Just when does this year end?

Howdy all.

The "bug" I picked up somehow has gotten worse and worse and for days I have held my head in pain and coughed a wet deep cough. Last night was my future brother in law's birthday so we went for dinner and i hardly ate a thing. I did let him massage my neck though and I do think it is a little better today.

I just feel like crap though and it doesn't help that it is so damn hot. It is currently 36.8 C (98.24 F) and I am melting. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 42 C (107.6 F). Great temp to see out the old crappy year.

I had another action packed day today. Maddison went for her 1.5 week check up and the vet is really pleased with her progress. 3 more weeks of confinement and then another check up. She will then determine how many more weeks of confinement she has. She thanked the vet by doing the biggest pile of poo on the floor (very sneakily - neither of us noticed), and then, of course, I stood in it! Luckily I have a great sense of humour (and shoes that rinsed easily in the vet's sink)! The vet said "well at least she went, and it looks really healthy if that makes you feel any better".

Yeah hehe. I felt great - thanks. (please open up floor now and let me fall into a pit of some sort).

Then in all this heat, I headed up to the Dandenongs to Belgrave as I got this really pretty quilt on ebay (impulse buy) for a cot - patchwork duckies, bunnies and something else - lemon and white - very cute - for $4 and the seller asked if I wanted to pick it up, instead of spending $5 posting it. I thought "it is only about a 3o minute drive, so why not".

Buzzzzzz - wrong choice. I was almost there when I noticed my power steering being a bit sluggish, and then I noticed the air con wasn't blowing so cold, and the alternator light was on - big problems! So I immediately turned off the air con, and the radio and pulled into a side street. I parked in a safe place and called hubbs.

Then I waited 45 minutes for him to find me. I went and stood at the end of the street so he could see me (about 500m from my car). The heat was unbearable and I am sure with my fair skin and red hair that I am burnt. I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. During this time I freaked out as a fire engine raced down the street and stopped opposite my car. I thought my car must have been on fire or something. I raced down the street to discover a tree had fallen in the street near my car and pulled down power lines which had started a fire! It was far enough away from my car not to be worried (or so the fireys told me) and they had it under control quickly.

Now bushfires in the dandenongs are taken very seriously. This place is a rabbit warren of tiny windy roads and bushfires have wiped out many houses and lots of people have lost their lives. Here was I imagining I was about to get stuck in a bushfire now! Terrific. It was also perfect conditions for a fire - very hot, dry and quite a breeze blowing through.

Anyway, Hubbs finally turned up, and determined my car wasn't driveable - not sure exactly yet what is wrong - but it could be the harmonic balancer or either the aircon pump or the water pump. So then we had to get the car towed home. While we were waiting for the tow truck I borrowed Hubb's car and went and got this quilt - which is lovely and grabbed a few bottles of cold drink and went back to hubbs and the car.

So now the car is safely home and we are waiting for my nephew to turn up (who is a qualified mobile mechanic) to diagnose the problem.

Did I mention how much I want this year to be over?