January (heat-wave)

Well, summer has certainly struck with a vengeance. In fact after the last group walk, Cathri arrived back home to find the back of Langwarrin burning away merrily. But this week the weather has outdone itself, literally, as it's been the hottest heat-wave on record in Victoria. The last three days alone were 43, 44 and then, today, a soul-destroying 45. Walking outside is like wading into a hot-water bottle, and the heat is so thick that it feels like gravity itself has been affected. Been melted.

I feeling rather aggrieved by it all because one of the reasons I live in Melbourne is the much-vaunted changeability of the weather. I mean, if I wanted this sort of repetitiveness, I'd move up to Queensland. The upshot however, apart from energy-sapped kids (two of whom started school again on the first day of the heat-wave!), has been that I'm unable to train at all. Several people have pointed out that it will also be a tad warm-ish at Kokoda, and therefore it might actually be a brilliant time to train, but what they're not taking into account is that it's a different type of heat over there. Less fierce, more humid. Besides, I saw a politician on television yesterday sympathising with the general population about the ridiculous temperatures and urging them not to over-exert themselves. So, just for now, I see couch-potato-ism as my civic duty.