Where is the hand-palm in face smiley or the feinting smiley when I need it. This is what I FORGOT to do - and wondered ever since why my oldest 2 have such long hair after they left home . At least oldest ds has it all sort of trimmed long shoulder length. The next ds cuts it himself. He only bothers with the bits he can see. so the back bits are past half way down his back. He looks like some sort of rock singer from the 80's... Why didn't I set up a hair appointment for them - wish I could have a time machine and go back and do it.

It all depends on your location. I do not know Stella' s location and can only recommend the advice put out by the experts I am not in NSW, I live in Victoria. if we had a code red - which is the same as catastrophic I would have to leave the evening before. We are in a location that has been classified as undefendable , beside both thick coastal scrub and dense bush with only one road out through dense bush. Of course we also have to prepare our property in for the instance where a local fire starts and we become trapped. We have made plans for all eventualities and have pumps set up all the time etc... but due to the drought our dam is empty. ( and we are only on the edge of the drought no where near as bad as NSW)

from the booklet WHAT TO DO If you live in an urban area near grasslands, walk at least two streets back if a fire starts. If you live two or three streets away from grassland and a grassfire starts, stay where you are. Grassfires are unlikely to spread into built up areas. It is safest to do this by walking to keep roads clear for emergency services and help reduce road accidents. Grassfire is unlikely to spread into built up areas.Stay indoors and keep all windows and doors closed, place towels or blankets around the bottom of doors and window sills and don't use your air conditioner.

I don't believe Stella has a car. According to the booklet if you live in the suburbs 2 streets away is considered a safe distance form a fire, so can be easily walked. A fire in a suburb is a completely different kettle of fish to a fire in the bush, where water may be limited, ways of retreating may not be possible and you can get trapped very quickly

well fires do come right into suburbs like they did in Canberra a few years ago under certain conditions. giving a day catastrophic ratings will mean resources are activated, plans long put in place will be activated

do you have any parkland trees and shrubs near your house? did you get the fire preparedness booklet a couple of months ago ? or do they only send it to rural areas?? Here it is https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/plan-prepare/fire-ready-kit this booklet will tell you exactly what to do Have a evacuation plan. a location that you could go to, make sure everyone in your family knows where this is. Have a bag with most important documents somewhere ready to grab Have water bottles filled in case water is cut ( probably doesn't apply to you ) Do whatever you do in case power goes out. Have hoses connected to all outside taps and buckets in handy ready to grab locations. Have a radio with batteries. Have radio turned on all day. There will be a siren noise with emergency alerts on the radio if there is a fire near you that you need to be aware of. Messages will also come on your phone. download the emergency app.- though it gets overloaded and crashes when every one checks it all day long on a bad fire day.

850,000 hectares of land have been burned in New South Wales since the start of their bushfire season this year. that is a lot of land. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-11/nsw-bushfires-850000-hectares-destroyed-worst-to-come/11691038 there are also bad fires in Queensland.

update Ds received a cheque for the $100 today. He will not bake for the competition again.

Possibly Australians are more interested in worldwide events???

I'm hoping Tuesday isn't as bad as forecast

thinking of you

I don't think cinnamon will be listed in Australia . it will just say spice

I open a children's saving account for all my children when they are small. It goes until they are 18 , then rolls over into an ordinary saving account. Up until the age of 13 they cannot withdraw money unless they have written consent every time from me. after 13 they need to accompany me to the bank, talk to the teller and fill in some paperwork . then they could have either/or both card, or their bank account have internet access. Seeing as my kids go thought a stage of not wanting to talk to people unnecessarily they never do this and don't withdraw money until they are 18 Here If they are a students there are no fees. here in Australia checks are something that is almost extinct. We haven't had a check book for over 10 years.

news reports are now at least 150 houses lost https://www.9news.com.au/national/nsw-fires-out-of-control-emergency-level-fires-rage-across-nsw-and-queensland/78a6ade9-7c93-4a45-b488-28a9de0680ce so so awful. and hardly anyone in those fire areas have any water to do any protecting of property due to the extended drought. 😞 We are not looking forward to the summer this year at all. We are further south, our fire season usually starts in December through to March,

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