Thanks everyone for caring about us over here. It means the world to us.

gillymor, all my friends and family are safe. We live in regional cities and some overseas and some more in Sydney. I was going to call it The Big Smoke, but that expression might have to be shelved for a while, I think.

I think all Australians have been overwhelmed by offers of support. To be honest, I personally think we have enough resources to deal with it here and overseas donations should be used for more deserving issues. There are so many other countries or areas in the world with less resources than ours and bigger issues than ours. As well as large countries like the U.S. & Canada, we have even had the very small Pacific countries of Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea offering to help. That's touching.

We pride ourselves on helping others, but when others help us we get embarrassed.

What we do need is politicians who can be bravely honest and face up to reality. The reality of climate change especially but also the reality that volunteer Rural Fire Service people are overstretched and the whole RFS system needs an overhaul to make it workable not just for fighting the fires but for the people giving up their time, using their skills and in most cases losing their income, and in some cases losing their own homes while looking after other people or even losing their lives.

This is probably a wake up call to some who have persistently denied the climate issue in the face of scientific evidence. I've been saying that until the bushfire smoke started to affect Canberra and the state capital cities, some of the pollies would continue to brush off the significance of the bushfires. It appears that I was close to the mark.

When it affects the tennis, well you know it's serious! LOL (I'm not a tennis fan, BTW.)