Midnight tonight

24SEP

That’s when my download allowance is renewed and I can resume my ranting. Meantime, I notice I promised to reflect on blogging but instead have given you yet another blog! In fact it is my old Blogspot number revived with a niche purpose that would be swamped here, yet does not quite belong on English/ESL either.

And those promised reflections? Well, just this: a blog is what it will be. Mine is a 21st century commonplace book, no more and no less. No other purpose. Just a voice, a collection, a series of letters to whom they may concern. What more do you want?

Overnight Sitemeter visitor #140,000 arrived here from Columbus, Mississippi. That is, the 140,000th visit since Sitemeter started counting on one of my earlier Floating Life manifestations, back in July 2001. The next milestone to note is coming up soon: #95,000 to this blog in particular — WordPress count.

Mine is a 21st century commonplace book, no more and no less. No other purpose. Just a voice, a collection, a series of letters to whom they may concern. What more do you want? I have started a new blog because I want to recapture that simple purpose.

Commonplace Book – image linked to source

Sitemeter now registers 700,000+ visits, almost three quarters of a million in fact!

My former main blog has these stats:

Content: 1,575 Posts 7 Pages 105 Categories 33 Tags

Discussion: 2,149 Comments

The Photo Blog:

Content:  2,262 Posts 17 Pages 63 Categories 12 Tags

Discussion: 864 Comments

images: 4,576

So I have decided on a fresh start — not the first time, as regular followers will know. But there is a reason. I wanted to cut loose from the “obligation” of City Daily Photo, and I wanted to not even pretend to have anything much of note to say.

This blog will be much less ambitious. It really will be a commonplace book. For example, many future entries will draw on the treasury of my eBook library simply via quotes and minimal contextual commentary. There will be reviews, again quite minimal, of things I read or see in other ways. Or hear. The massive music library that came to me via G through M and Baby HP will no doubt lead to an entry or three!  My blog will really be to give me pleasure, not to change the world.

Right now I am catching up on reading, thanks to Wollongong Library, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

It really is as good as everyone has said!

And here at the moment – or this morning:

That’s how Mount Keira looked as I walked home from the Yum Yum Cafe. Not too bad, eh!

• This then is the last entry in this blog. From now on go to Neil’s Commonplace Book.

Note the Sydney Boys High brolly in the bottom picture – still going strong after seven years.

• See City Daily Photo February Theme Day – Umbrellas for more entries.

The church in Gardeners Road Kingsford and the school next door are quite impressive.

Weather forecasters have warned heavy rain and flash flooding could hit the Illawarra this evening as severe weather from an ex-tropical cyclone in Queensland moves south.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued storm and wind warnings for the Hunter, Sydney metropolitan and Illawarra areas today, predicting rainfall of up to 300 millimetres in isolated areas, damaging winds and potential flash flooding throughout much of eastern NSW.

The warning prompted State Emergency Service (SES) Illawarra region controller Greg Murphy to cut short his trip to Taree to assist northern NSW crews and return home. He said Illawarra crews were on standby.

“At this stage the bureau’s best prediction is that the severe weather may arrive in the Illawarra late [today],” he said.

“We’ve been advised of rainfall up to 300 millimetres in isolated areas and up to 150 millimetres across large parts of the Illawarra, as well as the possibility of flash flooding and storm damage due to strong winds.

“We also know the North Coast is experiencing high seas with significant swell, which could also extend down the coast to the Illawarra.”

Yesterday I ventured up to Sydney. I decided that pinhole was the way to go for these shots from the train between Scarborough and Stanwell Park.

At Wollongong Station this morning.

Passing freight train.

I spent the day in Sydney. More later.

Surely the archetypal Australian car 1953-57.

Mind you, at the time my family seems to have spurned the FJ – and I recall finding (on the few occasions I rode in one as a kid) that they tended to make me carsick…

Standard Vanguard Spacemaster and Austins – our mob in 1955. Not an FJ in sight.

• See other City Daily Photo Australia Day posts.

Almost a self-portrait!

West Wollongong this morning.

And the storm drove the bats crazy…

… the morning after the big heat.

Views of Mount Kembla from my window (top) and from my street (bottom) taken 35 minutes apart.

Read the Mercury’s report.

The temperatures were about five degrees higher than forecast.

There were multiple triple-0 calls for cases of heat exposure, including for a 70-year-old man at Windang, a 45-year-old woman at Austinmer Beach and a 26-year-old man at Cordeaux Heights, who was working on machinery when he succumbed to the effects of heat exhaustion.

Statewide, the Ambulance Service of NSW had responded to 44 cases of heat exposure – one third of whom were for people over 60 – by 3pm.

Over the same period there were 89 reports of people falling unconscious or fainting and 37 instances of vomiting.

“Many of those cases are attributable to the heat,” an ambulance spokeswoman said.

It was also the hottest day in recorded history in Sydney, which experienced more heat-related illness, transport chaos and even melting roads and ice rinks.

The mercury hit 45.8 at Sydney’s Observatory Hill at 2.55pm, exceeding the previous record of 45.3 set on January 14, 1939.

The record temperature was similar to that recorded in places in the NSW far west, such as White Cliffs, which sweated the day out in around 44-degree heat.

That was topped by temperatures in Penrith, in western Sydney, which reached 46.5 degrees.

Sparks from Sydney’s monorail briefly set fire to trees and grass near the entertainment centre while at the Big Day Out music festival in Homebush, a St John Ambulance spokesman said the organisation treated 200 people, mostly for dehydration.

For the Fahrenheit-familiar, Wollongong yesterday scored around 115.

See Cafe-bar plan redefining Globe Lane.

Corner of Crown and Keira Streets, Wollongong – new shopping centre construction.