A little blurb from the Adelaide Advertiser Facebook page:

Yes, it really was that cold this morning. At 6.29am, the temperature was just 0.9 degrees. In fact, this is Adelaide's coldest August morning for 126 years. Get the latest weather updates - it's a balmy 1.2 degrees at the moment btw - plus traffic, petrol prices and latest news in Adelaide's morning blog, The Pulse.

I actually needed to scrape ice off my windshield this morning - but I don't have a scraper, since I live in freakin' Australia!  I warmed up the car a little and then used a canvas bag to get the frost off.  We've definitely been making use of the 'reverse-cycle air-conditioner'.  

Just in case anyone happens to be curious about what a reverse-cycle air conditioner is, I looked it up since I was wondering about it.  Here is what one website had to say:

How does reverse cycle air conditioning work? 

Most electric heaters create heat directly, using elements which heat up when an electric current 
passes through them. These ‘direct element’ heaters include portable heaters, panel convectors 
and off-peak storage heaters. They have a maximum efficiency of 100%, when all the electricity is converted to heat and delivered to the room. Reverse cycle air conditioning extracts heat from the outside air, even on mid-winter nights, and transfers it inside. A refrigerant is passed through an external coil, absorbing heat from the outside air. This refrigerant is then pumped through a compressor into a fan coil unit (or ‘condenser’) inside the home, releasing its heat into the room. Up to three or more units of heat can be transferred for every unit of electricity used to run reverse cycle air conditioning. Therefore, running costs can be as low as one-third of those for direct element heaters. By reversing the flow of this refrigerant, reverse cycle air conditioners also provide efficient refrigerative cooling in summer. 

Well that was rather educational.  I'm a bit terrified to get the electricity bill since it was so astronomical last winter - but that was when we were using the little space heaters which are apparently super expensive to run!  Hopefully there will be a drastic reduction with this method. The days recently have actually been cool, but sunny and clear which is a nice change from all the rain we've been having since we returned from our Canada trip.

Jeremy is working his last paediatrics shift right now!  He will have a few days to run some errands, and then leaves for Port Lincoln this Saturday.  I will be sad, but at least I'll have two lovely visitors this weekend for company and fun.  He's not even sure of his schedule yet, but when he does get it, we can have a look and plan some visits.