Heat Wave in Melbourne

I tossed and turned and got some sleep during the night, but eventually (at 5:45am) I decided to just get up and do some work. When I checked the temperature, I saw that it was still 31 degrees Celsius at 5:45am!! (roughly 90 degrees Fahrenheit) It turns out that last night was the hottest night in Melbourne since 1902!! So, it should be easier from here on out. It made sense to me why keeping the window open didn’t really do anything – it was far too hot outside to ever have any hope of cooling my un-air conditioned room down to a comfortable temperature. Luckily, the low tonight should be around 18 degrees Celsius (mid 60s). So, sleeping should be much better tonight.

I took the tram and the train out to Anita’s house this morning. Upon arriving at the train station, I was interviewed by a TV crew asking about my experience on the train. I told them I thought it was fine and they looked surprised and the cute TV reported made mention of the fact that I was clearly not from Australia. She asked what I thought of the public transport system and I said I thought it was better than what it is in the U.S. (I felt like such a traitor later – but I do believe it to be true). In any case, I don’t think I gave them the answer they were looking for.

I eventually got down to the appropriate platform and started to realize why they were interviewing people. The trains were running late and 2 of the trains that I could have taken were cancelled all together. Eventually I got on a train and made it to Hawthorn station and, a short walk later, Anita’s house. I had a nice talk with Anita over coffee and then Tim came to pick us up. We drove into CSIRO to start day #2 of work.

I spent the day running samples and taking care of miscellaneous items. I still do not have internet access at CSIRO and I spent a fair chunk of the day on the phone asking about that. I had lunch over at Monash a little before noon (since I was sooo hungry after having breakfast around 6am). Unfortunately, some of the other kids in the group went to lunch around 1pm. I guess I’ll have to try to go with them tomorrow. While I was at the Monash union, I found out that they have a small Apple store there. I was surprised (though pleased) to find that they carried the FireWire 400 to 800 adapter that I have been looking for (I need the adapter to be able to charge my iPod since I left the wall charger at my office in Austin). I made my purchase and subsequently was able to charge my iPod! I also topped off on cash and picked up a café latte to help keep me going on a less than good night’s sleep.