Hot fun in the city

Did you miss me ?

January has been a bit of a hectic month, going back to work after the holiday season and getting back into the daily 8 hour grind of working. It doesn’t help also that work is crazy at the moment and will probably remain so for the entire year.

For the 2 middle weeks of January I have been riding to work in 20+ degree temperatures. But this week I took the week of from riding as temperatures were in the 40’s. From Tue-Friday we had 40+ degrees, with the temperature not reaching its max: 42-45 until late in the afternoon between 3-5pm.

The heat has caused havoc with the train system, causing tracks to buckle under the heat. This has caused train cancellations. But according to the train operator Connex, this is not the only reason for the train cancellations. Apparently train drivers and their union have not been driving perfectly good trains for issues such as air condition not working, ripped seats or a sticker covering a window. I guess they are safety concerns, but when you have 50-100 train cancellations a day in 40+ degree temperature it sure does make the traveler grumpy. Luckily for me on my train line I only had one or two train cancellations. Only one day after work did I have to take the tram home.

After spending a really hot evening at home on Thursday we decided to go out on Friday night to get away from the heat. We headed just north of the city to area called Carlton and headed to Lygon Street. We ate at an Italian restaurant, wondered through the funky book store Readings and then crossed the street to the Nova Cinema to see Slumdog Millionaire. It was a thoroughly enjoyable movie, which helped take away the bad memories of a hot week. As we exited the theater and went into the open we could feel the temperature had changed. It was no longer stinking hot, but very warm and a cool breeze made the night feel wonderful again.

We took the opportunity to be outside again and walked from Carton to Rathdown village and grabbed a bus home. Because of the past few days of heat and train cancellations the government gave free transport to all for Friday. Glad our bus wasn’t cancelled.

Already January is over and February is here. I have one week of work then I’m off to New Zealand for 2 weeks and another week off to recovery from the vacation. I’m looking forward to it.

I will try to be more regular with my blog postings this year.