Today is December 13 and I just realised that today is exactly 13 years since I busted up my arm real bad on a nasty driveway back in my hometown Christchurch, NZ. I was 12 then and spent a couple days in hospital after getting my arm bolted back together by this fantastic surgeon. Also, big ups to my Mum whose famous quote in the car on the way to the doctor's surgery I will never forget:
"Brad, it will be okay it might not even be broken."
This was despite the fact that everyone, me included, could quite clearly see the bone sticking right threw my skin. I'm sure it was just meant to try and reassure me and calm me down and the funny thing was that it kinda worked. Anyway, I ended up spending that summer with a cool black fibre glass cast and living just over a year with a semi-robotic arm half filled with titanium. I still have some very mean scars left over from the whole ordeal, ask me and I'll show you someday.
What's been happening in Melbourne town? Well, it's been crazy business hot - 38 on Saturday followed up by a rather balmy 42 on Sunday. We went down to St Kilda beach on Saturday and had our first swim for the summer (well the southern hemisphere summer anyway). The beach at St Kilda gets a bad rap from Melburnians, but I think it is severly under-rated. I made the comment to one of our friends, that if this was NZ there would be hundreds of people down at the beach and in the water, as it stood there were only a couple dozen and I think that was more just to get away from the relentless heat.
On a more somber note, it would be wrong not to make a mention of the bushfires that are currently gripping this fine state. We woke on Saturday morning to the acrid smell of smoke and discovered that the city was suffocating under a blanket of smoke from the fires that were raging more than 150 km away. The ES were batting away the 000 calls and smoke alarms were blaring away - quite a drama really and just highlighting the fact that what we all really need is a damn good dumping of rain. The winds were more favourable on Sunday through Tuesday but as the wind turned today we were again in the grip of the smoke. Anyone know a good rain dance?
