Heatwave start to 2012

I heard on the news a few days ago that we were to have the hottest start to a year since something like 1910.  Ouch!  It has been a very hot few days.  We have a battery operated weather station indoors and out.  New Years day reached 39 degrees on our back verandah.  Yesterday, 2nd January tipped 40!

Last week we went to Melbourne again to see Mick's mum before she returned to New Zealand.  It was a bit of a disorganized rush in the morning before we left.  There was Christmas stuff all over the house, the floors needed a good clean (thanks to Coco), and we have my brother & his wife's little dog staying with us and he scratches on the back door to come in.  It isn't a good time to have the paint scratched off the door and they would be home quite a few hours so Mick put a large sheet of plaster across the door and dragged one of our cane chairs across to hold the plaster in place.  As we headed to the highway he said "I hope we don't have someone wanting to see the house today!".

Of course it happened.  Ten minutes after that comment I got a text message from the agent asking if he can bring someone through at midday.  Noooo!!!!  I rang him and said it really wasn't a good day for it.  He said not to worry as he thought the people may be just filling in time while visiting town.  They were from Western Australia and were staying in Melbourne over Christmas.  This was to be a day trip to the country but they'd said they had been planning for a while to move to our town.  Really?!  It's a very small town of only 1000 people and I'd have been surprised if many people in WA had even heard of it.  I told him to offer them 5pm so we could come home a little earlier than we'd planned and have a tidy up.  He said he'd ring if they wanted to do that but we heard nothing more.  Oh well.

Late the next day I received another text.  The same people had decided it was worth making a second trip up to come and see the house.  They would come on Monday at 10.30am.  We did our usual hurricane cleanup and took the little dog with us up the street.  I called the agent to say we'd leave Coco at home.  She's not doing so well with her breathing and the heat doesn't help.  She was asleep under the water tank when we left.  When I got home a couple of hours later the day had really heated up and it wasn't far off 40 degrees.  Poor Coco rushed in the back door into the cool and threw herself onto the timber floor.  I couldn't believe how hard she was panting.

So now we're a little worried about how she'll manage while we are at work.  I actually decided to go tomorrow to Melbourne for my one day this week as it was going to almost reach 40 again today.  The rest of the week should be milder but what about next week and the one after that?!  I'll be away from the house 4 days a week with the new job now.  When Mick is working in town he can leave her inside and come home to let her out a couple of times during the day but if he's out of town too she will have to stay outside.  Poor old girl!