We, along with a large swathe of southern Australia, have been holding our breath and hoping for rain. The farmers are really desperate.

Well, we have finally received some rain in the past couple of days. It has mostly been very light and barely more than drizzle at times but at least it is rain. We have had 23mm here in about 48 hours. Much more is needed but at least that is a start.

Along with the rain it has been bitterly cold today. Unfortunately, GMan and I were volunteering at the market which is held by the local Neighbourhood Centre. I did have an opportunity to test out my recent ski jacket purchase and it stood up to the job admirably. You can check it out here. The ‘feels like’ temperature hovered around 1.5C for the 2.5 hours that I was standing at the market entrance. I feel as though I am some way to being prepared for 5 weeks in Europe in December and January.

Although the ski jacket and coat I bought a couple of weeks ago were brand-new, the majority of my clothes are sourced second-hand. I was in Melbourne on Friday and managed to find a pair of black Sportscraft trousers for $6. There is no photo at the moment as I wore them yesterday and today (with a thermal layer underneath). In fact there has been nothing particularly photo-worthy so I thought I would share this one from the alcove near the change rooms when I bought my trousers. The sentiment is terrific – the spelling ………….not so much.