G'day again,

Roo: I'm glad to hear that you are safe ... and Mt Riverview, where my Aunt Iris and Uncle Fred live, nearby their daughter Jan and her family. I have friends higher in the Mountains, as well, but they seem to have missed this round of fires ... ?

Norton1: Your mate heading north from South Aust to Alice Springs will be safe enough from bushfire ... there is no bush! ... mostly desert, which has a whole bundle of dangers of its own. He will be on the main highway, know what he is doing and safe enough, but many tourists looking to get off the beaten track have come to grief in that dry country, and some have done a perish.

Blackcatter: God's revenge, eh? It's a bit like when there were disastrous earthquakes in Portugal a couple of years after Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod. Some stuffed cleric announced that this was God's revenge for meddling with his prerogatives. Franklin replied that he expected God to have much better timimg and accuracy! (Oh, and BTW: 72°F = `22°C, just to remind us how hot you are ... but we are hoping for a mere 26°C (`79°F) as a relief from Christmas Day's conditions ... but it is high summer!)

Merry Christmas to those American 'Catters. who are still in Christmas Day.

Regards,

Bob Bolton