Rain in Townsville again

We have not had much to report I’m afraid as it’s been such bad weather and we have been house bound. In a way that’s good for me as I have been eaten alive by every insect in Townsville; rumour has it that nobody else has been touched since I got here. Also it has given me a chance to start this years OU course called Combinatorics. I don’t know what it means but I thought it sounded good. I’m really enjoying it so far as I have done very little pure mathematics mainly concentrating on applied stuff. Mind you, the pure maths of yesterday is fast becoming the applied maths of today.

Today we had another easy day as Claire said yesterday, more rain, more study, and a trip to the cinema; in fact the only different thing today is that Claire is having her hair sorted out. I dropped her at the dressers before going around Woolworth’s to stock up again on fresh fruit and veg. etc. On the way out I popped in to ask how long she was likely to be and they said come back in 3 hours to be on the safe side. I guess that this meant that she would be even longer; her hair must be worse than we thought. I dropped the stuff in the boot of the car and got soaked even though the car park is covered; I guess that it’s rained so much the waterproofing has been washed away. I crossed back to get my hair cut and he had to dry my hair with a hair drier before spraying it with water again. Don’t ask, it must be an Australian thing. Five minutes later I’m home taking the tablets that the Chemist gave me and spreading more cream over my whole body. When I showed her my rash, a huge grin bigger than John Travolter’s in “Old Dogs” came over her face, and she said, “My, they like you don’t they, do they itch?” This grin didn’t leave her face until sometime after we had disappeared. I’m sure she would have got her camera out if she had brought it. Apparently, all the local bugs love the taste of my blood, especially Sand Flies. She said, “I bet your wife hasn’t got any bites, has she?” Everyone hates a “smart arse”. I have to take anti-histamine tablets and cover myself with cream for a week. I also find that staying directly under the aircon easies it as well.

Not Chilli with meat again! This Chilli seems to have lasted as long as the rain. We will have to make a huge effort to eat it all up today so I can get back to the BBQ stuff. The next one I do will be large chicken breasts marinated in Denise’s “Peri Peri” sauce, I must get some when we get home is delicious. Also they cook so nice and juicy in Geoff’s new BBQ, it’s a gas Webber, and like the coal ones you cook with the lid down which cooks it like an oven as well as a BBQ. Chicken just comes out so juicy, I can’t wait.

Each day we check the weather forecast for the next 5 days in the hope that a change is on the way but each day the new 5th day shows more rain. It looks like our trip to Magnetic Island on Friday will be a washout; we need to take lots of books and buy some DVD’s to take with us. It’s a shame I was looking forward to getting some good beach shots and killing a few flies. I’m going to treat myself to one of those electric tennis rackets; or maybe two. The forecast doesn’t seem half as bad anywhere else in Australia, even Cairns has some sun and that’s closer to the cyclone than here. If it’s still like this when we get back from Maggie and we can’t drive to Cairns I might look into an early flight to Sydney and drive up to Brisbane so we can see that bit of coastline that we already missed.

It was three and a half hours before Claire sent a text to be picked up, and it was still raining so I parked up and bought some dvd’s from the hire shop as we had missed the afternoon cinema session. Claire seemed pleased with her hair but was reluctant to let me get a photo before she had dried the rain off and put on her dark sunglasses but she has started to look sad again without the sun. The rain was heavy all day today and the pool already needs some more water letting out so that will be my first job tomorrow.