Uncertainty

"It's a time of great change, a time of great uncertainty, and we must make uncertainty our friend."

(John Naisbitt, American author)

  

Not sure if I'd go so far as making uncertainty my friend but it's certainly making itself right at home.

I am no closer to eating my longed-for chocolate croissant as I get shuffled from one dental specialist to another.  More appointments next week while my dental 'team' give opinions and mutter among themselves about how best to treat my 'complicated' case, while I pay for the privilege of course.  Sigh.

 

And still the world waits

It is almost a month to the day since MH370 vanished without a trace and its disappearance has horrified and captivated the globe in equal measure. There is still no evidence of the whereabouts of the 239 passengers and crew who are thought to have perished somewhere over the Indian Ocean on 8 March 2014.  Hopefully the sea will give up its secrets soon.

Frederic, Lord Leighton (1892) And the Sea Gave Up the Dead Which Were In It (Tate Britain)

See: Tate Britain for more info on this artwork.

Wales revisited ... as an armchair traveller

It's okay I'm very much in Perth but I discovered iMovie on my computer today and thought I'd pretty up one of the panoramas from our travels last year.

Behold Portmeirion!

Happy memories.

Sculptures and sunshine

Another milestone this morning - my first breakfast out since the end of last year.  Even so it was a pretty laborious process gingerly chewing my way through teaspoon-sized portions of bircher muesli.  Very nice but perhaps the copious shredded coconut and sultanas were a bit ambitious for a first go.  Anyhow I munched my way through it.  Meanwhile Ross had already hoovered up his cooked breakfast and patiently sipped his way through two coffees.  Oh well.

Then it was time for another Perth institution.  After breakfast we made our annual pilgrimage to Cottesloe Beach for Sculpture by the Sea. 

Cottesloe Beach Sculptures - yes that's a giant wine cask in the background

Autumn put on a show to rival the sculptures with an impossibly blue sky, morning air with a touch of chill and a deliciously warm sun.  The beach was buzzing with swimmers and other visitors like us slowly wending our way past the artworks.

Cottesloe colours

Colours and lines

One of my favourites this year as it looks like pure joie de vivre on a podium:

Cottesloe Sculpture by the Sea 2014

The tease

"Australia experienced another angry summer...we had substantial heat records, heatwaves and other extreme weather events"

 (Professor Tim Flannery commenting on the "2013-14 Angry Summer" Report by the Climate Council)

So it wasn't surprising really that our 'chance of a storm' evaporated and after 100+ days without significant earth-quenching rain, all we got this morning was thick cloud, oppressive humidity and a few little rain drops.  At least that's what I think was falling from the sky, it's been so long since I've seen anything remotely resembling precipitation I've forgotten what it looks like.  

Can you SEE the raindrops?!

It was just a rain teaser - a minuscule 0.2mm recorded in the weather bureau's official gauge.  The poor trees would only have had the chance to taste the moisture in the air as the clouds passed over, only the odd lonely rain drop managing to squeeze itself from the cloud's fierce grasp to fall to earth. 

The lonely raindrop

Another day without rain.  Another day spent waiting for this awful hot weather to break.