A slight blogging slump

This was a screenshot from a few weeks ago,
but we do see a touch of it here and there still.
Summer can last almost 6 months here,
and I hate almost every second of it.

I actually wrote the bulk of this post near the end of January, but took it down when I realised I had another blogging commitment that very day. But I thought I'd post it now as it still feels fitting, considering I haven't put up a post here in 6 days!

Soooo, I am not in any hurry to post here at my blog lately. Maybe I'm still struggling to emerge from the daze that was the Christmas/New Year holidays. We also just had another public holiday here (Australia Day, for those who are curious, falls on Jan 26th every year). So I had yesterday off work and did yet more lazing about watching DVDs.

But probably one of the biggest miseries right now is the weather. To say the last I'm feeling a little drained - maybe baked or fried or desiccated are more appropriate words? Like every year in January, I am dying for autumn to come back around. I've shared my sentiments on this matter before, i.e. "I ... hate the sun (though I know I need it)". So far this year, WA's summer has been pretty mild, but we've still had some revolting 44c (111f) days. Plus, it seems to get more humid every year. One might consider that an effect of global warming, which our wondrously 21st century Prime Minister denies the existence of. Or maybe it's just the natural cycle of climate change. Either way, it blows. And it's one more reason why I just want to hide out till autumn comes.

Maybe as the weather cools and my holidays get further and further away, I will switch over to being more motivated to write here. I think it will definitely help when I actually get stuck into rewrites/revisions properly. I'll have something to talk about then - even if it's nothing good. ha.

So that's my update for now - just wanted to touch base. I hope you guys are all having a great January!

Update now that it's mid-February - I still get this 'slumpy' feeling, and am struggling to do my revision work. I think what happens is I might have a night or two in a row where I can't do the work because I have other commitments, and then I just lose the plot after that. But I'm determined to get some work done today - it's Sunday and after I come back from my body balance class, I don't have anything else on all day!

[O&AM] I...hate the sun (though I know I need it)

"Out & About Me" is a monthly blog series in which I tell you guys a bit more about me. I'll focus on a particular topic each month, and let you all get to know me a bit better than you already do.

Today I'm going to talk about the weather. I know a lot of you will have received comments from me over the years about how I hate summer, and I've also mentioned it in this blog now and then. But today I am focusing entirely on the weather and my sheer hatred of (the Australian) summer. I'll admit I don't mind a bit of Norwegian summer, what with its dramatic rainclouds overhead and the threat of a shower or two. Yeah, that's what I saw in Norway back in 2004, and the friend I was having lunch with that day indicated it was quite typical of that part of the country in summer (it was actually fairly reminiscent of a Western Australian winter). But the Australian summer is a different beast.

A friend from the US recently posted a link to this story on my Facebook page, about how in some parts of Australia it's so hot they had to add a new colour to the weather map - purple for the extreme heat of up to 54° c (129° f). Thankfully where I live it gets nowhere near that revolting sort of temperature (max temps tend to be around 43° c = 109.4 f). I live on the coast, and we get the sea breeze in the afternoons (called the Fremantle Doctor). But on days when that precious breeze fails to arrive, everything pretty much sucks around here. I always comfort myself with the fact that some people in the world have it worse than us, hot weather-wise.

I do have better reasons to hate the sun than most - I am susceptible to skin cancer and have already had a few cut out of my face. Not only is it physically and emotionally traumatic to go under the knife like that, but it's costly as well. And yet I know that the sun is life-giving, and that I need it to survive! Thankfully I recently got my Vitamin D checked and, surprisingly to myself and all who know me, my levels were within the healthy range. I guess around here you can't help but get some sun exposure no matter how hard you try to avoid it. It bounces off the ground and the walls and the leaves, no doubt, and finds you even in your shadiest hidey hole. ;)