What's happening in your world?

[Nuytsia]

I was curious as to what's happening around the world where everyone is. I was originally wondering what the weather was like where everyone is, but thought that others might think that a mind numbingly boring topic for a thread. Nevertheless, I am posting about the weather!!! (Feel free to post about anything currently happening in your locale)

Today I am soaking up some much appreciated sunshine, as winter hit about a week or two ago! Ok it's not technically winter but there's a point here where you know it's well and truly coming, and we just passed it. Unfortunately it's been a bit drier than usual so our water tank is only one third full and I am asking for more rain!

Current temperature outside = 11.4 C , but thanks to sunshine inside = 18.5 C. Yay! (oh it's md afternoon btw)
(see, Australia has coldness too!)

The worst weather in my book is strong wind, cloudy, cold and NO damn RAIN to show for it!

[Nuytsia]

Aieee now it's 3.5 degrees outside tonight ........

[maulkin]

It is spring here. The sun was shining, flowers were blooming, birds were singing, lambs were jumping and bees were buzzing. Now it is dark, so all of the above activities have ceased but I have high hopes that they will continue tomorrow. I have just been to Bangor to discuss shellfish with the Irish.

[Nuytsia]

Still cold here! Didn't get any frost last night, despite it feeling cold enough. The last of the leaves have fallen from my apple and plum trees.
What else is happening in my world - was a little spooky to hear about the British Election, because freakily we had a really similar situation here in the Tasmanian state election a couple of months ago.
If you're interested here's what happened:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/...866618.htm

ps what's new with Irish shellfish?

[maulkin]

was a little spooky to hear about the British Election, because freakily we had a really similar situation here in the Tasmanian state election a couple of months ago.

Well, we now appear to have a government of sorts. The two posh boys have stitched things up between them. People are already calling it the Con-Dem government (one news heading read "Con-Dem Nation") and a sense of impending doom hangs over the country.

ps what's new with Irish shellfish?

According to a representative of the Worshipful Guild of Fishmongers, Shellfish make up a third of the UK's fishing catch by weight and almost half by value but over 76% of this is exported. Instead of eating our own shellfish, we import tropical shellfish from thousands of miles away. Shellfisheries in the Irish Sea are very productive but we know very little about them so it is difficult to know whether they are being managed sustainably. So, I have been hired to do some population genetics work. I may even get to go out on some fishing boats!

[Farseer]

I have just been to Bangor to discuss shellfish with the Irish.

You certainly manage to visit some very interesting places and meet a variety of people with your work, Maulkin! While I consider myself a fairly well-read person, I am definitely not what some would call 'well-travelled' (despite the many thousands of kilometres I cover each week in this vast country of mine...in fact, I have not long got back from my latest 1000kms!), so, I can only imagine the rich learning that must take place during your many travels.

[maulkin]

While I consider myself a fairly well-read person, I am definitely not what some would call 'well-travelled' (despite the many thousands of kilometres I cover each week in this vast country of mine...in fact, I have not long got back from my latest 1000kms!), so, I can only imagine the rich learning that must take place during your many travels.

It is fun to travel, although I have never stayed in any country that I visit for more than a couple of months so don't feel that I know any foreign country particularly well. I really envy you Australians for having such a huge, wild country with so much spectacular scenery and wildlife (even if most of it is venomous). I can't travel thousands of km without ending up in another country (or at least in the sea!). I have just worked out that Queensland is 83x larger than Wales and 7x larger than the entire UK. Even Tasmania is 3x larger than Wales!

[Manephelien]

Summer's almost here. Shirtsleeve weather.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

It's pretty dreary and cold weather here in the Netherlands. I might be able to take this, had we not gotten one warm, sunny week a few weeks ago. Now I'm not taking it anymore, I want the sun back dang it!

[Nuytsia]

maulkin, '"Con-Dem Nation" hah! 'Feeling of impending doom' - the funny thing is we are so damn apathetic a good portion of us just mentally shrugged when we temporarily had no 'real' government. In fact of course there was a lot of muttering about things actually getting done for a change now the politicians were out of it. Things have just got even weirder now that the new parliament has started session.
I wonder if there's any global trends of significance or is this just a weird coincedence (two hung parliaments). On the face of it ours can be explained by the way the system currently works in Tasmania (err I won't bore you with it unless you desperately want me to). On an (possibly!) unrelated note, I think Australia is fairly unique in that voting is compulsory (anyone else got that system here?)

The Worshipful Guild of Fishmongers!!!!! To my Australian ears that sounds like something out of a Terry Pratchett novel .....WHY don't we have cool names like that in Australia! The shellfish situation sounds like an interesting project. It's weird how strange situations come about like exporting most of your shellfish AND importing most of the shellfish you consume..... Is that because they are different types of shellfish and people only want to eat the tropical ones? Or is it just a case of buying them cheap from one country and selling yours at a higher price to another country? OR just one of those things! Or is this all sort of irrelevant to you seeing you are after all going to be studying population genetics!

And regarding Australia's size and amazing sights - you'd be staggered at how some Australians haven't been more than 50km's from their home city! (then again, a lot do move around too). I have never been to the Northern Territory or far north of WA..... and I have seen little of the interior of Australia.

Farseer do you fly when you travel or drive?

Weather = still no proper rain!!!! Teased us with a little bit - tank holding at about 1/3 full. Dreary and overcast today - blah!
BUT mild tonight - I don't even have the heater on. Hmmm or maybe I'm just acclimatising - I just looked at thermometer and it's in fact 6.7 C outside.
This must be a GOOD jumper!