Dry and crispy

Helen: Everything is dry and crispy. The grass is dry and crispy. The trees are losing their leaves and it's still summer. At least half the days that we've been here have been 'Total Fire Ban' days where you're not even supposed to smoke outside. They've had a drought here for the last decade, and yet people still manage to use more than 170l per person per day. The target is 150l. C, Stuart and I used 300l over 27 days (ok, so we were pretty grubby by the end, but you get the idea.) Jenny and Gareth (our hosts) are fanatical with water - they have buckets in the shower and reuse the grey water from the washing machine for the vegie patch - but they still manage to use nearly 100l per person per day - washing machines must be so horrifically uneconomical with water.
Jenny said something funny the other day - we were going to the Grampians national park for a long weekend camping (named for the Gramps in Scotland, although they are so far from the lush green hills in the UK it's bonkers). She said the first time she visited the Grampians here, over a year ago, she thought they were dry and red and dusty. Now she's recalibrated and thinks they're lush and green! Have a look at the photos (once we upload them) and see for yourselves!
What else have we been up to? Went to see The Taming of the Shrew outside (I've only ever seen it outside!) - very wierd to hear the Bard in a strong Aussie accent. Also visited the National (shouldn't that be 'State'?) Gallery of Victoria which even I agreed was the worst excuse for an art gallery I've ever visited (lots of china and furniture and pictures of Jesus) although it did have a very good temporary exhibition of C18th European satirical drawings from Hogarth and co.
Going to the Motorshow today (C's reward for having been so well behaved in the Chinese embassy) and we're leaving Melbourne for Canberra and more fun with the Vietnamese and Mongolian embassies tomorrow.
More later
Hx