Rain.. Rain.. Go Away!

2-Feb 2005, Wed
Yesterday we had the air conditioning on & today the heating!

The change of weather from a top of 29C to a drop of 19C happened yesterday evening when the wild storm whipped across southern & eastern part of Australia - NSW, Victoria & Queensland.

Woke up this morning with the forecast that the rain ain't gonna stop! The good news is that i had my umbrella which i brought along with me from Singapore. The bad news is my thermal jacket isn't good enough to keep me warm from the freezing cold temperature... In fact, today's weather of 12C is the lowest for the month of Feb in the whole record of Melbourne history. With the heating in the office, it's a lot warmer & comfortable then being out there in the rain & wind.

With the rain, came the fire - which happened in the kitchen! The electric hot plate built-in stove was accidentally switched on & the bread toaster left by mistake on top of the hot plate caught fire... The damage? A burned & deformed toaster. A charred wall where the stove is. A mess of white foams from the fire extinguisher left behind at the scene.

After my experience with the microwave incident (recorded in my previous post), one of my friend would often smsed me to ask if i've burn down my apartment's kitchen yet? And today, i'm pleased & proud to say that this has not happen to me & pray it never will...

The kitchen fire incident mentioned above actually happened in my company here in Melbourne! Surprised? Well, i was when i went to the pantry this morning & found a quite badly damaged kitchen. A perimeter around the scene was securely taped - similar to what you see at a typical crime scene. That's 1 kitchen down for us but hey! we have another kitchen upstairs which we can use...

Lesson learnt: Always check the light indicator on the hot plate stove to make sure the stove is not switched on when it's not suppose to!

Back in my apartment: i cooked me dinner after a hot shower, snuggled myself on the sofa with heater on, watched TV & stay warm. It was still pouring outside.

3-Feb 2005, Thu
This morning the sun was out with 15C. Rain has finally stopped after 29hrs & Melbourne has recorded its heaviest rainfall since records began in 1856! But this is only the beginning of facing the aftermath...

The overnight storms caused flooding while strong winds & falling trees left a trail of damage. Several roads were closed, traffic was horrendous, trains & trams were trapped in stations & depots, the entrance to the Melbourne International Airport was closed to traffic as the floodwater reached 1m high, flights were delayed & passengers have to take an alternate route to get themselves on the plane, and guess what? that's the same route as i would have to take to get to work!

Almost everyone reported for work late - no question asked! I was caught in the heavy traffic jam & it took me 2 hours to get to office today as compared to 25min on a normal work day... What a way to start a day!