When I decided to collect some seeds from a watermelon and grow them, Lia was skeptical that anything would come from it, however it was not long before I had some small plants growing in the pot that I had put the seeds in.

I later transplanted the 4 or 5 seedlings into the garden. Two survived and of those two, one flourished.

Because of our hot summer the vine really went crazy, taking up a lot of space and sprawling beyond the confines of the allotment and it wasn’t long before we got about 5 very small little watermelon.

The first melon, the one that was in the best position as far as water and sunlight

Just a few days later it already looks bigger.

A week later and it is starting to look like a melon, taking on the shape and colour of a full sized melon.

After about 6 weeks the melon is a good size and, with all the kids around, it is time to pick it.

It’s a heavy melon. We get full melons all the time and this one feels a lot heavier that comparative sized ones. I think because we left it an extra two weeks from when I first thought it was about ready as I wanted to have all the kids there. They had been pretty excited about watching it grow.

The final moments of the melon intact. About to be cut!

There we have it. My first successful watermelon and the taste, exceptionally sweet.

I have kept some of the seeds which I will store over for next summer. I think that, in hindsight, I planted the vine a little late and should perhaps start propagating towards the end of October so I can get it into the ground for early December.

I have gotten up nice and early today to make the most of my time before I have to go back to work and one of the things I have done is catch up on the reading of my two regular bloggers, Cheri and Graham.

It’s funny that both of them have talked about the cold weather, Graham saying it was a crisp 5 degrees in the morning before warming up, giving them a taste of spring. Cheri however is having very cold weather and has been snowed in for a couple of days.

It seems surreal to me because we are having some major heat here.

With the last couple of days being in the high 30’s yesterday went over 40 late in the afternoon. The “external temperature” gauge in my car (which is normally pretty accurate) did not cope too well with the car sitting in the sun in a carpark outside one of the shops we went to yesterday and, even though we had only really been in the shop for about 20 minutes it was claiming that it was 51C.

The maximum hit 40.4 at around 5pm.. And today -

Forecast for Wednesday
Fine. Another very hot day. NE winds, fresh for a period in the morning. A
moderate sea breeze in the mid to late afternoon.

Precis: Very hot.
City: Max 42

You know how it is with IKEA. It’s hard to go in there and not buy something. We ended up buying new lights for the front room, something I have wanted to do for a while but have just not been able to find anything that I like and that is suitable for both an office, which is what the room is functioning as now, and a formal living area which is what it is according to convention.

We also got a couple of new lampshades for the bedroom from IKEA as well as two reproduction antique Chinese cabinets from an importer who specialises in that sort of thing. I also got a new bluetooth headset for my phone (I broke the old one ages ago).

We picked the kids up from school, had a look around some more shops, got some groceries then went home. I started to install the new lights while Lia prepared dinner, an Indonesian chicken soup dish with some rice and a spicy tofu and bean dish that was really delicious.

I was in bed by 11pm, which is earlier that I have been to bed in the few weeks since I stopped working for Messenger Post.

Yesterday was my day off and yet I was just as busy.

Despite the fact that I hadn’t got to bed until just after 4, I was up at 9 because we had to take the car out to Osborne Park to get the windscreen replaced. What a saga that was!

About two weeks after I got the car I was washing it when, on application of water from a high pressure hose, the windscreen cracked. I took it back to Hyundai because I felt that it might have been weakened during transportation but the service manager there insisted that it HAD to be a stone chip right on the edge that ran when the water pressure hit it.

With no joy there I eventually contacted my insurance company. I get one free windscreen a year with no excess and no effect to my full no claim bonus.

The insurance company was really good. It was actually a pleasure to deal with them and they put me on a three way conversation with a local glass company and we organised a time for them to come out with the new screen.

A few days later they came out, only to find that they had the screen for the previous model. Handy if I still owned my old car but not much good for this one. It then turned out that they didn’t have one in stock and so they would have to get a genuine one from Hyundai in Melbourne.

Add one week traveling time.

So the screen arrived but, because it was a custom job they couldn’t send it out with the mobile repairer and I had to head into the workshop. I made an appointment for that Friday at 11am and missed when I slept in. A week went by and I decided I should probably make a new appointment, although I was procrastinating about making the phone call. If they hadn’t called me I would probably still be putting it off.

There was no way I was going to make an appointment for Friday again so I decided to make it for Tuesday.. My day off.

When we arrived there at 10am they had lost our paperwork and it took them 20 minutes to work out what was going on, they were all apologetic about it and it had been a month since the insurance company had first contacted them so I guess these things happen..

Anyway, now we had two hours to kill… With IKEA directly across the road..