The Pentland Files: Auntie Em, Auntie Em...A twisters a comin'

As the risk of sounding sterotypically English, I'm gonna talk about the weather. Being English it comes naturally to me. We English talk about the weather constantly.

"Oooo, innit 'ot, I'm sweating like a blue arse fly 'ere!"

Can someone tell me what a blue arse fly is and why it sweats so much?

"Bloody nora, you could freeze the balls off a brass monkey outside!"

Have you EVER seen a ball-less brass monkey?

Anyway, the point of this post is not to discuss the various metaphors (similes?) used to describe the UK weather patterns. It's more to let you know whats been happening here in old Sydders.

You see, for the last three weeks, pretty much the whole east coast of Oz has been battered by tropical storms. New South Wales itself has been the victim of three storms that has seen rivers run.

Note that I say rivers run and not overflow because those 2 million acres of dry, barren land that runs past your sheep farm and hasn't seen water for 20 years actually starts to run. These vast open river beds actually have names like Barrorwa river, despite the fact no water has been seen in living memory. In fact, one farmer took his 8 year old boy down to the now flowing river and had his picture taken with it incase it never happened again. The young lad, from the back o Bourke (out in the sticks) had never seen a body of water before!

Not all rivers were so lucky. Quite a few of them did burst their banks and caused major flooding, sweeping people out to sea. In one area the coastal highway was washed away and swept a family of five down a river in their car.