What a drive home yesterday afternoon, here’s the photos and tweets I posted.

"Racing this home"

"I think the storm is winning..."

"Got home in the middle of the first wave"

"Storm won :( That's my backyard starting to flood. Storm drains got up to 3/4 full"

"Single hail stone stuck to my car roof"

" The hail has kicked up all the moss between my pavers. :)"

I was caught in a huge storm over Perth. Drove half of the way and sailed the rest. Streets were flooded all over the place and with the lightning going crazy many intersections were without power. Arrived home safely (thanks for opening the shed @Mrs_RB!), thankfully our home was in good shape. Seeing as we pulled the power to most of the electrical equipment due to the lightning, our only source of communication was our mobile phones. Right when I was on the phone to a colleague the phone dropped out and it was a good while before I got reception again. At this point the weather was very calm outside. I thought I’d see if I could get the Perth Weather Radar up on my phone to see what the storm was doing, this is what I saw.

eep

See that lovely clear bit in the middle? That’s where I was. See that crazy coloured bit above just covering Perth CBD? That come in about 20mins later, bringing with it more of the craziest weather I have ever seen in Perth. I also around this time got a MMS from the colleauge I was talking to earlier showing all the stained glassed windows at UWA’s heritage listed Winthrop Hall smashed. :(

Winthrop Hall Photo by frenchiephish

Heading into work this morning things didn’t seem too badly affected near home. Lot’s of signs of flooding the streets and only a few tree branches down. It was slowly becoming apparent how badly hit UWA as the roads were littered with more and more debris the closer I got. Below are my photos of some of the areas around UWA.

UWA Carpark - There's a car park here somewhere...

UWA - Pathway cleared by storm water

UWA Reid Library Lawn - There's normally a pathway here...

UWA Reid Library Lawn - Thick debris covering the Reid Library lawn

UWA Reid Library Lawn - Where the debris came from, this was a very thick foliage tree yesterday

Fallen tree at the UWA Arts building

Clock tower at UWA Winthrop Hall, didn't fair well

Nor did any North facing window for that matter...

Some more coverage of the Perth Storms around the Interwebs:

• Youtube: UWA ALVA Library Flooded
• ABC: Rain, hail, lightning – pictures from Perth’s severe storm check out the lightning hitting a crane in the CBD!
• 7 News: Nightly News 23/03/2010 check out the storm front rolling in at 1:13
• perthnow: Mudslide swamps luxury apartments
• perthnow: Gallery – Chaos as Storm Hits
• perthnow: Gallery – Perth counts cost of million-dollar storm
• Flicker matt.didcoe: UWA Storm
• Flickr tanarama: UWA Engineering Carpark and UWA James Oval
• IAAML Blog: Storm in Perth Yesterday awesome photo of the storm front rolling in

I hope everyone survived this crazy storm okay.

Movember is over, was great fun and a great feeling to be an offical Mo Bro this year. A big Thank you! to those who donated, final tally was $30 raised individually and a great effort from the team at work raising $270.50.

I’m a little short of words, so I thought I’d leave it up to the photos to do the talking. Enjoy :)

The three critical stages of the Mo

Stage 1 - Proof facial hair can be grown (Check!)

Stage 2 - A clean canvas (Check :()

Stage 3 - Cultivation (Check!)

I’m finally using the facial hair for the power of good and growing a Movember moustache for reals this year. Unlike last year’s chopper/trucker mo that turned up after a close shave, this year I started November 1st clean shaven and registered at the Movember website.

What many people don’t appreciate is that close to 3,000 men die of prostate cancer each year in Australia and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime – many of whom don’t seek help.

Movember is now in its sixth year and, to date, has achieved some pretty amazing results by working alongside The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCFA) and beyondblue: the national depression initiative. Check out further details at: http://au.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.

Mo progress will be logged (with photos!) on my Movember profile page.

To sponsor my young and impressionable Mo, you can either:

• Click this link http://au.movember.com/mospace/223349/ and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account
• Write a cheque payable to ‘Movember Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 223349 and mailing it to: Movember Foundation, PO Box 292, Prahran, VIC, 3181
• Hunt me down and throw cash at my feet to worship the fuzz that is my Mo

Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Offerings of names for the new found fuzzy member of the family will also be accepted. Hope to see lots of Mobrothers and Mosisters out there on the streets of Perth!

RB

The Consumerist have made available a great PDF from the Commonwealth Bank giving some tips on how to spot those nasty ATM skimmers. Be sure to head over and have a read, I might save you from getting caught out and having your money stolen!

The Consumerist – How To ID An ATM Skimmer