Only in Melbourne...

[§AB]

...does it end up being OVERCAST when the forecast promises clear skies.

:cloudy: :family2:

[goober]

Really? Crystal clear here - Omega Cen naked eye at 7pm. I do see cloud to the south. Making my mind up whether to travel or set up out back.

[leon]

So far crisp and clear here as well, and I'm just down the road from you in Ballarat

Leon

[§AB]

I just looked out the window and I see stars now. But yer assuming it was gonna be cloudy I'm not prepared for the galaxy hunt I wanted to do.

[goober]

Bah, I should have traveled. Every neighbour seems to have their outside rear light on.

[thorsdad]

Hi Sab,

we're on the other side of the world at the moment, in Kent in the UK. We've been over for the last month and I can't remember a clear night to check out the night sky. We went as high as Dunnet Bay in the top of Scotland a couple of weeks ago, and off to the North I think it was, there was a permanent sort of twilight because we were fairly far north. But not quite Iceland!

We're off to Malta next week and hoping for some clear skies.

Cheers:thumbsup:

[Starkler]

Nice seeing at the moment Sab, get out there ;)

[Starkler]

Nevermind what I just said, the seeing turned to poop after a few glorious minutes viewing Jup.

[Tandum]

It is cold overcast and wet up here. Bed time.

[ngcles]

Hi §AB & All,

Just got back from my spot in the southern highlands.

Same story here -- clear sky essentially all day. No clouds of note on the chart, clear for two hours after sunset (good seeing too) and then in rolled the clag at 9.00pm. Actually it didn't so much roll in as just form in situ above us.

Stayed that way till 11.30pm, cleared up for 3/4 of an hr (just long enough to keep you interested), then clag again this time rolling in from the SE. So packed up and went when it started to get more "heavy duty" about 1am.

So, you are not alone ...

Best,
Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T

[skwinty]

hi All
know the feeling. I havent been able to have any fun for nearly 9 weeks.
Weather has been terrible and the clouds just wont go away.:(:sadeyes::mad2:

[Alchemy]

well its sunrise now and after trying to do a run at 7ish last night (which turned out way less than perfect due to light high level cloud and a couple deeper ones) i gave up and got agood nights sleep.

Must admit its been tough trying to find a bit of moon free clear sky in the last couple of months.

[§AB]

lol how unsurprising

You got to remember, in Melbourne, the seeing WILL be crap especially when everything asppears to be falling into place.
Weathermaps for today show a big high, no jetstream and hardly any high levle wind and mixing so seeing WILL be crap!!!
However, looks like it will be clear. Once all this typical fog/cloud disappears, probably at 3pm like usual, it'll be nice.

NGCLes:- that's EXACTLY what happens here on the one bloody night every half a year when seeing is truly great.

[§AB]

Now they are saying HAZE. but still overcast, fog, 10ºC at bloody midday.

seeing will prolly be crap aswell.

To all those who say winter is the best time for obvserving....LOL what a cock-up

in Melbourne its summer or nothing. Summer has the best seeing, the most clear sky.

[Starkler]

For the most part. So many otherwise glorious looking nights get spoiled when fog rolls in. :(

[§AB]

last night I went to bed after midnight and it was still crystal clear, so thanks to goddamn Melbourne weather playing mind games with me, I missed out of 4 hours of quality viewing.

No doubt fog will ruin tonight, but if it's after midnight its no huge deal. Still ******* **** Melbourne climate though.

[spikeface]

ahhh melbourne... i love melbourne...

but yes.. that nasty weather of yours... i live in the adelaide hills... so aside from the blasted fog, the skies can still be quite nice in winter... freakin cold tho... not that i can probably complain about low tempertures to melbournites...

[§AB]

Love the city, hate the climate with a Passion


supa thick fog here atm, was hugely foggy by 10:30pm last night but packed up abotu an hour before that.

[§AB]

I was going to go outside last night but then saw a bank of smog/haze and high level cloud toward the southeast, and going by previous experience it was certain that it would race over at supersonic speed after I've made the 6 trips in 'n' out the door to set up. So I didn't set up at all. I was feeling sick aswell. It ended up being clear. Was still clear when I went to bed at 11:30. Second time this week I missed out because of Melbourne cloud :mad2:

Today I'm feeling better and ready to go out but most of the low cloud and all of the haze is STILL lingering about. Humidity is also at 80%, compared to 55% this time yesterday. NATURALLY!!! :mad2:

Also noticed that the high temp today so far is 11ºC. I'm hating this record cold/cloudy "autumn" (read-pre-winter) and winter more and more with every day that passes. :mad:

Guess I'll have to sit it out until this time next week, as UNFORTUNATELY rain and cloud are forecast (formerly sunshine-
SURPRISE SURPRISE :mad: ). nothing more frustrating than being on holidays and not being able to participate in your hobby.

Anyone want to help me set up an astro village at Marble bar or Exmouth or something?

[§AB]

Hi thorsdad,
most of April and ALL of May was FULLY OVERCAST, (OR shrouded in smoke) here in Fog-town. Trust me, the weather has been HORRIFYING here over the last 2 months. Nothing but cloud, smoke fog and RECORD COLD! Not that southern victoria is any stranger to cold, but the last 2-3 months have seen consistantly BELOW AVERAGE temps and horrendous cloudiness.

There has been about 2 clear nights over the last week, now we face another week of cloud and rain :mad2:
Don't worry, Malta will have FAR, FAR better weather (much warmer/nicer summers - hell they are warmer and sunnier year round) than Melbourne. Relish the warmth while you can before returning to this sesspool of wintry misery.

As soon as I leave uni, I'm pissin' off to somewhere warmer and sunnier. i've completely had it enduring the weather in this antarctic outpost.

Our only hope to thaw out, and to see sun, is a strong El Nino, hopefully one that matches the 1998 event.

That being said, Melbourne can have hot summers, but we missed out this year. Half of January was cold, ALLL of February was the coldest in 3 decades, the second Half of March was cold while the first half was nice (however compared to northern Vic and Adelaide it was FREEEEZING (relatively speaking). And since then , it has been uniform cold and cloud. 2008 is the s*** weather year here. Hoepfully the upcoming summer (I can't wait) will be like in 1998.

I also remember New Years 2006 - 36ºC at midnight....beautiful.

[Alchemy]

i love the variability of melbournes weather but some more clear skies would be nice...... i hate the heat with a passion...... must be my english blood.

As previosly said the nice weather we had a while back was burning off and smoke, now when we have clear skies it gets foggy .... its wearing a little thin.

Clive.

[gman]

Its all my fault.
I'm apologise to everyone in Melbourne.

I was told that a new scope=bad weather.

I bought a new scope for my birthday (late April) and the weather has all turned to carp ever since.
Have only had the scope out 14 times due to poor weather and some of these were pretty quick sessions.
As long as there is no rain and/or rain clouds, I try and get the scope out whether the conditions are ideal or not.

[§AB]

But the weather was crap since mid-March! So you can't possibly be blamed for this shenanigans.

[Alchemy]

its nearly 2 o clock and as you are all tucked up in bed ..... the sky is clearing............

















moment of silence.

[§AB]

slight, slight chance of hope tonight. Forecast says clearing to fine and partly cloudy afternoon. However, it also says 'Morning drizzle' tomorrow :mad:

What WILL happen is that it'll be clear at sunset, seeing will be 9/10, and so naturally all the horrible low drizzly cloud will rocket in before you can say ******* hell!

[Alchemy]

well the sky did sort of clear i managed a half baked run on the helix, got enough to put an image together but it was a bit jumpy, the seeing wasnt so great..... but i did see the stars ....they are still there, its comforting to know.

[ving]

rain and mored rain here.... :thumbsup:

[goober]

Tell me about it - I'm testing some new rainfall products and Brisbane/Sydney has made it much easier the past couple of days!

[ving]

i am testing my new x-ray telescope that can see thru clouds :P

[Starkler]

My turn to whinge about Melbourne weather again.

Skies were clear and transparency looked good, so I set up the 10", dug out the argonavis, got everything lined up and about 15 min after starting, a thick fog rolled in. Typical!:mad2:

[§AB]

Don't tell me.....

I'm set up aswell.....

TO DA HELL WITH MELBOURNE'S WEATHER!

[§AB]

Oh wait, that bloody MELBOURNE FOG rolled in about 30 mins after I started anyway. SO SICK OF THIS FREAKING BLOODY CONSTANT DAILY FOG AND CLOUD ALREADY :mad: :mad: :mad2: :mad2: :mad: :family:

SO BLOODY TYPICAL, SO BLOODY MELBOURNE WINTER TYPICAL :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: AND FOR THE RECORD, SEEING WAS CRAP LIKE USUAL ANYWAY. WHAT AN ABHORRENT AUTUMN AND WINTER THIS IS. WORST IN HISTORY FOR SURE

I WISH MELBOURNE WAS IN A DESERT, LIKE MARBLE BAR OR EXMOUTH, SOMEWHERE AROUND THERE, WITH 250 CLEAR DAYS A YEAR :mad:

ANYONE WANT TO HELP ME SET UP AN ASTRO-VILLAGE IN THE PILBARA????

[Starkler]

Oh no i started him off again :lol:

[Alchemy]

it has been a trying time, i started imaging last night - got 6 frames into it and ..... mist , fog , cloud..... whatever form of water vapour it was , ended it.

this is what it looks like now, fairly typical at the moment....



good weather will come ....... wont it:help:

[§AB]

Yes it will.







In November :mad2:

[§AB]

NOW WE HAVE BLOODY HIGH CLOUD STREAMING IN :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

UNBE****INGLIEVABLE :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

And what's more, the next possible chance, NEXT FRIGGIN MONDAY, Will be a bust because there'll a waxing gibbous moon.


:mad:

I hope its going to be 35ºC with no rain or cloud for bloody weeks in summer

[§AB]

PREDICTABLY,

the lastest forecast shows showers added to days which were previously listed as "fine". Instead of 4 potential stargazing oppurtunities, we now have only 2. :mad2: :mad2:

[Alchemy]

you mean they lied to us .........

[§AB]

no, but once again, days are being downgraded from fine to showers :mad2:

[Alchemy]

youre right... we had three corker days in a row now only this

UV Alert: Nil , UV Index predicted to reach 2 [Low]

Monday Fine. Mostly sunny day. Min 5 Max 16
Tuesday Fine. Min 7 Max 17
Wednesday Shower or two. Min 8 Max 18
Thursday Few showers. Min 8 Max 17
Friday Shower or two. Min 9 Max 17
Saturday Shower or two. Min 7 Max 17

fine is an interesting concept that just means its not raining, shower or two is as vague as

id prefer something like cloudy in the morning with about 2 mm of precipitation clearing mid afternoon with clear skies by sunset..... why cant they be more specific. At least i could make sure im home early enough to get the gear set up before its dark

[§AB]

Once again, the prediction of a fine day and night tomorrow has been downgraded to showers with strengthening wind :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

So that leaves a chance on Friday and Saturday nights. But I wouldn't freaking hold my breath :mad2: Sunday is already predicted to be windy.

[Starkler]

Heres crossing fingers for the weekend. My sdm hasnt been away from home since early March.

[§AB]

yer fingers crossed, but I won't be surprised if it ends up being cloud and/or wind/fog. Just the same story of the last dozen times that forecast fine weather ended being a dud. :mad2:

i'm on week 3 of my uni holidays, and so far 1 clear night with ultra-crap seeing and moonlight. :mad2:

[Jen]

:cold:
Awwwwwwwwwwwww
Swan Hill skies have been perfect all week but its very very cold :cold: i look into my scope for 1 minute then the eyepiece fogs up arhhhhh :mad2: and dew drips of my scope they say winter is the best time of viewing but i havnt had a good time freezing my butt off yet :cold:

[Starkler]

Jen there are ways around those problems ;)

[erick]

Hi Jen

More clothes needed!! Try mittens for hands so finger tips are free to tweak focus, change eyepieces etc. Drink warm drinks. Keep eyepieces (capped) in your inside pockets to keep them warm. That can stop them fogging up for a while. Throw a 240 Volt lead out the back and plug in your megawatt hairdryer and blast everything that dews up - secondary mirror through the focusser, eyepieces, finderscope. BUT - have a safety switch on the circuit - dew plus 240 Volts - ouch! When not observing, tip your scope down so the primary mirror does not directly face the dark, heat-sucking sky!

A few ideas
Eric

[Jen]

Yeah i think so too and thats stay inside wif a blanky and warm drink and sit in front of the computer and see what all u other space geeks have been up too in here :lol::lol::thumbsup:

[erick]

Chicken! (warm chicken I guess!) :lol:

[Jen]

:thanks: for the tips Eric yeah ive heard a few stories about using a hairdrier but me being me :Di think i will end up adding another funny story to the You Know Your an Astroholic When... thread :lol:

[§AB]

Winter is the WORST time for viewing. So far, each of the 5 clear nights since April had atrocious seeing, extremely heavy dew and ofcourse it is cold.

I had much better seeing in summer, there was an average of more than 0 clear nights each week and dew was non-existant. ROLL ON SUMMER!

So far, 2008 must be THE cloudiest and coldest year in history (or pretty damn close). It MUST be "global warming" :mad2: :rolleyes: Funny how all the GW scare-mongering extremists haven't said a word lately...

[casstony]

This paragraph contains a phrase that the Knights of IIS cannot bear, a phrase responsible for greatly rising temperatures on this forum in times past. Hopefully there won't be a repeat.

Regarding the weather, things are even worse here in foggy hollow. My PST helps keep me sane, even though the Sun has been quiet lately; there's always something to see.(in the breaks between the clouds)

[Alchemy]

looks like no imaging for a while yet, its been so long i have passed through the withdrawl symptoms and actually not that fussed about it any more. Looking forward to doing some physical work in the garden, remulching and some pruning getting it all shipshape while the weather is cool. ordered a truckload (16 M3 ) of Eucamulch today....we get it cheap from the local sawmills... that'll keep me busy for a few hours . Got some new areas to border off and plant while the grounds damp....... every cloud has a silver lining :whistle:

[§AB]

you saw sun??!!??

[casstony]

We've had several minutes of Sun each of the last few mornings, enough to rush out and see some meagre prominences. You must have had several+1 minutes in New Iceland. I refuse to believe anywhere is worse than here - we even have our own brown coal fired cloud generators.

[GTB_an_Owl]

WHY are you people having a problem with COLD weather ? :whistle:

geoff

[§AB]

I just HAD to quote myself here. If I'm not mistaken, the forecast was for CLEARING SHOWERS this morning, with sunshine tomorrow. But surprise surbloodyprise, it's overcast, latest forecast says EVENING SHOWERS for today and partly cloudy for tomorrow. I've basically predicted this EXACT bloody outcome.

And ofcourse, there is showers and wind predicted for the whole of next week. :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:


To say I am pissed off is a MASSIVE understatement. I HATE the climate here with a passion :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

[erick]

I'm going to have a shot at Sunday night. I'll just need some ropes to tie the scope down if the predicted >50kph winds eventuate! :scared:

[Starkler]

Here it comes again (http://www.weatherzone.com.au/satellite.jsp?lt=wzcountry&lc=aus&img=sat&ane=1&anf=1&and=1&ana=3&anb=333&anc=3&lye=1)

[§AB]

I am lost for words. I really am :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

Oh well, another month of scratching my balls I guess :mad2:

Can't believe how pathetic this climate is.

[§AB]

You Know you're in Melbourne when....

-You have to use lighting to see at midday,
-Temperatures considered "warm" here are considered "cold to the rest of Australia,
-People who are allergic to sunlight can enjoy the outdoors without risk for most of the year,
-you find you have to wear a sweater during your beachside jog on a January afternoon,
-you start comparing your weather to Vancouver's, Scotland's or the Falkland's,
-british tourists feel right at home,
-Christmas day feels like a christmas day in London,
-the amount of cloudy days equals the cloudy days of all other capital cities put together
-you want to wage war on the other capitals because you're jealous of their superior climates,
-a forecast of fine weather ends up being cloudy and rainy
-everyone worldwide recognises your hometown from its crappy weather
-doing the washing becomes a bigger challenge than your final year calculus exam,
-you throw away your weather station because you discoverd a much cheaper alternative, fidning that you can count the number of clear days each winter on your hands

[ving]

thought you had given up and sold your gear sab:)

how the flight simmiing going? what do you use? (used to be a simmer too)

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

[Glenhuon]

Having lived in Melbourne for the first year in Aus I can relate to them all, especially this one. "british tourists feel right at home". It was too much like the UK so I moved to WA. :lol:

Bill

[Terry B]

I feel sorry for you poor buggers down there. I have just returned from a 24hr trip to Melbourne.
Catching a taxi from the airport into the city last night I had a nice view of the sky. The light pollution was worse than a full moon here at home. I could see Jupiter and not much else. I can only be thankful that I live in the bush and have lovely dark skies.
I'm glad to be home (even with a headache from the crappy flying)

[erick]

Not much wind :) but, no stars :sadeyes:

:sad:

[§AB]

yer pretty crap. The new one (fsx) has s***house performance, the older one (fs2004) won't install. :mad2:
All the features that make FSX worth having use up too much processing power and it gets pretty much unusable. Once the fs2004 issue is solved (hopefully), i'll be getting my 80 bucks back.

infact, I can have twice as much scenery activated on fs2004 and still get better performance than FSX.

[§AB]

well I've got fs2004 successfully installed (tried the other drive!!!) and WOW the performance is so great on my machine with all the sceneries set to high. I am getting 25-30 framerate on FS 2004 over Seattle, compared to 15 in FSX, and this is with twice the number of buildings, trees etc!!! :D :D :D I'm gonna take FSX back to the shop and use that 80 bucks to buy a couple of addons for fs2004 :D :D :D

[§AB]

well well well yet a-freaking-gain, the story of the last 3 months has been played out. The forecast said fine from today thru till wednesday, but alas, yesterday that was amended to include showers from monday onwards.

And ofcourse, it is already cloudy. Already there is freaking high cloud streaming in.


http://www.weatherzone.com.au/satellite.jsp?lt=wzstate&lc=vic&img=sat_bw&ane=1&anf=1&and=1&ana=3&anb=333&anc=3&lye=1

Surprise sur-bloody-prise. never seen such an unbelievable run of s*** in my entire life :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

[Stephen65]

Bloody annoying. Based on the forecast I felt sure that tonight would be good after the disappointment of last weekend but sure enough, a nice clear morning turns into a crap night.

[§AB]

well, I've been on uni holidays for 6 weeks and there has been not a single goddamn clear night. The people on the "other" forum laughed when I predicted that this would happen. Pfffft, shows what they know. I know for a fact that Sydney and Perth had a reasonable amount of clear nights during the last 6 weeks, so any whinging from them is UNACCEPTABLE :mad2: :D The crap summer that Brisbane and Sydney so FAMOUSLY had this year DOESN'T COME ANYWHERE NEAR THE CRAP WE ARE SUFFERING RIGHT NOW. ALL sympathies for Melbourne only.

Only Melburnians have my sympathies. Everyone else in the other capitals bugger off! All the other capitals in this country wouldn't have a clue what real cloud is :mad2:

now with uni starting, ther won't be a single goddamn chance until November. :mad2:

[marki]

I don't know why you moan so much. Where do you think all that weather comes from??? The fact that in the last 24 hours half of Perth has been blown to Adelaide, 24000 homes are without power and you need a submarine to go outside may indicate that we have our trials as well.

I have been on holiday for the past two weeks and have not even looked like getting the opportunity to use my gear. Whats worse is that on Monday I will be returning to work where I get to face 1200 odd screaming kids who have been locked up in their homes for two weeks due to the crappy weather (wont that be fun groannnn :(). All you have to do is find a nice quiet spot at the back of the lecture theatre and have a snooze :whistle::D:P. So no, I have no sympathy what so ever, if you don't like it move.

[Dog Star]

Hmmm. Hope this post doesn't go down badly.
I don't think it's any secret that here in The Alice we get bugger all rain (although we can cop a bit of cloud) Even so, viewing here is usually spot on about 95% of the time.
Reading the previous posts on this thread incites genuine sympathy from me as I can only imagine how fraustrating the situation is for so many of you. I remember how ticked off I was at missing the Venus/Jupiter conjunction earlier this year due to cloud cover. Complaining to Gargoyle Steve gained me no sympathy as he told me he hadn't had his scope out for weeks due to inclement weather.
All this has put me in the somewhat ironical situation that if I stay indoors of a night time (too cold, too tired, Moon too bright) I start to get an enormous attack of the Guilts, big time! What right, I think to myself, do I have to stay indoors when there are poor buggers all over the country who are desperate to get out and do some viewing. This has put me in a position where I'll go out and do a bit of viewing even if I don't particularly feel like it, even if it's just 10 mins or so with the nokkies, as opposed to setting up the Dob.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but your misfortune motivates me to take advantage of the conditions I've been geographicly blessed with.
If it's any consolation at all, at least you mob probably aren't glancing about on the ground in Summer watching for Western browns and mulga snakes (who also enjoy being out and about on a clear Summer's night):scared:
Again, I cannot stress too strongly that this is a genuine expression of sympathy; no sarcasm intended whatsoever.
May the Weather Gods look kindly on you all in the future.

[Alchemy]

SABs pretty much right about melbourne weather, its been very poor for astronomy, and for some considerable time.
I have found other things to do........

As for Alice springs .... nice place to visit but 45 deg every day in summer..... pass on that thankyou.

[§AB]

If you lived in Melbourne you'd know......

we had 2 episodes of massive wind (april 2 and another just recently) plus during the last 2016 hours it's been cloudy,. cloudy, cloudy. 400,000 people without power that day.

two weeks? hahaha my ribs are about to split wide open! Try 3 months :)


well it was your career choice wasn't it?


In theory yes. In reality.....it's a life consuming mental struggle but I want a decent career so I have to do it.

[marki]

Ha ha ha only pulling your leg mate :D. I have lived in Melbourne so I have a fair idea what its like. It never inspired me to take up astronomy as a hobby as you rarely saw the stars. You probably need to find another pastime to fill in while you wait. When I was there in 1999 I used to take my Ducati up to the black spur and scare the living crap out of myself, always felt better after that :D:D:D. Looking on the bright side, when I went out this morning there was nothing but blue skys so it should be heading your way soon. Hang in there it's not all bad and summer is not too far away.

Mark

[AndrewJ]

Re


I remember a quote on a blackboard at Uni many years ago
"Fail now, avoid the November rush"
If you keep that in mind, any clear nights become available:whistle:

Andrew

[Kevnool]

Well SAB no observin here tonight with a severe weather warning for strong winds ...ole scope will act as a wind sock out in it ...north wind too looks like its heading south it may dust all you melbournians out....cheers Kev.

[§AB]

I don't care if the winds were 10000km/h, wouldn't make a difference.

I have $5000 worth of equipment serving nothing more as room ornaments

[§AB]

lol! but I want to get a decent career! hows 60k starting salary, plus car and super ;D

[overlord]

Hello, God here.

SAB,

Your lamentations against my weather decisions have been most grieving to me. Your ingratitude stings me most grieviously. As punishment, I have decided to implement a further punitive measure of not less than two months of gut-wrenchingly miserable weather, which will be imperfect, in the least, for your astronomical purposes.

Your Humble Creator.

[AndrewJ]

Become a politician,
no study reqd, ( and you might even get a driver for yr car )

Andrew

[§AB]

ummmm......yeah :screwy:

[marki]

I think I have the answer to all of your problems (as stated in this thread anyway:D). Come over to WA and get a job in the mines. There are many advantages such as;

1. No education required
2. 5 figure salary for 6 months work.
3. You get a really big yellow American car made by CAT. It has 2000 HP motor, aircon, stereo, 20ft by 3ft mags and tyres and more...
4. Free food and rent.
5. As you will be in the middle of the desert you will never see rain or cloud again. :D:D:D:P

Mark

[§AB]

my dad tried to do that but they all want experienced operators...

[marki]

They are screaming for people up there. You can do a 2 day operators course and get the ticket if necessary (insurance purposes) or simply go up there as a general TA and work your way to the job you want. I know quite a few people working in the mines and the pay and conditions are excellent. As for experience I wonder if practicing backing up and down your driveway counts? It's kind of similar to driving up and down a haul road:D.

Mark

[TrevorW]

Marki it's not as easy as you think, getting a job up North at the moment.

If anyone has noted China shut down 10 steel plants while the Olympics are on to reduce smog in Bejing so the demand for iron ore has dropped off for a while.

He's probably better off staying in Melb.

[marki]

Hey Trevor

They have a problem with gas supply as well I believe but they always make noises and carry on regardless. The work is there if you want it (mate got a job on tuesday) but in the case of SAB I would suggest he stay at uni and finish his degree (I am a teacher after all). I was just trying to give him an image that took his mind off the cloud and rain on the last day of his holidays :). The closing of steel mills will be of little consequence as we also mine nickel, gold, copper, mineral sands etc. Last time the Chinese govt clamped down on iron imports we got orders that broke all previous records so I would not worry too much. The olympics are only for a few weeks anyway and I will bet that it does not stop the chinese stockpiling ore.

Cheers

Mark

[§AB]

Well, we pulled another Melbourne.

The forecast for Friday was saying "showers clearing" and "fine" on Saturday with northerly winds, so one could assume it would be clear Friday night.

But in typical fashion, at the last minute the forecast for Friday was changed to "showers redevoping during afternoon".

:mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

Now that we are out of winter, just watch how much hotter and sunnier every other Australian city will be in the coming weeks/months.