Boo!!!!!!!!! (20)

Listening to the news now. Seems like there's fires everywhere around Sydney as well. Unbelievable.

narr birthday was last year, true

Yeah Oz is the land of extremes, that's for sure.

We always play nice Don't we Serene

Thanks Serene, it's on Sunday and I get to see my new grandbaby

Can't wait to squeeze him

yikes you scared me!

so hot in NSW and yet today the temp plummeted and it hailed here, been a cold blustery day all day.

Australia, a land of contrasts

are you ok? the fires are bad :(

Yesterday morning in Melb was blowing a gale (again). Cold morning and we had some hail. And then the wind was a hot north-westerly. Today is just windy. But 21 at 5.50pm and no wind. Okay, a slight breeze has just decided to make a return while I am writing.

Talking to mate who lives a couple of hours out of Sydney and nearly lost his home a couple of times to fires. And he is in the local Rural Fire Service. The big blaze out of Lithgow jumped 30kms yesterday. He lives 60kms as the crow flies from Lithgow - 120kms by road. That area in between is so rugged, it is National Park because noone can do anything with it.

My brother has a property 100kms out of Sydney. When the big fires a few years ago threatened Sydney and surrounds, he spent nearly 2 weeks with his bulldozer clearing containment lines around the next village. A year later, a "small blaze" wiped out the income from his property before anyone managed to get there.

I grew up on the edge of Sydney where we had fires every year 'down the back,' always lit by someone. I have been involved with the 'cleanup' at Strathewen down here and seen the devastation that can go through in less than an hour. I saw the news clip of the Sydney Olympic Park carpark. Carelessness is no excuse.

Deliberately lighting fires (Abeberfeldy last year) does endanger lives and is criminal. I have had 2 cars stolen and my home burgled once. They hit me as being personal for the losses (took the videos of my children --- WTF did they take the homemade videos???????????) but to lose all of your personal possesions through someone deliberately lighting a bushfire..............

NSW has a "Fire Watch" website (RFSsomething.com.au) if you want to zoom in from the satelite images. Many thanks to Telstra, I can't do this at the moment.