There is a heat wave in Australia at the moment and animals are dying of thirst. In South Australia it has reached + 42 degrees – which is really hot.

The picture is of a Koala that came down out of a tree and into a house to get a drink of water – and stayed to have a bath.

I rang the man from Jura today and the prognosis is not encouraging. He says I have to take Jura back to the place I bought it from so that they can examine its innards. I will have to drag the Gaggia up from the basement so that we have a coffee machine. The prospect of being without espresso coffee is simply unthinkable.

Gaggia works just fine but it is a lot more work to make coffee. However, I can’t watch Jura continue to suffer so will need to do this quickly. I hope we don’t have to put it down as it is still very young.

I am going to Stadtpark tomorrow to take some pictures of the ducks and to convince myself that there really is no longer any ice. Does this mean that winter is over?

This is very disappointing for us (although probably not for the Austrians) as we love the cold weather – and are really glad we are not in Adelaide at the moment.