07:00 I spring out of bed to go down and make us a cup of tea. Mark the Gardener is coming at 8:40 am, and we have to be up and about: to unbolt the side-gate (me to do this) and give him his instructions (Lois to do).
I bring up the tea and switch on my phone, and we get a shock - during the night Sarah, our younger daughter who live in Perth, Australia, with Francis and their 7-year-old twins, sent us a text. She says, "Bushfires raging near us. Don't worry, we are on high alert, packing our stuff in case we have to leave. At the moment, the wind direction is in our favour".
I look on the BBC news website, and see the details. And I ask Sarah to keep us posted when she can. This is the first time they have been threatened by so close a bushfire since they moved to Australia just over 5 years ago.
08:45 Mark the Gardener arrives. Lois wants him to try and root out a rogue choisya, which is running amok in our shrubbery, and then do some general weeding in the flower-beds.
She tells Mark of our plans to take a walk on the local football field later this morning. Mark says that his partner is a frequent visitor to the football field, where she walks the couple's black and white spaniel, so Lois promises to look out for her when we are over there.
the scene in our back garden, as Lois talks "choisya" with Mark the Gardener
Mark the Gardener in happier times: having a picnic with his partner
11:00 We go for our walk on the football field, but we don't see Mark's partner. It's a bit milder today, and the sun is trying to shine periodically, which is nice. There are 3 dog-walkers today, plus one jogger and two elderly walkers, so we find it fairly easy to avoid them all haha! There have been no further messages from Sarah, so we assume all is well for the moment.
we take a walk on the local football field -
there are only 3 dog-walkers today (two not shown)
12:30 Lunch, and then off to bed for a nap. Another shock for us at 3:30 pm. Sarah and Francis over in Australia are just about to go to bed, and they want us to monitor any changes in the warning and alert area boundaries and also any changes in the wind direction.
At the moment the wind is from the east, which is okay, but the wind direction is forecast to change to south at around 6 pm our time - if it does this, they will be in the line of the bushfire's path. Yikes !!!!
They want us to contact them with any significant changes. We print off a map of the current alert areas - red means "you should already have evacuated", yellow means "prepare to do so". We also get a display of wind direction and will try to monitor this during the evening hours. Sarah says she will let us know when she's awake tomorrow morning (5 am Perth time, 9 pm GMT).
Yikes (again) !!!!!!
Sarah and Francis live just north of the northern yellow area (approximate location of their house marked by a blue marker). People in the red area have already evacuated; people in the black-hatched area inside the red area have been advised to stay where they are - by now it's more dangerous for them to flee than to stay where they are - yikes! [Stop saying"Yikes" - Ed]
20:00 We keep the laptop fixed on the map of the Perth region as we settle down on the couch to watch a bit of TV, the first episode of a new series of travelogues by Joanna Lumley, who played Patsy in the sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous".
Lois and I aren't big fans of travelogues of this country, but Joanna is an engaging person, and it's interesting to see, in particular, places that have a link to her long career as an actress. She's about the same age as us - born in 1946, but in India, because her father was an army officer. She first arrived in the UK at the age of 1 year, after India was granted independence in 1947.
In 1969 Joanna was a Bond girl in the film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and tonight she visits the Aston Martin car factory where they are working on producing a limited edition of the sports car Bond drove in "Goldfinger".
She gets a tour of the factory and is allowed to drive one of the new cars on the nearby Formula-1 racetrack at Silverstone. A technician takes her through the car's many features, including a revolving number plate that changes from the British number to the French one used in Goldfinger, not to mention other handy extras like the removable rear bullet-screen.
the revolving number plate shows the French registration used in Goldfinger
Joanna takes the car for a test drive round Silverstone
Tremendous fun !!!!
22:00 We take one last look at the bushfire map.
Sarah and Francis are still a little to the north of the orange zone, and the winds are still coming from the east, so it's all right so far. Sarah texted me at 5 am their time, 9 pm our time, to say she was awake. But she hasn't had much sleep, so I offer to monitor the map for another hour before we go to bed, and she accepts this offer. At least that'll allow her to sleep in till 6 am. Oh dear!
22:30 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!
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