Four seasons in one day

Melbourne is a city which is very similar to San Francisco. It's a city in love with the Arts, good coffee and trams. Its inhabitants pride themselves for being a bit left of center, and enjoy expressing this through their multi-colored hair, odd combinations of clothes and of course ardent opinions and points of view. Melbourne is also famous for having the rare ability of manifesting all four season in one calendar day.


The rule of thumb is, wear layers! I was given this advice accompanied with the stern look of 'I'm being very serious'. I chose to ignore the warning/advice at first, but after a few terrible and unexpected puddle dodging and water dancing, I learned my lesson.


I kid you not... I have driven into work accompanied by beautiful weather, and while getting my first cup of coffee a 'super stom' has swept in and began pounding our office's tin roof so hard that I was convinced any moment it would literally cave in.


Back in March of this year there was a massive storm which hit the city so hard, that the downtown area (here called the CBD) became a criss cross of raging rivers, drowning basements and low level parking garages. I picked up my daughters from Serbian school that day, and on the way home in a record time of 15 minutes, the car was pounded by hail the size of golf balls. We screamed all the way home. In other parts of the city, the hail was even bigger and cars were completely crushed by their impact. Check out this footage, it's unbelievable.


I have finally gotten into the swing of things, and I travel with several jackets in the back of my car, including an extra pair of shoes, a wrap (my best friend in the 'layers' game) and of course an abundance of umbrellas. Ready for pretty much anything, anytime; I'm practically a Boy Scout, since I live by their motto "Be prepared". I don't have bathing suits in my mobile closet, but I should, since summer is just around the corner... and then, I'll add sunscreen, hats, flip flops (here called thongs, haha), water, etc. etc.


Melbourne, Australia = be prepared for anything.