fahye | (no subject)

My shopping list for tomorrow is:

- soda water
- ice cube tray
- orange juice

This is because I have a bottle of red wine which

highlyeccentric gave me last year, but looking at it and thinking about drinking anything that is not at least COLD makes me want to cry. So I'm going to be improvising some sangria. Anybody got any secret ingredients to recommend?

My wish list at this moment is:

- a vat of liquid nitrogen into which I could plunge my mugs of to-be-iced-tea, so that I don't have to wait two hours between making the tea and shoving it into the 'freezer' (part of the fridge. nominally colder. I am dubious.) and actually drinking it

~

In the name of -- awareness-raising, I suppose? -- my country is having a pretty shocking time of it at the moment. We've been in a severe drought for over a decade, temperatures are soaring to ridiculous levels all over the place, and bushfire risk has pretty much never been higher. I can still remember driving back from the coast in a panic when Canberra had the fires of January 2003, because my family home backs onto bushland and we needed to be there to fight it in case embers hit the hill, and it's a pretty awful fear to be suffering through. So ... think good thoughts for those affected and those threatened, please?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My housemate made Sangria with apple cider (non-groggy) in it the other day, it was pretty tasty.

Mint and/or lime?

*adds to list*

I heard the news about the horrific conditions you've got over there. So scary, the speed fire attacks.

Keep safe!

If you have access to a bag of ice at grocery or convenience stores (or if you get a few ice trays!) you can do what I do. I brew the tea in the tea pot, super concentrated, and then I add it to a pitcher half-filled with cold water and ice. That ice will melt as soon as you add the hot tea in, so having more on hand to add after is a must. Instant iced tea!

I hope you guys get relief. I grew up in a very hot, drought-prone part of my country, and I remember how miserable it could be without the scary fires.

I can still remember driving back from the coast in a panic when Canberra had the fires of January 2003, because my family home backs onto bushland and we needed to be there to fight it in case embers hit the hill, and it's a pretty awful fear to be suffering through. So ... think good thoughts for those affected and those threatened, please?

Will do! {{{F}}}

It's all just terrifying.
the roads are all closed.
Manda and Bryn are stuck in melbourne till they can open up the highways.

It's hard to imagine, thinking back on the Canberra fires, that there could be anything worse: but there it is.
The Canberra emergency services all drove down there yesterday.
The RFS have started to call up our local crews.

We were using hired ES radios for the multicultural festival, and they all got recalled.

Thinking as many good thoughts as I can.