[mickd]

Wow! That's impressive Mick. You guys must be really proud! Lucky the girls took after their Mum eh.. 

Very happy & proud , both finished year 12 and moved 3 1/2  hrs away for Kate,  6 1/2 hrs away for Rachel.   Yes lucky they did     

[Dazzler]

Wow! That's impressive Mick. You guys must be really proud! Lucky the girls took after their Mum eh.. 

Very happy & proud , both finished year 12 and moved 3 1/2  hrs away for Kate,  6 1/2 hrs away for Rachel.   Yes lucky they did     

Glad you can take a joke mate. One thing I can say for sure after spending some quality time with you and Anita is that both girls would have nice friendly natures. 

[Dazzler]

A bit of an update...… wifey came home this arvo after her emergency surgery. Still doped up a bit on pain medication and getting around is painful for her. Plus she seems always tired and sleeping. Totally unusual for her. Time will heal so they say....

@neptune Hi John. Is Mrs N improving at all? I hope so! 

[neptune]

A bit of an update...… wifey came home this arvo after her emergency surgery. Still doped up a bit on pain medication and getting around is painful for her. Plus she seems always tired and sleeping. Totally unusual for her. Time will heal so they say....

@neptune Hi John. Is Mrs N improving at all? I hope so! 

Thanks for that Daz……. she is improving even though she is still a bit sore. Can't go back to work at the hospital just yet and a bit of a lifestyle change for her is coming up. But all good 

[Dazzler]

Gee you are up early mate! I thought I was the only Person in WA awake pre 4am. I'm here for two weeks from late Thursday just gone but as usual it's a crazy schedule. Good to hear wifey is on the mend. Since my health has been on the decline I have become a lot more empathetic for others health issues.. I'm not coping with your warm nights and feeling a bit off myself... anyone want a belly ache? They can have mine. 

[neptune]

4am   Jeez I better go to bed otherwise I will be turning the day around.....  

[mickd]

A bit of an update...… wifey came home this arvo after her emergency surgery. Still doped up a bit on pain medication and getting around is painful for her. Plus she seems always tired and sleeping. Totally unusual for her. Time will heal so they say....

@neptune Hi John. Is Mrs N improving at all? I hope so! 

Thanks for that Daz……. she is improving even though she is still a bit sore. Can't go back to work at the hospital just yet and a bit of a lifestyle change for her is coming up. But all good 

Good to  hear 

[tohis]

A flashback from the past! Today I was overtaken by an Aqua Blue i30 GD Wagon, the same model and color which I had earlier.  Of course it wasn't the very same one, which is easy to see from the license plate. Also, this one didn't have the Blue Drive badge, so it must be an automatic whereas I had manual.

At here the i30 has been far from bestseller, which is noticeable as I can't recall very many cases of me driving behind an another GD Wagon. Its sister model, the Kia Cee'd has sold significantly better. But what I do see all the time out there are another Toyota Auris Hybrids, and the new Corolla Hybrid has also been a big hit, continually fighting for the bestseller title against Skoda Octavia.

Oh, and the weather during this so called "winter" has been awful. Nothing new about the November and December being wet and slushy and temperature around 0, but it has largely been the same all the time!  Few times we have had something like -5 to -15 and some snow, but those didn't last more than few days at a time. However, the northern Finland (Lapland) has had lots of snow and cold, so the tourists have enjoyed the real winter like before.

[PhireSideZA]

Oh, and the weather during this so called "winter" has been awful. Nothing new about the November and December being wet and slushy and temperature around 0, but it has largely been the same all the time!  Few times we have had something like -5 to -15 and some snow, but those didn't last more than few days at a time. However, the northern Finland (Lapland) has had lots of snow and cold, so the tourists have enjoyed the real winter like before.

And here on the other side of the pond/hemisphere, our little town has had the hottest day on record in 55 years

We also had rolling blackouts so we couldn't even run a desk fan to cool down!

Weather office says Sunday the hottest day in Port Elizabeth in 55 years!

The Port Elizabeth office of the South African Weather Service says the 40.2° C recorded on Sunday in Port Elizabeth made it the hottest day in 55 years.

"It almost reached the record high of 40.7°C measured in March 1965," said Garth Sampson, SA Weather Service Eastern Cape Client Liaison Officer.

He added that other places that topped the 40°C  mark were:

Uitenhage                           40.6°C,
Coega                                 43.9°C, and
Addo                                  40.7°C.

[Dazzler]

Wow! The lack of power for cooling was probably the biggest concern. Serious health risk for aged and sick. 

[Doggie 1]

Wow! The lack of power for cooling was probably the biggest concern. Serious health risk for aged and sick. 

And I suppose, Dazz, you'd identify with both of those demographics. 
(Said with love from the heart of my bottom).

[PhireSideZA]

Wow! The lack of power for cooling was probably the biggest concern. Serious health risk for aged and sick. 

The rolling blackouts are getting bad here now. Some days we sit without power for 9 - 11 hours per day.

I recently had to buy an inverter and a deep cycle battery just to keep some lights on and I am in the process of converting all my outside lights to solar. Next up is a solar panel to keep the battery charged up, to help bring the electricity charge down.

I feel really sorry for people who have CPAP machines or fishtanks with pumps and heaters that then need to keep going in times like this.

I'm hoping the new CEO of the power utility company can turn things around, but the prognosis is that we are going to continue experiencing rolling blackouts ('load shedding') for at least another year and a half:

High risk of load shedding for the next 18 months: analyst

TL;DR: Our BIGGEST state-owned national electricity supplier (ie. they supply 90% of power to the country) is a few hundred billion rand in debt because they didn't do any maintenance to their existing power stations, the ones that they built to supply the expanding economy were over budget, delayed, corruption saw billions go missing, and general mismanagement. Because Eskom couldn't supply areas with reliable power, people resorted to alternative power generation methods (solar, wind, generators). Because of the loss of revenue, they have been hiking electricity prices with an average of 13% a year:



Then there is a township called Soweto that owes a collective R18 billion rand in debt because of illegal connections. Eskom goes in and disconnects the illegal users, and they get assaulted by the mobs, people get killed and the illegal connections are put back the very next day. Not even our millitary can asssit, and the police also get their arses handed to them when they try to quell the protests.

With all the substations that have had to be turned off and on so much, they are blowing up left, right and centre. So you might sit without power for 11 hours a day, only for it to not come back on for an extra day or two. The switchgear is not meant to be turned off and on again so frequent - it causes arcing and damages the contacts, not to mention the huge inrush current as 5000+ houses have their hot water geysers turn on at 3kW a pop simultaneously which causes brownouts and voltage spikes that damages appliances and electronics.

/PhireSide is now tired of typing, and will retire for the afternoon. Just thought I'd share how messed up we have it here

EDIT: I realise this all sounds like a rant, and it is. I just get so worked up about these avoidable things and then also when I think of all the other folks who are sitting with the same issues. Our collective blood pressure could probably spin all the OCGT's to provide enough power to the entire continent

Take care, gents

[Dazzler]

Damn ill have to read that later... got to get ready for a massage. 

[The Gonz]

Anyone heading down to the Superloop Adelaide 500, drop by the ADF paddock and say hello. I'll be the old'n'bold in a flying suit.

[Dazzler]

That's insane @PhireSide

We are so lucky in Australia despite fires and floods etc! 

[mickd]

Anyone heading down to the Superloop Adelaide 500, drop by the ADF paddock and say hello. I'll be the old'n'bold in a flying suit.

Geez Gonz,  doing it tough again ! . I feel so sorry for you     
Does that suit get you into the pit area ?   

[josh1990]

Wife and I are expecting kid #2 in May, and recently was promoted at work. Have backed off the second job a bit to spend more time at home. Still be plenty of room in the little wagon, 2nd seat already in.

[Dazzler]

Wife and I are expecting kid #2 in May, and recently was promoted at work. Have backed off the second job a bit to spend more time at home. Still be plenty of room in the little wagon, 2nd seat already in.

Well done. That's great news. Nice to hear some positives. 

2020 hasn't started well for a lot of us Aussies. 

[Doggie 1]

Wife and I are expecting kid #2 in May, and recently was promoted at work. Have backed off the second job a bit to spend more time at home. Still be plenty of room in the little wagon, 2nd seat already in.

Great news @josh1990 all round. 

[mickd]

A bit of nice news 

[PhireSideZA]

That's insane @PhireSide

We are so lucky in Australia despite fires and floods etc! 

We had some really good coverage of the fires here in our local news - it is so scary to think that it happened so quick, and the amount of manpower needed to contain a blaze of that magnitude is almost unimaginable. Some of the photos and pictures I saw were downright terrifying and I would hate to have been caught up in something like that

[tohis]

I'm having interesting times now as my winter vacation is approaching. I have a booking for one week in Tenerife, where they have just found 4 cases of coronavirus!  The whole hotel, about 1000 guests included, has been put in quarantine as preventive measure for at least 14 days, and it's less than 10 km away from the hotel which I have booked. It would be a miracle should there be no more cases during next weeks...

As long as Finnish authorities do not declare an official travel warning which tells to avoid traveling there, I won't get my money back if I decide to cancel the trip. It's still over 3 weeks away, and for now I can only watch what happens next. The whole thing was still unheard of when I booked the trip before Christmas.

[neptune]

I'm having interesting times now as my winter vacation is approaching. I have a booking for one week in Tenerife, where they have just found 4 cases of coronavirus!  The whole hotel, about 1000 guests included, has been put in quarantine as preventive measure for at least 14 days, and it's less than 10 km away from the hotel which I have booked. It would be a miracle should there be no more cases during next weeks...

As long as Finnish authorities do not declare an official travel warning which tells to avoid traveling there, I won't get my money back if I decide to cancel the trip. It's still over 3 weeks away, and for now I can only watch what happens next. The whole thing was still unheard of when I booked the trip before Christmas.

Those face masks are going to come handy so long as you get the proper ones and not those flimsy paper ones...

[Surferdude]

I'm having interesting times now as my winter vacation is approaching. I have a booking for one week in Tenerife, where they have just found 4 cases of coronavirus!  The whole hotel, about 1000 guests included, has been put in quarantine as preventive measure for at least 14 days, and it's less than 10 km away from the hotel which I have booked. It would be a miracle should there be no more cases during next weeks...

As long as Finnish authorities do not declare an official travel warning which tells to avoid traveling there, I won't get my money back if I decide to cancel the trip. It's still over 3 weeks away, and for now I can only watch what happens next. The whole thing was still unheard of when I booked the trip before Christmas.

I have a friend in the same boat.  Booked and paid for a major family holiday to Japan. Scheduled for May. Same deal. Unless Australian government upgrades it's warning to the top level, no refunds.

[Dazzler]

@tohis

Fingers crossed mate. That's no good, but unfortunately it's going to be a very common scenario for a while.

We've had to defer our next road trip for a while as my eldest daughter has moved home to have her first child (due end of March) due to a failed relationship.

Trish and I were really looking forward to doing a loop through Adelaide again in March/April.

[CraigB]

I drop the folks off at the airport this coming Wednesday, they'll fly to Melbourne then hop on the Cruise ship for a month voyage via all the major affected areas of Asia South Korea - China - Vietnam - Singapore - Sri Lanka - India, then down to the Maldives before making their way up past the horn (Somalia) into the Red Sea on up to Israel, then up the Suez canal into the Mediterranean for their next stop in Greece then on to Italy where they fly back from.

They're more worried about ports being closed when they get there than the virus and being fit and active for oldies they aren't to bothered about a bad flu...I did tell em to make sure I'm in the will before they leave

[beerman]

I hope you have good missed port cover on your travel insurance....

Good News, the Hybrid Rav is due June 30.....Good news, I will be on a cruise, so won't be able to pick it up for a while.

[CraigB]

I hope you have good missed port cover on your travel insurance....

That's covered by the shipping line, missed ports they pay a refund and if you miss many ports they generally offer a free holiday

[Dazzler]

I hope you have good missed port cover on your travel insurance....

Good News, the Hybrid Rav is due June 30.....Good news, I will be on a cruise, so won't be able to pick it up for a while.

Cool! Congrats! 

I drop the folks off at the airport this coming Wednesday, they'll fly to Melbourne then hop on the Cruise ship for a month voyage via all the major affected areas of Asia South Korea - China - Vietnam - Singapore - Sri Lanka - India, then down to the Maldives before making their way up past the horn (Somalia) into the Red Sea on up to Israel, then up the Suez canal into the Mediterranean for their next stop in Greece then on to Italy where they fly back from.

They're more worried about ports being closed when they get there than the virus and being fit and active for oldies they aren't to bothered about a bad flu...I did tell em to make sure I'm in the will before they leave

No way Hose'

[CraigB]

No way Jose

Fixed it for ya