Tis been a while now since my last posting, so let's see if I could update you on what's been going on :-) Feels a bit like going to confession where you say, it's been a while since my last confession... hehehe...

Anyway, we are in Winter now, the temperature could vary from 2.7C usually in the early mornings to 20C in mid afternoons (or arvos as they call it here... ahh learn a new slang word). We are quite lucky to be getting a bit of rain too, though the weatherman said we are still short of last year's rain fall recorded. Ahh well, better than no rain i suppose. The only thing about the weather is that sometimes we get thunderstorms and strong wind and trust me, you wouldn't want to be caught walking while it is raining and the wind is blowing. Umbrellas will upturn and you will end up soggy and wet!!! A rain jacket is good, put the hood on and you need not an umbrella (if you have a hood that is :-) ) We are now approaching the end of the first winter month, and so far it's not too bad. When it's cold, put on more clothing and a sweater and if that's not enough put on the scarf and a jacket.. hehehe... and you will look like a 'ko chung' (rice dumpling). Ahh but that's better than getting sick eh?? Or you could always put on the heater, but I don't like the heater much, except for central heater. It is very drying and my face looks all flushed like having a blush. Makes the eyes dry too.. yuuks terrible!!! So the alternative??? Be a 'ko chung'!!!! :-)

Now what else??? Oh a few weeks ago the gas plant at Varanus Island where WA gets it's gas from exploded and this has left us with power problems. It affected industries that depend on gas to operate as well as offices and households (in short.. everyone). It is so bad that some workers are forced to take leave as there is no gas to operate the machineries. Hotels are affected too for they could not prepare clean linens for their patrons. People are advised to cut down on gas usage, turn off lights and power points when not in use, set the heater to 20-22C or if possible not to use heaters at all, and cut down hot showers to 5mins. Offices also were asked to minimise the use of power, thus minimise the use of lifts and central heating. Also bad news for pubs patrons for soon they will no longer be able to drink draught beer as gas supplier wont be able to supply the carbon dioxide used pour draft beer. So that's the gas situation. Not sure when it will end and gas supply back to normal, it was predicted that it could go on for some time, probably until the end of the year.

And that, together with the constant hike in the petrol price and interest rates have hit the people here hard. There is still the constant battle for pay rise but so far nothing is happening. In the mean time, people with a house mortgage are working extra hard to meet the interest rate payment. While it is said that economy is booming in WA, a lot of people are actually suffering to make ends meet. What an irony!!!