Beast from the East

After days of watching the ‘Beast from the East’ on the evening news we’re starting to think we may be in the wrong country.  It’s been in the high 30’s every day this week and not forecast to drop to 29 until next week.  I think we’re suffering from the ‘Swine from the South’ or the Nasty from the North’. 

Whilst out on my evening walk last night (I returned wringing wet with sweat) the street lights went out.  Then I noticed all the houses were in darkness.  On returning to the house Jan informed me a vehicle had crashed into a light pole on adjacent Hepburn road plunging the suburb into darkness.  It’s now the following afternoon and electricity has yet to be restored.  At least we have the boat generator which has the ability to keep the fridge and freezer running.  However it doesn’t have sufficient capacity to run the air-conditioning. 

When it’s cold you can add more layers.  But when the reverse occurs there are only so many layers you can remove.  Although this does have an advantage with the door knockers flee in horror!

With nothing better to do we shuffled the furniture around.  The latest sewing cabinet repairs worked which meant we could move it back into storage.  The spare bed was moved to the 3rd bedroom, which then left space in the front room for the sofa, dining table and oval tables.

Note the curtains are drawn in an effort to keep out some of the heat.

I’ve also made a lead for the 4x4 fridge.  The socket in the vehicle is a 50amp Anderson Plug but the Engel fridge has a fused cigarette style plug.  I didn’t want to cut the cigarette plug off the fridge lead because you never know when you might need to convert it back.  So I’ve made a short adaptor lead from some ‘bits’ I had lying around.

This female cigarette socket has been in my “I’ll need that one day” box for a couple of decades.

I used my old soldering iron to remove the original cable and replace the wiring with something more substantial.  The soldering iron is more than 40 years old.  I ‘found’ it in a creek behind the house were were living in at the time.  All it needed was a replacement cord.

The adaptor just needs the Anderson Plug on the other end.

Of course that has been ordered from China (cheap… as you would expect).

You might recall the Samsung Tablet had a replacement battery fitted.  Well yesterday the tablet was flat; despite being on charge for 10 hours.  MAJOR WORRY!  More research suggested the tablet micro usb plug may have failed.  It can be replaced, but a replacement usb socket from the USA cost $43.  eBay was my friend and I found an alternative supplier in China for $4.32.  Delivery was free but it would take 2 months.  Express delivery can be arranged for $153.  I’ve opted to wait for the junk to arrive in port!