Back with you

[Tony Bryer]

It's now three weeks since I arrived here in Melbourne, and am now glad to be able to rejoin you all. I'll be continuing to develop and sell SuperBeam and ProSteel under my new company name, so will retain a strong interest in UK construction.

I'm now living in a 26th floor flat with a wonderful view of the city centre skyscrapers. Not much scope for DIY but since arriving have assembled no end of Ikea furniture - give TMH some competition! With apologies to the memory of Andy Hall I had to go out and buy the cheapest saw and drill I could find so as to reduce the depth of one unit and drill some holes for cables in others, but that's as far as it goes.

The two-week wait to get a phone and broadband installed was the most frustrating thing, along with 'express' air-shipping of my PCs taking three weeks. But everything is now settling down, with some nice spring weather before the oppressive summer heat starts in a couple of months

[The Wanderer]

Oh, p*ss orff! :-)

[tony sayer]

Was that really called for?...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Oh yes - considering the summer we've not had.

But at least we can find some comfort in their drought. ;-)

[Peter Andrews]

I took The Wanderers comment as a tongue in cheek reference to Tony B looking forward to his summer, while all we have is cold and wet!

Peter

[Tony Bryer]

It is a serious issue here: each day in the weather section of the paper it gives the current dam levels and as of yesterday they are at 34.3% of capacity with a long summer yet to come.

Last Saturday I went to an energy and water saving exhibition - joined a car-share club. Lots of exhibitors selling mega water butts as use of tap water is banned for car washing and you can only water gardens twice a week between something like 6 and 8 a.m. Not an issue when you live in a

26th floor high-rise!

And to keep Drivel happy, I hired a Prius for 24 hours on Mon/Tues - very interesting, and given that Melbourne city traffic is as bad as London's it was in its element.

[Tony Bryer]

High summer is what I'm half-dreading! Melbourne weather is notorious for being changeable - today I've worn a jumper all day as it's been somewhat chilly. I deliberately chose an east-facing flat so it's in the shade in the afternoon but come Jan/Feb there will be more than a few days when it's 40C or more and no escape.

[Tim S]

Tony Bryer coughed up some electrons that declared:

Thoughts of fat Santa on a beach in a thong

Don't know about Melbourne, but I really liked Brisbane (and QLD in general) when I was there last April. People seem much less stressed than here. And I was out on a job, so I don't think it was rose-tinted tourist specs. I was stressed though!

Cheers

Tim

[The Wanderer]

It was indeed. That's why the smiley was included. I can only conclude that Mr Sayer has had a humour bypass.......

[whisky-dave]

A friend of mine moved there nearly 3 years ago, he likes the People but not the police or government, he's a bit of a DIYer, but I hear it's quite restrictive out there you can't legally change a plug (electrical). As for water butts are tehy really worth it when the govenrment is said to own the rain. People still get restrictions on using the water from their butts apparently :)

Wait until you want to travel outside the city and face the very strict

55MPH, there's a 2% leaway if yuo're lucky. And if one wheeel goes over the wrong line you'll find a cop car at your throat even if you think you'tre out in the desert they 'entrap' you far more than they do here. It's the way they get revenue, and IIRC yuor guilty unless you can prove your innocent which is difficult because they won''t show you the pitures or raw data they have, oh and the beers crap apart from a few micro-brewers. But still the weather nice. Although he did develop a cancerous mole on his face . Although he had it before he went to Aus it was teh hot climante that brought it on.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

He probably hit the DAB button on his radio by mistake and has been in a foul mood all day. ;-)

[ARWadsworth]

This site should help you integrate with the locals

Personally I could not live with 40C

Enjoy

Adam

[The Medway Handyman]

And that they have to drink that awful, fizzy, tasteless Fosters muck.

:-)

[Tim S]

The Medway Handyman coughed up some electrons that declared:

Actually, there's no Fosters in Oz (at least none that I saw). I believe it's all batch failures from other beer, they can't sell it, so some wag badged it up and exported it here.

Fortunately for them, the chavs here aren't very discerning.

[geoff]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Watch me cry ...

I've just returned from upper 30s approaching 40 degrees

[geoff]

What, stationary for 95% of the time ?

[geoff]

In message , ARWadsworth writes

Love it ...

[geoff]

become an australian, you mean ?

Last week in Kuta ...

"... this is what the poor people eat - cost 35 cents"

"what - like you ?" I replied, I didn't realise he was big as well as antipodean and ignorant

[geoff]

Never been to the antipodean regions, dave?

They have other muck like VB - even they have taste enough not to drink fosters

[Tony Bryer]

Feels like it at times. Ikea is 8km (5 miles) from here and most trips have taken 25-30 minutes each way. Haven't counted but probably 25-30 sets of lights along the way, most, of course, red!

If I was hiring a car for a long out-of-town drive I wouldn't opt for a Prius - as discussed here many times, for open road driving it's just a petrol-engined car pulling a lot of weight.

The car-share club I've joined has a Honda Jazz parked a couple of minutes walk away: you book online by the hour and it costs the equivalent of £5 per hour including petrol (mileage excess for longer journeys): you're sent a swipe card that lets you into the car at your allotted time.