There was no such thing as autumn or spring, just nine months of hot, sweaty, and humid weather. You loved the slight sweating reprieve during “winter,” but it never lasted long enough.
You would have experienced at least one cyclone ripping apart your hometown. You know bathrooms are sturdy, what is needed in a cyclone kit and found it amusing going to the supermarket before the cyclone hit to see the majority of aisles emptied of their contents, just like a scene from an apocalyptic movie.
You loved cold showers twice a day, even if you went to turn the heat down and realized the water was at its coldest setting already. You hated getting out and sweating as soon as the towel touched your wet skin, because you didn’t know which droplets were sweat or water.
No one else mattered.
Your family car got so hot from roasting in the sun that if you happened to touch the metal seatbelt plugs to your sibling’s skin, it would brand them like a stockman branding a cow.
But the machines had to be set at 25 degrees because that’s what the Ergon Energy advertisement on TV said.
You received it for free in the local paper. It listed the different snakes you might encounter with a corresponding photo and whether or not it would kill you. Very handy.
And spending the rest of the day playing with them in your backyard pool.
Tiny killing machines called stingers inhabited the water from October to March. You didn’t want to wear a stinger suit, as head-to-toe lycra didn’t look good on anybody.
Including visiting Magnetic or Hinchinbrook Islands in the Marine Park or a Reef HQ excursion.
You never went outside without sunscreen on, period. Your house always had a large home-brand pump bottle on hand, plus aloe vera gel in the fridge or a plant in the garden. The smell of sunscreen was the smell of your childhood. 