Detritus of Life

I feel very sad as I have just watched a very important part of my life disappear into the Recycling truck.
When I was still in primary school, my parents probably sacrificed a lot to buy me a set of encyclopedias. I learnt so much from them and even in more recent years I would still read volumes 5 & 6 on the history of Europe up to WW11. The internet means I have not opened even these volumes in recent years.  The science volumes have obviously been of no use for many years. There was one small volume on sex which my parents kept from me until I was an adult and by that time it was of no use to me. I think I threw it out several years ago after looking up its references to homosexuality, but it was written in the early 50's.
That red set of books has taken up a full shelf of my bookcase nearly all my life and yesterday I put it into the recycling bin along with a lot of other treasured but dated books.

My lounge room floor (the photo is just a section) is covered with dishes, ornaments, tea sets, mugs, vases, pans, etc etc for a garage sale tomorrow. Many of the items were my mother's or my step grandmother's and I have never used them. I spent yesterday's extreme heat sticking coloured labels on them according to the price I am asking. Blue $1, Red $2, Green $5 Yellow $10.  There are some items priced higher including a small TV which was my mother's, all my dining chairs and 2 lounge chairs.  Two hiking friends have offered to come early and help me take the lounge chairs out. If all the chairs sell, I will be left with one high kitchen chair/stool, a night/day bed settee and my desk chair on which to sit for another month.

As mentioned, yesterday was another day of extreme heat. 42'C in the town on the plain and 36'C in the nearby mountain town. There were bushfires across the state and 9 houses were lost down south. A cool change came through about 4am and it has just begun to rain at 7am.
It is forecast to be fine tomorrow. I hope so as I only have a small carport for my garage sale.

Christ the King

Yesterday was a very special day at St James, King Street. After 8 years as Rector, Father Peter Kurti was farewelled. Despite my age, I have never before been in a parish for the departure of the Rector.
We had a combined service of Choral Eucharist and the church was packed as we will expect on Christmas Day but different because at Christmas we have many visitors while a lot of parishioners are away on vacation. I hope it will not be as hot at Christmas. The temperature in Sydney yesterday rose to 41'C (106'F) and it is still Spring. St James has a very high ceiling but no fans.

Fr Peter asked for donations to a village water scheme in the Philippines rather than a personal gift but he was still given a framed photo of himself on top of the church spire taken a few weeks ago (the copper of the spire is being replaced so it is surrounded by scaffolding).  He is supposed to have announced that after 8 years as Rector he finally felt on top of the job. He was also presented with a copy of the cross which tops the spire made out of the old copper. This is traditional but whereas those given to previous rectors were made from the copper removed in 1890, this one was made from the copper removed this year.

The warden making the farewell speech referred to Fr Peter's habit of beginning each sermon with a recent news item but moving onto the gospel and how that was sometimes a worry as the Prime Minister is occasionally in the congregation.  I am glad Kevin Rudd was not present yesterday as Fr Peter began with references to claims the Prime Minister has been less than open regarding the recent asylum seeker situation as a lead into the Gospel where Pilate asks about Truth.

The service ended with the parishioners accepting that Fr Peter has concluded his pastoral relationship and then he received a blessing from our assistant priest Fr John.
Fr Peter then removed his cope and laid it on the altar.  I do not know if this is usual but I felt very emotional at the symbolism.

Fr John is now Acting Rector until a new Rector is appointed. This is where I am very bitter.  We are supposed to be grateful that the bishop has allowed this. I admire Fr John immensely and he is a great asset to the parish. I have found him far more approachable than Fr Peter who is very reserved. Fr John would make a great Rector. However there is a problem in this 'holier than thou' diocese. Fr John's wife is divorced. Actually Bishop Forsythe has said he would otherwise have already been snapped up by one of the other Anglo-catholic parishes in the diocese as he would make an excellent Rector. I find the whole situation absurd.

We had great hymns of praise fitting the celebration of Christ the King.
'All hail the power of Jesus' name'
'The head that once was crowned with thorns'
'O worship the King all glorious above'
'Rejoice, the Lord is King'

However, despite my reservations about Choral Eucharist and the money the parish spends on a semi professional choir, I did enjoy the setting which was Mozart's Coronation Mass and have included the Agnus Dei.




I did not go to the farewell luncheon which followed but, rather than return home to a hot house, I took a ferry over to Manly. It was pleasant sitting on the deck of the ferry on the way over but I had to return on the inside and even next to a window it was still hot. There was no seabreeze at the beach either where it also reached 40'C and I had a lunch of calamari and chips. Even the airconditioning on the train home was struggling.
There were bushfires 9km to the north and 11 km south of me but none were threatening property. Fires much further west did threaten and one house was lost.
Finally today is much cooler with rain. It has been the hottest November on record but our conservative nitwit politicians deny climate change.

Even Dunedin is 29'C today but cooler tomorrow. I just wish I could sell my house and go.

Where can I rent a child? UPDATED

UPDATE:
Sadly the funny side has gone.

It is feared more than 40 people have died as ferocious bushfires sweep across much of country Victoria and New South Wales.

Fourteen deaths have so far been confirmed in Victoria and more than 100 properties lost, as swamped fire crews battle dozens of blazes.

The cool change which promised to bring relief to struggling crews has instead brought changing winds, turning fires from extremely dangerous to deadly.

The deterioration in conditions has forced many crews to abandon fighting fire fronts and focus on protecting properties.

Please put the people who have lost homes and even more, those who have died or lost loved ones in your prayers and pray for those of us with yet another day of these conditions although there are no fires near my home at the moment.

ORIGINAL POST : Temperatures are forecast to reach 42' C (107' F) today and 45'C (113'F) tomorrow. They were 41'C (106'F) yesterday. I spent yesterday afternoon in the shopping mall with a friend and the airconditioning was obviously struggling. Up at my place, which thankfully is a few degrees cooler, I had the fan going in the bedroom all night. I do not remember doing that before.
We are only allowed to hose our gardens on Wednesday and Sunday before 10 and after 4. Sprinklers are forbidden but they have announced a relaxation of the sprinkler ban to allow children to cool themselves by playing under them this weekend only. All I need is a child to stand besides my most vulnerable bushes.

Seriously this is the longest and hottest heatwave since 1939 and in some places since records began in the 1880's. The elderly are most at risk (and little children). Bushfire brigades are on maximum alert.
A cool change is expected here on Sunday night and we are told this will be a complete breakdown of the heat producing conditions not just a brief respite as we have had once or twice over the past two weeks. I can hardly wait.

I do wish I had pushed myself a bit more and moved to Dunedin already where summer temperatures are usually in the low 20's C (70'sF) although even they expect a heatwave of 32'c (90'F) tomorrow but I could cope with that for just one day.

This morning when I went out the front of the house to pick up the newspaper, the sun was just peaking over the horizon and I said "Go away Sun".

Heat, Monet and Nixon

That is a mixture of topics but it describes my Thursday.
We are in the middle of a heatwave here, heat is what is driving me to live in Dunedin.
Last week one day reached 42'C (108'F) in Penrith about 20km from here and was probably about 37'C (99'F)here. Thankfully it cooled down over the weekend but the temperatures have risen again since Tuesday and each day has been in the mid 30's.(high 80'sF). We are waiting for a cool change late this afternoon. Fortunately the humidity has been high, not fortunate for comfort but for bushfire risk although a complete fire ban has just been imposed. My nearest town has already gone over 30'C (86'F) at 9am.
I hate lying at night under a fan trying to get to sleep. My neighbour complained she has not been able to turn off the aircon but I do not have that. There have been thunderstorms around in the evening but they have all missed my place. While they can cause damage, they usually cool the air and the rain is nice. I spent several hours watering on Wednesday evening (we can only water certain hours Wednesday and Sunday).

On Thursday I decide to escape the heat and go to the art gallery and movie. My train journey of nearly 2 hours each way was in blissful airconditioning. Unfortunately about one third of our suburban trains are still not airconditioned and on my 3 journeys around the city, I struck the jackpot - all non air con but only about 10 mins each time.
I went first to my church to sample the coffee cart which has been operating in the grounds since July. Not sure of its purpose, suppose to advertise the church to people, it is located in the main legal office area and near an important tourist precinct. The church is the oldest in the city. Anyway it was good coffee.

Then I walked the 10 minutes to the Art Gallery (not too hot at 11am and it is near the harbour). Discovering that the Monet and the Impressionists exhibition was closing on the weekend had been the main reason for my decision to go to the city. I love Monet and have visited Giverny twice. Most of the paintings were on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

I liked , among many, Seacoast at Trouville and Fisherman's Cottage on the Cliffs at Varengeville and Snow at Argenteuil had me envious.I then returned to the city, waiting 20 minutes for a bus that was 10 minutes late, fortunately there was a cool breeze off the harbour and the bus was airconditioned but I could have walked in that time.
After lunch and an hour perusing a CD sale where I spent $25 on 3 cds, I caught a train out to the cinema where I saw Frost/Nixon.

I intend posting about my recent movies soon. A number of them were included in the Oscar nominations. I see that Frank Langella has been nominated for his role as Nixon with which I heartily concur. I believe there were some historical inaccuracies but would not know myself. I was travelling around Europe at the time of the resignation and in those days most places I stayed did not have TV. I always thought Nixon was a bigger crook even than George W Bush :-).
It was not top of the list of movies for me to see, mainly chosen by time to fit in with the Art gallery visit but I did enjoy it, although Frost irritated me.

When I exited the cinema just before 5, it seemed to be the hottest time of the day and, after another non-airconditioned suburban train trip, I was glad to reach Central station and board my airconditoned train for the trip home. Arriving home at 7pm, it was becoming cooler although the sun does not set until 8pm at the moment.