rain rain and more rain

I took possession of some more birds yesterday. Five peach faces and four budgerigars. Maybe the timing could have been better. I put their cages under trees and so it rained last night. At 3am I went downstairs with a torch and checked on them. They were still pretty dry but I put some marine ply on the top of the cages anyway & then I went back to bed. At 5 am I got up again and pulled out the powerplugs since the rain was gushing down and the thunder was very, very loud. I was glad I'd done the covering earlier. Then the power went out...woke at 7:15am to the news our street was flooded and I wasn't going anywhere. This gave me some time to wander round in the rain making more thorough covers for the quite damp birds and taking out all their food, which was an inch deep in rain water. By that time the road had cleared..so now I'm at work...Its very black out west, so this might be a short day.
There were hour long delays on the highway north of Townsville this morning for the people coming in to work. My office mate decided she just wouldn't bother. There was also a truck jackknifed on the university round-about, but it had been cleared away before I got there. I only saw one car up on a median strip this morning. So it can't have been too bad, but several cars that were parked on the road in our street have several inches of water in them.

new software

4th times the charm.
I finally got round to installing Dragon. I was testing the tutorial and it took me 4 tries to get the test question right. Even so, overall its better than my typing skills or lack thereof.

Harry I heard that you were starting a new job in San Francisco, Wenders's new jobs start? I would love to have lunch with you before you leave.

Harriet I heard that you were starting a new job in San Francisco, Wenders in the new job start? I would love to have lunch with you before you leave

Harriet I heard he was starting a new job in San Francisco. When does the new job start? I would love to have lunch with you before you leave

Harriet I heard that you are starting a new job in San Francisco. When does the new job start? I would love to have lunch with you before you leave

marking exams

must..stop..procrastinating

must..stop..blogging

I wos robd!

Someone stole money from my top drawer at work....in an envelope at the back of the drawer. It was most likely after hours through a locked door since my purse was not taken from my open handbag that would have been in view during the day. I also keep my door locked when I'm not there during the day, so it probably wasn't someone just walking in. Someone across the corridor had the same thing happen (probably same night). She too had her handbag in view during the day. We both had stuff like digital cameras and new mobile phones etc etc (also computers) and none of this was taken.
I now lock my drawers as well as the door. There are very few keys floating around that will open my door, so I thought I'd be OK with just the door locked. The other woman who shares my office suggested we get a guard snake...she has a python we could keep in the office, but its a bit cold for it.

roll on wet season

It rained last night. I hope its the start of a lot more. I stayed up waaaay too late reading, so I got to fall asleep to the sound.

Science note: the smell of rain that you get after its been dry is caused by Actinomycetes . I'm not 100% sure of whether the spores have their own smell, or whether the geosmin they produce is fully responsible. Theres also a few other causes, such as petrichor, but the smell I like is Actinomycetes related.

Basically, when the soil dries, actinomyetes bacteria form spores. The new rain aerosolises these spores and they enter the atmosphere where we breathe them in.

I haven't read it...but I have

This time I got a book called "The declaration" by Gemma Malley
I start reading it and something rings a bell....I've read this before too - argh - but I know I read it many years ago and I thought this one was newly published.

I check the publication date...it is new. This makes no sense. So I start stretching my mind back. The other book was darker, less young-adulty, and had a different basis for the "unwanted children locked in institution" theme. The other book had an overpopulated earth being run by an AI that was trying to drop the population. This book has a resource poor earth with an immortality drug that means you can't have children because they won't replace you, they'll just add to the demand on resources. The other book also had more complex twists and a male protagonist. But its interesting how many of the little events at the start of the book are similar or identical.
If I remembered the name of the other book I could compare them.

some people go grey

I'm going silver. I seem to be shedding the occasional hair that is not so much grey as glowing whiter than white. I'd assumed I was going grey (I have Elvira streaks at the temples), but I think I'm going to go straight from brown to silver. I shouldn't be surprised. All my mums siblings are silver haired. If only it would hurry up, I could have that expensive Norwegian blonde look without any effort.

When you can't remember what books you've already read, you're doing too much

I already have "Dark Alchemy" edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois (with stories by Garth Nix, Eoin Colfer and Neil Gaiman), I'd be happy to pass on the second copy I bought the other week.