining K1s class at the local public primary school. He was beside himself with excitement and proudly went off to school. Despite all expectations a stretcher was not needed to carry me out and it all seemed to go smoothly. Friday was similarly easy. He had a lovely weekend and then Monday morning he seemed to realise that this was in fact a permanent fixture in his life and he fell apart when I had to leave. It took much of my self control not to fall apart with him, however I'm told that after leaving he simply took a deep breath and got on with it. Tuesday was similarly traumatic, however after a long after school chat he told me that he had decided the way to solve the problem was to put him on the bus. I did this the next day and lo and behold he climbed aboard very proudly and was absolutely fine. I thought I would have a little while longer before being seen with me was not an option, however it has started early. Emily went off to big pre-school as though she had been doing it forever and has settled in really well, which is lucky because if I'm not sure I could cope with two lots of tears... I'd have to home school.

Anyway, after dropping them off at school and pre-school I was left with a whole day to myself. What better way to spend it than a bit of retail therapy. Two years ago I might have bought a pair of jeans...now I chose some lovely cows. I have named them The Grey Ladies, as they are very mature and sensible girls who are grateful that we are stuffing them full of hay and they have a lovely big field of grass. James initially decided we needed a game plan of management i.e. "do we sell them once they have calved and make our money then, or wait till the calves are bigger and sell them with a calf and pregant again". I of course was horrified and had put so much emotional investment into buying them at the sales that I envisaged a long and happy life with us forever. They are staying.