Time for a Cool Change

Wow, this week was a scorcher.  Four days of over 41 C made it a record-breaking heat wave and let me tell you, Melbourne is not built for the heat.  Most houses and trams don't have air conditioning and the roads start to melt and train tracks start to buckle.  The Melbourne Star ferris wheel is a great example of how poorly this city copes with the heat - when it opened in 2008 it only ran for 40 days before a hot day caused the structure to crack.  Five years later the rebuild has finally finished and the ride is now open, though no doubt anyone who knows the history is afraid of riding it.

According to my car it got up to 47C.  
It was so warm that the A/C at worked stopped functioning properly and we were #20 on the repairman's list.  Numerous fires also ignited with one large one still burning through the Grampians.  Thursday evening our entire area was blanketed in smoke, and when we looked up what was in the area we we shocked to see this incident map.

Fire incidents in our area
So in the midst of all this hot crankiness the Australian Open played on.  We went to a match on Tuesday evening.  The first match was scheduled to begin at 7 but the Layton Hewitt match ran long so play didn't begin until 9.  Luckily we were in a nice air conditioned restaurant waiting for the start, but when the spectators watching the afternoon session left the stadium the stench of sweaty people was remarkable.  Fortunately the Nadal/Tomic match only lasted through one set as Tomic withdrew with an injury.  Otherwise it would have been a very late night.  It was late enough as it was with Maria Sharipova finally winning her match around 12 am.

Rafa Nadal
Some HOT spectators!
I don't honestly know how people sat in that stadium through the day sessions in the heat.  The air is so still and the sun so intense.  Melbourne weather sure has a sense of humour though and it was brought out a few times with random rain showers and lightning in the middle of the heat.  Finally the cool change came through around 8 pm last night and today was a much more bearable 23 C.  The perfect temperature for catching up on the laundry!

Maria Sharipova

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