Cold as ice

This picture taken Wednesday morning, when it was even colder, and the ice much more obvious.

I didn’t fully appreciate how cold it was overnight until I got into the car this morning and noticed a strange pattern on the windscreen. "Ooh, interesting pattern", I remarked to the kids, before in my innocence I turned on the wiper to get rid of it so I could see properly. The wiper blade skidded across it, leaving it unscathed.

Ice. Ice on the windscreen. I don’t know how common that is in Melbourne, but it hasn’t happened to me before. Proof, if it was needed, that it’s not just that my house isn’t very well insulated (one visitor last week described it as an icebox) but it’s in rather a cold location. Half a bucket of H₂O thrown over the windscreen dispatched the ice to a watery grave. (I’ve wanted to use that expression for ages).

Meanwhile I got the second SMS spam I’ve had in recent weeks. I rang the people up, and it turns out they’ve got my number from "Oz On Disc", which is evidently a listing on a CD gathered from theWhite Pages. I made the mistake of listing my mobile number in the White Pages at one stage. I certainly regret it now. Vicious data gathering marketing bastards.

The bloke on the phone reckoned I was fair game because the number was listed there. Hmmm. Reading up on the Australian Communications Authority web site after talking to him, this appears to break the new
SMS spam guidelines, which are strictly opt-in. I’ll be looking into this further.

Meanwhile Mr Speakerphone’s successor’s minions have been using his office for speakerphone calls. I’m happy to say that after a little prompting, they’ve been extremely courteous and compliant about shutting the door while they conduct their booming conversations which I have no interest in hearing.